Groupon: What Were You Thinking!

Superbowl Sunday: Eating pizza, chips, drinking soda and getting excited for the entertaining commercials between football plays.

My mouth drops when I watch this first time Groupon commercial hit the screen:

Exploiting Tibetan culture and troubles to promote their website, showing viewers how much money they can save (in this case on Tibetan cuisine) in the United States using Groupon.

America is all that matters right?

Major uproar all over the internet ensued for making light of real life issues and using an entire nation to promote an American company. Groupon responded by stating trivializing Tibet’s cause was never their intention, but it still makes me wonder how the concept’s offensiveness slipped through the hands of everyone involved in making, writing and producing the commercial.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky who strives to draw attention to the cultural tensions created by brands was the Ad agency behind this commercial and are being criticized for doing it in the wrong way.

Is this and CP&B downfall without the influence of Bogusky anymore?

Only days after the premier of the commercial during the Super Bowl, spoofs, blogs, and campaigns against Groupon took over the internet, including this spoof on Conan O’Brien:

Brand Communication- let’s see it

How great would it be to have the possibility of browsing through a mall, grocer, hardware store or any place that you buy products locally, nationally and internationally and instantly know the complete background of the brand and the product.

How it’s made – Sustainable materials, post consumer waste distribution, price comparisons to other products.

Where it is from– Location and shipment procedures.

Associations with the brand– What they stand for and believe, other products they make, social or environmental movement they support.

A vision that several colleges have come up with in the University of Oregon SOJC is something along the lines of a Iphone scanner, giving full transparency about the brand selling the product.

Now a days, consumers have several sources peeking into this idea, giving them a platform to discover what the brand and company is all about but all are missing some links into the social movement aspect of what the brand really believes in.

The Good Guide-

This website and app enables consumers to get evaluations of the health, environmental, and social impacts of  products such as toys, food, and household products. Although giving great details about the product, they leave out what the brand is doing for these environmental and social implications. I think that knowing what the company and brand stands for is just as important as knowing about the product.

Green Washing Index

This site is produced by consumer input and opinion on the messages and negative advertising companies use to represent themselves as green. Although useful in information on what products to avoid and what companies are the worst green washing offenders, it gives little detail into the products overall information and nothing about the brand involvement in sustainability movements.

Since American consumerism depending on transparency and sustainability is at an all time high, having a platform to seek out all information about a company, brand and product in one place would certainly bring to light those who are dominating the market for the better good of the world and environment.

4 Sustainability Principles (paraphrased)

1. We are not extracting substances from the earth at a rate faster then they can be restored and/or allowing them to build up on the earth’s surface.
2. We are not subjecting nature to man made chemicals that cannot be broken down.
3. We are not physically degrading the earth.
4. People are able to make their basic needs.

Those are just the basics. Looking into a brands belief and movements are important in making smart consumer decisions about which products to buy over others.

Baby steps to Big Picture: B-Bike Movement

Great national and international problems can not be solved in one day and certainly not by one person. The focus is on team work and starting with smaller ideas that a majority of people can adapt and accept.

Propaganda and fear-based sales won’t work for the long term social change, but instead trusting teamwork among innovators around the world are the solution to kick starting attention around the topics of Global Warming, Green House Gases and CO2 Emissions.

Thanassis Cambanis writes in an article “No Big Deal” about what it takes to solve such problems:

“We can address problems by making smaller changes. A global problem… simply can’t be solved by one country or one person. Going incremental is practical; it allows us to solve specific problems even while broader agreement remains out of reach.”

A program that stood out to me comes from Alex Bogusky, chief creative for Crispin Porter + Bogusky, moved to Denver Colorado and begin a bike sharing program: B-Bicycle.

The first large-scale bike-sharing program in the U.S. Starting in Denver, CO, distributes bikes among 40 “B-stations,” for people to share and transport.

This concept was thought up to reduce pollution, traffic, and rising oil costs. Bogusky believed that urban transportation needed a face lift. B-cycle is easy, and relatively inexpensive. This idea is located in one town but has the capabilities of starting a national trend of bike riding while raising awareness of the environment impacts cars.

One idea in one small town can lead to a world full of possibilities and inspire others to continue thinking of innovative ways to help our planet.

BEST ALTERNATIVE FUEL: YOU.

Locality – Adams Sustainable Table

Oregon: what a great place for the focus of sustainability innovation and culture changes. With a growing market and  emphasis of organic farming with companies such as Oregon Tilth, businesses all over Oregon have the capabilities of retaining resources and  education of

“biologically sound and socially equitable agriculture.”

Adam’s Place Restaurant was one of my favorite downtown places to eat in Eugene. Gourmet food with great wine and a full service bar, professionals, young adults and your typical date night couple could all enjoy an evening there. Executive Chef Adam Bernstein’s has 30+ years of culinary and restaurant expertise.

Recently, in 2009, not only did the name change to Adam’s Sustainable Table but became part of the Sustainable Table INC. committed to provide “the most wholesome, unadulterated local organics produce and all natural proteins available in our region.” All of the food is procured from farms, ranches, mills located primarily from within a 75 miles radius, most within a 25 mile radius.

