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Hello Katrina,
Hello, and welcome to our first Marketing Minute of 2024! Once again, we’ll dive into the marketing side of the conversations we are having and the tools we are building to help R2 Certified Facilities leverage their R2 Certification.
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Just two months into 2024 and we’re already off to a roaring start as SERI has acquired a conference! If you haven’t read it yet, you can find the press release here, but the short version of the story is that we’re already deep in planning for a dynamic inaugural Summit in Austin, Texas in October, and it’s going to provide a whole lot of really impactful marketing opportunities. We’ll be releasing details very soon and we hope you’ll at least join us as an attendee, or maybe even as a conference supporter! | |
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USING THE CUSTOMER MATURITY MODEL
FOR MORE THAN JUST ITAD
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This month, we were in Las Vegas attending the Reverse Logistics Association’s 20th Annual Conference and Expo, having great conversations about the concept of Sustainable Returns. But in the weeks leading up to the conference, we made what we thought was a pretty interesting discovery. It turns out that the Customer Maturity Model we built for ITAD is more powerful than we thought because it works as a way to think about more than just a customer’s Journey to Sustainable ITAD.
If you missed the Fall Edition of the Marketing Minute where we laid out the Customer Maturity Model for ITAD, you can catch up here, but the basic principle also works for returns, mobile customers, and more. And if you understand this model, you’ll gain the insight to tailor your message and leverage your R2 Certification to a wide range of customers. Sure, there are some nuances and specific elements that need to be considered for ITAD vs returns vs the mobile space. But overall, this model helps you understand an individual organization’s approach to each of these functions, what their motivations are, how to meet them where they are today, help them grow in their maturity, and how to talk about R2 within those parameters. As a refresher, here’s the Spark Notes version of the pyramid concept, and you can apply it to any type of customer:
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1. At the bottom of the pyramid are the least sophisticated customers, because their approach to ITAD or returns or processing mobile devices is only focused on either cutting costs or maximizing returns. Why are they the least sophisticated? Well, focusing only on the simple bottom line often leads to negative results – it increases the risks of data breaches, illegal exporting and dumping, and damage to brand reputation. | |
Even though they are the customer you are most likely to encounter, they are typically the least valuable because they chase the lowest cost bids or the ones with the highest returns. In most cases, you win their business by trimming margins or cutting corners – only performing visual inspections, taking short cuts, or taking a similar approach with their downstream vendors. You certainly can do business with these customers, but they are more likely to have lower value equipment and are less likely to be loyal to much beyond the bottom line. The real opportunity here is trying to help them reach the next level of maturity. | |
2. The next couple of levels up on the pyramid represent more sophisticated customers because they understand the risks associated with a “bottom line only” approach and make decisions to mitigate those risks. They appreciate the impact of a data breach or legal non-compliance and are willing to trade off some return, or even incur costs to protect data or their brand reputation. At these levels, your R2 Certification becomes a valuable point of differentiation and an objective way to demonstrate your commitment to aligning with their goals and objectives around reducing risk. Though there may be fewer of these customers out there, they are more likely to have more valuable stock and are driven by more than the bottom line. | |
3. At the top of the pyramid are the customers who are the most sophisticated because beyond recognizing risks, they understand that their electronics represent an opportunity for positive impact at ESG and CSR levels. These customers have goals that put people, the planet, and the bottom line in balance, and they are the ones for whom your R2 Certification should make the most difference in their vendor selection process. They know they need a partner who supports Sustainable [ITAD, returns, mobile, etc.]. How will they be able to distinguish those who will and those who won’t support those goals? That’s where you really leverage your R2 Certification because they won’t have to take your word for it…R2 is how they’ll know. | |
In the end, you can categorize most customers into these three categories: (1) the ones who are only focused on price, (2) the ones you can use your R2 Certification as a way to de-risk their electronics, and (3) the ones you can leverage your R2 Certification to help them capitalize on the power of electronics to do good. Within an organization, there are stakeholders that are more or less risk averse or more or less in tune with ESG and sustainability goals. But knowing the organizational maturity and approach to their electronics today goes a long way toward building a relationship for the future. | |
THE R2 MARKETING TIP
GUIDELINES FOR USING
THE R2v3 CERTIFICATION MARK
Upgrading your marketing materials like websites, trade show booths, business cards, or other collateral might be in your 2024 plans. Before you do, please make sure you are using the R2 marks for the right applications.
The R2v3 Certification Mark is to be used only by facilities actively certified to the R2 Standard to show that the facility is certified. The current Certification Mark has “R2v3” inside the chasing arrows and “Certified” beneath. You can only get this mark from your Certification Body, and any non-certified entity is excluded from using it. In fact, since SERI isn’t R2 Certified, we cannot use this mark ourselves. This makes the Certification Mark an extremely powerful way for your facility to differentiate from the rest, and we recommend using it to your advantage in all your marketing efforts.
The other R2 trademarks (R2 and R2v3) can be used to describe the R2 Standard, not the certification – for example, a Certification Body should not use the Certified Mark on a tradeshow booth since they are not R2 Certified. Instead, they need to use either the R2 or R2v3 trademarks when referencing the R2 Standard.
To make this easier, including logo and mark guidelines, we’ve created quick-start guides that you can find in our R2 Resource Center.
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We hope you are finding these Marketing Minutes and our insights into the conversations we are having with customers useful for your marketing and sales efforts. In the next edition, we’ll give you a sneak peek at some of the plans for the Electronics Sustainability Summit and a few tips for how your marketing and sales teams can make the most of the event.
In the meantime, please keep filling us in on how our conversations here and the tools in the Resource Center are helping your conversations with customers. And, of course, let us know if you have any questions or can think of any R2 marketing tools that you’d find valuable in the future! Until the next Marketing Minute, if it’s winter where you are (like it is here with snow on the ground), stay warm and productive. If it’s summer, we hope you are staying cool and enjoying all the fun that the summer can bring!
Jeff Seibert
Chief Provocateur
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HOW CAN WE HELP?
Please contact our marketing team for any questions/comments on the newsletter.
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The R2 Marketing Minute is a publication of SERI, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that works to create a world where electronic products are reused and recycled in a way that promotes resource preservation, the well-being of the natural environment, and the health and safety of workers and communities.
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