Case Study: Social Entrepreneurism and Revamping a Brand to Sell

After working in design and marketing for 20 years I have gone through numerous rebranding efforts. One of the most memorable and rewarding is one that just launched last week for #GivingTuesday – WhosinCharge.com – Save a Wag, with Swag.

Who’s in Charge was an eCommerce website that started in the 90’s before some of the, now trendy, social entrepreneur businesses. It was based simply on the innovative concept that when a person is buying online pet accessories, some of that money could be give back to a save pets in need.

Unfortunately the team did not have the time or bandwidth back then to launch this effort and market appropriately in digital channels. They knew that still had a winning idea, but didn’t know how to build and promote a profitable startup business in today’s agile business world.

The Who’s in Charge team engaged Unfunnel for Good to do an assessment of their current website design and tools.

Assessment:

Whosincharge.com needed to re-brand their company, communication strategy and revamp their website and shop to be more relevant and convert traffic and sales. Unfunnel agreed to create a new brand plan website MVP (minimal viable product) to test a new concept in a market of choice.

Business Model:

The business model is for every item sold from online sales Who’s In Charge will donate up to $ 5.00 per item sold and no less than $ 1.00 per item sold to an pet rescue or charity in support of animal welfare. Additionally, customers can donate directly to shelters in need and Who’s in Charge will leverage pet product affiliate partners to advertise on their website and bring in additional revenue to subsidize the nonprofit initiative.

The Solution:

OLD BRAND

Broad Reach

Happy, Playful, Common

Rescue Focus

Your Dog is the Boss

Static & Story Wrap-ups

These are a few key points that your brand lives by. Some people

call these “pillars” but they are needed to build the brand “culture”

and are used to make decisions about content.

NEW BRAND
Targeted & Personalized

Strong, Actionable, Relevant

Owner/Customer Focus

Cause First with Clarity

Previews and Real-time Posts

New tagline “Save a Wag, With Swag”

The Results:

• It’s only been a week, but already social posts exceed the reach and interactions of all pre-rebranding efforts.
• The launch strategy included a lead gen infographic to build brand champions and educate people about the cause and emails are being acquired based on list by breed and interests
• But implementing a blog poll to customers, the team was able to launch with a few products that people said they wanted
• The unfunnel team will continue to train the business startup owners on the tools to promote and maintain the shop and website so they can increase their ROI

We’ll post full results and stats after month one, but the early prognosis is good, for both the startup business and for the pet shelters and rescues that will now be able to have the money to place pets with forever families.

Check out the new site and shop and learn more about how Unfunnel for Good could help your social venture or nonprofit with growth hacking strategies tailored for social good.