IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Green

  • Going Green, Brings Green

    Brands can promote themselves through almost any medium nowadays. Pens, stickers, posters, billboards, you name it, you can put your brand on it. Planet Earth Promotions is a company that is designed to help brands promote themselves in an eco-friendly way. There is constantly increasing awareness about environmental protection and a greater consciousness about how important it is to protect these environmental and natural resources. Planet Earth Promotions is leading the way for this “EcoSmart” promotional item trend.

    Planet Earth Promotions’ mission statement indicates that their “goal is to help companies and corporations around the nation proactively enhance their brand through the use of environmentally conscious and educational promotional items”. They have certainly delivered in this respect. This company has been ranked #1 in promotional advertising for the past ten consecutive years. Not only are they paving the way for other companies, they have become a greatly successful brand that is little to no impact on the environment. Planet Earth Promotions has built a successful brand on a trend that is becoming increasingly important as time goes on. This brand is very strong considering they have remained at the top of the list from Arizona Magazine for the last ten years and they are here to help other brands.

    They are able to offer many alternatives for companies to help cut back on environmental damage by providing recycled goods, information about recycling and environmental days in the USA and tips to bring pollution down. With so many companies shifting focus to being the “EcoSmart” companies and LEED (Low-energy electron diffraction) certified, it is a challenge to stay on top. Planet Earth Promotions has paired up with other environment-friendly companies such as AWEA (American Wind Energy Association) and Women’s Business Enterprise to built a very powerful and successful brand and continue to pave the way for other companies looking to create environment-friendly products and solutions for all varieties of businesses.

    – Julius Roberts, Leanna Marshall, Leslie Tyler and Bryce Koonts

  • Valentine’s Day goes green for beer?

    Asian night clubs, beer, sword-fighting, and the color green are not what people would typically refer to as romantic or associate with Valentine’s Day. However, this year Heineken has decided to market its product unconventionally by creating a campaign based on Valentine’s Day.

    Heineken’s Serenade campaign has videos of a man and woman on a first date, running and dancing through an Asian night-club with jazz music. The man on the date is charming and wows the woman with his skills of swordsmanship, popularity and dancing. At the end of the video, the man and the woman both drink a Heineken and the phrase “open your world” pops on the screen. The video gives the impression that Valentine’s Day can be enjoyed by both sexes in far more exciting ways than the typical flowers and chocolates. Heineken rebrands itself as a more adventurous way to enjoy the holiday and for couples to open themselves up to new possibilities, while remaining appealing to both women and men alike.

    Another aspect of Heineken’s Valentine’s Day campaign is the Facebook app which creates a personalized video for users to ask a friend out on a date through a song. This service promotes Heineken as a matchmaker of sorts. While the videos satisfy the users’ needs of asking out their romantic interests, they also give Heineken greater exposure. As Facebook users see the videos on their friends’ profiles, they will notice that Heineken created the video. The more that people see the advertisements, the more likely they will think of Heineken the next time they purchase beer.

    Heineken has certainly taken an unconventional approach to marketing itself during the Valentine’s Day season. Unlike other companies sticking to the traditional concepts of love and romance, Heineken has chosen to use the holiday as a chance to market itself as an adventurous matchmaker. If the campaign proves to be a success, it is possible that we will see many more companies choosing to taking this unique approach to marketing their products in future Valentine’s Day seasons.

    -Ashley Oliver, Molly Jacques, Hunter Wilson, and Josh Vester

  • Global Warming: A Global Concern

    Most of us are familiar with the term “going green,” and we all agree that it is a good thing.  Reusing, recycling and emitting less greenhouse gasses are awesome. 
    Greenhouse gasses have been a hot topic for many years, particularly when it comes to global warming.  Some scientists and Al Gore are looking into the effects that humans are having on the earth and saying we are the cause of global warming.  Many people are saying that high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are trapping heat and causing temperatures to raise, glaciers to melt and sea levels to change.  All those things are detrimental to many wildlife habitats and could ultimately lead to the extinction of human kind.  Some scientists are saying that we need to take The Polar Bear Pledge, find cleaner sources of energy and stop eating so much beef.

