I have watched with much bemusement as a mini Afghan war played itself out in the energy industry here in the UK.
It’s a supposedly simple case. Yet it befuddles the mind to a great extent as you’re forced to ponder on a flurry of questions and struggle for answers:
Is this a brand war designed to gain some increasingly important market share?
Is it the classic cultural battle that’d raged on for eons between theFrench and the English bobbing under the surface?
Is the claim by the smaller of the two on ethical issues just or is it that the bigger entity is just being hypocritical and sneaking unto current public emotions about climate change?
The Protagonist
Dale Vince to most people was a hippie living out in worn ex-military vehicles on hills and using windmills to power the lights and stuff. After 10 years on the road ‘searching for an alternative way to live’, he figured the answer wasn’t exactly being a perpetual ‘new age traveler’. According to him, on his website zerocarbonista.com, “That’s when I was inspired to ‘drop in’ and promote the use of large-scale wind energy – to bring change to the electricity industry. That was the start of this long journey”.
Pronto! All of that post-oil world philosophy and ‘green living’ was condensed into an energy company called ‘Ecotricity’.
Vince sure knows how and when to pick his strategic battles. When Tony Blair gave way to Gordon Brown, he took out a full page ad in The Guardian.
The page was filled up with the UNION JACK with the message: “an icon for change.The New Green Union Jack symbolises that change; a change in attitude, a positive new green energy ambition, and a new unity. Britain can come together if we focus on our common cause, it’s called climate change.”
He said of the ad later, “We’ve needed a change in power for a very long time. A change in power from Carbon to Renewable. Today I’d like to take Gordon at his word, I’d like to engage in an open debate on energy, environment and community – bring people together with a shared sense of national purpose so that we, Britain, have a say in the future of our country and can make sure we have one.”
Since then, that green Union Jack image had come to symbolise Ecotricity. And it would become the crux of battle in the unfolding marketing war.
The Antagonist
Enters Electricite de France, the state-owned energy company better known as EDF. This French concern supplies electricity to about 25% of British homes. It employs several thousands of British citizens and is planning on major extensions.
EDF is pumping money into the 2012 Olympics and is encouraging people to adopt a lower carbon footprint lifestyle.
It’s just that there are a few sticky points on its CV. EDF is the world’s biggest corporate producer of nuclear waste. They’re also one of the biggest traders and burners of coal – with a tiny fleet of windmills (0.7% of their generation).
So when off the back of it’s sponsorship of the Olympics it began a ferocious ‘Green Britain’ campaign with the slogan ‘Do something green for he team’ complete with the same green Union Jack symbol Ecotricity launched some 3 odd years earlier, you know the fireworks would fly.
The Fallout
Ecotricity have launched a legal action against the French giant for ‘stealing’ its planet-friendly Union Jack logo.. And they’re not alone. British Gas and Npower have drawn up adverts ridiculing EDF July 10th 2009 day of celebrations, saying ‘everyday’ is green Britain inside their companies.
Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF Energy contends that: “We want to harness the power of the Games to bring people together across communities to take collective action against climate change.”
Dale Vince insists that the initiative should be dubbed Greenwash Day “to celebrate that relatively modern phenomenon of companies trying to sell themselves as being rather greener and more ethical than they are”.
Meanwhile, British Gas began a campaign with the slogan “is thinking about new ways to be green every single day” while Npower is rolling out its own educational programme, Climate Cops, starring the strapline: “Everyday’s a green day for Climate Cops.”
What do you think?
It’s a fine line for me. While admitting that the use of the Union Jack icon is a blatant nicking of an idea, I believe the issue of climate change is far bigger than any single brand and if I’d invested millions in sponsoring the Great Games, would it not be foolhardy not to milk the opportunity?
Yet we have to ask, before public opinion swayed heavily towards green living and before the Olympic Games, what was EDF’s strategic intent and positioning other than churning out large swathes of nuclear waste and burning more coal than everyone else?
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