Creating The GreenEco Brand

Our client / GreenEco

GreenEco™ Co. Ltd. Imports and distributes high quality bioresin blends for use in the manufacture of certified compostable single-use consumer items. In its joint venture arrangement with Jiangsu Orange Biodegradable Co Ltd. GreenEco holds exclusive North American distribution rights to OrangeBio bioresin products.
The founders of GreenEco™, share an abiding concern about the impact of petroleum-based plastics on environmental pollution and climate instability on our planet. They are particularly concerned about worldwide use of plastics in single-use items such as:
• shopping bags
• produce bags
• bin liners
• take-out food containers, drink cups, straws
• 3D printing filaments
• many other areas of modern life

Petroleum-based plastic items like these are not disposable. Users can only properly dispose of them in appropriate refuse containers. But where do those items go once they leave the user? They go to landfill and dumps, if the appropriate facilities exist in a given location. Eventually, much of this discarded plastic finds its way into the oceans.

When we met them, GreenEco’s founders were hard at work to help change the meaning of “disposable” from “throw away” to “compostable, biodegradable, and pollution-free”. GreenEco’s patented bioresin blends are formulated to impart advanced features to specific types of finished products.

Branding GreenEco / First, Understand

GreenEco engaged New Design Group to design and produce completely new branding and market messaging around their established name. They provided us a clear vision of the environmental importance and economic value of the company’s products and services.

As with every NDG branding project, the GreenEco branding process began with research. Their goal is to become known as the source for planet-friendly bioresins. Corporate objectives leading to those goals were coming into focus as we began our situational research.

We wanted to understand many aspects of our client’s business better, in order to create a meaningful brand that can support a strong marketing plan:

• Client’s response to our briefing questionnaire
• What, why, and how GreenEco does what it does
• Views of the GreenEco’s stakeholders
• Plastics industry situation and trends
• Competitive environment
• Benefits, features, and importance of GreenEco’s products
• Targets to be met over given periods of time
• Specific marketing challenges GreenEco has experienced
• Social media accounts and resulting business value

Branding GreenEco / Next, Synthesize

Effective branding differentiates companies from competitors. Our primary branding challenge, then, was to create a brand that would become known, recognizable and attractive to environmentally conscious end-users and to manufacturers who have established choices of materials that may not be planet-friendly.

Using what we learned in the Understand phase of our branding process, we focused our client and industry knowledge on bringing the qualities, expectations, and personality of the new brand to life.

GreenEcoAudiences

Supplying processed materials for manufacturing does not present all the same communication challenges as direct-to-user consumer products. But the desired business result is the same: profitability. One GreenEco message to manufacturers is about how environmental friendliness can enhance profitability when combined with communication to the public.

From the public, instead of direct sales GreenEco wants awareness of the environmental advantages of products made with its bioresins. Establishing this awareness helps feed demand for planet-friendly products back to the manufacturers of those products. New Design Group created social media accounts as a direct way of establishing heightened public awareness of the company’s products and their positive effects on the planet.

Initial discussions among the branding team of GreenEco founders and NDG principals quickly established the need for these basic deliverables:

• Draft concepts for discussion and approval
• Unique logo idea(s)
• Business card
• Letterhead
• Presentation folder cover
• Brochure
• Zoom background
• Promotional concepts
• Tagline possibilities
• Brochure writing and editing
• Website copywriting
• Packaging label

The team realized that simply announcing GreenEco’s presence would not yield the necessary awareness among potential customers. Instead, we looked for an emotional core for our messages. Manufacturers of plastic consumer products are well aware of their need to be involved in the remediation of petroleum pollution. The team agreed that the key emotional concept in the company’s culture and the cultures of so many of its audiences is genuine care for the planet. Every creative decision flowed through that filter:

GreenEco name:
The GreenEco name is attractive and memorable due to its rhythm, brevity, and easy pronunciation.

GreenEco logo:
We designed the logo and packaging to carry the GreenEco tagline message and personality to potential customers, beginning at the loading docks.

GreenEco tagline:
The makings of a healthier planet
The tagline is brief, optimistic and forward looking toward better health of Earth and its occupants.

GreenEco vision:
A healthier planet where plastics continue transforming and innovating industry, without pollution and waste.

GreenEco mission:
Helping our customers become leaders in supplying biodegradable, compostable, non-polluting plastic bioresins.

The result of our synthesis of information, ideas, and expertise was a draft concept presentation to the client. They approved in principle and rejected or modified some details.

We took notes.

Branding GreenEco / Create

Following and further refining the approved concept materials, the project moved into the first production phase. Print, digital, video, photography, packaging, texts, and signage — all materials were prototyped in detail and presented to the branding team.

During this part of the process of creating the GreenEco brand, everything was again considered for how well it manifests the image, personality, and values of the company.

Branding GreenEco / Finalize

There is nothing more final than a final approval. The combined branding team paid close attention to ensuring their new brand was 100% as they planned and expected. All production specifications and regulatory aspects were checked, and third-party suppliers were briefed and booked.

Branding GreenEco / Deliver

Nothing left to do but push the start buttons. Here are the contents of the final delivery:

• Initial Concepts:
  – Minimum three sets of future brand identity materials. Each set may include:
  – Unique logo(s)
  – Business card
  – Letterhead
  – Presentation folder cover
  – Zoom background Promo materials (TBD as project develops. Corrections are not charged if they are within initial creative brief guidelines)
  – Tagline suggestions
• Final GreenEco brand delivered items
  – GreenEco logo
  – Graphic design
  – Copywriting
  – Tagline
  – Vision statement
  – Mission statement
  – Writing and editing for the brochure. Website copy writing.
  – Packaging label
  – Print- and online-ready files for:
  -logo
  -business card
  -stationery
  -envelop label
  -brand guidelines book
  -presentation folder
  -inserts
  -bi-fold brochure print and PDF
  • Marketing and sales consulting
  • Website
  • Social media accounts creation and management

Our clients are very pleased with the ways in which New Design Group gave their company its distinctive voice, unique look, a welcoming “feel”, and its memorable presence in its markets. They tell us they believe in their brand.