Issue #0840/1 – With consumerism being one of the most powerful forces on the earth, (RED) is where “virtue meets desire”. It is an “ingenious idea that unites our incredible collective power as consumers with our innate urge to help others”. Dell has been a member of the (RED) brigade since January 2008, offering a special (RED) AiO printer in addition to a range of specially designed (RED) laptops and a (RED) All-in-One desktop PC.
Christmas is a good time of year to be thinking of others around the world who are disadvantaged in some way. It is often the only in the year when our own friends are contacted – and sometimes family as well. But it is also a time when money spent by consumers reaches a feverish and almost uncontrolled pitch, with large percentages of annual revenue for some companies being acquired during the Christmas season.
(RED) is an amazing opportunity for some of those uncontrolled billions to be channelled for the good of mankind and the African continent in particular.
(RED) is not a cause
(RED) is not a theory
(RED) is a business model designed to bring the world’s most famous and iconic brands together with the purpose of raising awareness of ‘The Global Fund’ and to feed money from the private sector into the fund so that the primary killer diseases on the African continent can be fought – Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
When a consumer buys one of the (RED) products, the manufacturer donates a portion of its profit from that item to The Global Fund, through (RED). This proportion can be as high as 50%. Bono, (RED) champion (and joint creator with Bobby Shriver), says that every dollar donated goes straight to the provision of antiretroviral drugs for African sufferers. (RED) costs are covered by a licensing fee paid by the partners for use of the (PRODUCT) RED branding.
Dell is the only printer manufacturer to throw its support behind (RED) to date, sitting alongside such global brands as: American Express; Apple; Converse; Emporio Armani; Gap; Hallmark; Microsoft; and Starbucks. There is, then, plenty more scope for others to add their weight to this fund-raising drive.
Sadly, the (PRODUCT) RED products do not enjoy a very high profile on Dell’s web site and the (RED) printers are not available in Europe. Dell did, however, maximise on profile by creating a (RED) advertisement for use at Super Bowl events in the US.
Clearly, it is the laptop and AiO PC products that are the prime (RED) products at Dell. From the purchase of a Dell Laptop, with Microsoft’s (RED) operating system, $50 is donated to (RED) and that figure rises to $80 for the purchase of a Dell All-in-One desktop PC.
Best suited to small, micro or home offices, the V505W is a wireless 4-function device with ADF. Needless to say, there is no special (RED) branding attached to the supplies for the printer.
By the time Microsoft and Dell joined last January, an estimated $50m had been donated by supporting companies from the sales of (RED) branded products. Since then, that figure has risen to at least $110m. Bearing in mind the billions of dollars profit made by these famous brands, even $110m is a small drop in a very large bucket.
So, if a Dell All-in-One inkjet printer fits the bill, why not support (RED) and The Global fund this Christmas by buying a Dell (PRODUCT) RED and perhaps next year there will be more choice.
The tag line is – “Buy (RED), save lives”.
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