GLOW t-shirts will be designed to target young (20-30 years old), educated, and trendy consumers living in urban areas, having a high level of social commitment and being willing to pay for a product supporting a social cause. Buyers are not only provided with high-quality items but they are also given the opportunity to spend their shopping money on a good cause. Moreover, buyers can get actively involved through joining a community, consisting of the children and their families, the customers, trend setters, and GLOW. In this context, they will be provided with updates about the impact or improvements generated for the children and their families, thus creating a strong relationship and personal connection between the customer and the child supported. That will also help to build awareness for the living situation of underprivileged families in India. In addition, we will clearly outline the whole fund raising process/ revenue flow to ensure that customers can see which portion of their money is spent for the child. The supported children and their families on the other hand will be provided with services and goods they otherwise could not or hardly access but which have a crucial impact on their lives (e.g. health or education). Lastly, the plan to cooperate with a local, certified (e.g. fair trade) garment producer creates an additional positive effect on local communities.

The idea to produce clothes to support a social cause is not totally new in the market, therefore a range of direct and indirect competitors exist.

Our most important direct competitors are CommonThreadz, Sevenly, This Shirt Helps, Yellow Bird Project, Wears My Shirt, and We are love. These are all non-profit or social businesses selling clothes to support mostly charities but also specific social causes. Funds are raised through the online sale of shirts, sweaters, and bracelets with or without special designs and through donations. Sometimes they offer the possibility to become part of a “loose” community. While the companies mentioned above can be seen as our main competitors regarding their business model and idea, we also take into consideration the big number of producers of charity t-shirts for specific events, e.g. for the victims of the Japan tsunami.

Moreover, all the major garment producers targeting the same high-quality, trendy, and fashionable consumers are to some extent also part of our competitive environment. The last group includes fashionable, high-quality shirts made by established designers/ brands sold at premium prices, stores for young people offering trendy shirts at low/medium prices, and online retailers offering trendy shirts at all price levels. As these are pure for-profit companies, social aspects are sometimes part of corporate social responsibility programs, e.g. through single initiatives for a specific cause, but these actions are completely independent from their actual business.

As could be seen from the competitor analysis, it is crucial to differentiate GLOW from the rest of the market in order to attract customers. We believe that a combination of the following characteristics of GLOW’s business model will allow us to do so:

- Funding transparency throughout the whole process: GLOW intends to clearly show on what the purchase revenues from each t-shirt will be spent throughout the whole process (tracker feature on website). That way, customers will be able to see how much of their money actually goes to the child supported and what is kept to finance the company.

- Creating real and visible impact: GLOW will closely work together with local NGOs, which have high expertise and fundamental knowledge about the needs of the underprivileged communities they are working in, helping it to define its support clearly. This also gives customers the possibility to see the actual impact for the child.

- Building a personal connection: In our opinion, a weakness of many companies raising money for social causes is the lack of clarity about the actual help delivered. GLOW instead intends to create a personal connection between the customer and the child supported and build a community consisting of the children and their families, the customers, and the company itself.

- Unique design: The above mentioned personal connection is among others created by the involvement of the children in the design process. Children are given the possibility to participate in a design “competition” taking place several times a year. The winning designs will then be refined by designers to create fashionable and trendy prints for our t-shirts and customers will be able to see who the “young artist” is.

- Double impact on community: Another standard we have set for our social business is that we want to produce the t-shirts locally, in the area where the communities we aim to help live. That wayGLOW will not only help the children but also plough back money into the local garment market. Due to the known problems of child labor and similar practices, we will only buy from a certified producer, e.g. labeled fair trade.

Opportunities

- Relatively low capital costs of production in garment industry

- High-margin industry

- Wide customer base

- Growing number of socially conscious customers

- Undeveloped social t-shirt sector in Europe

Threats

- Perception that GLOW is an NGO

- Complex regulatory system in India

- Inability to gain legitimacy within supported community

- Lack of transparency of partner NGOs

- Wide range of powerful competitors

Strenghs

- Quality t-shirt and trendy design

- Concrete and visible social impact

- Strong connection created with aidee

- Creation of GLOW community

- Cost transparency

- Partnership with local companies (suppliers, NGO)

Weaknesses

- Large geographical distance between production site and customers

- No initial economies of scale due to small size

- Geographically spread customers

- No initial brand recognition

- Low marketing budget