Social Marketing Plan for Florida State University Sustainable Campus:

Bring Your Own Coffee

Tia Nicholson: snn19b@fsu.edu

Abby Marcil: ajm20dj@fsu.edu

Erin Miller: ebm20b@fsu.edu

Jordyn Metz: jmm19q@fsu.edu

Sam Gomez: sg19s@fsu.edu

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Background

Caffeine was consumed by 92% of college students in 2019 (Mahoney et al., 2019). This

increased coffee consumption results in large quantities of single-use plastic in landfills.

Additionally, United States citizens throw away more than 50 billion disposable coffee cups

every year (Earth Day Organization, 2022). The U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council

explains that plastic production not only has a negative impact on the environment and

animals–with plastic killing or contaminating millions of marine animals each year–but it also

has negative effects on the climate (Lindwall, 2020). Plastic in landfills reacts with sunlight and

gives off greenhouse gasses that can cause global warming (Monast, 2022). Greenhouse gases

trap radiation, which can warm the Earth’s surface and harm human and environmental health.

(EIA, 2022).

Purpose

As expressed by FSU Sustainable Campus, the purpose of this social marketing campaign

is to decrease the use of single-use plastic on the Florida State University campus in order to

reduce the negative impact of plastics on the environment and climate.

Focus

The focus selected for this campaign is for students to make coffee at home rather than

purchase it to reduce single-use plastic coffee cups across Florida State University’s campus.

This behavior would benefit not only the environment but is also realistic for students to adopt

given that it is often cheaper and more time efficient to make coffee at home. In fact, making

coffee at home can save students up to $1,961 per year, depending on the recipe and where they

buy coffee (Rosen, 2021).

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Situation Analysis

Internal Strengths

Florida State University (FSU) is currently making an effort to establish and maintain a

more sustainable campus by promoting recycling, reduction in plastic use, and other

environmentally significant efforts. FSU alongside Sustainable Campus encourages student

involvement in making environmentally conscious decisions (FSU Sustainable Campus, 2022).

This provides a solid foundation for this campaign.

As stated by Elizabeth Swiman, the use of plastic coffee cups on the FSU campus is a

very prominent issue, which makes this campaign a high priority for reducing plastic use (2022).

By increasing the student body’s awareness of the negative impacts of single-use plastic, this

campaign will ensure that students understand that the alternative of making coffee at home is

quicker, more affordable, and better for the environment (Giraldi-Diaz et al., 2018). This

information resource will be largely inexpensive.

Internal Weaknesses

A primary weakness of this campaign is limited funding and labor resources (Florida

State University, 2021). Unless Sustainable Campus can find partner organizations that are

willing to absorb the cost of materials, promotional opportunities are limited. One especially

challenging organizational weakness stated by Elizabeth Swiman during an in-person discussion

is that FSU Seminole Dining encourages buying their own products, which means the

campaign’s promotional materials cannot be placed inside establishments such as Starbucks,

Panera, or Einstein’s (2022). In the last year, FSU’s campus has added two additional Starbucks

locations and one Panera location (Thomas, 2022). This adds three potential coffee-buying

locations for students to the already two established locations on campus. The addition of
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multiple locations could entice students to purchase more coffee as there are now more options to

choose from.

External Opportunities

Inflation has been affecting all aspects of the economy, including the food and beverage

industry. In the past year, Starbucks has seen up to 20% price increases in menu items. (Gibson,

2022). Large corporations in the food and beverage industry have plenty of factors to blame for

inflation, one being Covid and loss of employees during this period (Bairagi, 2022). Given that

the majority of people are affected by inflation, they may be inclined to adopt the campaign’s

behaviors if they are given information regarding saving money due to inflation.

External Threats

Many corporations refuse to acknowledge the damage that plastic cups do to the

environment. The efforts to control global warming will fail, unless corporations prioritize

climate change mitigation (Kuo & Means, 2022). Corporations do a great deal of advertising,

with Starbucks spending $305.1 million on advertising in 2021 (Statista, 2022). This may

influence a student’s decision to buy coffee instead of making it at home.

