Socially-Enabled Marketing: Seventh Generation

Top Line Result: Website with multiple social features increases engagement for top consumer brand.

Situational Analysis

Seventh Generation is the nation's leading brand of nontoxic and environmentally friendly household and personal care products, with distribution in thousands of natural product, big box and grocery stores nationwide, along with widespread distribution through the etail channel. Service and Inspiration are integral pieces of their mission. Seventh Generation is dedicated to setting the standard for superior service and to providing consumers with the resources and inspiration they need to make informed, responsible decisions. They wanted a new website that enhanced those core values while addressing the following enterprise specific needs:

• Full social media integration needed to tie Seventh Generation’s Twitter and Facebook presences more closely to the main site.
• The products section had to be very robust to handle multiple product lines.
• To handle heavy monthly page views, hosting had to be enterprise-grade.
• The company wanted to outsource hosting to minimize use of in-house IT resources, improve performance, and add scalability.
• They also needed maximum flexibility for expansion: it needed to be simple to add additional features or incorporate additional third-party backend applications.

 Strategy & Solution

OHO developed a new website that integrated multiple social media, community, and upselling features, while migrating over Seventh Generation’s impressive existing library of content. Built in Drupal6, the site includes multiple modes of user engagement and blends community features with content, including a new rewards program that integrates seamlessly with a backend database to track and respond to member activities. The redesign included numerous features to improve conversions.

• The membership program 7th Gen Nation, which integrates a rewards program, game elements, challenges, and video, encourages multiple visits to accumulate points, thereby promoting visitor loyalty. On the homepage, customers are urged to “Join the Nation,” with a panel of member images that’s familiar from other social media platforms.
• Cross-selling and upselling features are integrated with every product page, suggesting products consumers might also buy based on demographic profiles and product type.
• Full social media integration ties the website to Seventh Generation’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube presences. The result has been a  immediate increase in likes and followers. A dynamic slider on the homepage and other high level pages allows the company to showcase their family-friendly environmental brand, promote specific products based on seasonality and customer buying trends, unveil promotions, and highlight new product launches. The slider is easily customized to the specific page contents for maximum flexibility.
• The company maintained their #1 rank for “organic cleaning products” during and after the transition to the new site. Drupal features for integrated SEO mean that users can optimize new content easily.
• An open template for customized landing pages allows marketing maximum control over landing pages for paid search, email marketing, and other initiatives, with everything from headers to redirects made completely flexible. Marketing can create landing pages for new campaigns quickly and easily.
• Acquia provides the enterprise-level hosting to maintain a site of Seventh Generation’s size and be scalable as the product line and community expand.
• Ongoing content marketing initiatives, such as the popular video series, “Ask Sue,” and “Ask Scienceman” are given new life with increased branding.

The site launched with great feedback from Seventh Generation and has shown to be keeping visitors engaged and on the site longer, with a climb in average pages per visit.
"OHO is a great partner for Seventh Generation. Their technical expertise is top-notch, and even better, our team there really understands our business goals," says Robin Kamen, General Manager, Digital for Seventh Generation.