This is the sixth post in a series on improving the environmental sustainability of marketing communications. Previously:Â Measurement (in two parts);Â A model;Â Rethink;Â Reduce. Today: Reuse.
***
If Reduce depends on measurement, Reuse depends on design, both in marketing communications and in general. Repeated use of an item, or its part, must be built into it at the outset. Reuse is an expression of the design intent.
While it’s more difficult than Reduce because simple data isn’t enough, the need for purpose and creativity will open new doors for you. Not only is there no end to creativity, it’s something that cannot be divined from case studies. By default it means going to where no one has gone before. That’s why you may feel I’ll be short on specifics here; you can replicate all you want, your service or product is unique, and your design for Reuse must reflect that.
What’s more, I have found examples of Reuse in marketing communications to be difficult to come by, perhaps because the field is stuck in the perpetual campaign mode (more on that some other time).
At any rate, you already did your inventory of tools and tactics when you measured your marcom’s environmental impact. Now is time to take each piece and redesign it for reuse.
I see three basic ways of designing your marketing communications for reuse:
- Multi-purpose: One item serves multiple functions
- Repeated use: One item serves the same function multiple times
- Repurpose: One item (or its parts) serves different functions over time
Reuse by multiple functionality
I’m not suggesting you use your annual report as a doorstop. Rather, think of a hammer. Sure, you can use it destroy things, but its primary purpose is to build or fix things in various ways. Make it a claw hammer and the tool’s functionality has now multiplied even further. (In fact, an argument holds that a the hammer is the only tool you really need.)
Swag is an obvious example: objects with various functions can serve as a vehicle for your brand, to generate brand awareness. Mugs, pens, bookmarks, t-shirts, there’s no end to it. Swag does raise some issues, however. Traditional swag doesn’t eliminate the throwaway element. What is your logo on a key chain doing for your business? How different is your swag from that of other companies? What if you made your swag into collectors items? Or designed it for durability?
Collect your customers’ success stories and use them as testimonials, website or newsletter articles, press releases, media stories, tweets, online social network updates, etc. Design a part of your brochure as a tear-off, e.g. membership application, or information request. Turn the back of your business card into a notepad, appointment card, index card, or bookmark.
I’m not the most creative person, but I do believe that there’s no end to creativity (and with online search, no excuse either).
Reuse by repeated use
The single-use, throwaway culture is an arch-enemy of sustainability. Single-purpose tools sit a step below. Before the term became a cliche, designing for repeated use used to be called quality. Durability seems to be more in vogue now. It’s the same thing; the longer something lasts, the more times you can use it.
If you’ve paid good money for your trade show display, you’re going to use it again and again. Think in similar terms of all your other marcom tools.
Inasmuch as packaging is a marketing communications tool, consider refillable containers or reusable shipping boxes. Digital reuse includes forwarding emails or copy-pasting. What about those ads? Can you design one to be used for years, rather than weeks or months? And speaking of trade shows, set up a reuse box for your brochures near your booth. Or, hand out swag that is — unlike the usual cheap plastic crap — meant to last and give it to the genuinely interested people.
Simple, tried-and-true, or completely out of the blue, there’s no end to creativity.
Reuse by down- or upcycling
To repurpose an object is to use it or its parts or elements for a function that’s different from the original function.
Repurposing marcom tools doesn’t necessarily mean they need to be used for another marcom function.
Consider these examples:
- Books as all kinds of artsy stuff
- Billboards as bags
- Logos as tattoos (a bit more complicated)
Packaging comes, once again, with a great potential for repurposing:
- Tin cans as alternative containers
- Food packaging as book covers or tote bags
- Shipping crates as buildings
- Altoid tins as all kinds of things
Repurposing takes creativity to the next level. (Cliches are just reused phrases.)
For further reading and creative ideas about reuse, I recommend you peruse and subscribe to feeds at, for example, Fast Company (Design category), PSFK (Environmental and Design categories), Springwise, and TreeHugger (Design and Architecture category).
As a non-designer, I’ve surely missed a lot. Would you educate me and other readers in Comments? What examples of creative reuse of marcom tools have you seen?
Next week: Recycle.
***
Image credits: Polska Zielona Siec and andriux-uk
{ 1 trackback }
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Most digital media is created in stages, steps or through layering. Things like graphics, video, audio (such as interview question answers), documents and even computer code are typically comprised of parts that become merged together into one whole assembly. Through editing, as in disassembly and/ or re-assembly, one can use the parts to produce new content or to update old content.
For example, one may only need to change a paragraph in a much larger document, or a small snippet of a much longer video. Or one may conglomerate the answers to one question from several different interviews of experts to create new content that focuses on the matter of that one question rather than on the full interviews of each separate expert.
Effectively doing this requires some pre-planning that involves a properly curated central repository or library of these works, such as in a wiki. In other words, it doesn’t just happen; it must be organized to happen. Then businesses can expand the shelf life of these parts through re-use. The cumulative savings in terms of time, energy and resources can be enormous over time. Because instead of constantly re-inventing the wheel, you’re creating multiple solutions from resources that have already been invented.