The Mindful Marketer

Developing Marketing Objectives is key in any successful marketing campaign. But why? Why are marketing objectives needed? “With an effective plan, you know whom to market, when to market and how much to market your services or products. It can immensely help your business in increasing your sales, establishing brand awareness, and informs, equalizes and sustains your customers” (Vervelogic, 2021). Simply put, setting marketing objectives help you establish a roadmap for your marketing campaign to reach a successful and fruitful destination.

We have all heart of SMART goals and SWOT analysis, in fact I have written several blogs on each subject! Your marketing objectives should be SMART, or specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. With these parameters in mind, you should be able to take that long list of objectives you came up with in an initial brainstorm and narrow them down to a realistic working list. It is also important to note that marketing goals and marketing objective are two very different things. Wires can be easily crossed on these definitions and the outcome can be a wishy washy marketing plan. “Marketing goals talk about the long-term, expansive, and usually connected with the mission and vision of the company which they are planning to achieve in the next few years. However, marketing objectives are more specific in scope and can be measurable by readable factors like statistics, time frames, or both” (Vervelogic, 2021).

Companies use marketing objectives so that that they can develop the appropriate strategies to achieve their goals. For example, you have identified one of your objectives to be increasing brand awareness. You have determined that this goal is SMART as it pertains to your overall goals, and now your marketing team can begin to develop a strategy to make this objective come to fruition!

But to back things up a bit here, there are a few things that your company needs to establish before marketing objectives even enter the discussion….

In order for your marketing objectives to truly align with the goals of the company, you need to figure out the mission of your brand. Who are we? What does this product or service represent as it relates to the company? What is the greater goal of your company, and how does this new product or service enhance or add to that goal? If you have a firm brand mission in place, you can align your marketing objectives accordingly.

Next, it is crucial to perform a situational analysis, or SWOT analysis, for your company. This means to take a look internally at your strengths and weaknesses, and then externally (your competitors) at opportunities and threats. By performing this situational analysis, you can get a firm grasp of the resources your company currently has, what it needs to work on, and get the lay of the land when it comes to your competitors in the market. Perhaps one of your marketing objectives could be to gain a bigger share of the market. In conducting a situational analysis, you will have already understood what your current place in the market is, and can therefore tweak that objective to become more specific, realistic and achievable.

Lastly, it is important to ensure your marketing objectives align with the legal and ethical responsibility of your company. Depending on what your company’s products or services are, everyone has different legal standards that they are held to. This could be environmental, for example, but this also refers to the ethical responsibility you have to your customers. When developing you objectives, it is of the utmost importance that your strategies to meet your goals are ethical. No goal is worth meeting if you need to take illegal or unethical means to get there. One of the biggest ways to uphold your legal and ethical responsibilities is to be transparent with your customers and stakeholders. This will keep you honest, so to say, when developing objectives and strategies and also help to leave no stone unturned.

 Marketing is needed more than ever and be rest assured this trend is not going anywhere. But a marketing plan is only prestigious if it has any objectives. Without any objective is like walking on the battlefield without your armor or weapons”

Vervelogic, 2021.

Vervelogic. (2021, April 12.) 10 Examples of Marketing Objectives. Vervelogic. Retrieved from: https://www.vervelogic.com/blog/marketing-objectives/.

Market Segmentation is a key step in truly defining your Target Market. By developing a comprehensive market segmentation, you can determine how to most effectively market your product or service. “Audience segmentation is the process of dividing your potential customer base into subgroups based on a common set of characteristics such as behavior, psychographics, demographics, and customer type” (Petersen, 2019). How can you develop a market segmentation? Do you just take a guess? How will you gather the information necessary to define your segments? Here are a few tools to help you along the way.

First, it is important to remember that identifying your target market is not done so that you freeze out certain groups from your products or services. “target marketing allows you to focus your marketing dollars and brand message on a specific market that is more likely to buy from you than other markets. This is a much more affordable, efficient, and effective way to reach potential clients and generate business” (Porta, 2021).