    Some scientists are saying that the sun simply goes through hot and cool spells, and right now it happens to be hot.

    Global warming due to human activity has been marketed to us very successfully, and most people think it is true because its prominence in the media has allowed for many repeated messages (agenda setting).  We are not trying to reject any of the scientific research that has been done to support global warming theories, but from an IMC standpoint we should know better than to blindly accept something as true without questioning it and researching both sides.  There are many theories about global warming that have nothing to do with humans. Some researchers say that global warming and cooling is a natural phenomenon that has been occurring since the beginning of time due to the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.  Political analysts say that many people stand to benefit financially from global warming with the trading of carbon credits, and that certain politicians have dual roles in the matter, as advocates and investors.  Either way, it is wise to take a stance on the issue; the wellbeing of our world is at stake and it is up to us to protect it.

    -Stephanie Bakolia, Claire Outlaw, David Glaubach

  • Looking Forward

    Going green.  It seems to be at the top of every corporation’s priorities.  In this day and age we have a better understanding for how unsustainable our daily lifestyles have been since the start of industrialism.  In the past, building and developing areas was praise-worthy.  Urbanization has supplied new jobs and opportunity for the ever-increasing population.   It is only in last fifteen to twenty-five years that we have started to realize that depleting our natural resources and burning fossil fuels cannot persist at the rate at which they are.

    Alternatives must be sought out. 

    Today, we can still live freely without compromise, however, the media has brought on an underlying pressure to conserve and to use less.  People are speaking out about Global Warming’s effects and the public is listening.  The message is now resonating that the way we do business personally and professionally needs to change.  With a heightened awareness of going green amongst the general public, it has opened up a new avenue for companies to use in appealing to their target audience.

    “Green this, organic that”…  business motives have shifted and companies are doing whatever they can to show they are a green, sustainable business. Marketers have leaped into branding “green” through strategies and ideas that promote the better goodness of the environment.  Besides a company’s involvement in becoming more sustainable, the main concern lies within the image they portray. Today, for the general public green equals good.  In going with a “green” company, it allows people to grant themselves with a feeling that they are doing the right thing for themselves, their environment, and the future based on what the mass media has hyped about the environment.  The color green symbolizes many positive aspects about a company’s values, making it crucial for any business to incorporate the theme into the design of their logo, website, advertisements etc.  Having an overall look of being clean, simple, sustainable, organic or recyclable seems to be what’s driving some of the most successful companies around us today.

    by: Oliver Evans, Sally Shupe, Jared Sales

  • Switching To Green Is Much Easier Than You Think

    Happy Earth Day! I hope you all are out there doing your part to cut back on wastefulness and give back to the environment. However, we shouldn’t just return to our old ways of unneccasary consumerism tomorrow. We should make a collective effort to turn ourselves completely green. As Lynn Jurich explains in her article “The Rise of the Pocketbook Environmentalist”, that may be a lot easier than it onced seemed.

    As you may have noticed in previous posts, a good amount of companies all across the board are switching to environmentally conscious ways of production and service. However, an interesting shift has taken place where buying the green products no longer costs an arm and a leg. Instead, Lynn Jurich explains that bargain purchases and green purchases have become one in the same. With the growing expanse of environmentally sound products, the competition has finally driven the price down to a level we can all handle. Companies are longer looking to market their ‘green’ products to the more affluent community, but instead expanding their reach to the entire public. Josh Dorfman, the author of “The Lazy Environmentalist” has actually invented an app that will allow you to scan any product and see the environmental impact it has. While the already green products would be obvious, Dorfman says this app will help you decided from the less discernible products like Dove and Ivory soap, perhaps. These improvements in technology and intelligence put the power in the hands of the consumer. Now the producers will have no choice but to jump on the green train and lower their impact. For companies, it’s either go green or get out of the way.

    -Will Cosden, Micaela Fouhy, Brie Golden, Lindsey Baggett, Drew Mayer

  • Don’t Abuse the Green

    Going Green. Go Green. Green Initiative. Green. Everything seems to be green these days. If a product isn’t “going green,” then that company might lose a certain respect from their market. But do the consumers even know why something might be called “green?”

