When Dr. Rhodes and Dr. Swenson taught this principle, they gave the example of an advertising campaign which was run by the American Plastics Council. From 1987 to 1992 the percentage of the American public feeling the risks of plastic outweighed its benefits increased from 32% to 64%. Negative media coverage of the plastic industry was as frequent as positive media coverage. More and more legislation was being introduced to ban plastic packaging and large manufacturers were beginning to de-select plastic. This ad campaign was being run to help change public perceptions to be more favorable concerning the use of plastics.

So, the American Plastics Council (APC) ran ads which illustrated some of the benefits of plastics, such as credit cards and garbage cans. The majority of respondents to these ads had a favorable impression of the advertisements, but the level of guilt associated with buying products made of or packaged with plastic did not change. Consequently, the expensive ad campaign was deemed a failure.

At that time, Bob Nightengale from the APC said, “I think we need to be concerned with the performance of the communications program. Even though it is still early, we just are not seeing the type of improvement we had hoped for. I am worried that we are not “moving the needle.”

The APC learned the concept of “selling to the swing group through the eyes of the love group.” The potential users of plastics can be divided into those who are passionate about plastics (love group), those who are indifferent (swing group), and those who advocate against the use of plastics (hate group). It is often very difficult to convince the hate group to change their position and the love group already uses your product or service, so the group to whom advertising would probably be most effective is the swing group.

With this new insight, the APC ran a second set of advertisements telling stories of people in the plastics love group. For example, one television advertisement featured a father telling the story of his child who was born premature and was kept alive by a plastic incubator. He was definitely in the love group for plastic, and his ad along with the others in this new style, were emotionally compelling to the swing group. As a result, from the 1st quarter of 1993 to the 1st quarter 1994, plastics usage increased 17% in the retail and clothing industry, 35% in industrial manufacturing, 65% in the food industry, and 30% in the healthcare industry. The amount of legislation introduced to adversely affect the plastics industry was cut in half since 1991 and positive media coverage of the plastics industry was five times greater than the negative coverage by the 1st quarter of 1996.

The LDS Church, with the help of the BYU Ad Lab, recently developed a new advertising campaign with this type of “love group” focus. They identified people who had converted to Mormonism and asked them to share their conversion stories. That was the “love” group. Then, snippets of those conversion stories were run on many different advertising channels, such as radio, television, billboard, magazine, and on the Internet at Mormon.org in an attempt to reach the “swing” group.

I would definitely not say I am an advocate of many forms of plastics. However, what I take away from this powerful lesson is that when I am developing an advertising campaign, I should locate the people who love my product or service and try to distill the core reasons why they love my product or service. Historically, I have focused on a “facts and benefits” style of marketing. Now that I understand this concept, I am eager to re-develop several websites, such as Adoption.com, to better sell to the swing group through the eyes of the love group.

Some of the highlighted concepts from the first week of my MBA courses included:

(1) Don’t hire anyone you can’t fire. Charity does not tolerate poor performance. When employees feel they cannot be fired, their performances drop and it does a disservice to them and the company.

(2) Opportunities multiply as they are seized. In my life, when I jump through one window that has opened another series of opportunities presents itself.

(3) Be Fair, but have the intestinal fortitude to make the tough decisions. Many companies allow themselves to be run into bankruptcy because they are not able to make the tough decisions, such as cutting staff and raising prices when necessary. When companies reach bankruptcy, a turnaround expert comes in and takes those difficult courses of action. If the bankrupt companies could have chosen to take those actions themselves they may have avoided bankruptcy. So, as business owners, we need to be willing to make the difficult decisions ourselves. If we can’t make these difficult decisions ourselves, we should get out of business. However, if those difficult decisions, such as letting staff go, ever cease to be painful, we should also get out of business.

(4) Don’t do anything stupid. This was a famous quote by the CEO of a company that was embroiled in accounting scandal. I originally felt that this quote referred to his desire to keep everything legal. However, it clearly became evident that this quote was iconic because the CEO and his team were consistently pushing the boundaries of ethics and this statement created a “moral ambiguity” under which ethical and legal lines were crossed.

