Is ecology wearable ? Part 2

Remember, two months ago I was telling you about Rapanui and Natimeo, two brands that had started to develop organic wear. 

This month, I tested two Natimeo products, offered by the brand and compared them with the Rapanui tee-shirt I had
(see http://newmarketingexperience.blogspot.com/2011/12/rapanui-vs-natimeo-is-ecology-wearable.html) 

         

On your left, the Arpenaz 400 L pants, with mixed components (part organic coton, part spandex). 

And on your right, a 100% organic coton tee-shirt. 

Both the pants and the tee-shirt are very confortable, easy to wear and don't loose their colours. Which is why I have a solid "Yes" answer to the question "is ecology wearable ?"

The comparison I would make with Rapanui is style-wise : being designed for sports, Natimeo products are not as stylish as Rapanui's. One of their first products was a limited edition teeshirt with the slogan "recycle, reduce, reuse. Too bad it's still not in stores...

My question: how can you communicate on organic wear ? 

The first intuition of many people told about organic wear is to say "organic wear... what's that ? I thought only food was organic". Therefore, in order to clarify your positioning, the first step as an organic wear producer is to make your consumers aware about what is organic wear. This way, your consumers will understand why choosing organic wear when they need new clothes is a more ethical and responsible choice. 

  

An example: Merinos wool by Natimeo

As you might have expected, I also recommend using social networks to communicate on your brand (assuming you are launching a line of eco-wear or organic products). For now, Natimeo is not yet present on social networks, but as it is a new brand and that its products are sold under the label "Oxylane", it is not a major default. 

What I want to insist in this post is on the importance that ecology is taking not only in theoretical debates but also in business. Look around you and you will see that more and more brands try to develop towards more ecological responsability or even base their entire business model on more respect of Nature. 

Natimeo is the perfect illustration of this tendency : it is part of a historical international group and yet it takes into account these new dynamics. It is very likely that the share of Natimeo products in the store shelves of our Decathlon stores will dramatically increase in the following years, so watch out, ecology is coming, and its growing fast !

Can ecology meet technology ? The case of Greenweez

WHAT IS GREENWEEZ ?

Greenweez is a French company, pure-player seller of ecological and organic products.

Data for those of you who like numbers:

• 2 million visitors on their website per year

• 30 employees

• More than 200 000 references are available

• 500 000 newsletter subscribers

  

WHAT DO THEY SELL?

Organic products, products that respect environment; products that aim at improving your well being. Examples to be a little bit more concrete: bins with separate compartments for household waste sorting, solar chargers, and so many other products. When I went on their website I was quite astonished by the number of references they have: a very complete on-line catalogue from outside lamps to sun cream.

Ecology is also at the centre of their business principles: use of recycled paper, hybrid or electric vehicles, bike parking lot…

Generally, consumers are satisfied with Greenweez products. The problems seem to be more about after-sales service, or long delivery delays.

AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES?

• First of all, let’s recall that Greenweez is a pure player: you can only buy on internet or on your mobile   
• Their website is very well conceived: an intuitive navigation, no color saturation. In short, a website you enjoy navigating on. Their communicational devices are also very subtle. For example, if you want to subscribe to the newsletter, there is in permanence a little tab on the left of all pages.  And surprise, when you subscribe, they announce you “you are now registered to the newsletter. The 200€ winners will be announced at the end of the month on the Facebook page of Greenweez.com” => A very subtle incitation to register to Greenweez’s Facebook page
• Problem: if you want to shop via your mobile, you have to go on the website through your navigator. And since the site is so complete, you have to zoom and un-zoom quite a lot. A smartphone application would be very useful.
• Use of Facebook (6 109 fans today on their personal page - https://www.facebook.com/greenweezcom?sk=info). It’s not only a fan page: Greenweez regularly offers polls and coupons on their Facebook page.
• Use of Twitter (1 539 subscribers to their feed)

·      What I think is their best advantage in term of new technologies: you can pay with your mobile number, and don’t have to enter your credit card number each time. To attain that goal, Greenweez has been using Buyster since November 4^th.

BUYSTER (http://www.buyster.fr/)

•  Principle: you create an account on Buyster. A process during which you eventually have to indicate your credit card number. Two guarantees are here brandished to make you feel confident: 
• Buyster is agreed by Banque de France (French central bank). 
• And you can choose to apply for a secured payment : typing in your confidential code that has been furnished by your own bank for every transaction. If you want more simple, its also possible : when you pay a product via Buyster, you just enter your personal Buyster code, and Buyster does the rest.
• After you have entered your credit card number, you choose a personal code, that you will use for your transactions
• Then, when you buy something off the internet or via mobile, you can choose to pay via Buyster. And then all you have to do is enter the code you previously chose when subscribing to Buyster. => Time savior, and confidentiality issues.
• You can buy Buyster applications for iPhone, but not yet for Android phones or Blackberry phones. A recommendation for them : start developing applications for all mobile-systems

• Another issue is that this kind of devices is not well spread in France yet, the main obstacle being trust issues.
• But, once these hesitations are overcome, the use of e-payment is bound to grow. Buyster for instance announces future partnerships with: Bouygues Telecom (telecommunications), Boulanger (domestic households, leisure), Kiabi (clothing) to name important French companies.

My conclusions:  YES ! Ecology can meet technology. There are yet some adjustments to be made (especially on mobile shopping) but Greenweez is a good example of mixing two new tendencies in consumption: consuming ecological, organic products, and easiness of commercial transactions (people don’t want to spend hours for the sole transaction act).

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