Benchmarking Sustainability of Promotion Products: And the Winner is …..Bank of America!

An MBA student team at NC State University (Akhil Bhatia, David Olmsted, Karthik Sudhakaran, Meryem Uluskan) recently conducted a benchmarking study of sustainable best practices for promotional materials. Through research, analysis, scorecards, and interviews, they identified companies both inside and outside of the banking and insurance industry that were the best in terms of sustainability practices in their promotional merchandise as well as those companies that best implement sustainable practices in normal business operations. The conclusion, based on a rigorous, objective scorecard, was that Bank of America (Ticker: BAC) is far ahead of the competition in offerings of both normal and sustainable merchandise items. The practices of BDA (Bank of America’s promotional merchandise supplier) were determined to be best in class and present minimal risk to BAC and their reputation. The recommendations offered to BAC about their promotional merchandise were further identified to increase offerings that are technology compliments and also several suggestions for the online store website to increase consumer awareness of the organization’s green activities and sustainable promotional merchandise.
The most important piece to benchmarking BAC’s online promotional store is the scorecard and metrics for the online store. The scorecard takes into consideration many aspects of the promotional merchandise website and the results clearly indicate BAC has an advantage over the competition. In terms of actual products, the most sustainable promotional merchandise is the products that are technology compliments. The usefulness, lifespan, and practicality of these items ensure they will be utilized regularly and for a much longer period of time than the average piece of promotional merchandise.

Some of the specific recommendations for companies seeking to “green” their promotional products include the following:

• Create a Supplier Code of Conduct
While most organizations like BAC have a code of conduct and most of the suppliers they utilize have their own codes as well, this takes it a step further by creating a supplier code of conduct that is more explicit than the normal terms and conditions of a typical supplier agreement. This policy extends to everything from human rights, social responsibility, environmental stewardship, health and safety standards, and other management systems. This code not only serves as a guideline for suppliers, but also helps to protect organizations like BAC from being “guilty by association” with suppliers that may not conduct themselves in the appropriate manner.

• Invest in Merchandise Products that are Technology Compliments
Promotional Merchandise products that are a compliment to technology are sustainable options for several reasons; these compliments are useful, and useful items are more likely to be used. Items such as computer accessories can be used long term and are therefore more likely to be kept which increase the overall lifecycle of the product. As manufacturing technology and processes improve, the cost of manufacturing these items continues to drop as time goes by. Another offering of merchandise that is a compliment to technology is downloadable content, which has practically no distribution costs. One thing to avoid in offering these technology compliments is a cheap looking or poor function product that can do damage to an organization’s reputation.

• Ensure Product use is a Strategic Fit with Environmentally Conscious Lifestyle
This recommendation focuses on the creation and function of sustainable promotional merchandise and how it fits into an environmentally conscious lifestyle. It makes sense to have products that function to further promote sustainability and conservation, like offering receptacles for recyclable materials for example. The most important piece of this recommendation isn’t so much what to do, but what to avoid. Avoid offering items that are not very useful or will not experience a long life cycle. Although a keychain or other type of trinket can be made from recycled materials or with zero waste products, if the item isn’t useful and holds little or no value to the consumer, it is not a very sustainable option.

• Create an Avenue in Online Store for Consumer Input on New Sustainable Products
Allowing customers to recommend what type of new, sustainable and innovative products they’d like to see will increase consumer involvement, increase awareness of green and sustainable products, as well as give the organization a good indicator as to the demand for new sustainable merchandise. This will also help the organization get a good idea of what type of merchandise their consumers view as cutting-edge and useful.

• Create More Online Store Green and Sustainability Initiatives
A second recommendation for the online store is to create green initiatives relating to online store purchases. For example, a campaign where a portion of the proceeds of certain sustainable merchandise go towards a certain cause or charity that is in line with being green and sustainable, such as contributing to a foundation that aids third world countries with renewable energy resources. This will also serve to raise awareness with the consumer about the green activities going on in the organization as well as highlight the company’s green offerings in promotional merchandise.

• Embed Videos of Company Green Activities in Online Store Website
Another avenue to increase consumer awareness of an organization’s green activities are short videos embedded in the online store website that describe certain initiatives or campaigns. For example, BAC has a $20 Billion green initiative or the next several years that could be turned into a short video to let consumers know that the green and sustainable mindset reaches to all corners of the organizations business and practices. These videos will also ‘anchor’ the consumer in a green and sustainable perspective and increase their awareness of the sustainable products offered on the website.

The team also identified some more “interesting” promotional products that are sustainable, including:

1. The Eco-button – A product that connects through a USB port that serves as a computer power-saving device
2. Apple Tree Mailer – A 30cm apple tree sapling that comes through the mail in recyclable transparent tubes.
3. Desk Flower Pot Kits – Kits containing a small pot, soil tablet, seeds, and growing instructions.
4. Cornstarch Pens
5. Bamboo T-shirts
We recommend this merchandise not only because they are sustainable and a good fit with environmentally conscious consumers, but they are also more novel and interesting than other promotional merchandise product offerings.