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Bottled Water Marketing Campaigns Target Minorities

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Several studies show that minority parents are more likely to give their children bottled water. A study by the department of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin found that African American and Latino families are three times more likely to give their children only bottled water as compared to white families. The Archives of Pediatric Adolescent Medicine study surveyed 632 people, and found that African American and Latino parents were more likely to give their children bottled water. In fact, the study found that minority children were exclusively given bottled water.

Earlier this month, watchdog group Corporate Accountability International (CAI) accused Nestle of targeting marketing to Latino immigrants in the U.S. A November 19 IPS article quotes a CAI fact sheet that states, “Pure Life marketing specifically targets Latino immigrants in the United States, many of whom have suffered the consequences of poor public water infrastructure in other parts of the world.”

The IPS article also quotes a CAI press release: “For the past 30 years, bottled water corporations like Nestle, Pepsi and Coke have helped build a 15 billion dollar U.S. bottled water market by casting doubts on public drinking water systems.”

Jane Lazgin, director of corporate communications for Nestle Waters North American, told IPS, when asked if Nestle markets specifically to minority communities,  “That’s correct.” She added, “Nestle Pure Life is a meaningful brand in the Hispanic population.”

Lazgin added that Nestle Pure Life “comes from wells or municipal systems,” that undergo an “intensive purification process.”

Coca-Cola and Nestle use celebrities to sell bottled water to minorities

One of the strategies that bottled water brands use to market to minorities is through campaigns aimed at minority groups, according to a Forbes article published in August. The article mentions campaigns by Coca Cola and Nestle “aimed at minority moms.”

Coca-Cola’s Dasani brand used R&B star Chilli from TLC in April 2009 to deliver “its message of health and hydration to African American mothers in a special Mother’s Day program,” according to the Forbes article.

“Chilli embodies the struggles and the balance we see in our target audience,” Yolanda White assistant vice president, African American Marketing, Coca-Cola North America, told AdWeek. “She gives reassurance to moms that you can still be a great mom, take care of yourself and look beautiful.”

“Among African American consumers, African American moms are the gatekeeper to the household,” said White.. “We over-index in single-family households, and so reaching Mom is critical.”

Nestle’s Pure Life used Latina TV host Cristina Saralegui as the brand’s spokesperson. When the commercials with Salalegui were aired on television between 2008 and 2010, “the awareness of Pure Life water, and purchase intent levels quadrupled among Hispanics,” according to Forbes.

Nestle’s Pure Life water campaign in summer and fall 2010,  “Better Habits for a Better Life” contained a challenged titled “La Promesa (the promise) Nestle Pure Life. According to Forbes, the campaign “basically called upon mothers to pledge to replace one sugary drink in their family’s day with water, or rather, a bottle of Pure Life.” Once a mother’s pledge was registered, she was eligible to win over $20,000 worth of prizes, and a trip for four to Miami.

Photo: Flickr user, the 3786 cups of water

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via triplepundit.com

Virgin America Wants to Fill Your Bottle

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Sometimes it really is the little things that count.

Proving they’re on track to be the coolest airline flying, Virgin America is going out of their way to promote “water bottle refill stations” at San Francisco International Airport. The stations have popped up immediately after the security checkpoint to encourage travelers to hang on to bottles they’d otherwise hand over to grimly indifferent TSA agents. Security will give folks the option to dump out the potentially explosive contents prior to security, take the empty bottle through, and then refill it after security with delicious filtered Hetch Hetchy water.

Technically speaking, nothing was stopping passengers from doing this in the past. The airport has always had water fountains and TSA has never objected to bringing empty bottles through. Most SFO terminals have refill stations, not only Virgin’s. The difference is that Virgin has managed to turn
“recombobulation” into a branded experience to look forward to through clever marketing and promotion.

Why does this matter?

First of all, I’ve been railing against bottled water for years. The vanity! The foolishness! The waste! But at the end of the day, it’s well seated in our culture to tote a bottle around. It especially makes sense on a long dry flight where in-flight service is scarce.

What tap water (and refillable water bottle) producers have always suffered from is a lack of marketing funds. Bottled water manufacturers have millions of marketing dollars to convince people that buying a premium priced plastic bottle of H2O is the thing to do, and let’s face it, it is convenient if you’re not the type to worry about waste.

