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Responsible Social Marketers

Nowadays, there are more and more companies that were opened. They compete with

each other seriously and try to attract more customers by pricing competition. However, the

winners are those who care not only about their profits but also about social responsibility and

ethical practices. The Honest Tea Company is a good example of a responsible social marketer.

With the mission “A commitment to social responsibility is central to Honest Tea's identity and

purpose”; this company has done many good things for society, customers and their employees

(Honest Beverages, 2009).

The first thing to note is that many Honest Tea programs are conducted for protecting

customers’ health. All of their products are certificated as qualified the USDA’s Organic

standards (Honest Beverages, 2009). “Organic farming systems rely on ecologically based

practices such as cultural and biological pest management, exclusion of all synthetic chemicals,

antibiotics, and hormones in crop and livestock production” (USDA,2009). In addition, they are

controlled by third-party certification agencies (Honest Beverage, 2009). Therefore, these

products are totally safe for customer because they are produced without using any bad

chemicals and are managed carefully. Beside that, organic foods bring many benefits to

customer’s health such as more nutritious, richer in vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids

than non-organic.

Another reason why customers choose these products is less sugar. Obesity nowadays

emerges as serious problem. Almost beverage companies use the large amount of sugar to create

the great-tasting. However, Honest Tea Company is different. In order to protect customers’

health, it produces products with half the sugar of others but its products still have good tasting

(Honest Beverage, 2009). For example, when comparing with Jakarta Ginger products, there is



as little as 2 grams, giving the drink a mere 9 calories (Pettigrew, 2002). Especially, it also

produces some products like Unsweetened Just Green and Just Black teas without calories and

sugar for diet people. On the other hand, tea is more useful than fruits. In fact, the effectiveness

of antioxidants in green tea is higher 100 times than Vitamins C and 25 times than Vitamin E at

protecting cells and DNA from damage linked to cancer, heart disease and other potential ones

(Pettigrew, 2002). Dental plaque, inactivate the influenza virus, reduce blood glucose levels,

lower cholesterol are against by brewed tea and it also acts as an antibacterial agent (Pettigrew,

2002). From my point of view, I strongly believe that joining the USDA’s Organic Certification

and using less sugar program will be help their advertising agency produce publicity or

promotions that illustrate their social responsibility and marketing. No one wants to choose

products that do not contain any nutrient or cause diseases. They have a trend to choose those

good for them. Therefore, customers will buy the products more because these programs will

announce to customer that products are certificated and totally good for their health.

Secondly, there are many Honest Tea programs that are associated with environment

issue. Plant a tree program is a good example. Honest Kids is cooperating with the National

Arbor Day Foundation to plant trees around the country (Honest Beverage, 2009). When buying

Honest Kids product, customers will receive the seedling tree. This is good program because it

helps children understand the important role of trees as well as provides a chance to practice their

lessons about protecting environment. Unlike other companies, the teabags of Honest Tea are

totally friendly with environment. With Honest Kids products, they partner with TerraCycle toconduct The Honest Kids Drink Pouch Brigade program (Honest Beverage, 2009). This means

many drink pouches will become unique fashion bags under the direction of TerraCycle. With



other teabags which contain fully organic peppermint herbal from I'tchik, they are totally

biodegradable and are packed in a carton made from 100% recycled material (Pettigrew, 2002).

In addition, this company deals with the carbon emission produced during the production

process. It calculated carefully the carbon footprints for each of 6 stages from picking,

processing and shipping tea leaves to getting the tea to warehouse (Honest Beverage, 2009).

After that, it purchased renewable energy credit (RECs) that “direct funds to the production of

wind energy, effectively reducing amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants emitted into the

atmosphere to offset them” (Honest Beverage, 2009). Moreover, it purchase wind power to turn

powers to nearly 120 homes (Honest Beverage, 2009). Environment pollution is a serious

problem so that everybody must take responsibility. However, just a few companies actually care

about this problem. As a result, I think that plant a tree as well as carbon emission program will

be successful because they are two of few programs. They will receive the support of customers

and those who protect the environment.

Not only customers’ health and environment, this company also creates programs

because of social responsibilities. It joins the Fair Trade certification which “ensures that

workers on estates receive a fair share of profits and that the estate complies with specific criteria

set by Trans Fair International to ensure equality and fairness” (Honest Beverage). These

workers will decide how to reinvest profit to support their community. For example, they

established a computer center for the use of estate workers and their children in Makaibari

(Honest Beverage, 2009). Beside that, First Nation Peppermint herbal was created by

cooperating with I'tchik, a woman-owned herb company based at the Crow reservation, a

community with an unemployment rate of 67 percent (Honest Beverage, 2009). This program

stands for the company’s commitment to creating innovative business partnerships with



economically disadvantaged communities (Honest Beverage, 2009). So, it creates many jobs for

unemployment people. Furthermore, this company donates a portion of the sales to the Pretty

Shield Foundation, a Montana-based non-profit making organization that addresses the needs of

foster and homeless Native American children (Pettigrew, 2002). The company also hopes to

provide more jobs at its bottling plant that was establish in 1999 in New Kensington,

Pennsylvania, an economically depressed part of Pittsburgh (Pettigrew, 2002).

Community Green is the program that is conducted by Honest Tea Company and City

Year. City Year is a non-profit organization that contains17- to 24-year-olds in order to break

down social barriers and to build stronger communities (Honest Beverage, 2009). Honest Tea

Company will withdraw a part of profits from selling Honest Tea's organic green tea with

Maltese orange to help fund City Year's activities which include “running after-school activities,

mentoring and tutoring children, teaching health and safety curriculums, and leading special

civic engagement programs” (Pettigrew, 2002). In my opinion, there is no doubt that these

programs will be successful in marketing and in social responsibility. The reason is they create

many jobs for unemployment people. Moreover, they help many poor and children to live better

as well as help community become stronger.

In conclusion, Honest Tea Company is a good example for others. It conducted a lot of

programs that are associated with customers’ health, environment and society. Therefore, it

received the support form many people and organizations. That’s why its sale still develops

gradually until now and it is the first choose when mentioning tea products.

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