This quote took on much more meaning on Friday, when we went to Aspen Grove to participate in team building activities that taught us business principles. Our guide for the day took us to two railroad ties that were about 15 feet apart. A rope hung down in the middle but was too far away to reach. Our group had to get across the gap between the railroad ties. To complicate the situation, many of the team members were given disabilities. For example, one of the team members had no arms. So, one of our group members created a lasso with belts and a shoe tied to the end, and lassoed the rope. Then, after a few members had crossed the chasm, we tied a loop in the rope hoping that the member of our group who was not able to use his arms would be able to sit in the rope loop. However, the rope was so high that it was very difficult to lift him into a sitting position.  The “disabled” group member had only his feet in the loop as we were struggling, and he finally asked us to just let him swing. The entire group filled with laughter, because we could see what he could not… His head would have hit the railroad tie if we had let him swing. The point of these two examples is that we need to be sure there is no ambiguity between what is right and wrong so that we don’t do something stupid, and we don’t let others around us swing into that railroad tie.

Social enterprises are generally responsible to produce targets financially, socially, and often environmentally. Often, a portion of the profits from the social enterprise are used to support charity aims. For example, with Adoption.com, the foster child photolisting, reunion registry and online support group are almost completely free community services. We generate revenue primarily through advertising sponsorships, which then allows these services to be offered for free to help children and families. Since Adoption.com is a for-profit website, it is actually categorized as “social entrepreneurship”, which is a subset of social enterprise.

The Social Enterprise Alliance defines social enterprise as: “An organization or venture that advances its social mission through entrepreneurial earned income strategies.”

Sometimes people criticize social enterprises, such as Adoption.com, saying that they profit off of a charitable cause. The other side to that argument, however, is that social enterprises find a way to generate revenue so they are able to make a difference socially that would probably not be able to happen otherwise. For example, we have always felt it is better to put adoption agency advertising sponsorships on adoption photolistings so that state agencies and adoptive parents can use these services free of charge, and we can help as many children as possible find families.

The REDF Foundation pioneered Social Return on Investment Analysis through its’ funding of social enterprises. Working Assets created a social enterprise model that generates donations to organizations when customers use services such as long distance and credit cards. Through this program, Working Assets has raised more than $50 million for non-profit organizations such as Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders.

The Social Enterprise Reporter publishes social enterprise news. The Business as Mission Network provides news, resources and tools to turn a business into a great ministry.

Several MBA programs have added social enterprise programs, such as the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative . Some day I would like to develop a Social Enterprise program at the BYU Marriott School, and help train the next generation of social entrepreneurs and non-profit leaders.

Richard Miller recently sent me a link to an interview about social enterprise with Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay. Click here for the interview. Pierre says eBay was a social success because it increased trust globally. Pierre feels that any non-profit organization with the same funding would not have been able to affect as much good (worldwide increase in “trust”) as the peer-to-peer eBay model. He is now interested in investing in for-profit companies that “only do social good if they are successful and are only successful if they do social good.”

It is a tremendously rewarding blessing to be able to work in the social enterprise field, and be able to make a difference and a living at the same time.

With the sale of Families.com earlier this year, and with Dave Larson joining the Adoption Media team as Chief Operations Officer, I was in a position for the first time in 10 years that I could go back to school and finish my degree.

I had 23 credits left to finish. So, in May I moved up to Utah and have been attending the first of two summer semesters at BYU. In about 10 days, I will only have 15 credits left. Then, I will take another 9 credits in the second summer semester.

It has been very hard to live away from my wife and daughters and I miss them more than you imagine. I am awed by the sacrifice my wife is making for me to be able to do this, and am incredibly grateful for how supportive she has been throughout our marriage.

The question I have been asked most frequently is “Why?” Why would I go back to school after 10 years? The most common answer that I give is that I am ready to take my career and my companies to the next level. I believe that corporate culture is a reflection of top management. When organizations have consistently poor customer service or salesmen regularly lie to their customers, these organizations often have top management who lack ethical leadership, and that void in character trickles its’ way down throughout the company. I believe that if I can elevate my performance, I can raise the performance throughout my companies and the new companies I hope to create.

