Coop and the conscious choice

by Eleonora Anello

On air alone it immediately had a wide coverage on the media. The more experienced communicators have called aggressive; we find it unusual and in many aspects a "trailblazer”. We're talking about the environmental communication campaign launched by Coop Italy, the Italian distribution giant, to discourage the purchase and consumption of a goods that sells: mineral water.

“Acqua di casa mia” (Water of my house) is characterized by the large budget made available (1 million euro), which allows it to combine the media and instore communication, through information packs and digital material. Media invitation to the Italians to use more tap water or, alternatively, to choose mineral water sources closer to ‘0 km’, an assigned to a spot that features the current testimonial of Coop, the comic Luciana Littizzetto. In stores, instead, it produces more space for information and technical data, to enable the consumer to make an informed choice through a scientific dossier on the nature of water, drawn up by experts and approved by the major international environmental organizations, in which the cooperative chose not to overreach, nor of that of tap water or bottled. There is a planned change of the image of the lanes, the reorganization of the department-water provides the "bookshelf speaker", or the presence of campaign posters, with precise indications of the sources with the provenance of the bottles through specific legends about different types of mineral waters and suggestions on how to correct for preventing domestic waste. Deleted also promotions on all waters.

The range of materials developed are not only addressed to members and consumers, who can keep in touch and discuss with each other also on the web within a specific community, but also involve employees through targeted training.

We expected a "green" impact, but inevitably those were commercial expectations, especially on products under its own brand: from the enlargement of the sources of Coop water (from 2 goes to 4, with a decrease in the average distance that the bottles have to go that is around 12%); to the sale of a filter jug.

The reply of the producers of mineral water wasn’t long in coming. Ettore Fortuna, president of Mineracqua, in defending the interests of the companies he represents, reveals that he has in the drawer, already for two months, a corporate campaign on the different types of water far from certain communications operations that aim to build on guilt, or that instill in the consumer the feeling of doing nasty things to the environment.

We can not predict to what extent Coop's campaign will persuade the people. However, we can probably say that it has opened a lively debate that we hope will develop into a constructive dialogue between the actors of the sector. Finally, Coop, as stated by the Chairman of the Board, Vincenzo Tassinari, through this campaign, seems to have made «an understandable, transparent and cheap offer that allows the consumer to choose consciously».