Marketing to End Poverty

MoneyMaker pump in Mali

A Social Enterprise Going Against the Grain Marketing to Poor Africans

Marketing encompasses any and every tactic that reaches customers, prospects and increases awareness.   For nonprofits, marketing is every effort that communicates your brand, cause, solution and opportunities. The obstacle I‘ve encountered in working with nonprofits is they tend to devalue the impact of a powerful brand.   Branding – image and perceptions people hold in their minds – is absolutely essential to attracting donors, keeping them engaged, communicating to individuals you help and most importantly, creating sustainable impacts that change lives.

It’s a fact that organizations and businesses with a strong brand and communications improve impact and sales. According to Business Week’s Top 100 Brand study, “The companies that gained the most in value focus ruthlessly on every detail of their brands, honing simple, cohesive identities that are consistent in every product, in every market around the world, and in every contact with consumers.“ This is true across the board – whether you are saving lives or selling financial services.

I was talking recently with a senior marketing executive at a Fortune 500 global brand. She is heavily involved in the company’s foundation and on several boards. We were trying to figure out why so many organizations consider marketing and communications “fluff.”  It’s tough to get a nonprofit to commit resources to smart marketing. It’s downright near impossible to raise donor funds for anything remotely considered marketing or “branding.” With today’s increasing problems, decreasing donors, little cash and limited resources, marketing staff, budget and activities have been slashed and dropped even further.

We don’t get it why so few get it. Yes, some marketing requires resources and cash. There are many tactics like PR, grass roots, online marketing and word of mouth to pursue that don’t drain the coffers. High yield marketing needs just thoughtful planning and willingness to stand out and go against the grain.

The few that do get it, see dramatic results in impacts, funding and life change in the people they reach.

KickStart International is a nonprofit that sells a product so poor farmers in Africa can make a profit and be lifted from poverty. They call themselves a social enterprise and do their best to run the organization like a business. Since 1991, the founders Martin Fisher and Nick Moon have been committed to changing the way the world fights poverty. A manual Irrigation Pump, branded MoneyMaker, is sold in retail farm shops and through on-farm demonstrations.

In Africa, over 70% of the population relies on meager subsistence farming that yields a small harvest. They wait for the rain or use back-breaking buckets to harvest one crop a year. Farming is not usually considered a money-making business. Farmers often depend on odd jobs or they leave farming to their wife, go to the city and seek jobs that are scarce and low-paying.

They make do without electricity, running water, welfare, education, tools, cars, or help from the government. A MoneyMaker pump costs $50 – $100, a big investment for one making less than $500/year. When a farmer buys one they start a successful business. With a small plot less than two acres, they plan, plant, harvest and sell tomatoes, green beans, or kale (sukuma wiki — Swahili) year round. The cash they make goes right to their family’s basic needs — food, school fees, and medical services.

Sales and marketing is KickStart’s biggest obstacle and highest cost. Convincing the very poor who are risk averse to invest in a technology that is unfamiliar and expensive is tough.

Skeptics have questioned why they would go to so much effort to sell pumps and wouldn’t giving them away be more effective? It’s not so. The poor person’s greatest need is a way to make money. Handouts just don’t work. KickStart’s Impact Data shows 80% of pumps bought are used to create businesses, jobs and income to lift a family out of poverty permanently. Less than 30% of pumps given away were used to create a business. Selling pumps creates three times more small businesses than giving them away.

Years of impact monitoring data proved that every pump sold lifts a family of five out of poverty permanently and sustainably. A family’s income increases up to 1000% in twelve months. These compelling results helped attract high profile donors  interested in their business model. Sales of pumps grew and they expanded into new countries. By 2006, funding had increased and awards like Fast Company’s Social Capitalist and Peter F Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation were granted. They were invited to high profile conferences like TED. Meanwhile, few resources and little planning were dedicated to marketing.

