A New Benchmark

Social Enterprise is at a distinct disadvantage, some might say, because at the end of the day they rarely turn as high a profit or have as big margins. These are very real problems for social entrepreneurs because without these big factors attaining startup capital is rather difficult. However, these factors are as ancient for measuring a businesses ability to succeed as are those bankers that continue to use them. The success of a business has very little to do with profit, and more to do with people. Successful entrepreneurs are those with passion and an unwillingness to fail that will win out in the end. It is these same qualities that social entrepreneurs have (for the most part) in abundance. Entrepreneurs who decide to start a business with the hopes of improving society are more likely to push for success than are those who start for reasons to do with profit. I don't intend to claim that there are not extremely passionate entrepreneurs, or very successful entrepreneurs, who are only in it for the money. What I am saying, however, is that the risk of an entrepreneur failing is much more likely to come from this pool than from the social enterprise pool of candidates.
What if instead of measuring a companies success by profit we measured it by how much it has or will improve the human condition? or the amount of lives it has or plans improve/save? What about the old adage for investors about risk vs. reward - the reward is making a difference in the world, and the risk is lower to invest.
In the future I can forsee these changes taking place and I can also see the gap in profit between social enterprise and their corresponding for-only-profit ventures closing as more and more consumers start to spend their money on products and services that serve a greater good.
Business is all about being able to look into the future and see what is going to be the next big hit. I challenge anyone to contend that social enterprise is not going to be one of the next big trends. So as investors and consumers lets abandon our archaic methods for analyzing success and realize that their will be lot more reward for putting our money into businesses with a goal of making a difference. You can be apart of the future or you can watch it happen, it is your choice.

The Student Challenge

The students of the today are becoming an increasingly difficult market to reach. Students, let’s define them as a person between the ages of 17 to 25, are smarter than ever before with more experience as consumers. Television advertising no longer holds the same captivation as it did with prior generations while newspapers and magazines become less read by younger individuals. When on a quest for information, we, as young adults, do not look to the printed media or chance television advertising. Rather, we turn towards our first love – the Internet.

I’m sure it comes as no shock that the Internet is quickly becoming a crucial factor in communication. The information superhighway is well charted territory for most major organizations with hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on websites. The tricky part becomes using the internet effectively.

Any company can have a website, actually any person can. What must be considered when creating a website is functionality and aesthetic appeal. When I go to a company’s website looking for information about their newest product and find an ugly page, I am immediately disheartened. That isn’t to say that a site must be a symphony of motion and colour; simply visually appealing to make a potential customer feel at ease that the company may understand the internet. Functionality is even trickier and even more important. If a website is too difficult to navigate, students will give up and find their information elsewhere online, where the message cannot be controlled. Fashion at the expense of functionality is not acceptable.

By their nature, students are social creatures. More than this, they are capable of moving, gracefully, between different and distinct social groups. Spending one night with high school friends and the next with the friends met in residence comes to them as naturally as breathing. That socializing has come to an art through the internet. Online social networking tools have become an instant hit for organizing young people. Facebook has spun into a web of interconnectivity, allowing users to create detailed profiles of themselves as well as groups for likeminded individuals to gather and share opinions. Drawing students to an event has become precarious due to social networking, as students can use Facebook and instant messaging services like MSN to communicate across great distances to organize large groups. For example, two special events running simultaneously at two separate businesses would, in the past, have split the local student population for attendance. The two operations now must contend with online social networking pre-organizing people as well as instant messaging being used by opinion leaders to sway multiple individuals at once to come with them to their event of choice.

Now we come to the crux of it all – opinion leaders. Word-of-mouth has always been the most effective form of marketing; reference from a friend adding more legitimacy to a recommendation than that of a television advertisement. Now, more than ever, we must rely on the opinion leaders of target markets to effect change in behaviour. This signals a shift in the marketing strategies of some companies, who have previously rested comfortably on their advertising budget. By shifting a focus to online marketing with a strong representation by specifically targeted opinion leaders, companies can take advantage of the changes in the trends of student life rather than combating them.

Students will always be an ever-changing target market. Difficult to pin down, they present constant challenge to marketing managers across the country. Despite the problems, they are well worth the effort. Students represent the catalysts for change in the coming future and having impact on them in the formative stages of their adult lives can be extremely lucrative, leading to extended brand loyalty in the future.