Saturday, August 30, 2008

Green Marketing .....

it can mean a number of different things at Midland H-E-B. A couple of examples I saw this weekend were pretty smart.

You encounter the first kind of green marketing long before you enter the doors of the store, as you're walking across the parking lot and a chance puff of wind, from the right direction, fills your nostrils with a wonderful aroma. If you're from New Mexico, you recognize it as a sure and certain indicator that summer is over and fall is upon us... you think of "home" in the Land of Enchantment and all that entails - especially at mealtime.

It's the smell of green chile peppers, fresh-picked from the field around Hatch, in southern New Mexico, and being roasted for you as you wait ... an annual tradition in New Mexico, and now available for Midlanders, courtesy of H-E-B. and the New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service.
Of course, you can purchase the chiles raw, then take them home and roast them yourself. But I'd rather watch and listen to the barrel spinning, while jets of flame shoot through the mesh walls and roast the skins of the peppers tumbling inside. All the while, you're visiting with whoever is in charge of the operation at the moment (when I took the above photo, it was Victor, the gentleman on the right).

And while you buy the chiles, everything else is free - the roasting service, a booklet of recipes, a sheet of instructions for freezing fresh-roasted chile, and a free DVD - "Get Your Fix: New Mexico Chile Cooking Demos."

Kudos, H-E-B and the State of New Mexico, for outstanding green (chile pepper) marketing!

Another example, this one inside the store, was more like what might come to mind when you think "green marketing." By now, you've probably seen plenty of those green fabric tote bags that H-E-B has been selling, which people can use and re-use for carrying groceries home - rather than disposable plastic bags. I know I've seen plenty of them ... and not just going in and out of the store, but around town, being used whenever someone needs a handy, sturdy tote-bag (which also helps spread H-E-B's brand around town).

Well, now, this bit of green marketing is going orange ... a particular shade of orange that holds special appeal for boosters of the University of Texas, a slogan and a logo have been added to these particular tote-bags to boost that Longhorn appeal. I'm wondering if we may someday see some maroon bags as well. But however it ends, it has begun well, and I'm hoping somebody in the marketing department at H-E-B's corporate office has been adequately compensated for another good example of green marketing.

2 comments:

That Janie Girl said...

Steve and I stopped by yesterday, as well, and enjoyed the same aroma of the roasting green chilies.

Nothing like it, I say...nothing at all.

Jeff said...

Janie, absotively ... hope you two took some home. Me? I've always preferred New-Mex-Mex over Tex-Mex, and I've been doing A LOT with green chile peppers the past week or so.