Then pump sales started to slow down and drop. The lack of consistent marketing and sales started to take its toll. Branding nor product displays were in place for 600 dealers selling pumps. Photos were outdated and didn’t show how the pumps worked. Marketing dollars weren’t increasing sales or demand. A new pump introduced wasn’t selling. Donor communications looked unprofessional.

With the support of their business-minded board, Nick and Martin made a commitment to act on the need for marketing leadership to turn around the downward trend. I joined the team in Kenya as a volunteer and then a consultant. I’ve worked for top agencies on global brands and helped countless small businesses and nonprofits. What happened next was the most challenging, overwhelming and rewarding marketing assignment yet.

It took a year of assessing, research, planning, testing, traveling, fighting parasites, visiting shops, learning farming and working day and night. My mud caked boots revealed insights into the sales challenges and understanding of small-scale farmers across Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and Burkina Faso. The brand needed instant recognition  with an audience unfamiliar to the technology. The campaign and brand needed to show how the pump and spray worked. It had to translate in four languages, use few words, cross different cultures, avoid tribal issues and of course be cost-effective.

Before launching the new campaign there were major issues to be addressed. Change was needed in operations, sales, and distribution. We faced resistance from some who didn’t “get it.” The number of stores selling pumps had to be culled to only the best locations. Sales strategies had to include more on-farm demonstrations. Significant resources were committed to creating displays, advertising, brand standards, photography and  training. Then Kenya’s post-election violence in 2008 threw off plans and set the country and it’s people into a tailspin.

“Farming is my Business” marketing campaign launched in May 2008. Displays, advertising, billboards and a promotion propelled sales efforts to change the negative perceptions about farming and show how a MoneyMaker pump is all one needs to be a successful businessman. The commitment paid off. By the end of 2008, KickStart had realized a six hundred percent [600%] increase in pump sales. Impacts accelerated. Today,  over 428,000 people on our planet are lifted out of poverty permanently.

The results were the highest since KickStart began in 1991. The Kenya program sold over 1500 pumps in December 2008, their highest sales ever when the country was raw from violence that displaced over 300,000 people. Consistent global branding was in place in the each country.  Donor communications showed powerful impacts with a clear message. The campaign won an International Communicator Award.

Last week Time Magazine heralded KickStart International as one of the world’s top 25 Responsibility Pioneers. “Eighteen years ago, KickStart’s founders, former aid workers Martin Fisher and Nick Moon, were branded as heretics for selling irrigation pumps to poor Africans. But experience had shown them that business models work: people are more invested in the success of a tool they buy than in one they are given. So far, the aptly named MoneyMaker pumps have helped 85,000 families increase crop yields and lift themselves out of poverty.”

One morning I went with a colleague to interview  John, a twenty-something farmer near Nairobi to learn about how buying a pump had changed his life. He decided to try farming after an unsuccessful attempt to make a living and get a job in the city. We crossed neighboring fields that were bone dry before getting to his plot. His corn was tall and verdant. The green beans and tomatoes were ready to harvest. He calculated quickly in his head the profit from each crop, his costs, and what he would plant next. With a huge grin, he introduced the goats he’d bought for his parents and showed off the small concrete house he was building for his new wife. “I’m a business man” he said. “Welcome to my office.” He got it.

Seth Godin is considered to be one of the best marketers in the world, with 10 books and the most popular marketing blog on the planet. He devoted a recent blog to nonprofits. In “The problem with non” he postures the reason nonprofits fail to move forward and be potent marketers is their resistance and fear of change.

“Where are the big charities, the urgent charities, the famous charities that face such timely needs and are in a hurry to make change? Very few of them have bothered to show up in a big way. The problem is the  same …It’s easy to buy more stamps and do more direct mail, scary to use a new technique.. . . When was the last time you had an interaction with a non-profit that blew you away?”

Hats off to the few who “get it.” They are willing to change and they take action. Every day I am inspired to cultivate excellence and see a few more good organizations  take the plunge. Unfortunately, KickStart has had to cut back on marketing due to decreased funding. Sales of MoneyMaker pumps have slipped in the last six months. As soon as funds are available,  marketing will be back on.  Got it?