Recently a reporter from the Provo Daily Herald wrote a story about the value of a college education. This reporter interviewed Steve Gibson, one of the professors in the BYU business school. I am volunteering this summer as an “Entrepreneur in Residence” for Steve’s “Entrepreneurship Skills for Non-Business Majors” course. I have been thoroughly enjoying mentoring student groups as they have gone through the process of creating and running their own companies. So, Steve referred the reporter to me. I will include the story she published below to help answer this question about the value of a college education:

What a college education is really worth
BRITTANI LUSK – Daily Herald
Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Just 23 credits short of a bachelor’s degree, CEO Nathan Gwilliam left BYU because his Internet company was growing so fast he didn’t have time to do both. Gwilliam wrote a business plan for a company called Adoption.com while at BYU. That was 10 years ago. Now the business, called Adoption Media, is the largest adoption organization in the world.College is expensive, and if Gwilliam didn’t need it to start his company, is a bachelor’s degree even worth the cost?The answer, experts say, is yes — and even Gwilliam would agree.

A college education in Utah County can cost more than $3,000 a year — $4,500 or so after books and fees.

Students often pay for those costs for a long time. The average college student in 2000 graduated with $16,928 in student loan debt, according to the U.S. Public Research Interest Group.

Even with all that, education still pays, said John Mathews, an economist for the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

” ‘The more you learn, the more you earn’ is still very true,” Mathews said.

On average, college graduates make almost double the income of those who only have a high school diploma. The average high school graduate made $21,079 in 2006, according to census figures, while those with bachelor’s degrees averaged $40,166.

Certain professions are harder to get into for those without higher education. For example, the Census Bureau reported in 2006 that 46 percent of adults with managerial jobs had bachelor’s degrees and 71 percent of those in professional occupations had at least a bachelor’s degree. Only 8 percent of those in craft, service, farm or production occupations had that much education.

Those salaries can become a reality for today’s graduates because jobs are plentiful.

Mathews said graduates are entering a good job market.

“Utah’s labor market is on fire,” he said.

The unemployment rate in Utah is about 2 percent. The national rate is around 4 percent. Rates that low are good for those seeking jobs because employers are competing for graduates, Mathews said. Education is an added bonus.

Graduating Utah Valley State College students filled out a survey when they left. Of the 35 percent filling out the survey last year, 69 percent reported that they were employed.

UVSC spokeswoman Megan Laurie said those numbers don’t include students who became employed shortly after graduation or were sending out resumés when the survey was taken.

Education is worth more than just a fatter paycheck. The Utah System of Higher Education reported that education leads to a better quality of life.

USHE spokeswoman Amanda Covington said that higher levels of education correspond with more civic involvement, more volunteering and more voter participation.

College graduates are more than twice as likely to have health insurance and pension benefits, according to the College Board’s Education Pays 2005 report. The College Board also reported that unemployment rates are lower for those with more education.

There’s more to earning money than simply getting an education, however.

Jay Irvine, placement coordinator for BYU’s Marriott School of Management, said there are many skills that lead to success, including education.

“A good college education is going to prepare you as well as anything,” he said.

After that he listed common sense, resourcefulness, luck, hard work, creativity and management skills.

Stephen Gibson, faculty member of the Marriot School of Management, listed what he described as a “locus of control” — that is, good entrepreneurs believe they are in charge.

“They believe that they control their own destiny,” Gibson said.

Successful people also delay gratification, Gibson said. When the business does well, they put the money back into the business rather than spending it. They also have good people skills and embrace change.

Gwilliam, the CEO who left BYU, said there were many things he never learned at school, including being able to learn from his failures.

“The people who are most successful aren’t people who haven’t failed,” Gwilliam said. “They can learn from their mistakes.”

Gwilliam owns several companies. In 1999, after he had taken his company Today.com public, he lost it. He was 24 years old at the time.

“I lost over $11 million in one day,” he said. “That was a really bad day.”

But he’s also had successes and says still needs an education to build his credibility and make an impact. He is back in Provo for the summer to finish his bachelor’s degree in general studies with an emphasis in business management. After he graduates, he plans to apply to the Harvard Business School.

“I want to do something on a much higher level. To do that, I need to get my MBA,” Gwilliam said.

Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at blusk@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.