Jul
19
2008
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!
July 21st, 2008 at 3:09 pm
To get things straight…
The main production of tantalum occurs in Australia, where the largest producer, Talison Minerals (formerly part of the Sons of Gwalia company), operates the Wodgina mine.[3] Tantalum minerals are also mined in Brazil, Canada, China, Ethiopia and Mozambique. Tantalum is also produced in Thailand and Malaysia as a by-product of tin mining and smelting.
Future large sources of supply, in order of magnitude, are being explored in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greenland, China, Mozambique, Canada, Australia, U.S.A., Finland and Brazil.[4]
A comprehensive, 2002 review of non-Australian mines is available[5].
Tantalite has the same mineral structure as columbite [(Fe,Mn) (Ta,Nb)2O6]; when there is more Ta than Nb it is called tantalite and when there is more Nb than Ta is it called columbite (or niobite). In central Africa the colloquial term coltan is used to refer to the two minerals equally, an example being the Democratic Republic of the Congo which the United States Geological Survey reports in its 2006 yearbook as having produced a little less than 1% of the world’s tantalum for the past four years.[6]
July 21st, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Hi Robin,
Thanks for your leadership on this and for the draft letter. I have mailed in three letters.
Andrea
July 30th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
To get things straight.
This is true that Australia is the largest tantalum producer. We need to look farther into what this means though. This does not mean that the tantalum is mined in Australia, Australia’s mineral reserves are fairly depleted. Australia imports a lot of tantalum from Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda which is then processed and sold. This is where many companies can tell you that they get their tantalum from Australia or one of the other countries mentioned, but in reality the source of this globalization is still DRC. Because its direct source is not DRC many companies claim to be coltan free but this is not unnecessarily true
April 15th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
This is quite a up-to-date info. I’ll share it on Digg.