Lewis Haselock

Individual Project
Thursday, 22 November 2018

Bio Box

1.1………………………………..Background
2.1…………………….The Problem/Solution
3.1………………………………………PEST
4.1……………………………………..SWOT
5.1……………………………Past Promotions
6.1………………………………..Competition
7.1……………………………Target Audience
8.1……………………………..Media Strategy
9.1………………………..Campagin execution

1.1 Background

Plastic pollution has been around since 1907 when Leo Hendrik Baekeland
invented a substance called Bakelite. This substance is now mixed into
resins to make the everyday material known as plastic. Bakelite is made up
phenol and formaldehyde which is infusible and a chemically resistant
plastic making it very hard to dispose of, this discovered in the 20th century
when plastic started to build up in many places, from the bottom of the sea
to inside animals. In 1950 the world produced only 2 million tonnes of plastic
per year. Since then, annual production has increased nearly 200-fold,
reaching 381 million tonnes in 2015. For context, this is roughly equivalent to
the mass of two-thirds of the world population (Ritchie 2018).
 2.1 The Problem/ Solution
Approximately 51 trillion microscopic pieces of plastic surface the earth as
we speak, this amount exceeds the number of stars in our galaxy 500 times.
There are 500x more plastic on our planet than there are stars in our galaxy…
This shows that change is needed and needed fast. There is no singular
solution to cut down plastic pollution, it will take many small changes and
the commitment of everyone to put a stop to plastic pollution.

The proposition is to create a box containing a selection of bathroom items

that are all biodegradable, although this would be a small change, it targets
a wide range of people and could lead to making a massive difference. Why
bathroom items? Alone 3.5 billion toothbrushes are sold worldwide each
year, when disposed of most of these toothbrushes end up in a land fill and
the ones made from polypropylene plastic and nylon will not break down,
worse case these toothbrushes will then reach rivers and even the seas.
Affecting the habitats of the wildlife living in these areas. Even if 5% of the
population switched to using biodegradable bathroom items, we’d cut out
one hundred and seventy-five million toothbrushes being wasted every
year.

3.1 PEST Analysis

3.1.1 Political

Over the last few years plastic pollution has become a much bigger issue
which has lead to it hitting the public consciousness. This meaning the
government have a lot more to say about the issues and a lot more has been
done to cut down on it. One major change the government have engaged is
the banning of select items causing a lot of the plastic waste, these items
including; plastic straws, micro beads, disposable coffee cups and cotton
buds. These may seem like insignificant things to ban but in America alone
500 Million plastic straws are used every day, that's one hundred eighty-two
billion five hundred million straws every year. The government also brought
in the 5p carrier bag tax in October 2015 encouraging people to bring their
own reusable bags with them and opting out of buying the plastic ones. This
then lead to some supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury’s to completely
ban the 5p bag and only sell the 10p bag for life. In conclusion the
government is very on-board with stopping plastic pollution going any
further.

3.1.2 Economical

Doug Woodring, founder of Ocean Recovery Alliance stated that plastic

pollution costs around $13 Million, the estimate is said to be higher or lower,
It depends how wide-ranging you want to incorporate the externalities of
waste (Woodring 2014). Thus meaning when including factors like the cost
of human health, wildlife etc, the price of plastic pollution can rise
drastically. In the UK Theresa May has allocated a budget of £61.4 of taxes
payers money to help cut plastic pollution. £25m of the fund will be used to
help researchers investigate the issue of marine plastic from a scientific,
economic and social perspective. A further £20m will be used to kerb plastic
and other environmental pollution generated by manufacturing in
developing countries and prevent it entering the oceans. The remaining
£16.4m will be devoted to improving waste management at a national and a
city level to stop plastics entering the water (Guardian 2018).

3.1.3 Social

The plastic that enters the oceans also has a major effect on human health.
Plastic contains toxins which when entering the ocean break down and then
consumed by animals such as fish, which are then consumed by humans.
Direct toxicity from plastics comes from lead, cadmium, and mercury. These
toxins have also been found in many fish in the ocean, which is very
dangerous for humans. These toxins are also directly linked to cancers, birth
defects, immune system problems, and childhood developmental issues.
(Andrews 2012). On average a seafood lover will consume up to 11,000
pieces of plastic every year. 139 pieces of plastic were found on every 240g
of fillet, salmon was 75 pieces and 72 for cod (Mullin 2018).

