Being Buff: Marketing the social economy

I’ve been thinking more about what I said in my last post about cellphones and the Congo, specifically on the issue of the power of consumers to make a difference…

I’ve been thinking about something I’ve heard a lot in marketing and political circles that political ministers and CEO treat hand written letters like the voices of 1000 constituents or customers.

So this post is to launch a letter writing campaign to cell phone manufacturers to demand they take action to rid their products of Congo coltan.

How many letters should get written? Well, I figure if one letter represents a thousand people then 6000 letters represent the nearly 6 million Congolese people who have died in the Congo wars. So that’s the goal: 6000 letters for 6 million people. 6 for 6.

6 for 6 by Christmas as our gift to the Congolese people.

When you write your letter leave a comment on this post. If you know someone who doesn’t have access to the Internet spread to word to them and help them out by leaving a comment for them or tell them they call in to my audio comment line at 1-206-202-6340 and tell us they’ve written one. (And someone please step up to help me turn the audio comments into blog comments because I’ll need it)

So what does this have to do with marketing the social economy? Well, I’ve always known that marketing the social economy is different from regular marketing in some key ways and the issue of coltan in cell phones has highlighted one of those ways. Social economy marketers are activists in the sense that, by definition, they are trying to change the world. And they are trying to change it in one of the most fundamental ways: through providing fair alternatives to the dominant economic system. Sometimes that means going beyond just focusing on the product and sometimes that means choosing sides. This is one of those times on both counts.

So, here’s a draft letter you can use:

Dear [CEO name],

I am writing to you as a concerned [COMPANY NAME] customer about a very important issue.

It has come to my attention that most electronics equipment, mainly cell phones and video game consoles, contain the element tantalum that comes from the substance coltan. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has anywhere from 64 – 80 percent of the world’s reserve of coltan which has helped fuel vicious wars for over a decade. However, although these wars have contributed to the deaths of nearly 6 million people since 1996, the conflict continues virtually unnoticed by the world in spite of the direct link between the illegal exploitation of coltan and the conflict in the DRC. So, instead of the vast resources of the DRC benefiting its people they are getting them killed. Meanwhile, companies such as Germany’s HC Stark and the American company, Cabot Corp., are making large profits selling tantalum extracted from coltan, some of which, without doubt comes from illegal Congolese mines.

Given this, I am writing to ask you to take immediate steps to use your power to demand that companies down your supply chain provide you with independent third party verification that any Congolese coltan they sell you comes from legal sources and benefits the Congolese people.

Thank you.

Nokia – Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, President and CEO, Nokia Corporation, P.O. Box 226, FI-00045 Nokia Group, Finland

Motorola – Greg Brown, President and CEO, Motorola, 1303 E. Algonquin Rd., Schaumburg, Illinois, USA 60196

Apple – Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Corp., 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, 95014, USA

I am also curious to really test the power of social media to see if it can help make this campaign fly.

Let the writing begin!

Posted in Mobile, Multinationals, Political activism | 4 Comments »

Did you eat some dark chocolate recently and feel good – not guilt – because you’ve heard that studies show that it’s good for you? Did you ever ask yourself where those studies come from? Well, yesterday I learned something that is going to keep me asking that question.

I heard that candy giant, Mars Corp., has endowed a Chair of Chocolate Science at the University of California at Davis . The goal of the Chair, according to Corporations and Health Watch, is to “study the antioxidant properties of cacao”. I tried to confirm the Chair’s goal on the Mars website and the university’s – but could find no mention of it on either.

Now, does anyone really think the Chair will be doing objective research on the good – and bad – antioxidant properties of cacao? Or do we all suspect the Chair’s job is to produce studies that say chocolate is great for your health and you should eat lots more of it? I know what camp I’m in. To me the message is clear: if some corporations can’t find science to back up their marketing claims they Just Buy It.

I found out about the Mars Chair while listening to an interview with author Michael Pollan on his new book In Defence of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio show, The Current. In the book, Pollan argues that the more a food trumpets its own benefits, through things like fancy packages with health claims, the less likely it is to be healthy. He says the healthiest foods are the quietest, like the produce sitting silently at farmers’ markets or at the edges of the supermarket. Pollan tells us to, “Listen to the silence of the yams…” (a line I love!)

So, before you choose to have your product ride the latest science-driven publicity wave, listen to that little voice questioning the veracity of the science and do the work to find out where the science comes from – or your brand may get tainted with the smell of science gone bad.

Posted in Health, Multinationals, Research/Statistics | No Comments »