Forget T-Mobile, Green is the new Orange.
Since T-Mobile has merged with Orange and opted for the daftest name you can have, Everything Everywhere (well that’s what happens when a Frenchman, a German and an Englishman have to agree on a name) there’s a big question as to what they’ll end up as? Best of both or worse of both?
Either way, it won’t be eco positive I’m sure but if CEO Tom Alexander has his way, it’ll make lots of money (he made over £20m personally in the £962m Virgin NTL deal).
But money isn’t everything, and more and more consumers are taking a dislike to companies who think it is. So welcome to a new player in the market, C Mobile. Their difference?
A green telecoms company, founded by 3 eco warriors of telecommunications (with a lot of telecoms experience).
C Mobile intends to be the first green network. Initially aimed at pay as you go, it’s claims to offer cheaper (up to 30% cheaper) and greener tariffs. They are also funding local community projects – a good move as recent YouGov research shows, over 70% of consumers would prefer to deal with a company that gives back to society. They also run a recycling old phones service. So good green eggs.
The challenged for C Mobile though is to engage consumers in a way that will actually convert them. I can see lots of teenage girls trying to persuade dad to pay the bill because it’s an eco friendlier network. Figures, kids want a phone, parents (40+) want more eco, so a perfect relationship.
C Mobile is certainly a smart venture and not just another green dream venture, as is too often the case.
These guys know the business and the market. I am actually surprised that no telecoms company has even thought about eco yet. Though at least Vodafone has its foundation, so does do some good ethical work.
The Vodafone Foundation, to give some exposure, funds projects which use mobile communication technologies to address humanitarian challenges and to enhance people’s quality of life and especially health issues. Red Alert is an emergency SMS fundraising programme allowing Vodafone Foundations and Vodafone companies to respond to emergencies and disasters. Not green but ethically very good.
My advice to any business trying to overlay an eco element is they need to avoid the mistakes of the energy business. To lie.
According to YouGov, only 21% of people think the energy industry is green, despite millions of pounds spent on greenwash (mainly by EDF – see my previous blogs on them). So that’s 79% who don’t. Figures.
Sadly the three real green players, Green Energy UK, Good Energy & Ecotricity have a very small percentage of the market. Is that because we don’t care, are we lazy or maybe we just don’t really believe big energy companies have a green bone in them? It’s one thing to spend millions looking green, but having a green marketing agenda isn’t the same as having it as an ethos.
I’m still waiting for a petrol company to cynically launch a green petrol.
GREEN BANKING
Interestingly, a recent YouGov survey highlighted the financial sector as the least green of any sector. Well that would be because they only like to make money! Over 77% of consumers have no idea who offers green or ethical financial policies (I guess the other 23% were already with the Co-op, Triodos or Charity Bank).
As people trust supermarkets more than the City, maybe Tesco and Sainsbury’s are in a perfect position to push green finance.
IS GREEN SEEN AS GOOD BY ALL?
Maybe not, for some it is pure evil.
The recent scandal of Mark Kennedy, aka Mark Stone, aka ‘Flash’, the undercover policeman who infiltrated green climate change groups to expose them as terrorist, but discovered they were just harmless vegetarian hippies, makes you wonder if the term ‘green’ sends shudders up the head of the Met Police’s spin. Obviously green isn’t seen as good by all.
As you probably know, the case against the greens was serious –trespassing! Wow, that really is a national security threat, just as well they didn’t park on a double yellow line as well. But the case fell apart and Mark (now a security consultant) even agreed to testify in favour of the green group. Was this a case of Stockholm syndrome? A conversion to greenism? Or the fact he got beaten to a pulp by fellow offices at a peace protest?
Of course it does raise a different issue – the ethics of policing. Part of the public outcry was because many of the press, and probably most of the public, thought it was dirty and underhand.
A recent protest outside Scotland Yard, by women complaining how these undercover coppers copped off with girls to get inside information (and a lot of sex), was dismissed by the Mets’ chief as ‘unimportant’.
The other factor, that seemed to be missed by all, was the estimated £5m spent on Mark’s undercover operation.
The Met could have bought several wind turbines for that and claimed to be green. A missed opportunity I think.
Strange though how no one noticed Mark ate burgers and had a Blackberry with a flashing blue light on. Guess next time he’ll do the green thing and get a phone on C Mobile.