3.1.4 Technological
N/A
 4.1 SWOT Analysis

4.1.2 Strengths

Reduction of plastic pollution: As 2018 has been a big year for cutting down
on plastic pollution BioBox adds to that in being a small solution in itself,
hence the slogan “Help change the world one box at a time”.

Variable options and prices: There is no singular price with the products
sold, although the subscription box is the main concentration point in
selling, there are other products sold to offer other options to customers.

Uniqueness: There is no other company doing the same thing. BioBox is one
of a kind.

Quick and Simple: Customers wont have to worry about anything after
purchasing the subscription, it will arrive once a month, to the door.
Eliminating the repetitive back and forth to the shops.

4.1.3 Weaknesses

Lack of capital: Funding for the project will merely be personal with no
funding, which means the start up would be a slow process.

Lack of reputation: The brand isn’t well known or well established yet again
meaning sales could be slow to start with.

Uniqueness: Although being unique is good, it can also be considered bad.

As BioBox is one of a kind people may be cautious when investing money,
especially with the subscription option.
 4.1.4 Opportunities

Working with other companies: As the concept and aims of BioBox are to
help reduce plastic pollution, opportunities may arise to work with other
brands or even charities to help put a stop to plastic pollution.

Gap in the market: The market has a big gap for a product that allows the
public to feel as though they are helping cut plastic as well, not just the
government and scientists.

4.1.5 Threats

Product quantity: Hard to gauge how many boxes to produce for a first
batch, too much may lead to not making a profit and too little may lead to
bad advertisement and reviews.

5.1 Past Promotions

Plastic pollution and advertising have worked together for a fair few years
now, as it affects us all it has a big niche in the market and needs to be made
aware. In the last 10 years many big companies have got involved with
plastic pollution and worked with the movement to create advertisements
alongside helping try to cut down on plastic pollution, for example Adidas
took to the plastic pollution scene when introducing their Ocean Plastic
Shoes. The shoes released were all made up of 11 plastic bottles fished from
the ocean helping promote the importance of recycling and cutting down on
plastic. They also released a yoga collection also made from recycled ocean
plastic.
 5.1.1
WWF Serial Killer Campaign.

Due to creating a whole new brand obviously there aren’t any past
promotions. There are companies that sell subscription boxes and brands
that have created advertisement campaigns on plastic pollution. WWF or
Worldwide Fund for Nature have produce some amazing campaigns in the
past to inform people of the seriousness of plastic pollution. WWF worked
with the Miami school of advertising to create The serial killer campaign. It
consisted of 4 poster advertisements as shown below.

When viewing plastic pollution advertisements they all show the same
characteristics, they all show the cruel reality of what humans are doing to
the planet. Take the graphic smoking images placed on cigarette boxes,
their purpose is to inform people of the seriousness of what smoking can do.
It's the psychology of the advertisement that makes the consumer think,
which is what the Serial Killer adverts purpose is, so when people see them
they THINK and feel bad which hopefully causes them to change their
actions towards plastic pollution and take it more seriously.

5.1.2
Dollar Shave club. Ours/Theirs

Dollar shave club is a very successful subscription box, looking at their past
promotions its clear that simplicity was their goal and they achieved that with
their Ours/Theirs campaign as shown below.

This advertisement clearly focusing on the price of the blades and showing
that both blades are the same in looks and purpose, so why pay more when
you can pay less for an even better quality blade. A simple advert with a
powerful message is clearly key when working with subscription boxes and
plastic pollution advertisement, so bringing these two together will allow the
campaign to thrive.
 6.1 Competition
As it stands there are no competitors with the same idea or concept as
BioBox, however, there are two sides of competition when it comes to this
campaign. The first is, the products that are included in the box are sold
individually by other companies meaning this campaign/project would be in
competition with these companies. The companies include Mamboo
Bamboo, Georganics Bamboo and Humble Co Humble. There are also
different competitors when it comes to the subscription box side of things.
For example dollar shave club and graze, two very popular subscription
boxes. There is also a massive market for home made and micro business to
start their own subscription boxes, some of these include geek boxes, cup
cake boxes and many more/ There isn’t exactly a gap in the market for
subscription boxes, but there is when it comes to the content of the box,
especially content that can help make a big change to the environment and
plastic pollution. Shown below are example break downs of the competition.
 7.1 Target Audience

Plastic Pollution effects everyone, so really the target audience is all of us?
Although this is true for plastic pollution as a whole, the niche is far too vast
to aim a campaign at. With a box supplying biodegradable bathroom items
there are a few niches to target. The main area includes the extremists when
it comes to cutting down on plastic pollution, for example;
environmentalists, vegans, people who have given up plastic or single use
plastics and people working in areas such as, sea life and land animals like
marine biologists, vets etc. These people would generally be the best to
target as they are the most passionate about it, usually because they are the
most involved with it and se the affects of it day in day out.