Kind of reminds me of a scene from the show Portlandia…

 

Adam’s restaurant goes beyond only using organic products in their food. They recycle their fryer oil into bio-fuel, serve rainwater harvested from nearby skies and are powered by the wind.

Voted Eugene’s “Most Green Resturant” by Eugene Weekly Chow!

“The ethical dilemma was whether to compromise our belief in the importance of local, sustainable food service or our level of fine dining. We chose sustainability,” -Adam

Celebrities and Impact on Green Thinking

Featured: Don’t Mess With Texas

This was a statewide advertising campaign started in 1986 to keep trash off of Texas streets and highways, using celebrity PSA’s, radio spots and national commercials. The Texas Department of Transportation wanted to bring in big attention to this statewide issue, using celebrities to do just that.

If you are caught littering in Texas you can receive up to a $2000 fine.

Don’t Mess with Texas partners with the Adopt-a-Highway program and Keep Texas Beautiful, partners in the annual Trash-Off, the state’s one-day cleanup event.

Musicians, athletes, celebrities and other famous Texans have appeared in “Don’t Mess with Texas” radio and television public service announcements.

Why it works:

Since 1997, EnviroMedia has lead the U.S in social marketing agency delivering sustainability consulting with ethical campaigns surrounding green products and way of living. ” Don’t mess with Texas” is one of the many campaigns they run besides working for companies dedicated to public health and a better enviornment attitude are their main focus. Using research, experiential marketing, creative and media planning, they are trying to change the attitude and the behavior of people around the nation.

The use of celebrities brings in a community of Texas and people all over the United States to care about an issue that was before, unattended to; Littering. The following celebrities are just some of the featured people in the year’s past campaigns:                                              

• Lance Armstrong
• Asleep at the Wheel
• Erykah Badu
• Marcia Ball
• Joe “King” Carrasco
• Johnny Dee and the Rocket 88’s
• Joe Ely
• The Fabulous Thunderbirds
• George Foreman
• Tish Hinojosa
• Los Lonely Boys
• Jennifer Love Hewitt
• Lyle Lovett
• Billy Mays
• Matthew McConaughey
• Willie Nelson
• Andy Pettitte
• LeAnn Rimes

View all ads HERE

Kevin Tuerff, founder of EnviroMedia commented on the commitment his agency has to working with ‘green’ clients only:

“If Nike wanted us to do a multi million dollar campaign on a new green shoe they produced we would. If they then came out with another one not using sustainability and green techniques we would turn them down. We would be sad, but we wouldn’t do it.”

Corporations- Ideas for Good

Corporations are sometimes the enemy. But what if we make them our friends. What could come of a positive relationship between huge business moguls and the rest of the consumer population?  The companies with the most power and funds in the United States have a large impact on the way consumers use and buy their products and thus advocating for energy efficient means and involving people in their efforts can be a positive shift in the way people consume.

Some corporations (such as Walmart) have the revenue of smaller countries in this world, and can have just as much of an impact on improving our environment using sustainable thinking. The CEO’s of these companies, unlike the senate or congress, do not have to vote and pass laws. It takes one decision on their part to change the way they represent their company, decide what products to sell and put limitations of the negative environmental effects it takes to make products.

500 Corporations around the world make up for half of the United Sates economy and the consumers are the driving force behind deciding where and who they are buying from. If all of the corporations in power made decisions based on smart and sustainable research and results, a large positive impact on our Eco-system could follow.

EXAMPLE:

Toyota has launched a campaign: “Ideas For Good,” asking the public to submit ideas on how to reuse Toyota technology to benefit society in a non-automotive capacity.

Consumers chose a Toyota technology, T.H.U.M.S. (Total Human Model for Safety) and submit ideas of how this can be used for something in the world besides cars in efforts to sustainability and helping the environment.

The winners of this project not only gets a choice of  a Toyota car, but funding to help the idea and project they had come up with. This incentive project boosts the moral of the company as well as connecting the community to the better of the environment, getting the message out that technology innovation is an important step in reducing negative environment impacts.

RESULTS:

The role of corporations have a responsibility to sustainability, placing their product position into the hands of the communities and consumers who support their cause or products.

Adam Werbach, enviornmentalist, sustainability advocate and consultant to non-profits, and author of “Strategy for Sustainability,” states:

“Companies are like friends, you must accept them for the good and the bad, knowing that no one is perfect.”

Transpareny Importance- Advertisment Responsibility

Message makers + Communication + Defining the message

These are all important aspects of advertising and the agencies creating brand and company messages and stories. In order to get the ball rolling for connecting consumers with sustainable and energy efficient lifestyles through the use of products that advocate for these things, one thing should be clear (no pun intended) TRANSPARENCY.

How do you provide trust in a brand from it’s consumers? You tell them everything about yourselves, leaving no room for mystery or message meanings that may confuse or trick a potential buyer.