Prior and Similar Efforts

The University of California San Diego conducted a similar campaign titled, “Kill the

Cup,” which encouraged students to ditch disposable cups for reusable ones. This 2014

campaign saved 15,440 disposable cups (Manka, 2015). Another campaign titled,

“#brewathome,” provides an online platform that encourages people to make coffee at home by

providing recipe tutorials and tips, with nearly 150,000 tagged posts on Instagram (I’m Not a

Barista, 2021).
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Select Priority Audience

Size

There are 45,493 students at Florida State University (FSU). Of the student body, 58.1%

are women (FSU, 2021). Twenty percent of FSU students live in university-owned housing,

while 80% of students live off the FSU campus (U.S. News & World Report, 2021).

Geographic Factors

In 2021, 80.9% of FSU students were from Florida, with Florida ranking 8th in the U.S.

in landfill space per square mile (BigRentz, 2022). There is a culture of waste production in

Florida, which might lead to hesitance in adopting the target behavior. The priority audience for

this campaign will not be segmented based on whether FSU students live on or off campus, as

both groups may currently purchase coffee on or near campus.

Demographic Factors

Many college students on campus are already aware of the issues of using plastic, with

39% of students citing plastic waste as the second-biggest global issue behind climate change

(Helmer, 2022). According to a Yale analysis of climate change concern, women, on average, are

slightly more likely to be concerned about the environment than men (Ballew et al., 2018) and

engage in more sustainable consumption behaviors (Bloodhart, 2020). A national Pew Research

survey found that political/ideological alignment has an impact on concern toward climate

change, with 90% of Democrats and 24% of Republicans believing the government should do

more to reduce the effects of climate change (Funk & Hefferon, 2019). Wealthier people are able

to afford more items, skip the leftovers, and travel more. Wealthy people consume far more than

low-income people (Bloodhart, 2020). With this in mind, women and Democrats would have a

greater readiness toward change.

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Behavioral Factors

In addition to the concern of plastic, college students contribute to this due to the

consumption of coffee in plastic cups. Research shows that caffeine was consumed by the

majority (92%) of college students in 2019 (Mahoney et al., 2019). Additionally, 58% of college

students eat off-campus at least once a week, and 56% of them eat at a fast-casual restaurant,

which includes coffee and other preferred beverages (Baltazar, 2019).

Psychographic Factors

In an analysis of the influence of values on environmental behaviors, women placed a

higher value on altruism than men, which may explain the findings of greater environmental

concern (Larson & Farac, 2019). The majority of college students drink coffee on campus and

produce plastic waste while consuming coffee. Despite this, Generation Z’s number one concern

is being environmentally conscious (Jahns, 2021).

Evaluating Segments

The target audience of FSU students shouldn’t just be based on age. Behavioral and

psychographic factors such as the tendency to drink coffee, the tendency to purchase food at

dining establishments, and higher values of altruism also have an effect on the priority audience

described, such as how women are generally more environmentally conscious and more likely to

make changes. It is shown that a lot of students are already aware of the issues of plastic use, so

we want to target a group that is willing to change their behavior. Since women are often more

willing to adopt environmental behaviors, it would be beneficial for this campaign to aim to

reduce knowledge gaps and barriers related to educating willing students about the harms of

purchasing coffee in disposable cups, with an emphasis on female students, as well as students

that frequently drink coffee, and individuals that are environmentally conscious.
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Campaign Goals and Objectives

This social marketing campaign to reduce plastic coffee cup use on the Florida State

University (FSU) campus has multiple goals and objectives. The behavior objective for this

campaign is to get FSU students to bring coffee they made at home rather than purchasing coffee

on campus in a plastic cup. The knowledge objective of this campaign is for FSU students to

know that more than 50 billion disposable coffee cups are thrown away in the U.S. each year,

resulting in negative environmental impacts and climate change (Earth Day Organization, 2022).

With this information, the belief objective of this campaign is for FSU students to believe that

bringing their own coffee to campus is good for the environment and not an inconvenience.

