The Green Pyramid Sting

Below is my submittal to the netimpact.org (sort of a corporate social responsibility thing) essay contest, due on Friday afternoon.  If you have suggestions or critiques I'd love to hear them.  Praise tickles the fancy too.
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                                                   The Green Pyramid Sting

 

                                                             By Eric Jones

 

        Three glaring obstacles confront green companies like Seventh Generation who aim to broaden their consumer network. First, the environmental objectives these green companies strive to solve are not tangible to the average American consumer. Green Citizen, a company based in the affluent community of Palo Alto, intends to recycle electronics for a “cleaner future.” How can Green Citizen convey to its Palo Alto consumers the dire need to be more environmentally conscious when the city’s inhabitants are surrounded by nature untainted?  If green companies appeal to the immediate interests of the targeted consumer rather than focusing on the ultimate cause, companies will be much more effective in building a strong consumer network.  Secondly, many companies with sustainable products and services mistakenly believe their marketing and advertising tactics should be as benignant as their mission statements.  American Apparel is a fantastic example of a successful company upholding their mission’s integrity while using risqué marketing and advertising strategies. Finally, companies need a multi-tiered approach in reaching the average consumer in the principal promotional channels these consumers frequent and support.

        My Seventh Generation marketing plan is anchored on plugging the promotional channels where the “unconscious consumer” (UC) enjoys giving attention. UC’s are in bars, on the internet community spaces watching homemade movies, and winding down the day while watching “The Daily Show” with John Stewart.  These three areas, street venues, community internet spaces, and the
Hollywood realm, constitute the three tiered marketing pyramid needed to broaden Seventh Generation clientele.  Instead of exhausting the public with an environmental message of desperation, we should aim to make the campaign trendy; let us be more flexible with the means that leads us to a positive result.

      

The marketing pyramid’s foundation focuses on captivating the masses on the street level rather than using impersonal forms of media.  I will use Seventh Generation’s chlorine-free tampons as the product to market.  The street venue portion of the marketing strategy leverages the people who are attention-magnets in various entertainment domains.  For example I would ask employees in the 10 most popular bars of each city to wear a t-shirt during their busiest shifts with the engaging message, “It’s safe inside me”. The t-shirt has the product’s website on it leading people to a source of more awareness and context.   DJ’s could also wear the t-shirts and send a message between songs to check out the website.  Other examples of venue point people include hosts of open mic’s, employed dancers at clubs, coffee shop employees, and comedians.  These entertainment icons can pass out fliers, wear t-shirts, and plug the message if speaking to a crowd.  Groups of costumed tampons or tampon floats at large community events like Bay to Breakers are other promotional ideas. Promotional exposure on a street/venue level lays a sound “fad” foundation for the campaign as a person to person approach can be more infectious than various forms of media.

The second tier of the pyramid’s marketing plan is devoted to saturating the internet’s community spaces.  These spaces include social networking sites, photo and video sharing, blog communities, wikipedia, craigslist, and forums.  The Seventh Generation branding in these communities must be tailored to the ethos of each respective community.  A polished profile on the social networking sites should include pictures, mission statements, testimonials, links, ideas, people, and sites related to corporate social responsibility.  Additionally, Seventh Generation could distribute a comedic video on the video community sites like youtube.com with the goal of virally hitting World Wide Web critical mass. The actors will entertain the viewers while also ultimately relaying the company’s mission statement. The creation of a Seventh Generation blog compliments these promotional channels and can be a base for informal discussions about related issues, product inquiries, and upcoming events.  These internet resources are great spaces to establish a relationship between consumer and supplier; an attribute that Seventh Generation could trumpet over their non-green competitors. 

     The third tier of the marketing pyramid, and perhaps the most challenging, is lobbying
Hollywood for a spokesperson.  Hollywood has a history of being very successful in making socially responsible efforts hip with the American consumer.  For instance, a published photo of Paris Hilton sporting American Apparel clothing gave the company an immense popularity boost with gossip magazine followers.  Ideally the marketing strategy would leverage the success and publicity of the pyramid’s first two tiers to find a Hollywood figure willing to amplify the campaign’s momentum.  Realistically this would come in the form of appearing as a guest on a show like “The Daily Show.” The marketing strategy would involve asking the guests who plan to appear on these prime-time shows to plug Seventh Generation during their interview.  Another possible marketing strategy is to ask a celebrity to pose for a photograph in a Seventh Generation t-shirt. The green company could then submit the photo to various newspapers, publications and news stations in order to gain exposure with a Hollywood-idolizing audience. While the social effect of Hollywood’s influence is constantly in question, its colossal advertising reach and persuasive powers are not.

     The optimal outcome of the pyramidal marketing strategy is if the first two tiers provide enough steam to make the most challenging tier, Hollywood influence, plausible.  The Hollywood component theoretically would compliment the first and second tiers’ efforts by bringing the campaign’s exposure to a level of mass appeal.  Once the campaign hits critical mass, sustained interest is dependent upon engaging the consumer with Seventh Generation’s cause in the least demanding manner possible (i.e. through the interests of the consumer).  The dominant theme in the pyramidal marketing strategy is to leverage the interests of a wide range of unconscious consumers in order to attract their attention. Green companies successful in this feat will then be able to redirect the consumers’ attention to an environmental cause to which they have no prior attachment.