Working for a merch company, we often get asked "do you have eco-friendly options"? It got to a point where saying that they're hard to source just wasn't enough. I knew this was something that I had to fight for internally in order to get our guests what they were asking for.
After many many months of write ups, market research, product research, surveys, and beyond, our executive team decided we would give Eco Merch a shot. I knew I couldn't let this fail, as I had gunned for it for what felt like many moons. The Bonfire Production Team worked tirelessly to source some of the best eco-merch out there. So, we knew that it was time for our team to make a dang good promotion. Every member of the team had their hand in the pot on this one. The collaboration across the teams was top notch.
challenges
#1 We knew that there were going to be many folks who did not think our eco merch was quite "eco enough." and... they're right! It was extremely important to us to make sure to emphasize the journey and that we are doing the best that we can. We created a specific sustainability email to field all questions, comments, and concerns. We had an extremely knowledgable Customer Support rep who handled the inbox. We were excited by the questions that came through, and surprised at the lack of concern!
#2 When promoting our eco merch, we focused heavily on these 7 core items. However, if those items were out of stock or backordered, we do have a secondary fulfillment. It was important to include the asterisk of:
- *Please note that these are the specific details for our primary products. In case of supply chain issues, you may receive a secondary product. Don’t worry, both our primary and secondary products are just as great and eco-friendly!
#3 The illustrations. We knew the demand was there for eco products. But how can we leverage that? It was important that our visuals attracted the same crowd that might be seeking eco-friendly merch. Think outdoors, nature, planting trees, biking... We knew that aligning our illustrations with these things that are conscious would impact the pros of eco-friendly merch.
the blog
As expected, we started off with a simple blog post. Well... it should be simple. Except that we're talking about merch being eco-friendly. And we all know that eco conscious person who's a little TOO conscious. So what became the most important here was the wording. It was important that we worked to use language that reassured the reader that this is just a journey that we are beginning. This is not the best that we can do.
We wanted to ensure that the merch felt like it was right at the tips of their fingers. Each product had a description of what it was made of and in what ways it is good for the planet. Clicking the product brings you right to the item in the catalog, just one more click away from adding it to their campaign. On each product image, there was a Bonfire design template pulled from our "Nature" section with a link to dive right into use that template. This made a seamless user expereince.
Written by Hayden Ireland, Content Specialist at Bonfire
social media
One of the next large pieces of the puzzle was, "how are we going to present this to our community in a way that resonates with them?" We wanted to make sure of 3 things. 1. That it was clear that this eco-merch exists on our platform because they asked for it. 2. That this is in line with Bonfire's mission and values, but that it is just the beginning of a much larger journey. 3. That they know how to add them to their next campaign. Above you will see the first few slides of 3 separate Instagram Story Series that were shared over the course of a couple of weeks.
Content created by Caroline Campbell, Community Engagement Specialist
email communications
Above you will see two emails. The email on the left was the initial proposal, as it was the approved imagery for the blog. Although the consistency is strong here, it was important that the imagery resonate with our users. Content that shows real people wearing real shirts is what gets the community hooked. We swapped out some of the illustrations for a photo of our team members in their eco merch which made this a much stronger email.
This email received an extremely high open rate for our community.
Email collaboration: Elise Nardo (strategy and design), Hayden Ireland (copy), Maddie Summers (illustration), Joe Kelly (audience setting)