By the end of the first year of this social marketing campaign, the target goal is to

increase the number of FSU students who bring their own coffee to campus on a weekly basis by

10%. In addition, this campaign seeks to increase the percentage of FSU students who

acknowledge the environmental damage of using disposable coffee cups by 15% in one academic

year. Finally, this campaign intends to have FSU students believe that bringing their own coffee

to campus is not only beneficial to the environment but also not an inconvenience for them

personally. The goal is to increase this percentage of students to 15% in one academic year.
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Audience Insights: Analysis of Priority Audience Benefit, Barriers, & Competition

Methods

For this campaign, a survey of students’ existing values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors

was conducted. Data was collected through a Qualtrics online questionnaire administered to

Florida State University (FSU) students (n = 148) who were enrolled in classes in the School of

Communication and were a part of the school’s research participation pool. A supplemental

sample (n = 31) was also obtained via the intercept method on the FSU Campus. A total of 179

FSU students completed the survey. However, 31 participants did not correctly answer attention

check questions, so their data was not included in the analyses. Therefore, the final sample size

was 148.

Thirty-two survey participants identified as male (22.4%), 107 identified as female

(75.5%), and three identified as non-binary/non-conforming (2.1%). When totaling the ethnicity

percentages of participants, the number totaled more than 100% as participants could select

multiple answers. The percent of respondents was African American (5.6%), Asian or Pacific

Islander (8.5%), Caucasian (78.9%), Hispanic (13.4%), Other (0.7%), and Preferred Not to

Answer (1.4%). Freshman students totaled 17.5% of participants, sophomores (21%), juniors

(35.7%), seniors (24.5%), and graduate students (1.4%).

Benefits

The two beliefs most strongly correlated with participant attitudes toward bringing their

coffee to campus are that by making coffee at home, participants would save time by not having

to wait in line and that the taste of the beverage would be better. These two benefits directly
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address the comparison to the competing behavior. The positive belief of saving time by making

coffee at home was strong (M=4.34), and the belief was strongly associated with positive

attitudes toward making coffee at home (r=0.454). When participants believed that making

coffee at home would save them time, they were more likely to report positive attitudes toward

making coffee at home. This correlation suggests that highlighting the benefit of saving time by

making coffee at home should be fairly effective for behavior change.

While the mean for the belief that coffee made at home would have a better taste is close

to neutral (M=2.88), it has a weaker correlation with the corresponding attitude (r=0.366). This

correlation suggests that highlighting the benefit of better-tasting coffee at home should be

somewhat effective for behavior change. Our target audience, like the study participants, may be

more receptive to this campaign if it emphasizes the benefit of saving time and getting

better-tasting coffee at home.

Barriers

The two beliefs most strongly correlated with participant attitudes are that it would be too

much effort to make their own beverage (M=2.70) and that they don’t have access to the tools

and/or ingredients to make the beverage they want (M=2.95). The correlation of these beliefs

with attitudes was significant but weak, with too much effort (r=-0.421) and lack of access to

tools/ingredients (r=-0.363).

The campaign will address these barriers through giveaways of tools such as Moka pots

and reusable K-cups via FSU organizational partnerships. In addition to the giveaways, the

campaign will offer access to recipes and other resources through QR codes or websites to help
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students easily make their coffee at home. The campaign will also collaborate with

micro-influencers on social media to post “day in my life” videos using at-home coffee recipes.

Competition

The competition for this behavior includes purchasing beverages from coffee shops. A

brief observation of student behaviors on Landis Green indicated that a large portion of students

drinks coffee from disposable cups (68%). A belief that is significant but weakly correlated with

attitudes toward bringing your own coffee is that it is cooler to have a branded beverage from an

outside vendor (r=-0.199). However, the mean of this belief (M=1.91) is relatively low, which

means that it should be easier to change. This helps the campaign because the target audience

states that they do not view the competition as much cooler or more physically attractive than the

desired behavior.
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Positioning Statement

Based on the research conducted thus far, this social marketing campaign positions itself

in the following way. We want Florida State University students to view bringing their own

coffee to campus as a way to save time and money as a college student, a way to get

better-tasting coffee, and a way to reduce the negative impact on the environment by reducing

the use of plastic cups. The goal is also for FSU students not to view making their own coffee as

inconvenient, difficult, or uncool.

