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Project: Case 3.
keywords: marketing strategy, , marketing plan, pres release,
corporate brochure, press conference, workshop, public affairs, video,
opinion poll
Customer: Belgium-based, multinational chemical company
and PVC manufacturer.
The challenge: Defence and creation of a more positive
image of PVC, a chlorous plastic, the production and use of which is sharply
criticised by environmentalists.
Our approach: In order to gain support for the use of
PVC, we looked for ways and means to draw attention to the obvious benefits
of the material (it is cheap, uses relatively little fossile energy, is
extremely flexible, can be recycled...). We looked for positive elements
that could be useful for our communication campaign. Discussing this with
company staff members provided us with lots of useful documents (ecologists
have been attacking the PVC-manufacturers for years now and the industry
has put in a great deal of energy in defending their product).
We developed fact sheets and position papers that could easily be read
and were useful, both for business-to-business and for consumer communication.
Our communication strategy aimed at using these two channels. Through
b-to-b communication we targeted the key customers of our client. Simultaneously,
we had to address the average consumer, who, over the years has been brainwashed
into believing that there "might be something wrong with PVC".
We now had a number of positive stories and good arguments in favour of
PVC and started developing a communications plan, in order to successfully
and effectively reach out to our target groups. We kept an eye on costs,
as the available budgets, although important, were definitely not unlimited.
We organised seminars for journalists, press conferences, lobbied at the
national and at the increasingly important European level (EU Commission,
EU Parliament), produced videos about the use of PVC in our daily lives,
etc... Quite some energy went into internal communication, as we strongly
believed that our client's own staff might be the best and cheapest advocates
for the cause of PVC, provided they were consistently informed.
The result: Considering that this controversy involves
thousands of companies worldwide and millions of consumers, it would be
presumptuous to suggest that one single, geographically limited campaign
would be enough to turn the tide. However, this campaign was successful
in reaching the target groups. An opinion poll revealed that business
partners were convinced and decided to stick to PVC, also for new products,
rather than looking for substitutes. At least an important proportion
of average consumers have been made aware that it is far from easy to
find adequate substitutes for PVC. We provided the authorities with a
set of clear, science-based documents, which they said they needed.
It was surprising to find so many useful (and true) PVC-related stories.
One of our main challenges was to trace these stories and rework them
for both of our main target groups.
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