First, it may be good to look at your current customer base. From this customer base, you can determine a demographic/geographic/psychographic picture of who currently uses your product. Reviewing this information can help you determine where to focus your current marketing efforts. Are these groups who you thought would be using your product when you first developed it? Are you missing a key group of customers who you previously thought you were targeting? Google Analytics can be a great way to compile and evaluate this information. Here, you can even add or remove different market segments based off of your goals. No current customer base due to a new product or service? Look to your competitors. See who their target markets and segmentations are. What can you do to differentiate yourself to these groups that you know would be interested in your product/service? Looking at who your competitors are targeting is a great way to find what sets you apart from the rest.

Another great tool to help you define your target market is to do a complete analysis of your product or service. “Write out a list of each feature of your product or service. Next to each feature, list the benefits it provides (and the benefits of those benefits)” (Porta, 2021). By creating this analysis and compiling this list, you can then match your identified “benefits”, with the groups of people who have a need your benefit would fulfill. This is a great baseline way to develop market segments.

Finally, once you have developed potential market segments and an overall target market, it is important to test your theory. According to Mandy Porta of Inc., this could mean asking yourself questions like:

• Are there enough people who fit my criteria?
• Will my target really benefit from my product/service? Will they see a need for it?
• Do I understand what drives my target to make decisions?
• Can they afford my product/service?
• Can I reach them with my message? Are they easily accessible?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then it is time to tweak your strategy. Testing your theory could also mean conducting research of how your product or service would perform in the market with these segments. This could come in the form of surveys or focus groups.

Creating a comprehensive target market and market segmentation analysis is key to the success of your product/service. Without it, your marketing campaign has no real leg to stand on.

Petersen, R. (2019, January 27). 6 audience segmentation tools to find customers that need you most. BarnRaisers. Retrieved from https://barnraisersllc.com/2019/01/27/audience-segmentation-tools-find-customers/.

Porta, M. (2021). How to Define Your Target Market. Inc. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/defining-your-target-market.html.

As a marketer, it is so important to stay up to date with the latest trends in the field. This will help your company to stay relevant in the field, a true competitor in the market, and to remain abreast of any major legislative changes that could affect the integrity of your campaign. In an article by Kasey Panetta of Gartner.com, 10 of these new trends in digital analytics are highlighted. She interviews Rita Sallam, VP Analyst for Gartner who has some strong advice for companies in 2021. “Data and analytics leaders must proactively examine how to leverage these trends into mission-critical investments that accelerate their capabilities to anticipate, shift and respond” (Panetta, 2021).

Here are some of the trends mentioned in the article…

• Smarter, Responsible, Scalable AI
• Composable Data and Analytics
• Data Fabric is the Foundation
• From Big to Small and Wide Data
• XOps
• Engineering Decision Intelligence
• D&A as a Core Business Function
• Graph Relates Everything
• The Rise of Augmented Consumer
• D&A at the Edge

Out of all these trends, one truly stuck out to me as being sort of the underlying theory of this Data Analytics course and one that I believe is at the core of the other trends highlighted. That is D&A as a Core Business Function. “Instead of being a secondary focus — completed by a separate team — data and analytics is shifting to a core function” (Panetta, 2021). By making the data and analytics team/department a substantial core business function, you create opportunities to address specific concerns at the forefront of your campaign, rather than addressing them once the campaign has been deployed.

Typically, a company relies on the data and analytics department to evaluate data generated once a campaign has already begun. This team would typically look at the data collected, analyze it using KPIs already established, and determine the validity, integrity and success of the campaign. But…what if this department was a part of the campaign creation instead of just a secondary department used to analyze results? What could be gained from including them in the beginning stages? Well, a lot! The D&A team likely have an idea of current trends and could perhaps suggest different strategies to help the campaign reach its full potential. “If chief data officers (CDOs) are involved in setting goals and strategies, they can increase consistent production of business value by a factor of 2.6X” (Panetta, 2021).

