Marketing for NPOs: to suceed you need a strategy - Greenpeace as an example

More and more organizations rely on social media to attract attention, such as the NPO (non profit organization) Greenpeace as already mentioned.

The organization targets a corporation that is not acting the way it should (Nestlé in the past, now BP) and goes against the corporation's work with activities in different media.

Also in its latest campaign against the company BP, Greenpeace connects social media very effectively with real actions - mainly guerrilla actions.

Greenpeace currently has graphic designers and other creative people rebrand the previous BP logo - in a competition on their webseite. The logo of the company is to be redesigned to match the dirty business of the BP-group. The previously submitted logos are all very creative.
So BP (British Petroleum) is changed into beelzebub profits, broken pipe, pollution business, big profit - it's never enough, best practices, big problem, best pest, poison black, yellow fever, british predator, big pollute, or peng bum. Slogans were changed as well, for example "BP - we oil the world", "SBP - silent but deadly", "not so slick actually - BP", "BP - burn our planet", "BP - PB - planet breakup", "children could run it better - probably "," RIPBP "," BP - we united drill. It's definitely worth taking a look at the picture gallery of submitted work! Should BP ever think of a rebranding, it would be easy for them to draw from the pool of logos of Greenpeace. However, whether these logos are good for BP's image is rather questionable.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace activists attached a flag with BP's new logo (BP - British Polluters) at the BP headquarters in London. Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyEWwsm7wfQ

A few days ago, Greenpeace activists were arrested in the US, because they painted oily messages on a ship loaded with oil. At least, this gets the organization in the headlines and focuses attention on the real problem - the oil spill.

Greenpeace is doing its best to draw attention on what BP is doing. At the same time, the organization also makes the public aware of the real problems of the oil spill. Greenpeace is currently taking water samples and documenting the devastation in the Gulf of Mexico - with employees, scientists and volunteers.

Behind all these efforts by Greenpeace lies a well-developed strategy. However, just like many other NPOs, Greenpeace has to respond quickly to emerging problems. That means, there is a risk that even though a strategy has been worked out, you have to improvise.

Therefore, NPOs have to develop a basic strategy in order to be able to react quickly. The strategy should include many (different) media: guerilla actions, documented and distributed through the Internet and social media, as well as hands-on activities, which can also be distributed online. Then, of course, the organization should also ensure that the cooperation between employees and volunteers goes smoothly.

Guerrilla marketing für NPOs with the help of facebook, youtube and traditional media

The non-profit organization (NPO) Greenpeace is known for guerrilla (marketing) campaigns. The organization recently called on to boycott the company Nestlé. Greenpeace activists infiltrated the Facebook fan page and bombarded Nestlé with calls to stop the use of palm oil in its products.
Background of the Greenpeace action is the use of palm oil in Nestlé's food. According to Greenpeace, for the cultivation of palm oil in Indonesia, valuable rain forest is destroyed. Without the rainforest, threatened species such as the orang-utan use their livelihood. At the annual meeting, Nestlé said to put a stop on the deforestation of the rainforest. However, according to Greenpeace nothing has changed so far.

It is amazing, how easily companies make friends and fans in the social networks (social media). These fans see exactly what the company does - and even voluntary. Fan pages on Facebook can be built within minutes. The company or organization can use these fan pages to publish the latest news, e.g. when a new product is launched. These messages can also be commented on and fans can also upload photos and video.
But this is also a delicate matter, as the sympathy of the followers can quickly turn into the opposite. This can happen, when the company does not do exactly what it promised her fans. Or, as in the case of Nestlé, when another group calls for boycott and undermines the Facebook fan page.

Greenpeace also got attention with the help of a Youtube video about the use of palm oil. This video and also others circulated on Facebook and other social networks as well.

During the annual meeting of Nestlé’s shareholders in Lausanne, Switzerland, in April, Greenpeace activists protested outside the building – in orang-utan costumes. Also posters were put up, in order to get the shareholders’ attention.

Another creative guerrilla campaign by Greenpeace activists was the protest in April infront of the Nestlé headquarters in Frankfurt. Here, Twitter messages from the Greenpeace channel were shown on a big screen – transmitted in real time.

Now, Greenpeace activists brought the matter out in the real world and resorted to a more traditional marketing tool: In several German cities, on to the well known Kitkat chocolate bars from Nestlé, activists put stickers on which a orang-utan calls for help. These actions led to a reaction of local newspapers, which means that even those who did not hear about the protests yet, had been informed. (article in the Halle newspaper, article in the newspaper Donaukurier, article in food-news, article in the newspaper Welt Online)

This shows that guerrilla marketing via new media such as Facebook and Youtube can be combined easily with a rather traditional guerrilla marketing, such as protests in front of corporate buildings and the large-scale distribution of stickers. The connection makes sure that those to whom the social networks on the Internet are still foreign and therefore have not taken notice from the ongoing actions on Facebook and Youtube will also get to know about the problem.

As a company, you should always remember that the Internet does not easily forget and that masses are being addressed through it. In future, companies hopefully will put capable employees in those positions that address marketing, communication and public relations for social media, in order for the company to react more intelligently. For Nestlé it is too late now: Nestlé’s credibility is gone and Greenpeace has probably managed to damage the reputation of the company and the brand Nestlé long term – damage to the image of the company can not be repaired easily.

The average facebook user is not a teenager

According to a study by Royal Pingdom, about 25% of all social media users are between 35 and 44 years old. Only 24% of the users are under 25. The average user is 37 years old.

The company also looked at the age structure of facebook and found out that the averag age of facebook users is about 38, the average age of LinkedIn users is 44, and the average age of MySpace users is 31 years. The average twitter user is about 39 years old.

In another study the company conducted in 2009, it was found that 84% of all social network sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace,…) have more female than male users. 64% off all MySpace users are female. However, the ratio male-female among facebook users (57% female) and twitter users (59% female) is relatively balanced.

If you already advertise through social media, or you intend to do so in a near future, make sure to consider these statistics. Make sure, you really reach your target audience!