What Virgin America has done is some of the best free marketing water can get: the refillable bottle is promoted not just “green,” but simply common sense. And better still – a liberation from the TSA gauntlet. They’ll even sell you a bottle if you don’t have one. They’ve made refilling your bottle sexy.

The airport at large deserves the credit for building the refill stations in the first place, but Virgin’s promotion takes it to a higher level. The project just makes people feel good. Judging by the number of replies on their facebook page, and the chatter on twitter, this simple little feat has a lot of environmentally indifferent people excited about the idea of not buying bottled water, at least at the airport.

Finally, making your customers feel good is a piece of common business sense that other airlines could learn a thing or two from. Frankly, so could airports. The cost of this project versus the buzz of goodwill it generates speaks for itself.

It really is the little things that count. Will other airlines and airports follow suit?

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Le recyclage des plastiques / producteurs de PET

Le recyclage des plastiques -->

Jusqu’à récemment, la plupart des objets plastiques en fin de vie étaient mis en décharge. La tendance, aujourd’hui, est de valoriser au maximum ces plastiques usagés, soit en les recyclant, soit, si cela n’est pas possible pour des raisons techniques ou économiques, en les brûlant dans des incinérateurs pour produire de l’énergie. Par exemple, l’incinération d’un sac plastique permet de produire l’électricité nécessaire à l’alimentation d’une ampoule de 60 W pendant dix minutes.

De nombreuses usines de recyclage de certains plastiques existent dans le monde, en particulier en Europe, même si la proportion mise en décharge / valorisation varie beaucoup d'un pays à l'autre. Dans ces usines, les emballages plastiques sont broyés puis lavés, essorés et enfin séchés. Selon la destination finale, l'usine fera de ces anciens emballages des paillettes ou des granulés. Dans les usines de fabrication de plastiques existantes, ceux-ci serviront de matière première à la fabrication de nouveaux articles (tuyaux, barquettes, rembourrage de couettes, moquettes, polaires, cœur de matériaux plastiques sur lequel est rajouté de la matière plastique neuve – ce qu'on appelle la technique du « sandwich » –, etc.).

En Europe, pour cinquante millions de tonnes de plastiques consommées en 2005, dix millions de tonnes ont été mises en décharge et neuf millions de tonnes valorisées (dont approximativement 1/4 recyclé et 3/4 valorisés énergétiquement par incinération). Le reste des plastiques produits circule (utilisation moyenne et longue durée). On estime à environ 500 Mt la quantité de plastiques circulant en Europe.
Concernant la valorisation des déchets plastiques, il y a d'énormes disparités : en Suisse, plus de 95% des déchets plastiques sont valorisés, pour à peine 20% en Irlande et au Royaume-Uni.

En France, les principaux sites de recyclage des plastiques sont les suivants :

- Tergal fibres à Gauchy – recyclage de PET, capacité 65 000 t/an
- Sorepla à Neufchâteau – recyclage de PET et PEHD, capacité 50 000 t/an
- Amcor à Sainte-Marie-La-Blanche – recyclage de PET, capacité 34 000 t/an
- Wellmann France recyclage à Verdun – recyclage de PET, capacité 30 000 t/an
- Matières plastiques de Bourgogne à La Loyère – recyclage de PEHD, capacité 30 000 t/an
- Freudenberg Politex à Colmar – recyclage de PET, capacité 28 000 t/an
- Regene à Bayonne – recyclage de PET et PEHD, capacité 20 000 t/an
- Sopave Decazeville à Rodez – recyclage de PET, capacité 15 000 t/an
- Comptoir des plastiques de l'Ain à Pont-d'Ain – recyclage de PEHD, capacité 10 000 t/an
- Ecoplastiques à Brenouille – recyclage de PEHD, capacité 10 000 t/an
- Piscines Desjoyaux à Saint-Etienne – recyclage de PEHD, capacité de 3 000 t/an.

Les capacités de recyclage de plastiques en France en 2006 sont de 200 000 t/an pour le PET (Polyéthylène Téréphtalate – bouteilles d'eau minérale et boissons gazeuses) et 55 000 t/an pour le PEHD (Polyéthylène Haute Densité – flacons en plastique et bouteilles de lait opaques).

via planete-energies.com