This trend could also impact all of the other trends surrounding D&A throughout the whole campaign process and in daily business functions. Since these trends directly involve typical functions of the D&A department, making them a core business function could help your company to employ these new trends and be a valuable competitor in the market. For example, the trend “Graphs relate everything”. In an article by LinkedIn, it is projected that “…by 2025, graph technologies will be used in 80% of data and analytics innovations, up from 10% in 2021, facilitating rapid decision making across the organization”(Bodain, 2021). Taking into consideration this projection, the D&A department should be a core business function as it seems many decision making processes will be based around the graphs they create!

This is a trend that I not only agree with, but find a necessary trend for all companies looking to create successful marketing campaigns. Bringing the D&A team in on the creation and implementation of campaigns and other business functions can help to predict and combat potential data problems before they arise!

Panetta, K. (2021, March 15). Gartner Top 10 Data and Analytics Trends for 2021. Gartner. Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-data-and-analytics-trends-for-2021

Bodain, Y. (2021, September 24). Data and Analytics Trends, 2021. LinkedIn. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/data-analytics-trends-2021-yan-bodain

Key Performance Indicators, a.k.a KPI’s, are a crucial part of any successful marketing campaign. They are great tools to help measure the success of your campaign and ensure that organizational goals will be met. According to KPI.org, here are 5 things all good KPI’s should have…

1. Provide objective evidence of progress towards achieving a desired result
2. Measure what is intended to be measured to help inform better decision making
3. Offer a comparison that gauges the degree of performance change over time
4. Can track efficiency, effectiveness, quality, timeliness, governance, compliance, behaviors, economics, project performance, personnel performance, or resource utilization
5. Are balanced between leading and lagging indicators

(KPI.org, 2021)

There are a bunch of KPIs out there, so how do you choose the right ones? First, it is important to really define your company’s goals of the campaign. These goals should be SMART goals, or those that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. The KPI’s selected should match with each of these goals. For example, if one of the campaign goals is to increase your website traffic by 50%, then perhaps you could look at Unique vs Returning Website visitors. If your goal was to have visitors spend more time on your website, perhaps you could look at your bounce rate, pages viewed per session, or average time spent per page. This information would also be useful in determining the quality of your content.

Matching your KPIs with your campaign goals will allow you to effectively measure the success of the overall campaign. Should any issue arise, the KPIs will allow you to see where the problem is and tweak your strategy along the way!

But how will you be able to track all your KPIs? How will you be able to stay on top of the data they are built to analyze? Investing in a tool such as Google Analytics is a seamless and simple way to achieve this! This service allows you to have one centralized dashboard where you can view and track your metrics in real time. When you deploy a new strategy of your campaign and you assign the metrics to track it, it can be figured into this dashboard and you can immediately start getting data.

“Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the critical (key) indicators of progress toward an intended result. KPIs provides a focus for strategic and operational improvement, create an analytical basis for decision making and help focus attention on what matters most. As Peter Drucker famously said, “What gets measured gets done”

What is a Key Performance Indicator? KPI.org. Retrieved from: https://kpi.org/KPI-Basics

“Silo” is a word often heard in many companies around the world. Departments seem to be so “siloed” from one another, operating in their own capacities without and interdepartmental connectors. The Hub and Spoke Method is one way a company can bring together these varied departments to operate as a cohesive unit.

What is the best way to achieve this free flowing communication and cooperation? Digital analytics can be a great way to bridge the gap between your disjointed departments. Lets assume you are part of a marketing team looking to create a new marketing campaign for a new company your product is introducing to market. The first step would be to figure out what is at the core of the company. What is the one underlying department that all other departments require to function? Lets say that for this example, leadership is at the center, or “hub”, of your company. This leadership team is the team that identifies the want/need for a new product that sets the wheels in motion for all other departments.

Now that the hub has been identified, lets think about which department’s would comprise the “spokes”. This would be the remaining departments of the company who are working on the project. This could be the product development team, marketing team, advertising team, customer service team. How do all these “spoke” departments effectively communicate and share information? After all, the success of this new product depends on these teams being on the same page.

