Donations Beat Discounts with Andrew Forman of Givz

Oct 5

Discounts are the default incentive to grow sales for many businesses. However, a change in consumer behavior is causing them to hack into margins and deteriorate brand value.

In this episode, we speak to Andrew Forman about an alternative approach gaining traction in the marketing space, donation incentives! Starting in finance as an investment banker, Andrew decided to pursue an MBA degree at Harvard. After studying, he wanted to make a social impact while following his ambitions in business, culminating in him starting Givz; an e-commerce marketing platform with a twist.

Givz is a digital commerce platform that grows sales, creates positive impacts, and reduces discount dependency through the implementation of donation incentives. Hear how discount incentives work, how offering discounts only helps your brand in the short-term, why donation incentives will help grow your business, and the overall benefits for the consumer. Tune in to hear how aligning your impact goals with your brand can drive healthy business and help make the world a better place with Andrew Forman!

Key Points From This Episode:

A brief background about Givz and what they do differently.
We learn about Andrew and his professional career journey.
Details about how Givz started and became what it is today.
The initial model Givz used and why it pivoted to its current model.
He explains the motivation behind Givz and what the company aims to achieve.
Find out about how he rebranded his business and attained the domain name.
Benefits of using donation incentives instead of discounts.
We unpack the impact of donation incentives on customer base and sales.
Why he decided to study for an MBA degree at Harvard University.
The biggest benefit studying for an MBA at Harvard University.
Why using the same domain name for two business models caused confusion.
Outline behind the psychology of discounts.
How the donation incentive at Givz compares to similar approaches.
Andrew tells us about the positive impact the Givz model has on customers.
He shares what other brands could benefit from a donation incentive model.
We discuss how free shipping works as a purchase incentive.
Hear about the effectiveness of the donation incentive model on a brand.

Tweetables:

“My takeaway from that was that if you are going to be super successful, you are going to be super successful whether you go to business school or not.” — @aforman22 [0:05:59]

“The biggest value-add [of Harvard University] are the people you meet and the network you build going through that shared experience.” — @aforman22 [0:08:26]

“You want to put yourself in a position to get lucky.” — @aforman22 [0:21:26]

“Those giving neurons fire off in your brain and makes you feel good for a couple of hours or the rest of the day. There is a real positive effect that happens there.” — @aforman22 [0:33:43]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Andrew Forman on LinkedIn

Andrew Forman on Twitter

Gage Mitchell on LinkedIn