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Marketing Strategies

Product

Core Product: The core product of this campaign is that students can save time and make

better-tasting coffee or their preferred beverage at home, which were perceived as benefits in the

plastics use survey, with a 0.454 correlation in saving time and 0.366 in beverages tasting better.

Actual Product: The campaign’s actual product is getting students at FSU to make and bring

their own coffee or other preferred beverage to campus.

Augmented Product: One augmented product the campaign can offer is online resources for

homemade coffee recipes to promote making customized coffee at home. Another augmented

product could be giving away Moka-pots or reusable k-cups in partnership with other FSU

organizations such as the Cuban American Student Organization and the Center for Global

Engagement.

Price

Increase monetary benefits for your desired behavior: One way to increase monetary benefits

for our desired behavior is for Sustainable Campus to give a raffle at Market Wednesday or

Landis Green for students that have brought their coffee from home to campus. Participants

might win a free bag of coffee from a local coffee vendor via partnership.

Decrease monetary costs for your desired behavior: One way to decrease monetary costs is to

provide links to online coupons or discount codes to local coffee shops willing to participate for

our audience.

Decrease nonmonetary costs for your desired behavior: One way to decrease nonmonetary

costs is to provide easy instructions and recipes for making your own coffee at home. From the

plastics use survey, students conveyed a barrier in which they believed it would be too much
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effort to make their own beverage at home. Giving access to easy instructions and recipes will

reduce the amount of time and effort for a student who makes their coffee at home.

Place

Be where the priority audience shops: While the audience is shopping at Community Co-op, or

another shop where you can buy the resources to make coffee at home, given that food Co-ops

believe in demonstrating environmental leadership (Co+op, 2021). Have QR codes/signs outside

to remind the audience that making coffee at home is better for the environment and your wallet.

Be where the priority audience hangs out: For this strategy, we might display the QR code or a

sign at Market Wednesday, Landis, or Strozier to remind the audience that making coffee at

home is better for the environment and their wallet. These QR codes would also include at-home

recipes. We might also distribute reusable k-cups and Moka-pots at places like Market

Wednesday, Landis green, and Strozier. These giveaways might be sponsored by FSU Eco-Reps

or the FSU Cuban American Student Association.

Promotion

Key messages include that making coffee at home will taste better, save students time, and save

the environment. From our survey, there were strong attitude correlations in which saving time

and tasting better were key benefits, along with the belief that bringing a beverage from home

would protect the environment. The messengers will include partnerships with FSU

organizations, signage, and digital resources. The creative strategy will include the slogan:

“BYOC: Bring Your Own Coffee.” The available communications channels are the FSU radio

station, flyers, social media, and promotional materials handed out at Market Wednesday or via

partnerships. These channels are easy and accessible for students to see (Lister, 2021).
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Implementation Plan

This social marketing campaign will be executed in phases organized by the campaign

objectives. Phase one would focus on educating the target audience to know that more than 50

billion disposable coffee cups are thrown away in the U.S. each year, resulting in negative

environmental impact. Phase two would have the target audience believe that bringing their own

coffee to campus is beneficial to both the environment and themselves, as they can save money

and time, and have better-tasting coffee. Phase three would then include the target audience

actively performing the behavior of bringing their coffee to campus.

Phase one will take place during the Summer C session of classes given that many new

students appear on campus during this time for summer admission, orientation, and campus visits

with their families. During phase one, posters with QR codes will be placed around the campus

by FSU Sustainable Campus staff and volunteers, especially near coffee establishments and in

bathroom stalls. These posters will have vivid imagery and statements that mention how bad

plastic coffee cups are for the environment, with the QR code showing a hub of coffee resources

and recipes. Phase two will take place around the beginning of September and will continue

displaying the QR codes from phase one, but will also begin working with the FSU radio station

and FSU micro-influencers to promote the “BYOC” (Bring Your Own Coffee) campaign, in

addition to giving easy recipes. This will continue throughout both semesters. During phase

three, which would occur starting in the spring semester, the BYOC social media accounts and

online hub would continue to give helpful resources. Phase three would also be when the

campaign partners with the FSU Center for Global Engagement or the Cuban American

Organization to give out Moka-pots or reusable k-cups to encourage the continuation of

sustainable behavior.
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Public Service Announcements

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