At this conference Patagonia discussed their
focus on quality and their impact on the environment. Patagonia looked to
transform the way its suppliers did business, and they succeeded. Patagonia has
also started an internship program for its employees. This internship allows the
employee to leave their job and work with an environmental group of their
choice. The internship lasts for two months, in which the employee still
receives their Patagonia paycheck.
Marketing Patagonia has always been very
concerned about the environment. Their marketing strategies show how concerned
they are with not harming the environment in any way. Patagonia will not
participate in some types of promotion because of the effects on the
environment, such as billboards. Patagonia does a large portion of their sales
through catalogs. Four Catalogs are produced each year; all of them are printed
on recycled paper. Inside the catalog clothing made from recycled products are
easily identified with a picture of the product that was recycled. Executives at
Patagonia feel their “green marketing” is doing a great job. They feel Patagonia
is doing its part to keep the environment clean. There is also a feeling that
their marketing department is doing a good job in letting the consumer know
about their products and how they are made. Through outside research it has been
found that the general public is not aware of the efforts Patagonia has taken to
save the environment. Furthermore a majority of shoppers who were polled at the
Salt Lake City Patagonia outlet did not even know about the companies effort to
help the environment in any way. Our group polled 135 people from all over the
Salt Lake valley.
The questionnaire read as follows. 1. Are you familiar with
Patagonia? Yes/No 2. What is your impression of Patagonia? 3. Are you aware that
Patagonia donates 1% of sales to non-profit environmental groups? Yes/No If yes,
what is your opinion of that? 4. Knowing that they do donate to environmental
groups how will this influence your buying behavior? 5. How much more/less would
you pay for a product knowing that the company donates money to environmental
groups? Why? Male/Female Age: 17& under 18-25 25-30 30-35 35-45 45+ 68% were
male and 32% female. The ages ranged from 18 to 40 with 51% being in the 18-25
range and 23% being in the 25-30 range. 79% of people polled knew of Patagonia.
Only 40% of people polled in the Salt Lake Patagonia outlet knew that the
company donated money to environmental groups and only 33% polled outside of
Patagonia knew that money was donated. Those numbers pertaining to Patagonia are
not appealing. Patagonia is doing a great job in helping the environment but
they are not getting their message heard. They have themselves in a “Catch 22”
situation. They want people to hear about what they are doing to help the
environment but they do not want to advertise because they feel it is wasting
natural resources. The research showed that 52% of people polled were not
influenced by the fact that money was being donated to the environment. The
research also showed that 51% were not willing to pay more for a product even if
the company is donating money to the environment. Interviews Two interviews were
conducted, one with Susan Miley (assistant to the CEO) and the other with Hal
Thompson (Public Affairs).