7.1.2 Target Audience Break down.

-Age range between 21-55 years old.

-Home owners/ renting an apartment.

-Stable income earning anything from £18,000+ annually.

-Interested and passionate about the future of our planet regarding

pollution and global warming.

-Recycles as much as they possibly can.

-Ideally to start with, vets, environmentalists, marine biologists, zoo

keepers, people working with animals on a day to day basis. People working
on helping the environment.

7.1.3 Pen picture

7.1.4 Positioning
 8.1 Media strategy

A media strategy is a plan of action that helps businesses reach their target
audience, and by reaching their target audience, they improve their overall
conversion rate. When trying to capture the attention of a niche market, it's
important to know the exact demographic and what will get their attention in
the most effective way (Lake 2018)

A combination of advertising including; Posters indoor and outdoor, Social

media posts using instagram, FaceBook and twitter. Along with 2
promotional videos/ advertisements.

8.1.2 Overview

The flow of the campaign must maintain a solid structure with a dedicated
team who are passionate about the main goals. The campaign will include
posters with a powerful message behind them alongside 2 video based
advertisements again with powerful messages. Partnerships will also be
included in the campaign, using bigger companies statuses to help boost
the campaigns reach.

8.1.3 Timeline

For this campaign to be successful and lead to the consumers wanting more
and staying with the brand in buying their products, the impact needs to be
big. The consumers need to feel as though the campaign can actually
change the future for our planet and them buying the product provided they
are helping in doing so. The main push of the campaign will take place from
May-September, this is when a lot of the main talks about plastic pollution
and global warming takes place, meaning there's more of a chance in
getting promotions there and collaborations.
 9.1 Campaign execution
Logo

Colours.

Only two colours are used in the logo, simply because the brand is very
natural, with a natural and earthy feel to the designs, vibrant colours
would not work with the logo and the identity of the brand.
Box Design and contents.



 Slogan

“Help change the world one box at a time”

Posters
These two posters are more about the concept and the idea and the message it
perceives, rather than the actual design. It’s more of a harsh reality into what
plastic pollution is doing, which will hopefully lead to the viewer thinking and
hopefully be inspired to make a change.
 Video Advert

Bio Box

The video advert would consist of a man going about his daily life, getting
up, walking to the shops, the camera would then pan to his face looking
shocked and struggling for breath, camera would slowly pull out to a plastic
wrap around his neck. The aim of the advert is to put humans in the positions
of the animals effected by our plastic pollution.
 App

LINK TO VIDEO BELOW

https://vimeo.com/306439365

References

Hannah Ritchie, Max Roser. (2018). Plastic Pollution. Available:

https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution. Last accessed 22nd
Nov 2018.

Press Association. (2018). Government sets aside £60m to fight

scourge of plastic waste. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/
environment/2018/apr/14/government-sets-aside-fund-to-fight-
plastic-waste-oceans. Last accessed 24th Nov 2018.

David Kirby. (2014). Ocean Plastic Pollution Costs $13 Billion a

Year, and Your Face Scrub Is Part of the Problem. Available:
http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/06/30/ocean-plastic-
pollution-costs-13-billion-year-and-your-face-scrub-part-problem.
Last accessed 24th Nov 2018.

Gianna Andrews. (2012). Plastics in the Ocean Affecting Human

Health. Available: https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/
health/case_studies/plastics.html. Last accessed 24th Nov 2018.

Gemma Mullin. (2018). Here’s how much plastic YOU eat and
breathe – as test reveals particles in shop-bought fish. Available:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5843470/plastic-pollution-
supermarket-fish/. Last accessed 25th Nov 2018.
Laura Lake . (2018). Creating a Media Strategy. Available: https://
www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-a-media-strategy-and-how-do-
you-create-your-own-2295517. Last accessed 8th Dec 2018.