The initial idea (or in this case product) was created by leadership. Through the use of digital analytics, this information can be successfully funneled from the hub department to the spoke departments. Say an issue should arise in product development, is this an issue that all other departments need to be aware of? For the successful launch of a product, yes! All departments that are part of the process need to be aware of the accomplishments and road blocks of the other departments. An example of how digital analytics could be helpful in this communication, could be through the creation of a “project hub”. My current employer uses one such hub. This is a sort of forum of open communication where each department is able to post their progress, as well as their barriers, in real time so that all other departments can track progress. The tracking of this progress can help inform different teams of what their next steps in the project are.

Overall, the hub and spoke method is a highly effective form of cross-departmental communication, that can help increase information sharing and lead to a more effective and productive company as a whole.

There are so many different SEO/SEM strategies out there, ways to increase your likelihood of appearing at the top of the search page. But at what cost? What length is your company willing to go to to generate clicks/views/customers? Are you willing to risk your reputation on it? Today, we’re going to examine a company who used unethical and illegal SEO/SEM strategies in attempts to boost their brand, when in fact it leveled it.

Airborne

In 2008, Airborne dealt with a class action lawsuit in which they were ordered to pay “$23.3 million to refund customers who bought the product…..for making misleading claims that the remedy can ward off colds and boost your immune system.” (Olya, 2019) These claims were found to have NO scientific backing. Essentially, this was a massive case of false advertising. Claiming to be the cure all for the common cold when the product was no more than a combination of various vitamins and supplements was far from the truth. “The entire existence and marketing of Airborne is based upon a deception of the consumer.” (Novella, 2008). While doing a quick google search of “immune system boost” seen below, Airborne now shows up listed second. No longer is the company using those unethical certain keywords such as “cold remedy” or “cold medicine” to distinguish their brand and lure in customers. Their SEO strategy had now changed to a more ethical one, in light of their large payout.

What are some of the major ways a company can be unethical in their SEO/SEM strategies? A lot of these companies are using “Black Hat Tactics”, which is essentially “Black hat SEO tactics, encased by spamdexing, involve manipulating how different search engines make out the significance of a Website page in a manner which is often incompatible with the guidelines of the search engines” (Singh, 2016) Using keywords that are not specific to your company in order to generate more views is essentially tricking your customers and potential customers. These techniques aim to make their company land at the top of a search page. If you want to gain customers, grow financially, and achieve longevity for your company, it is important to avoid tactics like “keyword stuffing, hidden text and doorway pages.” (Singh, 2016)

Now that we know what NOT to do, lets look at a few SEO/SEM tactics that you should be following…the ethical ones. First, you need to make sure that your keywords are not misleading, that they are truly representative of the products and services your company offers. They should also give the viewer an idea of exactly what they will encounter when entering your page. Next, you want to offer unique content. This allows your company to stand out due to its originality and uniqueness, rather than relying on the work of others to boost your pages content. Finally, transparency. Your page should have a clear, easy to follow flow/mission/purpose so that the viewer does not feel deceived.

What are the benefits of having ethical SEO/SEM practices and techniques? Well for one, you won’t end up like Airborne. Having a clear, clean, and transparent strategy will make sure your customers don’t feel duped, perhaps allowing them to not only make a purchase, but to make future purchases because they remembered the ethical practices of your company/website. And finally brand recognition. “Using continuous webpage promotional tactics is a way to emphasize creating an on-net reputation.” (Great Learning, 2019)

It truly “pays” to have legally sound and ethically minded business practices, in more ways than one.

Olya, Gabrielle (2019) 14 Top Companies That Lost Big Money in Lawsuits. Yahoo Finance. Retrieved from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/14-top-companies-lost-big-100000850.html

Novella, Steven (2008). Airborne Settles Case on False Advertising. Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved from https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/airborne-admits-false-advertising/

Singh, Harman (2016). How Big Companies Destroy their SEO Campaigns with Unethical Techniques ? LinkedIn. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-big-companies-destroy-seo-campaigns-unethical-techniques-singh

Great Learning (2019). Ethical SEO. Great Learning. Retrieved from https://medium.com/my-great-learning/ethical-seo-vs-unethical-seo-44087306e2f0#:~:text=%20Why%20should%20you%20practice%20Ethical%20SEO%3F%20,right%20clients%20don%E2%80%99t%20get%20captured%2C%20marketing…%20More%20.

