Bill's PurpleCrayon Blog
Bill's PurpleCrayon Blog features riffs galore about advertising, marketing, the Arts and just about anything else that happens to be on my mind at the moment.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
I just watched a video on the Yahoo home page about a start-up company named Kiva in San Francisco's Mission District that helps people all over the world who are in financial need by connecting them with people in other parts of the world who have money (as little as $25) to lend. From the accompanying article:
Kiva, which means "unity" in Swahili, is a lending organization with a twist: Anyone with a bit of money and an Internet connection can step forward as a microlender to assist struggling third-world entrepreneurs get out of poverty
After logging in, you can scroll through profiles of entrepreneurs, descriptions of their businesses, and the loan amounts they're requesting. Once you've decided who you want to lend to, you choose how much to lend, starting at as little as $25. (Individual lenders can fund an entire loan, but most of Kiva's loans are funded by multiple lenders.)
Funds are distributed to entrepreneurs through local non-profit microfinance partners in specific countries.
The Kiva web site is very cool, easy to use, and fun.
One of the criticisms leveled most often at the Internet is that it has a tendency to foster really ugly self centeredness; that it, in effect, becomes a tool that brings out the narcissist in people, allowing them to blog themselves silly (with words, pictures, or videos), often posting truly pointless, navel-gazing drivel. Sure, it can be used for that. But business ventures such as Kiva prove that the Internet can also be used to touch the lives of people in a truly life-changing way. Kiva is the ultimate marriage of the mind and the heart, of technology and humanity.
Best of all, the idea is so good that people will want to help promote it. Watch and see. The people at Kiva cleverly provide banners for people to cut and paste onto their web sites, as well as e-mail signatures for the same purpose. It's the most savvy -- and meaningful -- marketing I've seen in a long time.
I think conventional businesses could learn a lot from Kiva. For example: If you create a cool product, or if you offer a clever, needed service, people will be so excited that they'll market your products and services for you. Build crap and people will turn away. Build quality and, chances are, they'll beat the proverbial path to your door.
As for me and my house, I choose to build quality.
And, hey, I think I hear someone knocking at my door.
See?
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