The Back End is the Front End

In Rags2Riches, we have a term which reflects one of our core philosophies : “The Back End is the Front End”.

You see, ‘The Back End’ is the aspect that customers normally don’t see; They only see the fancy advertising, the glitzy images, the seductive storefront, the alluring posters, the massive billboards.

The customer’s interface with the enterprise, if you really think about it, is really only with marketing and sales. After all, nobody really cares about the Back Office – the people in HR, Accounting, and Legal.

Moreover, the true Back End – Production – is more often than not nameless workers in a nondescript factory. You don’t really give a damn where the product you bought was made and who made them – as a customer, your role in the universe is simply to buy.

But it’s on this point wherein Rags2Riches shares a different paradigm.

Because we do want you to care.

We want you to care who made the products you buy. We want you to give a damn about the artisans who painstakingly crafted the product you so wholeheartedly bought.

slide taken from the Rags2Riches Manifesto

And that’s why our Back End – the Payatas Community – is delicately woven into our Front End. The Nanays are at the spotlight of Rags2Riches – in our events, in our communication, in our collaterals. We proudly wear our advocacy on our sleeves.

But we also deal with this Back End-Front End integration very delicately, especially because its subject to misinterpretation and – shudder to think – exploitation.

We’re cognizant that the community is NOT a marketing tool. That’s a trap that’s just way too easy to fall into. In fact, sometimes it’s downright preadtory and lessens the dignity of the marginalized.

The reason the Rags2Riches Nanays are at the forefront is not a marketing tactic; Its actually our vehicle of spreading the advocacy – that our social business enterprise isn’t in the business of selling bags, it’s in the business of empowerment. On a deeper level, the reason they are at the forefront is because it gives them pride in the work that they do. The R2R Nanays aren’t laborers or workers; They’re artisans.

In fact, they’re artisans AND entrepreneurs. Because when you buy an RIIR Designer Bag, you’re not donating to beneficiaries; you’re purchasing from an empowered community of business owners.

This coming March 24 we are again launching another chapter of Rags2Riches – aesthETHICS : the RIIR Aranaz Spring/Summer Collection Launch, wherein the empowered community artisans have again collaborated with designer Amina Aranaz-Alunan, and proudly share their work. The text of our invitation says it all :

—

We Celebrate Beauty.

The hands that make them.

The advocate that supports them.

And the life that continues because of them.

Join us for One Beautiful Night.

—

One beautiful night, indeed! Message me directly ruizmark@gmail.com if you want to go

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 12:00 pm and is filed under A Better World, Rags2Riches, Social Business Enterprise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.