    A company could easily call themselves green, but it could apply to so many different things. It could apply to their products, the amount of resources that they recycle, or even the lack of resources that they utilize in order to better the environment, and so on. Before a company does this though, they’re going to need to take a look at their customers from an integrated marketing perspective. Do their customers have a need for a product going green? How knowledgeable is their customer base on what it means to go green? Not only that, but what does going green mean to the company itself?

    When one really thinks about it, going green goes back to social capital and generalized reciprocity. Generalized reciprocity is as simple as picking up some trash that you see floating in the street before it goes into your neighbor’s lawn, or watching your friend’s belongings while they may use the restroom in an airport. Basically, the effects of the return might not be seen for a long time, and sometimes may be seen in a short amount of time. What drives customers to purchase green products may be because they feel they can do their part in trying to preserve the environment in which they live in. It’s that feeling of empowerment; the feeling of being able to make a difference.

    When it comes to making a difference, Google never seems to miss the opportunity. Google steps up to deliver a green movement that most people might not predict from the tech savvy company. To tackle their overgrown field at their headquarters in Mountain View, California, Google brought in 200 goats from California Grazing. The goats stayed for over a week eating away at the grass in an attempt to reduce the emissions brought on from mowers, reduce noise pollution, restore various plant species, and even fertilize while grazing. Not only does Google take an interesting perspective of going green, but their efforts certainly do coincide with general reciprocity.

    As we continue to use the limited resources that this planet has, it’s going to be interesting to see how different companies and organizations change their habits to sync with the minds of environmentally conscious consumers. However, they just may want to consider their reasoning before they abuse the idea.

    -Deji Adeleke, Carissa Niederkorn, Anna Kate Babnik, Tiffany Evans, & Katie Eagle

  • Today, we are all Irish

    That’s right laddies and lassies, it’s Saint Patrick’s Day, celebrated internationally on March 17 every year. The holiday is basically an excuse to hit the bars and grab yourself a Guinness or two…or ten (if you’re 21, of course). I myself don’t have a shred of Irish blood in me but I would be lying if I said that I never participated in one of the main activities that goes hand in hand with celebrating the holiday. Saint Patrick’s Day started in fact as a very real holiday named after Saint Patrick who is regarded as one of the most commonly recognized patron saints of Ireland. However, while it certainly did originate as a Catholic holiday, it has gradually become more and more of a celebration of Irish culture in general. This means that there are plenty of brands associated with the holiday and Irish culture as a whole, whether positive or more negative. It could arguably be one of the most branded holidays in the world as there are several things that always come to mind when you think of the holiday. These include the leprechaun, the shamrock, all things green, and alcohol.

    Today it is celebrated by Irish and non-Irish alike and, as we all know, it is one of the leading days for consumption of alcohol in the United States. It is a holiday that businesses, bars and restaurants all pour loads of money into every year as they each compete and advertise themselves as “the hottest St. Patty’s party in town”. Even Wilmington is no stranger to capitalizing on the event and promoting the downtown or beach nightlife.

    Also, green is the color and order of the day, especially in terms of clothing. I specifically remember being pinched, (affectionately, of course), for not wearing green one year in elementary school. It is a holiday that many of us learned about years and years ago when we were just little kids and are now at the point where we can fully enjoy it (if you’re 21, of course). All over the U.S. numerous cities throw Saint Patrick’s Day parades and even up the ante in some cases as with the Chicago river being dyed green for the day each year for the celebration.

    Thus, this unique holiday has become not only a staple of Irish-American heritage but also a staple of American heritage as a whole. It is a holiday that basically anyone can celebrate in one way or another. From green alcohol to tacky green t-shirts to those giant leprechaun hats, Saint Patrick’s Day definitely ranks up there with Christmas, Easter, and Halloween as one of  the most branded, and most fun holidays in my book. So all that being said, throw on some green, get a little loud, grab a pint or two (if you’re 21, of course), dance a jig, and kiss someone Irish!

    Eric Holtzman, Maxann Keller, Ryan Kelley, Chad Graves, Katelyn Truss