2012 Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington
Rainelle Uszynska Marketing Coordinator 5/31/2012
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Students for Energy Efficiency were founded in 2012 by Max Scher and Max McGarthHorn to help educate WWU students and community members on methods for increasing energy efficiency in Bellingham. The students of SEE created Sustainable Washington.org to serve as a comprehensive sustainability and efficiency resource. Our target markets are primarily Western Washington University students, typically ages 18-24. These individuals are already environmentally friendly by actively recycling, and taking fuel efficient transportation such as biking. They enjoy having a good time and always look for ways to be more involved with their community and peers. Our integrated brand promotion will utilize a wide array of promotional strategies with a particular focus on digital media and guerilla marketing. Both promotional types are most effective on our target market. Our digital strategies will consist of a strong focus on social media and platform integration. Non-media strategies will include creative guerilla marketing techniques and a strong public relations force. Our guerilla marketing will be used to attract media coverage and generate awareness among our target audience. All these efforts will be backed by a strong brand identity embodied by the company logo, color schemes and campaign theme.
1
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington
SUSTAINABILITY MARKETING
It is important to note the unique dynamics of sustainability marketing and how they differ from traditional marketing. Although the overarching goal is to increase awareness for a product (the website SustainableWashington.org), there is another goal of encouraging our target market, Western Washington University students to embrace sustainable behaviors throughout campus.
Overall Objective of the Campaign: Throughout this campaign, the focus will be on social marketing; the use of marketing principles and techniques to influence a target audience to voluntarily accept, reject modify or abandon a behavior for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole. These campaigns will seek to move people away from unsustainable and energy intensive forms of consumption to a healthier, lower-carbon behavior to meet the same need. Main objective of the campaign will be to generate awareness about the Sustainable Washington and what the organization stands for. Further down the road, the emphasis will be on promoting workshops and events offered by Sustainable Washington specifically.
2
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington
Six Strategies of Sustainable Marketing Communications:
1. Know your customer
2. Appeal to consumer's self-interest
3. Educate and empower
4. Reassure on performance
5. Engage the community
6. Be credible
In order for the campaign to be successful and achieve the ideal awareness of our website within our target market, we have to integrate these marketing communication strategies into a promotional campaign. These goals will be accomplished through different components of our campaign. Each of our promotional techniques will be integrated with the others and with our distinct brand identity. Consumers will: •
•
•
•
•
Be aware of and concerned about the issues. We will accomplish this through market research by finding out which sustainability efforts and environmental concerns are most important to our target market. Feel empowered to act. We will accomplish this through the use of creative guerilla marketing that will captivate the attention of our target market and inspire them to get involved. Know what’s in it for them. We will accomplish this by developing an informational website that appeals directly to their needs and developing content with all the attributes they find important. Believe us. We will accomplish this through strong integration between all of our platforms. Our target market will see that we “walk the talk” Find our brand easily. We will accomplish this through a distinct brand image and accessibility through numerous outlets. Our brand will have a presence in numerous online domains making it much easier to find.
3
Sustainability Marketing Mix:
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington 4
Customer Solutions
Convenience
Sustainability Marketing Mix
Communications
Cost
These are important considerations when appealing to any target market from a sustainable marketing perspective. We have to select our target market with these ideals in mind. Convenience: How far are they willing to go to obtain our product? Does it already fit in with their lifestyle? Cost: How much are they willing to spend to buy our product or be involved with our organization? Is cost already a deferent as to why they coming to our website? Customer Solutions: How do we involve our target market and utilize their strengths to achieve our goals? Communications: What is the best way to reach our target audience? What techniques will really gain their attention?
Target Market Definition: The initial target market for Sustainable Washington will be comprised of Western Washington University students. University students cultivate around a single location (the university campus) and therefore, it is easier to target a large majority of them. Our product is a website, which is ideal for college students who are comfortable using the internet and often times use the internet as a resource for information. Our focus on WWU students is because they attend one of the greenest universities in North America and a large portion of its students are eco-conscious, outdoor enthusiasts and avid recyclers.
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington
Our website will benefit eco-conscious individuals who are interested in educating themselves about sustainability and what steps they can take to live a greener lifestyle. Eventually we will expand to other university campuses throughout Washington State and later we hope our website will be a sustainability tool for all Washington residents.
