One-of-a-Kind Studies

Client Dilemma

After spending millions of dollars and years of research, this leading pulp and paper manufacturing company had just received the “first ever” FDA approved patent to use recycled content for food contact. This 20-plus step cleaning process would save more than 17 trees for every ton of paper utilized. The CEO of this organization came to Business Development Directives because he wanted to ensure that his organization would find the “ideal and most appropriate” customers for this revolutionary process while bringing him a return on his investment. He thought the fast food industry would be the most logical place to start. He also wanted a market strategy to identify and target these customers.

BDD’s Action Plan

Business Development Directives was recommended to this pulp and paper manufacturer from one of the company’s board members and key advisers. After the initial client meeting, BDD suggested that benchmark research be conducted with other manufacturers of “green products” to see how they market themselves and the messages and benefits that are most appealing to the end customer. Moreover, additional research was also suggested to better understand the various audiences that support environmentally friendly products. BDD consultants made targeted, in-depth phone calls to the fast food, food service, coffee and tobacco industries to gauge their position and measure their interest in offering an environmentally favorable product to their end customers. Finding the right contact people was another important issue to research. Is it the marketing people, public relations, governmental, engineering; who would be most interested in this type of product?

End Result

The client was pleased to learn that one of the country’s leading coffee retailers would take the lead with this recycled product and has built a major public relations campaign around their support of this effort. Significant interest from other national fast food retailers was also found. Although some laws require that tobacco manufacturers will need to utilize recycled paper on their cartons of cigarettes in the future, (ironic, isn’t it?) it was not found to be one of the best areas for the client to pursue at this time, given some other key findings from the research. Equally important, the client was able to identify the key contact for this product, messages that will attract the potential customers and potential international markets to explore in the future as a next step. Watch for this true success story the next time you have a Starbucks’ coffee.