Proposal for a marketing strategy

Transcription

1 < Proposal for a marketing strategy General context 1) Organisation of each competent body It seems difficult to define a common marketing strategy for the European Union. The organisation of each competent body is very different. Some of the objectives of a Competent Body represented by a Ministry are different from those of a Competent body represented by a private organisation. E.g. a private organisation has to realise a good turn over in order to contribute to the criteria setting process and to organise the application procedures (or there have to eligible for governmental funding) This private organisation can easily follow the requirements of the standard EN for the certification body because it is independent. For a competent body represented by a ministerial department, making an important turn over is not its main objective. These differences help to explain the different fees asked to the producers, the ways given to the different competent bodies and also their will to develop the European ecolabel. 2) Difference of environmental awareness of the consumers and size of the country The consumers of the Nordic countries have a higher awareness for the Environment than the countries of Southern Europe. In France for example, the most environmental conscious consumers make only 10% of the population. So for these countries it is more difficult to explain and to motivate consumers to buy environmentally preferable products. A certain level of environmental awareness amongst consumers is a prerequisite for environmental products to be asked for (one of the aims of the campaign in 2004 is to raise awareness for environmentally products). In a way the size of a country can be a hindrance for balanced promotional activities throughout Europe. With the same budget you may achieve different results depending on the size of a country. This shows that a common promotion for the EU eco-label might only be realised on general terms and proposals which then have to be implemented in each country separately. The message to consumers will be different depending on the country. Page 1/5

2 3) What are the opportunities and threats for the European ecolabel Opportunities - The implementing of sustainable development (social, environment and economy) - The implementing and increasing of green purchasing - Political context related to the Environment - Pollution, cause for consumers concern Strengths - A unique logo for Europe - Known in the European union - Support by the members states and the Commission - Increasing of brand awareness - All product groups concerned Threats - More important development of national labels - Self declarations and implementation of ISO ISO and EMAS (competitive system for some sectors) - No more funds from the member states - No competent body to develop new product group Weaknesses - lack of promotion - Not known by the consumers - Not enough range of products - Slowness of works - Weak human resources Objectives In order to increase the visibility of the EU eco-label we have to define our targets related to the market and to the product groups. For consumers market, the target group will be retailers and producers and for the green purchaser the target group will be institutions and organisations Strategy will be different whether we decide to work with retailers, with producers or with green purchasers. Having limited human resources it will be difficult to work on the different targets groups at the same time and for all products groups. A way out is to define for which product groups we wish to work with retailers and for which we want to concentrate on green purchasers Some of our product groups are products which are bought frequently by consumers as textiles, detergents, light bulbs and tissue paper, televisions, hard floor coverings, indoor paints and household appliances are bought less frequently. Some products as copying paper and PCs are more relevant for institutions and organisations. Page 2/5

3 1) to widen the number of markets potentially open to certified products by progressively expanding the range of eco-label product groups what this means What to do: How : - To represent 80% of the shopping basket. - To significantly increase the number of product group per year (not only 2) - To increase the number of products of relevance for public purchasers - To motivate Competent Bodies to help the Commission - To make better use of the criteria work of national labels (ex: lubricants) - Ask a consultant for the marketing group to explore why only few Competent Bodies volunteer for developing new product groups - Propose to find solutions in order to encourage them to participate in the works related to European ecolabel. - Define a list of product groups for consumers but also for green purchasers 2) within each of these markets/product groups, to increase significantly the visibility of the eco-label (i.e. the number of eco-labelled products on the market) define the different markets for all the product groups in order to implement the strategy characteristic of each country define the visibility related to the European market for each product group (it can be a work asked to a consultant for the marketing group) define a business plan each year for each competent body with a measurement of the success at each marketing group meeting define the product groups for which we want to increase the visibility Page 3/5

4 3) Improving and facilitate the knowledge and information of the producers and retailers - the realisation of hot prospect pool file, with information on the name of the different people in charge of marketing, quality and so on is necessary to improve the knowledge of our market. - Idem for retailers as we have begun. - define the total cost of certification (tests + certification) for a producer. We will see that depending on the product group (in France the cost is very variable from 3000 euros to euros). It will mainly depends on costs of certification. - Find different solutions which may exist to help SME to finance tests and costs of certification the first year for example (ask to the consultant) Page 4/5

5 INSTRUMENT PANEL (Example) this matrix can be fill by the working group DATE REALIZED OBJECTIVES WHY ACTORS ACTIONS 04/02/03 26/05/03 29/10/03 09/12/03 yes No define the different market to calculate the visibility competent body or consultant contact federation, look at the internet site, use all the ways to have that information Define a business plan actions implemented competent body define all the actions we want to do, who do the actions, the deadline and so on define the product group for promotion competent body consultant realize of prospect producer file a way to better know our market competent body consultant use the different ways for having that information and than call the producers to get information on name of people improve retailors file a way to better know our customers competent body or consultant get information on name of marketing and quality when it was not done define cost of test information for SME competent body call laboratories and ask them their price list define cost of certification information for SME competent body cost of test more fees for admission audits and so on Page 5/5