FALL 2023

A REASON TO BE THANKFUL

AS WE CELEBRATE R2’S HERITAGE

Hello Katrina,

Hello, and welcome to the second edition of our Marketing Minute Newsletter, where we dive into the marketing side of the conversations we are having and the tools we are building to support R2 Certified Facilities. 

While this time of year signals a time for change, it’s also a time to be thankful as here in my home in the US we celebrate Thanksgiving in November. And we have a lot to be thankful for! You may have read that we celebrated a milestone in September when we surpassed the 1,000 R2 Certified Facility mark for good, and we continue to see growth all around the world as there are now R2 Certified Facilities in 40 countries.

We believe having a better understanding of the history of R2 will help Certified Facilities communicate the value of their certification to current and prospective customers so if you haven’t read our look-back at the origins of R2 and its evolution over the years since the release of the first R2 Standard in 2008, it’s worth the read! 

We also wanted to thank those who have utilized the marketing material in the R2 Resource Center. We are thrilled to see marketing and sales teams using our templates on social media and downloading resources to help promote their R2 Certification. We’ve added more great tools to the Resource Center, including Marketing quick-start guides, as well as some new marketing copy for Q&As that we know you get from customers and some new social media post ideas. Give it a look and if you have any questions, let us know! 

As always, we want to hear from you and what we can do to help you. Please drop us a line in our marketing inbox and let us know how we’re doing.

CUSTOMER MATURITY MODEL FOR ITAD

In this fall edition of the Marketing Minute, we want to continue the conversation about Sustainable ITAD that you’ve probably heard us talking about. If somehow you’ve missed it, we are constantly talking to a range of customers from sustainability teams to procurement to ITAMS, IT pros, and the C-Suite about the benefits of shifting from ITAD to Sustainable ITAD, and giving them a roadmap for how to get there.  

While there are many steps they can take on this journey, the last, and most important decision is who they choose as an ITAD partner. To make their ITAD sustainable, they’ve got to find a partner who will do the right things with all their devices – and not just the stuff with the highest remarketing value. They need a partner who will test and repair everything that can be reused, sanitize data on these devices - without physical destruction - and responsibly recycle all the devices without reuse value.  

Of course, every vendor is going to tell them they’ll do the right things, but we all know that in many cases, there’s economic incentives that favor cutting some corners. So how can customers know who will and who won’t support Sustainable ITAD? Your R2 Certification is how they’ll know. 

Now, as we’ve been having these customer conversations along the way, we started to notice some patterns, and from them, we built what we are calling the Customer Maturity Model of ITAD. We’re sharing this with you here because we have found it helpful in segmenting customers into groupings and tailoring conversations based on where their organization falls on the pyramid. And keep in mind, we’re basing this off all the organizations we are talking to, regardless of size or industry. 

BUILD PYRAMID ONE LAYER AT A TIME 

The base level of the pyramid is where the bulk of companies are when it comes to ITAD. They aren’t thinking all that much about their electronics when they are done with them, and their primary goal is simply to move out the old devices. These are the customers who are looking for someone to “take it all for free” and while you can find some value here, this typically isn’t a place where you want to play.

The next level up has customers that are a bit more sophisticated, as they’ve realized their old devices still have value. Their primary goal in their ITAD is to maximize their remarketing dollars. This too is a tough client to chase and a hard way to do business because they are only interested in return, which means you only compete on price and you are always vulnerable to another ITAD provider who is willing to cut corners to pay customers more. 

The next level is where it starts to become interesting, because this is where you can really start to leverage your R2 Certification. At this level, customers have begun to understand the risks associated with ITAD as it pertains to data, and that it’s worth trading off a bit of the remarketing dollars to ensure their partner is protecting them from data breaches. R2 and Appendix B’s data requirements become powerful differentiation points with these customers, and at this level, as a facility you can sell your R2 Certification as a solution to their needs.

Next up are customers that also understand that beyond data, there are additional risks to their brand within the ITAD function. This generally involves an understanding of the complexities and implications of legal compliance. Again, your R2 Certification provides a very compelling differentiator for this customer segment as you explain to them how your R2 Certification includes best practices for data security and legal compliance.

And finally, at the top of the model are the most sophisticated customers, who not only understand the data and compliance risks within ITAD, but also understand how their used electronics play into their ESG and CSR (corporate social responsibility) goals. With these customers, you can talk about how verifiable reuse positively impacts their carbon footprint and creates a powerful social story of bridging the digital divide. Working with R2 Certified facilities can also satisfy the governance side of ESG within ITAD – working with an organization that not only follows the highest standards for electronics reuse and recycling but is independently audited to ensure they are meeting or exceeding those standards puts strong controls of governance in place around ITAD. 

You’ll notice that the pyramid gets narrower the further up you go, but there are three very important things to note. First, though they are smaller in number at the top, these are the customers that are willing to pay for services and aren’t just chasing the remarketing dollars, so there are higher margins in these segments. Second, the customers at the top tend to have a larger inventory of newer and higher quality devices, while customers at the bottom tend to have lower-value or near end-of-life electronics. And third, as we continue to have these conversations and as ESG continues to become a bigger driver, this pyramid is going to invert – customers will become more sophisticated and those at the bottom will become fewer and fewer.  

We hope this discussion helps your marketing and sales teams think about segmenting potential customers and then positioning your R2 Certification into your message in ways that are most important to them.  

We have been having several conversations with different R2 Certified Facilities, and we are loving the interaction, so please keep reaching out. One thing we love to hear about is the conversations you have been having with your customers. These are businesses and organizations that are making great strides toward sustainability, and we’d love to add your learning to ours. Our goal is to always provoke, inspire, and educate, and as an R2 Certified Facility, you play a big role in that progress. It takes more than a village to achieve a truly circular economy and electronics sustainability. 



So, once again, thank you for being a part of this progress. We hope the rest of your 2023 is healthy, productive, and, fruitful and we will see you with the next newsletter in the new year!

Jeff Seibert 

Chief Provocateur