Target Market: WWU College Students Demographics •
Age: 18-34
•
Income: $35,000 or less
•
Occupation: full or part-time student
•
Education: some college and post-graduates
Psychographics •
Adventurous
•
Progressive
•
Ambitious
•
Active
•
Price Sensitive
Target Market Size: This is the total number of Western Washington University students. • •
14,979 total students. 1 Of those, 2,700 are freshmen (92% live on campus)
BRAND DEVELOPMENT Name Change In order to develop a stronger brand identity, the strategic decision was made to rename the organization from Students for Energy Efficiency to Sustainable Washington. The name would be better correlated with the website which is the main product being promoted. There would be less of a focus on increasing club membership and more of a focus on increasing sustainability activism on campus. The 1
http://www.wwu.edu/about/quick-facts
5
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington
name change would also signify the increased focus on sustainable movements in general, not just energy efficiency.
Logo A logo is very important to our organization. This sort of imagery helps define our organization and its mission to individuals before they even have a chance to visit our website or find out more information. Therefore, it is highly important to develop a logo that embodies the true spirit of our organization. Our brand attributes are: • • • •
Eco-conscious Relatable Convenient Open-minded
Our logo was made with these attributes in mind. The logo incorporates the use of a Sasquatch figure that represents the core of our mission. Sasquatch loves the environment and seeks to protect it. He lives a simple and sustainable life while maintaining a “down to earth” mindset. By educating people on the values of sustainable and green living, we would like more people to embrace an eco-conscious mindset similar to the values Sasquatch lives by. The logo is a play on that mindset and depicts the evolution of apes to humans to sasquatches. There is a mountain in the background which represents our love of the environment. As does our green, blue, black color scheme which uses colors commonly found in nature.
6
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington
PROMOTION STRATEGIES Guerilla Marketing:
Objective: raise awareness by using creative marketing techniques to raise intrigue and interest around sustainability. Strategy: We will use guerilla marketing techniques as low-cost unconventional ways to promote sustainability and our website throughout campus. This strategy will be most effective for our target market because it is easy to implement in a small area such as the WWU campus. Not to mention our target market enjoys being entertained and engaged in a community setting. The goal of this campaign is to captivate the attention of our target market, generate word of mouth and create awareness of our movement and website. These unconventional types of promotion are an easy and inexpensive way to generate hype and awareness. This strategy is the most efficient way of achieving our goals because it relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big budget. By utilizing guerilla marketing, we will minimize the paper waste used by traditional media (posters, flyers, etc.) thus doing our part to live more sustainably. A series of marketing movements this promotional strategy will be implemented around campus. Some of the movements will focus on individual environmental issues but all will promote Sustainable Washington in some way through the synchronization of marketing mediums. 1. General Awareness • Tag the Sasquatch image/green foot prints throughout campus. 2. Minimize Package Use • Hand out mandarins and encourage students to buy a package free lunch. 3. Plastic Pollution/Recycling • Place 50 plastic bottles in the WWU fountain. Each bottle will have a paper message in it about alarming statistics about the environment and information about our website. 4. Reduce Waste • Dress up garbage monsters and have them roam around campus reminding students to recycle. Integration: Guerilla marketing is the key to getting our target audience talking about the movement but we have to be careful and make sure they correlate our organization with the events taking place. Otherwise, all that creative work will be wasted. We can do this but making sure our logo (Sasquatch evolution) is displayed wherever a guerilla marketing technique is implemented. Also, we need to direct people to our website and social media pages. We can accomplish this through the use of public relations particularly, press releases and forum posts.
7
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington What Would Sasquatch Do? Objective: raise awareness about our movement and promote community involvement in a fun and engaging way. Strategy: We will further embrace our logo and brand identity through the use of a mascot. We will create or purchase a Sasquatch costume and set him loose around the campus. For a month’s duration he will show up around popular sites on campus and engage in sustainability activities. This will not only make bystanders stop to watch his activities but it will also make them consider why he is doing it thus the importance of sustainability. The best way to gain our target audience’s attention is by appealing to them directly. College students love being entertained and are more susceptible to products which they develop a positive association with. By creating a campaign that is both fun and unusual we will be highly successful in getting and maintaining their attention. Here are some ideas on how our Sasquatch mascot could promote sustainability: 1. Sasquatch wearing bulk clothes. • Encourage the purchase clothes from a local thrift store. 2. Sasquatch riding a bike around campus. • Encourage the use of fuel efficient/non fossil fuel dependent transportation. 3. Sasquatch and a chicken. • Encourage buying eggs from free-range chicken farms and promote local farms. 4. Sasquatch reading “Greener Choices” and “Green Guide” in the library during the final weeks. • Promote education about “green shopping” and information how to only buy products which receive the highest sustainability ratings. 5. Sasquatch and ghost fighting. • Raise awareness about the harms and costs of ghost energy and what steps you can take to reduce it. 6. Sasquatch sitting on a chair. • Promote furniture recycling (ex. ARC of Whatcom Co., Goodwill, Salvation Army, Value Village) Integration: It is important for all our media platforms to embrace the Sasquatch imagery and adopt the Sasquatch lifestyle. Our website will help people find out how they could live like Sasquatch by developing informational content with the theme “Become the Sasquatch.” We can also drive more people to our Facebook, Twitter and website by actively posting about Sasquatch’s whereabouts (a.k.a. “what has sasquatch done?”). We will further engage the community by encouraging our fans to post about Sasquatch sightings and give them hints on where to find him next.