What is it about a specific brand that draws us to it? Is it simply their product or service? Is it that we like who they are and what they stand for? Or, is it a combination of the both? How does a company balance all of its moving parts while still maintaining positive customer engagement? Making sure that your legal guidelines and ethical standards are always met is a good place to start.

We’ve all see what happens when a company gets it right: longevity and success. But what happens when a legal issue or ethical faux pas arises? Can a company truly come back from that enough to save face and its customers? Lets take a look at a company whose ethical missteps greatly affected their business and more importantly, their image.

Amazon is probably one of the biggest and well known companies in the world. It is admirable the way CEO Jeff Bezos started his company, selling books out of his garage, but boy is it interesting how humble beginnings can quickly turn into foregoing ethical standards in favor of profit. Over the past few years, as more and more Amazon mega warehouses are being built, more positions opening up within these facilities and the unfair treatment of employees has been brought to light. This unfair treatment has been regarding pay, working conditions, benefits, hours, you name it. But what does bad press from employees regarding their quality of work life do to consumer opinion and engagement?

According to an interview done by 60 Minutes, these issues came to the general publics attention even more during COVID. (link: Examining Amazon’s treatment of its workers – 60 Minutes – CBS News) During the pandemic, Amazon was considered an essential business and therefore still maintained operations. Bottom line, while you were cozy in your home staying safe with your loved ones, delivery drivers were still making sure your K-cups/beauty products/sweatpants/books/whatever else you felt was essential, was being delivered to you. Amazon was also criticized for not offering their employees the correct PPE and sending them out to interact with the public anyway.

After all of these issues came to light, Amazon saw it was loosing a lot of their loyal followers. People realized that they did not want to support a company who was not supporting their employees or adhering to the ethical standards they claimed to uphold. Personally, I love Amazon and use it all the time, but have certainly changed my opinion and the frequency at which I order through them since all of this has gone public.

What were some of the implications of this ethical travesty for Amazon? Yes, they lost business, but does loosing a few people here and there truly impact a multi-billion dollar company? Sure. This can cause a chain reaction in customer loyalty. For example, I hear about Amazon’s treatment of their employees and decide to stop making purchases through them. I then discuss this with family and friends, who share my feelings on the matter and also make the decision to stop purchasing through them. Then they discuss with their family and friends, and so on and so forth. I am just one person, but if there are others like me out there who decide to stop using the service such as me, this could have a much larger impact.

A second implication? Simply finding people to work for them. The word has circulated that conditions are not favorable. There have been many strikes, walk outs, and even sick outs (especially in 2020) because employees are fed up. Since this story has been so publicized, how does that bode for future employee prospects? If Amazon is not making a massive and equally publicized showing that they are working to make improvements, they may not have anyone working in their warehouses at all.

I think that Amazon has realized that these ethical issues has had a massive impact on brand perception and engagement. I believe that their “zero net carbon” campaign is in an effort to make things right in the eyes of the public. How a company chooses to operate, the packaging they use, and their overall environmental footprint has become a hot topic amongst consumers in recent years. I believe that this campaign is not only to help shrink the negative footprint operations could have on our world, but also to gain back some of the consumers they have lost by showing they are working to be ethically conscious. The company has actually invested $2 billion dollars to make this come to fruition.

This pledge is clearly a necessary one that many companies are making around the world. “With Amazon’s carbon emissions for 2019 being equivalent to three million return flights between London and Perth, it’s an action that can’t come soon enough.” (Amazon Pledges to be Carbon Neutral by 2040 | Tech.co)

But, is this too little too late? I think that instead of executive staff having non specific comments regarding this employee treatment issue, they should have taken this feedback and hit the ground running. The best way to improve public image and repair and rebuild customer engagement is to acknowledge the problem, and show publicly and frequently the steps you are taking to improve conditions and treatment. This will not only reassure your customers that you are trying to right your wrongs, but also allows them to begin to trust your company again, hopefully luring them back as customers once more.

