Client: Malcolm Pirnie
Service: Concept Introduction
Background
White Plains, NY-based Malcolm Pirnie, a 100-year-old company and one of the nation’s leading environmental consulting firms, wanted to change the thinking of an entire industry.
As competition tightened for municipal consulting dollars, consulting firms that traditionally only advised municipalities on design, construction and efficiency issues had begun to expand their scope and perform construction and operations work as well. This created potential for conflict of interest. The basic tenet of consulting, providing objective analyses and recommendations, was at risk.
After interviewing several marketing communications firms, including three based in New York City, Malcolm Pirnie hired Kröme Communications to help issue a “wake-up call” to the country’s most important municipalities, many of whom were using consultants to help them analyze the merits of privatizing. A number of articles were beginning to appear about problems with conflict of interest where privatizing was an issue. Industry awareness was increasing. The timing was right.
Strategy
After discussions with several municipal leaders and Malcolm Pirnie management, Kröme developed a five-part direct mail series targeting 2,500 highly qualified municipal officials. The following mailers arrived one week apart:
- A “Wake-up Call” in a greeting card format that included an electronic musical chip that played Reveille.
- A fold-out mailer titled “Storm on the Horizon” that warned of a dangerous trend in the environmental consulting industry that could put municipal officials at risk.
- A “kinetic” mailer that illustrated how the consultant’s role has become “jumbled” and “confused.”
- A before-and-after newspaper headline that showed the consequences suffered by one municipality that was burned when a consultant’s recommendation proved to be biased.
- A three-dimensional mailer that included a water-filled computer mouse pad with a brochure featuring Malcolm Pirnie’s “Declaration of Independence.” It explained why Malcolm Pirnie will not collaborate with any firm involved in any other aspect of privatizing and why municipalities have to be independent of consultants whose judgment might be affected if they serve as both consultant and contractor.
Results
Municipal officials throughout the country have welcomed the attention that Malcolm Pirnie directed to this growing problem. The company is being praised for raising a very timely, important ethical issue.
Most significantly, many municipalities began to include conflict-of-interest clauses in their requests for bids. Malcolm Pirnie management assessed the results of the programs as “far above expectations.”