In 2008, Daniel Flynn, a 19 year old Australian student, read somewhere that more than 900 million people in the world did not have access to clean water and more than 4000 children die daily because of the bacterial diseases caused by dirty drinking water. Flynn couldn’t believe his eyes. That was the time Flynn, along with his girlfriend and friend decided to solve this problem in a unique way: to start a bottled water company which will route all its profits to give clean drinking water to the people who don’t have access to clean water around the world. Hence started Flynn’s journey which, after passing through years of ordeal, is making headlines today and solving the problems of thousands of people and changing the world practically, unlike the claims of the corporate world.
Thank You Water
Flynn and his friends decided to name their water brand “Thank You Water.” High in hopes and spirits, Flynn spread the word around about his idea, which got appreciation, but a warning from the masses that Thank You Water is up against giants like Coke and Pepsi and Nestle which spend billions to make money. But Flynn was persistent.
The Onset of Troubles
The first product stream went out in 2011, only to get a recall. There was some problem with the labels of the bottles. And then the distributor went bankrupt. A dream seemed crumbling.
The main problem Flynn faced was to place his brand out there, in the stores and cafes. No one was ready to sell Thank You Water just because it had a good idea and noble goal.
Social Media Marketing: The Kick-start for Thank You Business
That’s when Facebook’s marketing started to take up in Australia. It was like a boon from heaven. Flynn started a massive viral campaign for Thank You water and soon, his company’s bottles were placed in the racks of convenience stores and cafes.
Read: Best Tools for Social Media Marketing
Thank You water team made a great video and run a campaign around it on Facebook. When it got the ear of the people, the company made an appeal to its fans to write requests on Facebook pages of the famous stores in Australia such as 7Eleven and Coles and Woolworths and tell them to sell Thank You water on their stores.
Here is a video of the campaign.
The campaign worked and the super stores were taken by surprise by the sheer amount of requests from people.
Today, Thank You brand has 38 products. It has recently launched baby products and planning to start its business in New Zealand. Mr. Flynn says that the product quality was the key along with the noble ideas and social campaigns.
A Lesson for Young Entrepreneurs
Thank You business’ story has a lot of lessons for the young, aspiring entrepreneurs. To start with, you have to think big and solve real problems. You have got to be a dreamer. Then comes using the contemporary tools and techniques to boost your business and deploy social media marketing. In the end, it all boils down to hard work and product quality.
Tell us what you think of Thank You business and Flynn’s story. Check out Thank You website.
Source: Mashable
