（RED）的商业模式能成立的前提必须是（RED）本身达到一定的关注度，从而能够达到提高related-products sales的目的。用文中的原话说就是”encourage consumers to keep choosing (RED) over non-(RED)”. 假如说(RED) 自身的影响力减少从而导致相关的合作伙伴的合作产品关注度和销量下降，这个商业模式就会受到生存威胁。另外，这个program真是给大企业提供了一个堂而皇之地制造一个profitable的corporate responsibility的机会。不禁让我想，有多少企业真的是care在非洲的那些受到AIDS生命威胁的人民？又有多少买RED产品的人是真的care 这个cause? 还是只是觉得红色的产品很酷？

NOTES:
  • 3 month raises 25M; 1 year raises 50M. –> shows a characteristic of a FAD(一阵热) product/service.
  • 4P; promotion is done by their partners; difficult to measure.
  • successful brand alliance VS. negative brand image spillover; selecting right partners MATTERS-> e.g. Tiger Woods was chosen by Accenture to be the endorsement.
  • Partners:
    • AMEX: prestige and conservative
    • GAP: causal and young
    • CONVERSE: rebellious and fashionable
    • AMARNI: exclusive and high quality
    • APPLE: innovative and trendy
    • MOTOROLA
    • OPRAH WINFREY
  •  The point is these partners all have different brand images; RED has to be careful about choosing partners so to mitigate and avoid negative brand dilution.
  • Segments of people doing charity:
    • Norm
    • Helping some one (warm glow)
    • avoid guilt
    • giving back
    • self-interest (由于consumer在做善事的同时得到一个产品，大多数RED product的consumer是这个segment)

EXCERPTS:

The excerpts following are from the HBS case (Product) RED (A). Copyrights reserved by President and Fellows of Harvard College. These notes are for my personal record purpose only.

– “(RED) is about doing what you enjoy and doing good at the same time”. Bono, musician, co-founder of (RED)

– To keep (RED) vibrant for the long haul, it had to be good for the Global Fund and profitable for the business.

– The founding (RED) team leveraged the company’s limited resources launch with some of the most recognizable brands in the world; AMEX, GAP, CONVERSE, AMARNI, APPLE, MOTOROLA, OPRAH WINFREY

– “Be like Nike.” We asked, “What do you mean by that?” And he told us, “Brands like Nike go out and tell their story.” They’re on TV, in the malls, and everyday life. They understand how to create emotional impact. That’s the way to get people’s attention in America. You can go the traditional rout e and build a conventional charity and maybe a few folks will notice, but it won’t have an real impact. Iconic brands understand how to create real impact.”

-Because the (RED) model was reliant on partnership, the team needed to think carefully about how to view its existing partner relationships going forward, how many partners it should have at any given time, and what types of new partners it should target.