Green Digital Marketing in the Mobile Phone Industry - Recommendations for Sony Ericsson's Greenheart™
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Faculty of Education and Economic Studies Department of Business and Economic Studies Green Digital Marketing in the Mobile Phone Industry - Recommendations for Sony Ericsson's GreenHeart™ Jan Barrish Second Cycle Supervisor: Dr. Maria Fregidou-Malama 1 Master of Business Administration in Marketing Management Title Green Digital Marketing in the Mobile Phone Industry - Recommendations for Sony Ericsson's GreenHeart™ Level Final Thesis for Master of Business Administration in Marketing Management Address University of Gävle Department of Business Administration 801 76 Gävle Sweden Telephone (+46) 26 64 85 00 Telefax (+46) 26 64 85 89 Web site http://www.hig.se Author Jan Barrish Date July 18 2011 Supervisor Dr. Maria Fregidou-Malama Abstract This study is part of a digital activation plan that was done for Sony Ericsson’s GreenHeart™ team in the fall of 2009. The investigation presents and discusses what Sony Ericsson and its 4 main competitors (Nokia, LG, Samsung and Motorola) have done within green digital marketing and how the subject was communicated on their webpages. A main issue with products is that consumers tend to find them not as good as non-green products. Consumer insight studies suggest that that the best way of communicating green products is to focus on their direct product benefits in comparison to non-green products and as a secondary message to communicate the green benefits. This was also supported by other theories such as Levits concept of “marketing myopia”, which describes a marketer’s tendency to focus on product features rather than consumer benefits. When analyzing the webpages it was clear that all the manufactures did engage in green digital marketing in a quite homogenous way. One thing that was striking was that they all had separated the green initiatives from the core of the website. As of this, it is a possibility that marketers have done this intentionally as consumers then to associate green with less quality. In order for Sony Ericsson GreenHeart™ to stand out from the competitors, it was therefore suggested that green information should be integrated into the website and to communicate GreenHeart™ as a value-added product feature rather than a product in itself. Keywords Sony Ericsson GreenHeart™ Green Marketing Nokia Motorola Samsung LG 2 INDEX 1 Introduction ......................................................................... 5 1.1 Scope of Study ....................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Relevance of the Investigation ............................................................................... 6 2 Problem ................................................................................ 6 3 Aims ..................................................................................... 7 4 Limitations ............................................................................ 7 5 Theoretical Argument ........................................................... 7 5.1 Green ...................................................................................................................... 7 5.2 The Demand for Green Products ........................................................................... 8 5.3 Marketing Green Products ..................................................................................... 8 5.4 Challenges of Green Marketing ............................................................................. 9 6 Data Collection .................................................................... 10 6.1 Interviews ............................................................................................................. 10 6.1.1 Laura Hoyle, Senior Brand Manager ............................................................ 10 6.1.2 Martin Lundin, Former Head of Digital Marketing ...................................... 11 6.1.3 Lisa Lessing, Marketing Manager ................................................................ 11 6.1.4 Pontus Alexandersson, Corporate Sustainability Office. .............................. 12 6.2 Website Investigation ........................................................................................... 12 7 Empirical Study .................................................................... 13 7.1 Sony Ericsson Background .................................................................................. 13 7.2 Sony Ericsson Brand Communication ................................................................. 13 7.2.1 Brand Portfolio.............................................................................................. 13 7.2.2 Brand Strategy .............................................................................................. 14 7.2.3 Sony Ericsson Green Engagement ................................................................ 15 8 Web investigation ................................................................ 16 8.1 Sony Ericsson....................................................................................................... 16 8.1.1 Sustainability................................................................................................. 17 8.1.2 Recycle .......................................................................................................... 17 8.1.3 Supportzone .................................................................................................. 17 8.1.4 GreenHeart™ ................................................................................................ 17 8.1.5 GreenHeart™ Blog ....................................................................................... 18 8.2 Nokia .................................................................................................................... 18 8.2.1 we: recycle .................................................................................................... 18 8.2.2 we: support .................................................................................................... 18 8.2.3 we: create ...................................................................................................... 19 8.2.4 we: energize .................................................................................................. 19 8.2.5 Other Activities ............................................................................................. 20 8.3 Motorola ............................................................................................................... 21 8.4 Samsung ............................................................................................................... 21 8.5 LG ........................................................................................................................ 22 8.5.1 Environmental Vision ................................................................................... 22 8.5.2 CO2 & Energy .............................................................................................. 22 3 8.5.3 Green Products .............................................................................................. 22 8.5.4 Supply Chain Environmental Management .................................................. 22 8.5.5 Take-back & Recycling ................................................................................ 23 8.5.6 Management of Hazardous Substances ........................................................ 23 8.5.7 Other ............................................................................................................. 23 9 Web Analysis ....................................................................... 23 9.1 Sony Ericsson....................................................................................................... 23 9.2 Nokia .................................................................................................................... 24 9.3 Samsung ............................................................................................................... 25 9.4 Motorola ............................................................................................................... 26 9.5 LG ........................................................................................................................ 26 10 Comparative Web Analysis ................................................ 27 10.1 Table 1: Green Initiatives from Mobile Manufacturers – Overview ................. 28 11 Conclusion & Recommendations ....................................... 31 12 Critical Reflection ............................................................... 33 13 References ......................................................................... 35 13.1 Internet ............................................................................................................... 36 4 1 Introduction In the end of 2009, there was about 4.6 billion mobile phone accounts globally (International Telecommunications Union, 2010). By the end of 2010, this number jumped to more than 5 billion. The Global System for Mobile Communications Association predicts that mobile phone accounts will increase to 6 billion in the first half of 2012 (Lennighan, 2010). Rob Conway, Chief Executive of the association, prophesied that mobile penetration would soon exceed the estimated global population of 6.9 billion (ibid.). The drawback of this development is that mobile phones have become a serious environmental hazard (Ecoble, 2009). SayImGreen reports that the average user will use their mobile