marketing

Check out our first try at a new video format for our press releases. This is an attempt to communicate our press releases in a format that is both more informational and entertaining. Using YouTube means that our releases are free and when we have major releases, we can still use PRWeb to post a standard text release with the video attached. We hope you like it and go easy on us in the comments as it’s a work in progress.

Postgreen Hires Nic Darling to Head up Marketing and PR Operations

Philadelphia, PA June 26th, 2008

Contact:
Chad Ludeman, President
Postgreen
215.739.1578
http://www.postgreen.com

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So, you’ve started a green business and you’re formulating a marketing plan. Either that, or you are still reading because you fantasize about starting a green business and formulating a marketing plan. Fantasy or reality, there are some significant differences between marketing a traditional product and a green one. After all, your brand is not just the color of your logo and the tone of your tag line. It is the inclusive identity of the way in which you do business. In other words, your marketing is not just about the message. It is also about how you deliver it.

The sustainable agenda and environmentally conscious attitude which provides the backbone for your business should present itself in the marketing methodologies you pursue. Unfortunately, many trained marketers have tactics and ideas that are contrary to that backbone. Ingrained concepts and traditional methods are difficult for old dogs to shake, but a failure to drop the old, “ungreen” standbys can undermine the perception of your brand. Green products need green marketers.

Here are a few marketing tactics to avoid if you want to market green. Please feel free to add to the list in the comments or send me an email with other ideas. And yes, I know “Don’ts” isn’t a word.

1. Direct Mail
This one seems pretty obvious. If you are a green company, it doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to start cutting down trees, converting them to compacted wood pulp and plastering sustainable ideas across them. Even if you are using recycled paper and biodegradable ink, the fossil fuel used to deliver your message and the landfill space the majority of your missives will end up in may mar the message. Here’s some statistics that your prospects might have heard about . . . to your mail-happy detriment.

2. Billboards
These giant, energy-devouring eyesores may attract plenty of attention, but as a green company it might not be the kind of attention you want. Also, as it panders to the gas guzzling commuter culture while sucking power from the grid, you might find yourself associated with and ignored by the SUVs zooming past. That said, there are always exceptions. While I still don’t recommend the super signs, some manage to at least positively reflect the brand.

3. Brochures
Just like direct mail, brochures run the risk of serious waste. However, I wouldn’t say that these are completely out. Properly produced and judiciously passed out, brochures can be a useful marketing tool. So, I guess this isn’t so much of a “don’t” as it is a “do carefully.” However, the more extreme your green brand is, the more you should steer away from printed materials.

4. Skywriting
Okay, so that’s obvious, but let’s include any kind of gas-powered, vehicle advertising under this heading. Stamping your message on the sides of giant trucks or sponsoring a Nascar driver would probably be mistakes as well. Remember, if your brand has a small footprint, there is no reason to strap an over-sized boot on your marketing.

5. Traditional Business Cards
Traditional business cards are significantly cheaper than their green counterparts, and it is tempting to save a bit of that marketing budget here. Don’t . . . people will notice. Design a card that advances your green brand. Recycled content and organic dyes are a good way to start, or you could get really creative.

6. Fax Attacks
Here’s another example of paper and energy waste. With the current state of computers, fax machines are a vestige of old wasteful business practices. Shun them. It will help your brand, and besides, the annoying little devices deserve it. Check out Death to the Fax Machine. If nothing else the article has a great title.

7. Door to Door and Face to Face
Yes, it is sometimes important to get out there and meet the people. Unfortunately, getting out there and meeting the people often involves a lot of driving. Limiting the necessity for face to face meetings and conferences can be an important way in which you can reinforce your company’s commitment to green. Web meetings, teleconferencing and other remote communications can be used in place of the standard handshake and sit down. When you do need to actually meet someone, bike, take public transit or walk, and be sure to order a nice environmentally friendly beer when you get there (what, some of you have meetings outside of bars?). 

8. Spam
OK, there isn’t anything specifically green about this, but generally people seem to expect environmentally concerned people not to be total jerks.

9. Unpracticed Preaching*
Marketing is not simply a department or strategy. Every part of your operation makes marketing statements, effects the perception of your brand and creates (or destroys) value in the eyes of your prospects. If you fail to practice what you preach people will notice and your brand will suffer for it. While people are generally indisposed to hypocrisy, they seem particularly offended by it when practiced by companies or individuals ostensibly adhering to some sort of virtue. If you’re a green company, you had better act the part. Get paperless, don’t employ a gas guzzling fleet and stop using plastic cups at the water cooler. If you want to be seen as green you need to be green all the way through.

10. Cutting Corners
This one applies to all of the above “don’ts“. Green marketing can be more expensive then traditional marketing. Branding green might take a bigger investment, but the perceived value of your product or service should increase accordingly. If you cut corners you will save money in the short term but lose credibility as the evidence of your unnecessary frugality accumulates. If the value of your product or service is derived from its greeness, don’t undermine it by skimping on the marketing.

Aside from the nice feeling we all get from being green, these rules make practical business sense for green companies. Adhering to them will improve the integrity of your brand and raise the value of your products and services.

Alright, what did I miss?