Lets face it, any traffic is good traffic. Right? How are you generating traffic to your website? Are you paying for ad placements? Are you appearing on the first page of a google search? Is your website being talked about and new consumers are visiting based on word-of-mouth? There are a lot of pros and cons to Paid vs Organic website traffic, and one may be better than the other, depending on whether you are a new or established business. Lets take a deeper dive into what specifically paid traffic and organic traffic mean.

Simply put, paid traffic…you pay for, while organic traffic is free! Organic traffic is ideal for businesses who are first starting out and may not have the capital to pay for ads that direct people to your website. According to Paid Vs Organic Traffic: Which should you use and why? · Affiliate Marketing Blog (convertingteam.com), “Organic visitors are people who were attracted to your site through ‘natural’ means.” This is a great tool to use when first establishing your business. One of the easiest and most common forms of generating organic traffic is through blogging! People read blogs on subjects that interest them. By writing a blog about the types of products or services offered by your company, and then supplying a link to said company, you are generating traffic. This traffic can be easily converted into new customers, since they already have an interest in what you are offering. While it can be easy and enjoyable to create a blog, it takes a lot of time and effort to market your blog effectively, so that it is reaching your desired target market. “Organic traffic takes a lot of time, effort, learning and skill to get right, so while it may be ‘free’ from a monetary point of view, you could be earning money in the time that you are spending trying to get people to your site in the first place.” (convertingteam.com) If the time it is taking you to perfect your blog could be more usefully allocated elsewhere, perhaps it is time to turn to paid search traffic.

We’ve all seen it. Scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, or any of the various social media sites. “Sponsored Ad”. This is paid search traffic. Sponsored posts basically allow you to alert potential customers to your website, when they may not have known about it otherwise. I have bought numerous products and even become a repeat customer of multiple businesses that I have discovered through clicking on sponsored posts! Another benefit of engaging in paid search traffic, is you no longer have to put the effort into funneling organic search traffic to your site. Websites like Facebook or Google Ads will do it for you, allowing you to put your time and resources back into your business.

What are some of the main advantages and disadvantages of paid vs organic traffic? Well that all depends on the time and money you are willing to put into potential customers finding your website. If you are a small business, just starting out, building a following through a blog where you can engage with consumers may be the way to go. If you find yourself spending too much time on your blogging efforts and not enough time on actual production, you may want to lean on Google Ads to help generate traffic to your site. However, a healthy combination of the both may be the overall best strategy in maximizing your website traffic. This way, you can remain personally engaged with your customer following, while having an outside website such as Facebook, generate ads to help capture the consumer you may not be reaching.

There are some products that we automatically associate with a specific brand. Tissues = Kleenex. Bandages = Band-aid. Lip Balm = Chapstick. Tropicana is a brand that has long been the nations go-to orange juice of choice. The green lettering of the brand name, the logo of the orange with a straw in it, advertising the freshness of their juice, all on the recognizable carton. The brand was positioned for success, until 2009 when they decided their brand needed a refresh.

A brand can choose to reposition itself in many different ways. Maybe this means changing to logo, slogan, packaging, or different advertising elements. The reasoning could be to change the overall perception of their brand in hopes of attracting new customers. There have been many brands that have been successful over the years, but for brands that take missteps in the repositioning process, there can be grace consequences.

As seen above, everything about the previously recognizable brand had gone. Their intention was to have simpler packaging, new logo design and new color pallet, as well as new marketing campaigns. When their changes did not go over so well, it not only affected the company financially, but also the orange farmers who supplied Tropicana. According to 35 Examples of Rebranding Fail and What We Can Learn [2021] (klintmarketing.com), “Consumers failed to recognize the product on the shelves which led to a loss in sales. It looked like a cheap generic brand that was too far from the recognizable product consumers regularly purchased.”

