My name is Josh and I'm a business student at The University of Georgia (my mother is so proud) and I'll be taking you along with me on this little blogging adventure that my professor has so cleverly designed. I'm studying marketing and I'm trying to put a little twist on my major by focusing on Green Business and New Ventures, so naturally I thought to myself "wouldn't that be something fun to blog about?" Well, maybe that wasn't the first thing that came to mind, but who's counting.
I want to start with something basic that we all come in contact with and that plays a huge role in marketing as well as environmental work: Packaging
The vessel that we use to contain our product, also says a lot about as the creator of the product. It makes a statement and it is considered the "last 5 seconds" of a consumer's decision making process. It holds the appearance, the testimony, and the body language of the brand and is meant to influence that lonely mother on aisle 15 to "just buy it already mom!" However, a lot goes into this; the size, the shape, the color, the material, the weight, and especially the security. Most likely it affects your decision process more than you know.
Tom Szaky, known for his company TerraCycle, of whom I am a big fan, has based most of his business around using packaging that other companies have created and "upcycling" them into something for his products. One of his first products, Worm Poop (yep... pretty much explains itself), is packaged in "upcycled" soda bottles, thus increasing the life of the bottles before they go to the dump. Of course, this method probably makes a consumer think more "isn't that a Pepsi bottle?" than "that's my favorite brand of worm poop!" but its the impact on the environment their after.
In my personal opinion I'm happier with the creator of the product if the packaging doesn't hang around in the world for too long or can be reused for some other purpose (my house is full of those big coffee cans with the plastic lids). Many companies are picking up on this and finding innovative new packaging techniques. Clorox's new line of Green Works cleaners for example not only sport all natural ingredients, but also an eco-friendly bottle. The packaging still has a marketers touch and conveys that your'e getting a real cleaner, but remember, its 100% recyclable.
One of my favorite new packaging plans is PUMA's Clever Little Bag. This new type of packaging for sneakers aims to reduce the impact that shoe's have on the environment and, although I haven't heard anything out of them about the little bag in a while, I'm still hopeful.
"Approximately 8,500 tons less paper consumed, 20 million Mega joules of electricity saved, 1 million liters less fuel oil used and 1 million liters of water conserved. During transport 500,000 liters of diesel is saved and lastly, by replacing traditional shopping bags the difference in weight will save almost 275 tons of plastic." - Fuseproject (http://www.fuseproject.com/products-47)
From a marketing perspective, not only does this bag make an environmental statement, but a huge brand statement as well. When someone walks out of the store with this bag in hand everyone will know that person just bought PUMAs and, while others may not focus on the good they're doing through the bag, the change in impact is great.
Even food companies are finding ways to keep their products fresh without adding to the trash. McCullagh Coffee has released their coffee in a compostable bag to substitute for the small bags that are bought in bulk for office coffee machines who go through the stuff like its your grandmother's biscuits. The foil paper that these coffee bags are generally made of are almost impossible to do anything with after the fact, even recycling is a bust for them. Now if only they would make those coffee cans recyclable I could stop having to find new uses for them.
So that is all that I have for now on my search for green marketing nirvana, but I'll be back for my next round with a new topic and some new findings very soon.
