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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
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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
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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
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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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