Wednesday, October 08, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Blake Mycoskie likes to keep things real.
The first time the founder and “chief shoegiver” of Toms shoes went to Argentina to follow through on his one-for-one idea -- where the company donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair sold -- he took a group of 16 volunteers, mostly friends and family, to a school full of children that had seldom worn shoes before.
Amid the chaos of the day, Mycoskie said at the Paul J. and Marguerite K. Thomas Colloquium on Free Enterprise Tuesday night, he saw his mother sitting in a corner, washing kids' feet and playing with them before fitting them for shoes.
“It was just like she would do with me or my sister,” Mycoskie said. “It brought me to tears and sometimes still does.”
Those real moments, from when he first got the idea for Toms while visiting a charity group on a shoe drive to watching his mother work with Argentine children, are what every brand should strive for, he said.
“The brand is really an authentic story. The brands that we love and adore and we hold close to our hearts as consumers are typically those with the most authentic story that speaks to something inside us that we can associate or identify with,” he commented. “I think companies should focus more on their story and telling it in an authentic way more than the 'brand.' ”
In the eight years since beginning Toms, which sold nearly 10,000 pairs in its first year -- far beyond his goal of 250 -- Mycoskie has come to realize that while giving something back, whether in one’s own community or on another continent, can also make good business sense.
“Giving feels good and that's great, but it can be an important factor in driving business and I want to speak to the community and these students about that,” he said. “I am the best brand ambassador we have and that's my responsibility that I take very seriously. Not only because it's good for the Toms brand and Toms' business, but because it's good for inspiring others to think about business differently.”
Before his lecture at Stambaugh Auditorium, Mycoskie spoke to Youngstown State University students in Williamson Hall, relating to them about how important building a personal brand can be.
“I've found that when students are looking at their first job and thinking about building a resume, some of the great things to build your resume and stand out for a job [are] how you look at the world and the impact you have on it,” he noted. “One of the most important things is to understand that having a giving spirit or focusing on something other than themselves is actually good for building their personal brand.”
Mycoskie also made a point of telling his audience that it's easy for ideas to stay ideas and not go anywhere. The idea for TOMS, he admitted, was close to staying just a brief passage in his journal. And while it's necessary for companies to grow in order to be successful, he says he believes that companies shouldn't forget that initial idea.
“One of the most important things a company can focus on is understanding their heritage and their story. Almost every company starts with an entrepreneur that had an idea and wanted to make something different or better or something that didn't exist before,” Mycoskie said. “Oftentimes, companies get away from that as they get bigger.”
Eight years and hundreds of thousands of shoes later, keeping that original one-for-one idea that got TOMS off the ground is what keeps people coming back.
“Continuing to stay focused on the reason of why we exist -- we say we're in the business to improve lives -- and by doing that, our story resonates with customers in a very powerful way,” he said.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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