8
VIRAL STRATEGIES
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington
Facebook Fan Page:
Objective: To increase awareness about our sustainable movement and organization website by constantly engaging fans with different types of interactive content and updates. Strategy: When someone likes our page we will keep them engaged and entertained so they will keep visiting our page. We will post statuses about how to live sustainably and save money – two ideas very important to our target market. In addition, the Facebook page would post statuses and link videos about current news regarding the environment. We want to engage fans on a personal level and in a casual setting by responding to their comments and questions, which will provide instant gratification and will increase future engagement with fans. Integration: In all of our advertising you will find a link to our website along with symbol to connect with us on Facebook and Twitter pages. Through status updates we will keep our fans up to date on our promotion campaign particularly our guerilla marketing movements and What Would Sasquatch Do? campaign where we would be constantly uploading pictures on Sasquatch’s activities and where to find him next. We would also provide important information regarding the sustainable workshops and house upgrades we are running.
9
Twitter:
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington
Objective: to increase sustainability and product awareness in a casual and constant conversation with students.
Strategy: Similar to Facebook, Twitter will be a great place to provide information about our activities and events. We will be able to respond to people who have tweeted something about us and engage in constant conversations with our users. This would be a great way to generate feedback on what sorts of features our users would like to see on our website and what sort of workshops we should implement in the future. Integration: We will continue to leverage the Facebook page by maintaining the link to the Twitter feed. In that same way, we would offer the latest information about Sustainable Washington and provide information about our events and activities. We would keep our audience involved with activities by tweeted about our guerilla marketing techniques, What Would Sasquatch Do? campaign, and sustainable workshops/upgrades.
YouTube.com: Objective: to create a lasting impact at WWU for generations to come. Strategy: During the course of the promotional campaign running on campus, we will document the movement by filming the events and the students’ reactions. At the end of the quarter we will put together a viral video of all the happenings from Sasquatch touring campus to covering the campus in sasquatch footprints to our sustainability workshops. Video Launch: The video will launch on the Sustainable Washington channel on December 1st 2012. Integration: Videos that go viral on YouTube generate a lot of buzz and word of mouth exposure. Information regarding the sustainable movement on campus and how to be further involved will be available on the Sustainable Washington website, Facebook, and Twitter. The video will also be featured on our website, tweeted about on Twitter and linked to our Facebook community.
10
Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Washington
PUBLIC RELATION STRATEGIES Press Release:
Objective: to generate awareness of our website to the media and our target market. Strategy: We will create a press release and send it to each of the university’s newspapers to alert them about our initial guerilla marketing and What Would Sasquatch Do? campaigns. That way we could reach more students, create more awareness among the college community and provide more details about our organization’s mission. Our strategy is to create buzz within the media platforms and with our consumers to drive even more attention to our campaign. Integration: We will use a press release because it is free publicity and spread awareness about our campaign to numerous members of our target market. Our press release will be incorporated into an article the university newspaper and this will lead to more traffic to our website/social media sites and will lead to more awareness.
Student Forum: Objective: to place our organization in the mind of the target market before the start of the marketing campaign. Strategy: We would make a post on the student forum, Viking Village, where we would alert students to the campaign we were about to do and encourage them to get involved. This would also increase curiosity before the campaign even started and while the campaign was going, students could be increasing word of mouth by posting about it in the forums. Example post: “Sasquatch is coming to town to spread the word about what you can do to live sustainably. To catch a sighting of Sasquatch, follow us on our Facebook and visit sustainablewashington.org for more information.” Integration: Similar to a press release, posting on the forums will spread awareness about our numerous to a large portion of our target market. We will include links to our website and social media platforms on our post and encourage people to follow Sasquatch’s activities through these outlets.
11