I read about Kiva in Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae and then did a little research on my own.
Kiva is a nonprofit group that connects lenders (you) directly to entreprenuers in developing countries. These loans are repaid 97% of the time, at zero interest. Here’s how it works, you visit Kiva’s site, select an entrepeneur who you would like to lend money to, and then you make an interest free loan for as little as $25. The loan is typically repaid in 6-12 months. You can receive journal updates and track repayments. Then when you get your money back, you can lend it to someone else.
Why would Kiva appear in a marketing book?
Kiva is using the web to connect people. Without the web, Kiva wouldn’t exist. Kiva didn’t build a nonprofit, and then slap a website up to tell people about it. They didn’t run TV ads. They didn’t send a letter to my house. Instead, they spread their story. Their stats are impressive:
- $764,365 lent this week
- 3,135 new lenders joined this week
- 1,975 entrepreneurs funded this week
When I mention this type of marketing to folks in our industry, I get responses, like:
- “The new marketing is interesting, but not something that could be game changing.”
- “We have near term projects that are a higher priority.”
- “We are B2B, this only works for B2C businesses.”
- “Our customers don’t go to the web to learn about our products, it would be a waste of time.”
Really? (the beauty of having a blog is that I can disagree with you, well after we had the discussion)
If a charity can achieve astonishing results using their website, why aren’t telecom companies achieving even better results? Without our fiber and IP, there would be no internet. Is there a big idea - a big opportunity in our space just waiting to happen? Who will be the first to take advantage of this opportunity and what impact will that have on our industry?
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