What if your employee’s military background experiences were at the center of your marketing?
EcoVets is a furniture company that exclusively employees American veterans. They take old tractor trailers that Wal-Mart would discard into landfills and uses all of the valuable materials like oak and maple floors, aluminum siding, and converts it into a sustainable piece of furniture.
The parent company is called Ecoark. According to their web site…
Ecoark has centralized an organized, efficient waste-to-product network of retailers, suppliers, and sustainability service providers. EcoArk offers fully integrated solutions to a growing portfolio of innovative companies that are leading the new green generation. EvoVets is a new venture for EcoArk and is based in Springdale, Arkansas.
Table that Idea
At $15.00 per hour, each vet is provided with training and support that is difficult to find
in most companies today. This is a great way to serve several needs; EcoVet is trying to furnish opportunities to men and woman who served in the military who have many of the basic skills needed – they just can’t find an opportunity. And Wal-Mart has thousands of trailers they need to be discarded each year.
The furniture ranges in price from $500 to many thousands of dollars depending on the project. And from the early signs of success, they are expanding into places where there are excess trailers and military. North Carolina, my home state is a logical place to expand with a heritage of furniture building and substantial military presence. There are also excess trailers from places like Food Lion and Home Depot.
The Intersection of Two Needs
Marketing is often about seeing two ideas intersecting in a unexpected place. Our military is having difficulty find jobs and using their skills learned in oversea combat. We have many things used in commerce that get discarded and sent to landfills. How can those two ideas be brought together.
Are you in a business that is struggling to find a point of difference that someone really cares about? Could you find a trend, a need or a workforce that could bring a fresh and innovative dimension to the story you tell. Maybe your story could start with who works for you.
Time to get off your recliner and get to work.
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If you’d like to pick my marketing brain, you can do it through Clarity at this link.
All proceed are donated to Charity Water.
