Introduction
Ecosia is a non-profit metasearch engine that donates money to plant trees when users use the platform. The company was founded in Germany in 2009 and has planted over 145 million trees by March 2022 (Palos-Sanchez & Saura, 2018). Ecosia earns advertising revenue based on the number of users who access the search engine (Przychodzen et al., 2020). The company is also developing partnership programs with online stores (Przychodzen et al., 2020). Some funds come from Ecosia social networks, which are a strong and essential component of the company (Ivanov, 2022). The firm does not aim to compete with industry giants such as Google, Bing, Baidu, Yahoo!, and others (Ivanov, 2022). Ecosia’s primary goal is to spread environmental values and create a platform for bringing together environment-friendly companies.
Ecosia has captured the attention of eco-activists and the younger generation in a number of ways. First, the company strictly adheres to its values and environmental standards, demonstrating how to build a sustainable green IT business with a minimal ecological footprint (Ivanov, 2022). Secondly, Ecosia pays great attention to the development of social networks and the popularization of the idea of planting trees. She was able to demonstrate how each person can improve the environmental situation without investing money (Ivanov, 2022). The Ecosia platform has great marketing potential as it is a search engine. The firm needs to find companies with shared values and join forces.
Extension Idea
Ecosia initially focused its marketing strategy on social media distribution. At the time of this writing, the firm has a reasonably well-established following on the leading social media platforms – Twitter (92.5 thousand subscribers), Instagram (390 thousand subscribers), and YouTube (175 thousand subscribers). In this way, the company can reach the target audience, spread ecological values, and draw attention to the brand. However, Ecosia still needs to take the opportunity to collaborate with significant eco and vegan influencers to create publicity and enhance its media presence. Moreover, the company should pay attention to other green companies with an appropriate environmental agenda. Such brands will be interested in cooperation with the search engine. Since Ecosia collects data on the needs of its target audience – people interested in environmentally friendly products, foods, and goods. Marketing data is a valuable resource that can be part of a deal in a collaboration between Ecosia and other brands.
For example, Ecosia may consider a joint project with the plant-based company Beyond meat, which is now widespread and is one of the flagships of the vegan and environmental movement. Plant-based diets are more sustainable and ecologically friendly, use agricultural lands and water more efficiently, and protect the planet from deforestation and climate change (Lynch et al., 2018). This means that companies in the plant-based nutrition niche are natural allies and partners of Ecosia, whose mission is to help restore forests around the planet. Compared to Ecosia, Beyond meat is a massive company with a large marketing budget of over $100 million a year (Choudhury, 2020). At the same time, the company may be interested in the services of a search platform and collecting data from potential consumers.
The New Idea Justification
The collaborative marketing model is ideal for the company, as Ecosia has many potential allies who share environmental values. One successful joint advertising campaign can pave the way for many collaborations. Each new brand has its audience, which is not one hundred percent the same as the previous one or Ecosia. Thus, this is the way to ensure an ever-growing influx of search platform users (Liu-Thompkins, 2019). This marketing strategy is the least expensive, especially since Ecosia has data and services to offer in return. A change in the current marketing plan may benefit the company and increase customer awareness, reach new segments, and raise the popularity of the search engine.
Target Market
Ecosia was initially created as a company interested in influencing younger generations and promoting environmental values through a model of conscious consumption. Therefore, the firm targets Millennials and Generation Z, who are now young adults, graduates, students, and schoolchildren (Zehendner & Cron, 2021). These populations are most concerned about the future of the environment and the upcoming challenges of global climate change and pollution (Zehendner & Cron, 2021). That is why Ecosia is concentrating on expanding its media presence, as the younger generation actively draws information from social networks.
Marketing and Launch Strategy
Before launching a marketing campaign, it will be necessary to conduct qualitative and quantitative research. The database of the search engine Ecosia and its social networks could be used to check the levels of Beyond meat’s target audience awareness about Ecosia (Quesenberry, 2020). If these are the same people, the company will not be able to attract a sufficient flow of new users. For the future level of retention will have high customer satisfaction and brand loyalty among buyers of Beyond meat (Liu-Thompkins, 2019). For concept testing, surveys based on sequential monadic testing could be conducted to check which types of campaigns are more attractive to a brand’s adjacent target audience (Quesenberry, 2020). Based on these quantitative and qualitative data, it will be possible to make estimates about the benefits of collaboration between companies and offer cooperation to “Beyond meat” or other similar firms.
Depending on customers’ preferences, the marketing campaign may consist of joint videos, placement of information about Ecosia on “Beyond meat” products, contests, and giveaways. The benefit for Ecosia is that collaboration campaigns are always cheaper than buying ads and running them on their own (Liu-Thompkins, 2019). Moreover, Ecosia can offer “Beyond meat” search data collected from the company’s target audience – young people interested in the environmental agenda. Moreover, “Beyond meat” or other collaboration partners may receive advertising space on the first page of the search engine in return. This beneficial partnership minimizes Ecosia’s direct marketing costs, and with this bargaining position, the firm can make do with existing advertising budgets.
Ethical Considerations
From a moral point of view, the problem of a search company collaborating with product companies is a claim to Ecosia’s biased attitude towards its partners. The public will inevitably suspect the search engine that the company issues advertising information on specific topics or promotes a green and vegan agenda and ideology. This problem is solved by direct recognition of Ecosia’s values for the public, which, on the other hand, will attract the audience and consumers (Zehendner & Cron, 2021). Everyone is looking for brands that share their values in today’s world. Ecosia may advertise certain companies or promote information as being of public interest but will not remove or deny other views.
In addition, ethical considerations include criticism of Ecosia’s technical infrastructure. With an increase in the number of users, electricity consumption will increase, and the infrastructure that will need to be maintained will grow. The company can show the world by example how using the latest energy-saving technologies helps optimize work. For instance, Ecosia can use shared infrastructure (public cloud) and other newest energy-efficient technologies to minimize negative impact and environmental footprint (Przychodzen et al., 2020). Part of electrical energy could be from renewable carbon-free sources such as solar panels or wind turbines (Przychodzen et al., 2020). Thus, a growing green IT company can inspire other companies in the industry to develop a green energy-based IT business model.
Conclusion
Ecosia is a search engine whose business model is based on achieving socially meaningful goals, not making a profit. This does not mean the company does not need to consider marketing and promoting its ideas. On the contrary, in the value-based business model, direct communication with the audience, contact, and dissemination of the company’s idea comes to the fore. This means that the company and its mission directly depend on the constant expansion of the target audience. In this business model, and given that Ecosia is a search platform, the ideal solution for the company is to find ideological allies to share subscribers and build a customer base. Large and medium-sized brands focused on the environmental agenda and addressing environmental issues can become such partners for Ecosia. This cooperation is mutually beneficial and financially low-cost, as it is based on the collaboration method, where each partner has something to offer in return.
References
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Lynch, H., Johnston, C., & Wharton, C. (2018). Plant-based diets: Considerations for environmental impact, protein quality, and exercise performance. Nutrients, 10(12), 1841. Web.
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Quesenberry, K. A. (2020). Social media strategy: Marketing, advertising, and public relations in the consumer revolution. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Zehendner, L., & Cron, M. (2021). Green Search Engine Usage-A Qualitative Study Exploring Why German Millennials Use the Green Search Engine Ecosia. Lunds Universitet. Web.