Unplug your Wallet

In order to persuade Western Students to reduce their carbon footprint, I’ve developed a new marketing campaign to convince them to unplug their small appliances. The target market of my campaign is WWU students who live off campus, due to the fact that they pay their electric bills, where students who live on campus don’t. They do not have strong feelings toward helping the environment. These people will only do things that benefit the environment if they themselves are benefitted in some other way. Using the Makower text, a murky middle might be what these consumers are best classified as. What drives these specific students is money and grades, since their lives are essentially consumed by going to college, possibly working and spending as much time with their friends as they can.

The overall objective of my campaign is to encourage students to unplug their small appliances in order to save money for themselves. The side effect of this will be the positive environmental impact it has. The college students who partake in unplugging their small appliances will not be informed of this benefit because it will not drive them to make a difference. This campaign will create a win-win situation for students and for the environment.
For my campaigns creative strategy, I have decided to integrate the slogan “Unplug Your Wallet”. This expresses the most important benefit to the students, which is their wallet. The catchy phrase will immediately let them know that if they pay attention they can save money. There will also be a phrase that says: Find out how to save $ by only lifting 2 fingers at: http://www.unplugwallet.facebook.com/ where a Facebook page will be. This page will be made for the students due to how tech savvy they are; this will be the most effective and sustainable way to reach them. This of course will also make it easier for them to share the page with their friends, and the campaign will we be highly exposed at virtually no cost. Posters will be placed around campus to spark interest and will direct students to visit the Facebook page where they can learn more. Because this current generation of students doesn’t like traditional advertising, there will be no main website. The Facebook page will be student ran in order to increase credibility and social proof among other students. In order for the page to be student ran, it will be offered as a quarterly internship where the marketing student will be maintaining the page and will have to come up with other campaigns that have the same central sustainability goals.

On the Facebook page, because this is only the first campaign, students will find information about how unplugging small appliances will save them money over time. Savings could be from 5% of the bill to as much as 25% on average, depending on how many appliances a person has plugged in at any given point in time. The main point the Facebook page will address this savings and will put it in a dollar format so that students can easily see just how much they have been saving and they will then be able to conveniently rationalize unplugging their appliances. Also on the page, conversions such as, “These savings could e equivalent to $20 a month which is like getting a week of free lunch!” I think this would be an effective marketing campaign due to the fact that the major benefit that is being promoted is one of the most important things in the minds of the target market. Also, the change from not unplugging appliances to unplugging appliances is simple, easy and once a person gets in the habit it becomes second nature. By providing a way to keep the campaign integrated and student ran will also contribute to the success and longevity.