*Some of you may notice that my company, Universe Point, breaks a few of these don’ts from time to time. However, even though we are trying to be more environmentally conscious, we are not a green company. Our lapses are far less likely to hurt our brand than those of a company preaching green.

Nic Darling is a marketing guy/writer, and he likes postgreen because it has always been very nice to him. Keep an eye out for his ongoing appearances on the postgreen blog, and please encourage him with a comment or two. He is too emotionally fragile to be ignored like this.

I attended the 6th Annual Social Venture Institute yesterday at the Wharton School of PA. The event was organized by the Philadelphia chapter of the Sustainable Business Network and was dedicated to the Triple Bottom Line principles of doing business. It is a two day event but my schedule only permitted me to attend for one day.

The event was better than expected and was perfect for someone like myself who has in their mission that they are a TBL company. It reminded me that, like everything else in my business, I need to continually improve my actions towards people and planet as well as profits. There were a lot of inspirational examples of businesses that have succeeded by paying their workers living wages, using organic materials/foods and greening their businesses.

I think the one issue that was brought up that could most apply to postgreen was the importance of utilizing other local businesses as much as possible. The economist, Michael Shuman, spoke about some interesting statistics regarding local businesses and their impact on the local economy. Here were a couple stats that really hit home:

• For every dollar that is spent at a national chain store, roughly 18 cents remains in the local economy while 45 cents remains in the local economy if the same dollar is spent at a locally owned store. Example - Borders or B&N vs. local book store.
• If 10% of the retail $$ spent in a community shifted towards locally owned businesses then over 1,000 new jobs would be created in the area. If the same 10% shift was made towards chain stores then over 1,000 jobs would be lost in the area.

Most have heard figures like these before but it is always helpful to have a refresher. This got me thinking about the LEED requirement in the homes program to source materials from businesses within 500 miles, in part to reduce transportation effects on the environment. These stats made me realize how important this aspect of the LEED criteria is and that I need to strive to source as many materials and services from companies well within the 500 mile perimeter to really impact postgreen’s immediate communities. Currently I buy business cards, software and hardware online. I have my websites hosted from who knows where. When we start our first project I can look into using local craftsman like welders and glass shops to make materials that I might otherwise buy from businesses outside of Philadelphia’s borders.

I could go on an on about possible ways to improve postgreen’s TBL impact. This was a common theme at the event but it was refreshing to here that others are succeeding with these approaches. It was also important to hear the most successful companies (in terms of TBL) said that achieving a good TBL is a process that takes time. It can be overwhelming at first because there are so many things that could be improved upon but you just have to keep chugging away at it and make a few good changes to your business each year. There are also times when businesses really wanted to implement more but couldn’t for financial reasons. Rather than sacrificing their economic bottom line they realize that there are just some things that might not be able to be implemented, at least not right away.

I also wanted to note that Terry Gillen from Michael Nutter’s administration spoke briefly on some of the changes we can expect in the near future that may positively effect TBL businesses in the area. Some of the highlights of their intended plans are below:

• A process to expedite permitting for development projects that conform to a set of environmental guidelines similar to what Chicago has put in place.
• Focus on making Philly a better place to do business financially by focusing on how businesses are taxed.
• Encourage infill development on Philly’s many vacant lots.
• Green vacant lots and plant a whole bunch of trees.
• Green the city’s municipal buildings and require LEED ratings on any new buildings.
• Improve recycling immediately.
• Create a sustainability cabinet that will be working with all departments of the city.

Check out some of Nutter’s policies in more detail at his website - www.nutter2007.com. He has a detailed plan for the environment on the site which is worth a peruse.

I just got back from Boston last night where I attended a great new training called New Rules of Marketing. The training is a new course offered by Pragmatic Marketing who specializes in product marketing training for product managers in technical companies. I have been to all of Pragmatic’s other courses so when I saw they had a new offering covering a subject I have been doing a lot of research on lately I jumped at the chance. I was not disappointed and found that this course could apply to anyone in a marketing or PR role for a company of any size.

The course was lead by David Meerman Scott who recently wrote The New Rules of Marketing & PR which he so graciously provided a copy of to each attendant.

In one short day, David covered a bunch of topics on how to reach both customers and press by utilizing new online tactics. In a time when journalists have become inundated with daily emails David told us how to get through to both traditional journalists and bloggers. He went on to cover current topics like blogging, viral marketing, social media, SEO and press releases.

My biggest take-aways from the course were his covering of press releases and e-books. Used properly and following a few simple guidelines David laid out these can be powerful and extremely cost-effective marketing methods. Check the links at the end for a few of the e-books referenced in the training.

David also has a great blog, Web Ink Now, which I subscribed to today and added to my blogroll. I’m pretty picky about blogs I add to my Google Reader but once I read a few of David’s posts I could tell that this would be a valuable resource for my marketing efforts going forward. I also found in my research for this post that his new book has recently been added to a list of The Best & Worst Business Books from bnet. He is in pretty good company in this list along side some of my favorite business books. I look forward to reading it and will try to post a review when finished.

E-books from the course:

Marketing Apple: 5 Secrets of the World’s Best Marketing Machine (download this now!)

The New Rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly