Powered by Purpose: Who Gives A Crap

• Product: Toilet Roll
  
• Purpose: To help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world
  
• What can we learn from Who Gives A Crap? Don't take yourself too seriously.
  Who Gives A Crap prove that when it comes to Purpose, it really doesn’t matter what your product is. In fact, any company can choose to have Purpose, but when it's relevant to your product or service in some way, it tends to have the most credibility to customers.

Though you might presume there’s limited scope for playful marketing when it comes to loo roll, Who Gives A Crap obliterate all preconceptions and demonstrate the capacity for creativity in any brand, no matter what the product is. Not only have they injected their brand with such personality and humour, they’ve also created a business with positive impact imprinted on it’s DNA. Their product ticks three boxes:

1. Good for the world (a B-Corp certified for the highest standards of social and environmental impact)
2. Good for people (they build toilets for people who need them)
3. Good for your bum (free of inks, dyes and scents)

Who Gives A Crap was created after founders, Simon, Jehan and Danny became aware of a major problem; that 2.4 billion people across the world don’t have access to a toilet- that’s roughly 40% of the global population, meaning that around 289,000 children under five die every year from diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. Shocked by the vast number of people denied access to such a basic human right- they were compelled to find their own solution… and so the world’s number 1 most sustainable toilet paper was born.

Who Gives a Crap operate using a model in which 50% of profits are donated towards helping to build toilets, yet they’re living proof that giving back and being profitable are by no means mutually exclusive. Witnessing the success of their model first hand, their team have campaigned to encourage more and more entrepreneurs to consider a similar 1 for 1 model.

Having hit the £5.85mill donation mark (you do the maths!), WGAC have sufficiently proven the profound power of a clear and credible commitment to purpose: not only will the communities you’re helping thrive, but so will your business.

Though their founders admit that their donations were far smaller in the early days, it was their decision to prioritise impact that enabled them to scale rapidly and to grow a loyal customer base who have since evangelised their mission. Their CEO Simon Griffiths explained “for businesses, the game is changing. Consumers used to place value on the intersection of price and quality, but now increasingly, consumers are looking for products that can do good."

In business today, you need a product that intersects all three of these standpoints. Griffiths is a fierce advocate for ‘consumer-driven philanthropy’ believing, “you can’t market using guilt. Instead, you need to market based on the measurable impact you’re creating, and you have to be accountable and transparent, you need to be marketing the solution, not the problem”. Through being so attuned to changing consumer preferences towards marketing, and creating both a highly ethical and impactful product, Who Gives A Crap have only continued to excel as a business.