eBay: the Green Online Giant?

eBay has always been about “reuse” – one man’s trash, and all that. So in a way, they’ve always supported a “greener” way of shopping. Well, the online giant is now capitalizing on that with a new spin on the old sell.

Now they realize the world is ready to shop greener, and almost without changing anything, their messaging has changed. Same online garage sale, now wrapped in green. And you know what? I don’t mind the new message. I don’t call it “greenwashing,” really. It’s just recognizing a new reason people are buying.


(It's really just a small part of their huge site, impossible to find from their main page. And they call it their "Green Team.")

eBay’s also taking other baby steps to help the planet, with their Giving Works - a way to donate a portion of sales to nonprofit causes - and MicroPlace - a micro lending service that supports sustainable development.

Hey, if every big company like this is making incremental changes in the way they do business, that’s a good thing. Now when they promote it, they need to drastically improve their advertising creative. (See my post from two days ago, below.)

(I got this tidbit from PSFK, “inspiration to make things better,” and they got it from TreeHugger.)

Strategy Firm Built Around Positive Social Change

(NOTE: This post is stunt-blogged by my friend, colleague, and all-around smart guy Griffin Farley. Take it away, Griff. -DY)

Kelli Peterson is the founder of a brand consulting firm called The Change Project. This firm is designed to provide brand strategy to companies that want to impact positive social change. The homepage of their website describes their ideal client, "If your business or organization is in the business of 'doing good' we would like to work with you." Kelli has been a friend and business partner that I have relied on for years from her days at Sterling. She had a chance to share her vision of this emerging Societal Brand Consultancy at The Horseshoe Tavern in San Francisco immediately following the PSFK Ideas and Trends Conference.

The 'Shoe' as we call it was starting to pick up with the Happy Hour crowd and it allowed my Planning Director, David White, to see the most non-marina bar in the marina. During that meeting the vision was still coming together and the team was forming to drive this belief forward. Kelli has now articulated that vision on her website as a purpose that resonates with the philosophy behind Marketing + Good. I wanted to share a brief portion of The Change Project purpose statement here:

"We believe that we are in another phase of the “giving back” evolution. From the 1970’s saving the rainforests > to philanthropy > to cause marketing > to corporate social responsibility, we believe that “green”, “sustainable” and “the power of blue” are simply incremental steps to elevate the awareness and responsibility we all have to bring the world back into equilibrium.

We believe that the concept of “giving back” should be another factor in the process of making smart choices - the equivalent of value, price and quality."

The Change Project is a great example of traditional marketers leaving their day jobs to take a stand that both 'does good' and 'makes money.' We have been wired to believe that it is nearly impossible to achieve both these goals but thinking like this will pave the way for all marketers to think beyond the Short-Term Transaction to cultivating the Long-Term Relationship that the brand is making with the whole community.

- Guest Author, Griffin Farley
www.propagationplanning.com

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Some of the world's biggest problems were solved over a beer. - DY)