Clearly, Tropicana’s repositioning strategy had the opposite effect than intended. Having consumers mistake their product for the generic, store brand orange juice resulted in a 20% drop in sales before they ultimately decided to abandon the new look and go back to their original packaging. Not only were internal stakeholders affected by this 20% sales decrease, but externally, farmers were affected. Farms which once had a contract with Tropicana to supply them with oranges suddenly saw a drop in demand, effecting their crop and income alike.

What could Tropicana have done differently to make their repositioning strategy a success? First, they should have turned to their consumers. What is it they like about the logo? Packaging? What is it about the overall brand design that they enjoy? Evaluate those answers, and most importantly, listen to them! If Tropicana would have listened to their consumers, they would have found that they saw nothing wrong with the packaging, logo, or overall design. They took a recognizable product, and turned in unrecognizable, so much so that consumers simply looked over what they thought was a “generic” store brand OJ.

Another way Tropicana could have successfully navigated their brand repositioning, was to not change to many brand elements at the same time. Taking away the orange, replacing it with a glass of juice. Changing the font and location of the logo. Over simplifying the packaging. All of these changes happening at the same time was too much for consumers to be able to identify the product. Perhaps, if these changes were made gradually, over time, there would have been a more favorable outcome.

Companies these days are all about profit. But how many of these companies are taking stock in their environmental footprint, or joining and contributing to social causes that matter? Being successful these days is more than just the size of your bank account. I want to shine a spotlight on one of my favorite companies that is both socially AND ethically responsible.

Sea Witch Botanicals is my go to company for all my Zen needs. From incense, to perfumes, to bath soaks, to handmade soaps, and everything in between, they have the most heavenly scents and products. Not only are these products pleasing to the senses, they are all super sustainable. Here’s a peak at their mission statement. “Sea Witch Botanicals aims to keep the world’s water healthy by providing natural home and body products that are good for you, and the environment. ” Sea Witch Botanicals | Natural Incense & Vegan Body Products The website is constantly creating content on the ways which they honor, use, and give back to the environment in their daily operations. Even their product packaging is either recyclable, reusable, or biodegradable, proving their efforts in maintaining the environment is a top priority.

This company also really makes sure they are vocal about supporting a lot of different social causes. Right now, they are celebrating and advocating for the LGBTQIA+ community during the month of June, which is pride month. They have also dedicated time and resources to other social movements such as Black Lives Matter and supporting a wide array of indigenous people and organizations. What I really like about Sea Witch, is that they allow their customers to also be involved in these movements by having a % of their purchases go directly to these causes. It is so important for companies to realize that they have a social and ethical responsibility in order to gain more customers, likes, shares, views, and to have longevity.

While there have never been any super publicized incidents that the company has been involved in, no one is ever able to make the masses happy. Back on February 22, 2021, their blog featured a comment from a former customers, accusing them of trying to come off as political, rather than advocating for social and environmental issues (as was their goal). There was no legal implications from this issue, but I think the company handled the situation in an excellent way. What did they do? The negative comment from this former customer, originated as backlash from a blog (which you can read here: Environmental Racism: Our Impact Overseas – Sea Witch Botanicals) on environmental racism. The awesome team at Sea Witch Botanicals, rather than issuing an apology to this one (and only) disgruntled commenter, was to post more blogs on environmental racism and other social justice issues, furthering their cause and spreading of awareness. They capitalized on an opportunity to make more people aware of the issues they advocate for.

Sea Witch Botanicals is 100% ‘green for the environment’. The amount of money that they raise for different environmental and social causes is proof. They have weekly blogs giving customers an insider look into how they use the environment to create their sustainable products, as well as what they do to give back to the environment. Their much used hashtag is ‘#naturemissesyou’, encouraging their customers to get back to nature, and make a connection to the earth. They truly value their corporate and social responsibility, the world truly needs more companies like this! Check them out! (I suggest their vegan lip balm, White Lodge Incense, and ANY of their lip tints!)