Logos Are Conversations

TOMS wasn't a charity. It was a status machine disguised as philanthropy. And the logo was the receipt.

Seth Godin explains.

The logo existed so that "Margaret could say to Mildred 'what's up with the new shoes?' and Mildred could say 'I'm a better person than you because I just helped a kid in Ethiopia get shoes.'"

Read that again.

TOMS wasn't selling shoes. It wasn't even selling philanthropy. It was selling status through visible virtue.

The one-for-one model. Buy a pair, give a pair. That was the mechanism. But the logo was the product. It turned private charity into public signaling. It gave buyers a receipt for moral superiority they could wear on their feet.

This is The Shadow Strategy in action.

The espoused strategy: "We help children in need."

The strategy-in-use: "We help customers demonstrate they help children in need."

Both are true. Only one explains the logo.

Most marketing focuses on what the customer gets. TOMS focused on what the customer gets to say. The conversation wasn't between brand and buyer. It was between buyer and buyer's friends.

When you design for the conversation your customer has without you, you stop competing on features. You start competing on what ownership lets people claim about themselves.

The logo wasn't branding. It was a speech act.

Go deeper: Execution Reveals