BMW isn't selling a car they're are selling a lifestyle

BMW of North America recently won the Best Marketing Campaign by a Green Power Purchaser award. The award goes to companies that purchase or produce their own green power and actively promote their activities in a creative or compelling way.

BMW won the award with their new ActiveE electric vehicle. BMW offers ActiceE owners exciting new "accessories" for their new car such as renewable energy certificates or discounted solar photovoltaic panels for customers homes. Your new green education comes free. According to BMW buying the RECs offsets 9,900 pounds of carbon dioxide over the course of two years. By buying the solar panels for their homes customers can offset fueling costs by making their own clean energy.

BMW partnered with Green Mountain Energy Company and Real Good Solar to make this happen.

I really like the whole idea and feel of this campaign. Many people view hybrid or electric cars as the end all of saving gas and fossil fuels. They seem to forget that someone is still burning coal to supply them with the electricity that goes in their car. The ActiveE is starting to solve this problem. By selling customers discounted solar panels they are truly saving fossil fuels.  I also like that BMW's sustainability values are customer facing. It's great that they are encouraging and educating their customers to be conscious of sustainability issues in a very natural way. It doesn't feel forced. If BMW is truly serious about being green like they claim they have just made the customer end very green indeed and are on their way to a value chain with green on each end.

It will be interesting to see if this car/greener lifestyle takes off and if other hybrid/electric car companies start offering similar products. I think this is a much more positive direction to be moving in. Electric cars are cool but they use a lot of electricity that still comes from a very negative place. I would like to see more people powering their own cars like this. If more companies move in this direction I would definitely be more inclined to buy one myself.
 
You can read the full article at the source below:
http://www.hybridcars.com/best-marketing-campaign-by-a-green-power-purchaser-award-for-bmws-activee/