“Blood cells” letter writing campaign: 6 for 6.

I’ve been thinking about something I’ve heard a lot in marketing and
political circles that political ministers and CEO treat hand written
letters like the voices of 1000 constituents or customers.

So this post is to launch a letter writing campaign to cell phone
manufacturers to demand they take action to rid their products of Congo
coltan.

How many letters should get written? Well, I figure if one letter
represents a thousand people then 6000 letters represent the nearly 6
million Congolese people who have died in the Congo wars. So that’s the
goal: 6000 letters for 6 million people. 6 for 6.

6 for 6 by Christmas as our gift to the Congolese people.

When you write your letter leave a comment on this post. If you know
someone who doesn’t have access to the Internet spread to word to them
and help them out by leaving a comment for them or tell them they call
in to my audio comment line at 1-206-202-6340 and tell us they’ve
written one. (And someone please step up to help me turn the audio
comments into blog comments because I’ll need it)

So what does this have to do with marketing the social economy?
Well, I’ve always known that marketing the social economy is different
from regular marketing in some key ways and the issue of coltan in cell
phones has highlighted one of those ways. Social economy marketers are
activists in the sense that, by definition, they are trying to change
the world. And they are trying to change it in one of the most
fundamental ways: through providing fair alternatives to the dominant
economic system. Sometimes that means going beyond just focusing on the
product and sometimes that means choosing sides. This is one of those
times on both counts.

So, here’s a draft letter you can use:

Dear [CEO name],

I am writing to you as a concerned [COMPANY NAME] customer about a very important issue.

It has come to my attention that most electronics equipment, mainly
cell phones and video game consoles, contain the element tantalum that
comes from the substance coltan. The Democratic Republic of the Congo
has anywhere from 64 – 80 percent of the world’s reserve of coltan
which has helped fuel vicious wars for over a decade. However, although
these wars have contributed to the deaths of nearly 6 million people
since 1996, the conflict continues virtually unnoticed by the world in
spite of the direct link between the illegal exploitation of coltan and
the conflict in the DRC. So, instead of the vast resources of the DRC
benefiting its people they are getting them killed. Meanwhile,
companies such as Germany’s HC Stark and the American company, Cabot
Corp., are making large profits selling tantalum extracted from coltan,
some of which, without doubt comes from illegal Congolese mines.

Given this, I am writing to ask you to take immediate steps to use
your power to demand that companies down your supply chain provide you
with independent third party verification that any Congolese coltan
they sell you comes from legal sources and benefits the Congolese
people.

Thank you.

Nokia – Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, President and CEO, Nokia Corporation, P.O. Box 226, FI-00045 Nokia Group, Finland

Motorola – Greg Brown, President and CEO, Motorola, 1303 E. Algonquin Rd., Schaumburg, Illinois, USA 60196

Apple – Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Corp., 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, 95014, USA

I am also curious to really test the power of social media to see if it can help make this campaign fly.

Let the writing begin!