2.3. ERMUSR 09-10-2019 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The Benefits of Marketing and Social Media to EV Program and Utilities An important step to consider early on is the branding and marketing plan for an electric vehicle program.The marketing program should be identifiable to your community and must be promoted through social media. Electric vehicle enthusiasts use mobile applications on smartphones to get a great deal of information for the operation and charging of their electric vehicle. The more detail included in the marketing plan the better. For the purposes of this grant, the original marketing plan was not detailed enough and caused some considerable rework. Marketing efforts began with the development of a new brand for public charging equipment and customer-owned installations. Early on in the branding development process, Elk River Municipal Utilities determined that due to the scope and reach of the project, a professional marketing firm should be hired to assist in the development. As part of this grant,the marketing firm developed the EV/ER (Electric Vehicle/Elk River) logo with the tagline Power Your Future.The logo and tagline were registered and trademarked in the state of Minnesota. The marketing firm also created a comprehensive marketing plan that included a brand launch and the creation and/or enhancement of social media profiles to promote EVs and other utility communications.This also started the process of rebranding Elk River Municipal Utilities. Electric vehicle customers use smartphones to establish charging accounts with different vendors to activate public charging stations as well as link drivers to maps and car charging information at the touch of a button. Customers can check their car charging status or the queue status for their car waiting to be charged. Smartphones and social media are essential tools to EV ownership. Because the electric vehicle community is generally digitally connected, ERMU enhanced their social media plan to include information on the electric vehicle program. Social media is also the tool that allows ERMU to reach beyond our local community to promote our public EV charging network. Without social media and the various smartphone applications, drivers would not know that ERMU offers charging stations or where they are located.The social networks and smartphone applications allow any EV driver to locate our stations and provide a map to get them to the exact location. ERMU participates in public information websites that help EV drivers locate our public stations, including ChargePoint, Plugshare, and the US Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center. To have a successful EV programs and increase awareness of the technology, ERMU needed to expand market reach beyond bill inserts, the web/internet, and news articles.To educate customers and the public, ERMU needed to create smartphone applications and a new brand to provide EV drivers on the road access to information instantly from anywhere. 9 48