Green Digital Marketing in the Mobile Phone Industry : Recommendations for Sony Ericsson's GreenHeart™

Abstract: Aim: 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. The aim of this study is to: • To present and analyze consumer insights on ecologically-driven technology • To present and analyze the eco-marketing digital practices and strategies used by 4 competitive mobile phone brands • To propose a digital green marketing strategy for GreenHeart™ Method: This study consists of interviews with Sony Ericsson personnel, literature and web analysis that focus on the green initiatives of mobile phone manufacturers in the digital channel. Result & Conclusions: A main issue with green products is that consumers tend to find them not as good as non-green products. Consumer insight studies suggest that that the best way to communicate and promote green products is to focus on their direct benefits to consumers in comparison to non-green products, and communicate the green benefits only as a secondary message. This was also supported by theories such as Levit’s concept of “marketing myopia”, which describes a marketer’s tendency to focus on product features rather than consumer benefits. When analyzing the webpages of Sony Ericsson’s top 4 competitors, it was 3 evident that all 4 mobile phone manufacturers employed green digital marketing in quite a homogenous way. One striking similarity was that all brands have separated their green initiatives from the core of the website. It is a possibility that marketers have done this intentionally since consumers tend to associate green with lesser 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. Suggestions for future research: It is recommended to continue this research and to compare the findings from the mobile phone industry with other industries, such as the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), where Green and Organic branding at a glance seem to have been developed strongly. It would be interesting to gain a perspective on the similarities and differences in the green marketing practices of different industries, but also to gain knowledge and inspiration on how green consumer electronics could be marketed in a more effective and integrated fashion. In this perspective, analyzing any variations between on- and off-line marketing initiatives would be interesting to see if the green message changes in a typical marketing mix. Moreover, it would be good to counter analyze the psychological mechanisms why, for certain industries such as food, green products are regarded as high quality whilst in another industry like electronics, green products are regarded as having lesser quality and business value. Contribution of the thesis: The most important finding of this study is that all the analyzed mobile phone manufacturers have many green initiatives. However, they are communicated separately from all other marketing and communication initiatives in the main digital channel. They tend to be set aside that consumers need to search for them, thus the messages are not delivered seamlessly. This makes it appear that green initiatives are being regarded as something obligatory rather than something that has true business value. Using Theoretical arguments on communication strategy from Levit and ClearWorks show how this, in reality, can be changed and be integrated with product marketing where it can generate a more significant business value