SUSTAINABILITY= HONESTY

Some ways that companies and their advertisers can avoid mixing messages, schemes and marketing techniques to convince their customers that the product or service that they are providing are authentic are:

1. Global Reporting Initiative:

+Companies disclosing information of the sustainable content of a product.

+Releasing Carbon Emmision statistics of use making the recycling a product.

+Offering this information freely and easily for consumers to look and connect with the particular brand. (On their website)

 

According to Globalreporting.com : “Reporting leads to improved sustainable development outcomes because it allows organizations to measure, track, and improve their performance on specific issues”

 

2. Renewable Energy Certificate:

+Building and company releasing information about the energy used to run or maintain a building or company and it’s effects on the environment.

+Solar Electric, wind and geothermal technologies to efficiently maintain a business, letting future buyers or investors know about the sustainability of the previously mentioned arenas are.

These examples of transparency move into the realm of advertising by starting a MOVEMENT into the markets resulting in socially good outcomes. This not only effects the business using transparent advertising and sustainable thinking, but the people and investors interested in supporting them.

Key transparent marketing goals:

Not sell, but disclose information to the companies values.

Allow others to decide rather than forcing incentive and information on them.

Showing credibility, why you say who you are and what you are about.

 

One Planet, One Green Certification

One Planet, One Green Certification

As complex as human emotions, thought processes, decisions and lives are, when it comes to a consumer and a product the connection is rather flat lined and simple. When a consumer is thinking about buying a product the 3 most important things that go into the decision (differentiating brands and products) are:

Visual Appeal
Cost
Brand name (and it’s value to their life style)

Advocating for sustainable and energy efficient companies, brands or products, is just another complex thought consumers have to think about. Everyone wants to be “Green,” but how many people will actually put that into practice, doing the research of how a product or company is really selling themselves as a sustainable one.

According to Enviromedia social marketing Green Guide, there are over 350 green certifications inthe market:

These labels are yelling out to consumers “LOOK AT ME! I’M GOOD FOR THE ENVIORNEMNT!”
How can someone with out a background of sustainable and green  knowledge ever have the time or desire to learn the differences between these labels, what they mean and how and why the companies are using them.
16% of Americans think the marketing advertising industry should not self-regulate sustainable claims, meaning that if the power was in the hands of those advertising the products, the lines begin to blur on the authenticity of relaying a message and doing good for the environment.

If there was a third party sustainable advocate, knowing the weights between the benefits and downfalls of how a product is made, where is has come from, where it can go after being use (recyclable, compost-ability) and made a series of labels rating the products and their impact on the environment.

My ideal global campaign would be for ONE (yes you heard me) one global primary green product enforcer by a third party, and out of the hands of the government who looks at profit and company benefit rather than enviornment ideals.

Why this would work:
⅔ of AMericans (65%) say having one seal for all green products would give them more onfidence that they were buying green.
41% of Americans say taking the power of certifying products as green away form the government and on to a third party green advocate resource would help them in making decisions about what products to chose.

(Info: Enviromedia.com/greenguides)

Environmental Education- Our Future

I am lucky enough to be taking a class at the University of Oregon focusing on the idea of Sustainability and learning the insights of communicating the idea of green issues. Before this class my knowledge of the following was little to none:

Green-washing advertising

Strategic green messaging and planning

Resources of business and brand knowledge of sustainability and where to find it

Specific companies and products focusing on bettering the environment

This got me thinking of why and how I had never heard of such trends, even growing up to be aware of energy efficient living, and paying attention to where things are made. Education in these areas are something that should start at a young age in order to get the message across that the way we consume highly impacts the direction of the environment and it’s impact on our planet.

Most parents would say that their concern for Eco-system and  global environment awareness would be for their children. Making this planet a place where generations to come can enjoy and  use the land and environment to better sustain their way of life is something of a movement that needs to happen to make this message clear.

A few ways this is happening:

NAAEE (North American Assoc. for Enviornmental Education)

+ Teaching people how to think about the environment, not what to think. Making a difference in the world through a positive, non-confrontational approach.

EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)

+International agency focusing on the health and environment communication for all individuals.

+Government involvement of protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress

WHY THIS ISN’T ENOUGH:

Children and young adults do not relate to problems or organizations bigger than they are. It would take a extremely curious young person to do the research in understanding everything that these agencies are telling them. The focus, however should be on simplifying the message of sustainabilty and the resources used to learn about them on the level of elementary, high school and collegiant levels.

Understanding:

Green-washing

Energy used around the house hold

Effects of how you live have on our environment

would have a large impact on younger groups of individuals in the private and public school systems. I advocate for this education lesson to be taught  in all schools to further and increase the movement of sustainable living with in future generations. All it takes is the knowledge of this imformation to be implanted on people at a young age, encouraging to make a difference themselves. Bombarding older generations with statistics  and messages to change a life style that they have always been living is less effective then creating a postive message of caring about our environment to younger generations.

The longevity of this issue of sustainability and the way people live their lives is the most important in making an actually difference to our planet. Creating a platform, arena, or career path for young adults to get involved with sustainability will only benefit the climate and enviornment we so greatly want to protect.

Mark Zuckerberg- 60 Minutes

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