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Marketing Empathy

11/24/2016

8 Comments

 
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by David Hagenbuch, founder of Mindful Marketing & author of Honorable Influence

Imagine driving through your town or city and seeing a very old man pushing a food cart.  His frail body hunched and weakened from years of physical labor, he struggles to move the cart down the street. What would you do if you saw such a man?
 
Restaurant owner Joel Cervantes found himself in this situation one day while driving in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago.  Heartbroken by the scene, Cervantes stopped and approached 89-year-old Fidencio Sanchez, who was selling “paletas” (popsicles) from his cart.  Cervantes asked Sanchez for 20 paletas and paid him $50, about $20 more than the price of the product.  Sanchez was extremely grateful.
 
The encounter could have ended there, but Cervantes felt moved to do more.  He later learned that Sanchez was a Mexican immigrant who had been pushing his popsicle cart for 23 years.  He and his wife Eladia were compelled to keep working at such an advanced age because their daughter had died and they were left as the sole caregivers for their grandsons.

Cervantes posted on Facebook a picture he had taken of Sanchez, hoping that others would share his sympathy for the man’s long-suffering labor.  Social media responded with overwhelming concern.  One person in particular, Jose Loera, suggested that they start a GoFundMe campaign to try to ease Sanchez’s struggle.  So, Cervantes and Loera set a goal of $3,000, and they kicked off the e-crusade.

The outpouring of support far exceeded anything the two altruists could have imaged.  Within a few days, benefactors gave hundreds of thousands and dollars.  By the end of the campaign more than 17,000 people from 69 countries contributed a total of $384,290.  An attorney agreed to work pro bono to establish a trust and help the couple manage their incredible endowment.

One person who contributed to the GoFundMe campaign, Kay Vasquez, recounted how she and her husband had happened upon Sanchez on a trip to back to Chicago and the Little Village, where she had been born.  They bought meals for him and his wife and gave them to him along with some money.  Sanchez was extremely grateful, wanting the good Samaritans to take some popsicles, but they wouldn’t.   Vasquez couldn’t stop crying as she thought how hard the elderly Sanchez was working to care for his family, even as much younger and healthier persons just look for handouts.
 
While Sanchez’s situation elicited some truly heartwarming acts of human kindness, one might wonder what this story has to do with marketing.  Well, there are many different things that can be marketed.  We usually think of the marketing of tangible products (‘goods’), or intangible products (‘services), but individuals and organizations also market ideas: concepts they want others to adopt.
 
GoFundMe markets thousands of different concepts ranging from enabling families to rebuild their lives after a devastating fire, to allowing newlyweds to start their lives with a special honeymoon, to providing life-saving medical treatment to those suffering from a serious sickness.  What do all of these funding campaigns have in common?  Each gives individuals the opportunity to understand the unique needs of others and to do something large or small to support them.  In other words, GoFundMe markets empathy. 
 
In another headline-grabbing story of kindness, a repo man in Illinois, Jim Ford, setup a GoFundMe account for an elderly couple whose vehicle he had to reclaim.  The campaign quickly exceeded its goal, allowing the couple to get their car back so they could continue getting their medications from the drugstore and food from the grocery store.
 
In an age of selfies, personalized products, and the fear of missing out (FOMO), the focus of so many lives is on ‘me.’  It seems extraordinary, therefore, for an organization to promote a value proposition based squarely on supporting others.  A sense of selflessness, however, is at the heart of GoFundMe’s business model. 
 
That kindness doesn’t mean that people gain nothing from giving money to Sanchez or hundreds of other GoFundMe campaigns.  Deep satisfaction often flows from helping individuals in need, and a sense of pride can come from doing good deeds.  There’s nothing wrong with receiving such intangible returns on investment.  As Proverbs 11:17 reminds, “Kindness is its own reward . . .”
   
Being moved by compassion and finding creative ways to help others in need are distinctively human behaviors that people have practiced for millennia.  Through its interactive website, ­­GoFundMe has brought these acts into the digital age, enabling aid to transcend geographical boundaries and established networks.  By marketing empathy, GoFundMe offers an excellent example of “Mindful Marketing.”



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8 Comments
Grace Riedel
12/6/2016 03:22:10 pm

This is a very heartwarming story and I would agree that this is mindful marketing. It was especial touching to see how hard the man worked to support his family rather than taking government handouts. GoFundMe is doing a lot of good by giving a platform for people to help out their neighbors.

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Kenedy Kieffer
12/7/2016 12:19:35 pm

This was a good read! I would definitely agree that this is mindful. GoFund me is something that a lot of my friends have used to get monetary donations from friends and even those that they don't know. I think it is a great organization and is helping more than hurting

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Mackenzie Murray
12/7/2016 08:24:56 pm

As someone who has had the opportunity to use and contribute to GoFundMe campaigns, it is encouraging to read yet another story about how this incredible site has helped bring people together for the common purpose of trying to help someone in need. I agree with the Mindful Marketing rating and think GoFundMe is doing great things to try and bring people together.

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James Rudd
12/7/2016 10:54:40 pm

This is certainly one of the more interesting products of social media and the digitization of society in general. I agree that what GoFundMe has allowed people to do is incredible; the ability to rally thousands of unrelated people around a cause nearly instantly makes possible things people only used to dream about. The overall perceived effect is a visible presence of kindness, compassion, and generosity, things which are a welcome reprieve from society's gloom and doom attitudes.

However, a few questions come to mind when I compare this charity model to more traditional models. First, because money is donated for a specific need, it can be unclear what happens to money donated in excess of the campaign goal. From what I have seen, that money is often either donated to a charity that corresponds to the original need or is retained for future costs outside the intended scope of the campaign. But it seems that there is nothing barring the donee from using excess funds for a different purpose, which raises the question of accountability (if I were to give a large amount of money to someone for a specific purpose, I would want that money to stay connected with that purpose in some way). Second, while charity is a noble cause in and of itself, there may be an element of false emotional appeal that allows certain campaigns to be much more successful than others, which brings into question the fairness of the medium. Third, if there is not a sufficient vetting process for campaigns, they could be used to collect money for a nonexistent cause, which once again brings into question the idea of accountability.

Like I said before, I think this medium is incredible, but in my mind it should always be secondary to established organizations that specialize in the area of the campaign. In an ideal world, these established institutions would be able to meet everyone's needs, and GoFundMe would quickly become obsolete. Given that we do not live in that ideal world, I commend the use of this medium to help others but encourage users to remain aware of the possibility that, in some cases, it may be more beneficial to support already existing institutions.

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Emily Reiff
12/8/2016 12:38:27 pm

I love this example of mindful marketing! I think this is yet another example of how marketing can change people's lives and the world for the better. Through this medium of marketing, people are able to partner with each other to create real change.

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Megan Scharpen
3/28/2017 01:17:57 am

While GoFundMe can be helpful for many users, funders must be careful to think critically about campaigns; emotion must be tempered and guided by reason. In the case of Fidencio Sanchez, empathetic funding enabled him and his wife to rest comfortably and be provided with aid from an attorney. However, as Vasquez commented, many young people use GoFundMe campaigns to raise money for causes that are not worthy of investment. In general, GoFundMe provides a social platform for many people to contribute to causes remotely and become connected to someone’s story.

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jiaying lu
2/2/2018 01:42:45 am

GoFundMe promotes a special and different products which is empathy . People gets to help other lives and also self satisfaction as an exchange from GoFundMe. Their market and costumers base is not limited. As they bring positive impacts to the society and also raise funds to the GoFundMe. This is mindful marketing.

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