Interesting Marketing Insights re: Homeless Kiddies

Dr Barnado set up his first orphanage for homeless children in England during Queen Victoria's reign. His homes now operate in many countries.

But what I did not know until recently is that the good Doctor was also a marketing genius.

Here's the story:

In England during the reign of Queen Victoria, there was a very large number of orphaned children. Multiple thousands of them in London alone. More throughout the country. Their parents had either died or they could not afford to keep them. In the late 1800s, life was tough.

So there were hordes of homeless kiddies of all ages.

Compassion led Dr Barnado to want to do something for these unfortunates. After all, it wasnt their fault.

Do you need a mental picture? Think of the times which Charles Dickens wrote about. Think of urchins. Think of the stage play Oliver.

But now switch to thinking about this. How would YOU raise the huge amount of money to feed, clothe and house this ragtag army of children of all ages?

Yes, how indeed?

As it happened, the good Doctor was also interested in photography which was in its infancy. So what he did was take 'before' and 'after' photos of the kids.

BEFORE

The before shot was a street kid straight out of Dickens. Face dirty. Hair straggly. Clothing shabby. And looking either wild eyed or fearful.

AFTER

The after shot was a well dressed youngster with a newfound confidence.

His fundraising method was simple and elegant. He placed the before & after photos side by side on a page, and printed an advertisement for Dr Barnado's Childrens Homes on the back. These were sold to the growing middle class for 5 shillings which was actually quite a high price in those days.

And his clever fund-raiser worked. Looking after the kids in custom-built villages would be hard enough all on its own, but raising the funds to do this on a massive scale called for marketing genius on an astonishing scale.

Now... how can we apply this same sort of no-limits thinking to our marketing?


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