Throughout this project, the Papacks audience was segmented into four groups, System Consumers: those who inherit waste, System Producers: those culpable of creating waste, System Legislators: those who regulate waste behavior and System Processors: those who process waste. This branding exercise examines the influencers within the System Consumers audience group to aid in future positioning.

The wellbeing guardians are passionate about finding low waste options to optimize personal and financial health. They intimately understand the relationship between consumables and the harmful and expensive effects they can have on humanity through pollutants and waste build-up. Instead of seeking a loud platform to preach their practices, they have an entirely different motivation. They seek to create communities of support and information with a gentle and inclusive approach. For the well being guardians, it’s about meeting people where they are with what they have and empowering them to make better decisions through education and resources.

Persona

Becca is a zero waste blogger, who found herself as a leader in the low waste community almost by accident. After experiencing a bad health scare in her 20s and facing massive student loan debt, she committed to making better decisions about what she bought and put into her body. She wanted to share things that improved her own life with others, and soon amassed a large following of people looking to learn together through shared experiences.

Insight

Consumers embrace habit changes of underconsumption when the community is forgiving and encouraging. This insight is important because humans often live by rigid structures that are difficult to maintain unless they’re completely emotionally committed: structures like veganism, CrossFit, zero waste, or religion. By giving people room to try, and by default, room to make mistakes, they are more likely to adopt underconsumption or better waste habits. The key takeaway from this insight is that one can build a more accountable consumer by inspiring and supporting them to do their best, but not requiring them to be perfect.

The Community Cultivators are resident locavores. They are passionate about uplifting and strengthening their community through local, green, small business practices. They believe protecting what they have and preserving it for posterity to be an instrumental part of why they do what they do everyday. They are motivated by their intrinsic need to provide and protect. For the community cultivators, providing for others now through their business endeavors, whether that be vegetable farming or bread baking, means that they are playing an active role in creating systems that preserve the future integrity of their community. And that can’t happen if their livelihoods are threatened by big business flooding their markets.

Persona

In a past life, Chuck was an investment banker on Wall Street, but the questionable practices sucked the life out of him. He hated harming others. So he relocated to San Antonio, Texas to become an organic beekeeper. The weekend farmers markets and deeply connected local artisan community mean the world to him. He has spent a large portion of his wealth-creating strong grassroots initiatives that protect the land and the livelihood of those he holds dearest. For him, local is a way of life, not just a buzzword.

Insight

People are more likely to make climate-conscious decisions when inaction poses an immediate threat to their health or the health of those they care about. Though it’s difficult for people to comprehend the threat of climate change and its effect on the future of the planet, they can comprehend immediate health threats and by making this personal, one can inspire action.

The Cycle Breakers are not about being warm and fuzzy, they are about taking action. They are dedicated digital natives actively seeking to use technology as a way to build groundswell and influence policy change at a local level. They are unapologetically brash, and make sure that all of their actions, like their killer petitioning skills, are used to great systemic change. They do not sit around and wait for others to make a difference, they are the difference. The Cycle breakers are deeply embedded in their communities, working at jobs like their college recycling center. They practice what they preach. They are the reason vintage is in. And they make community-building events cause-oriented. I’m talking about the protest regulars, who refuse to participate in harmful cycles of inaction that inhibit environmental justice.

Persona

Akeno, the Cycle Breaker persona, perfectly demonstrates this fiery, strong-willed commitment to change. After coming out as nonbinary in middle school, they faced systemic adversity. Because of these young hardships, they encompass an intersectional approach to the world rooted in empathy. They have an intimate understanding of the connectedness between climate change, human rights, and social justice. Their wide youtube following is dedicated to educating and empowering others to fight climate change by exercising political efficacy.

Insight

Education delivered through shared experiences becomes personal, palatable, and actionable while increasing accessiblity.

 < Cultural Audit

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Positioning >