Recently in Low Cost Green Marketing Category
Historically, its higher price had prevented widespread use.
Reducing is the number one way to conserve our natural resources...and our way of life. One easy way to reduce your use of trees and the great amounts of water that papermaking uses... is to change the kind of paper you buy and use. Use higher percentage RECYCLED paper!
Because of cost issues with recycled paper and seeing the need to help improve usage of recycled content paper, the Recycled Products Cooperative was created in 1999 with two goals in mind:
(1) To leverage purchasing power of members to reduce pricing, and
(2) To educate buyers on the importance of using recycled paper and other products.
The Co-op is committed to bringing about transformations within the marketplace which conserve trees and other natural resources.
The Cooperative was originally one of numerous creative and progressive programs under the umbrella of the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation. The Solana Center is a non-profit organization based in Encinitas, California. For 25 years the Solana Center has been a leader in addressing and finding creative solutions to many of the environmental challenges both locally and globally. To find out more about the Solana Center and its other programs, visit www.solanacenter.org. Last year the RPC spun off on its own and is now a for profit corporation. Although we have changed our tax status our guiding principals are still based on saving environmental resources.
Another informative resource is...
Environmental Paper Network -- a resource for purchasers, environmental organizations, industry, and individuals. The Environmental Paper Network is a diverse group of environmental organizations joined together to support socially and environmentally sustainable transformations within the pulp and paper industry. The Network developed the Common Vision as a framework to guide necessary shifts in production and consumption.
The Green Press Initiative is to help those in the book and newspaper
industries better understand their impacts on endangered forests,
indigenous communities, and the Earth's climate. GPI also works with
those in the industry to implement solutions, and to provide the tools
and resources necessary to support industry transformation.
The segments of REFERENCE hit hardest by the increasing availability of information online are the core staples of reference.
Multi-volume encyclopedias, such as Encyclopedia Americana, have largely seen their day.
Online distribution and volumen also are changing players: Wikipedia dwarfs its competition. The English-language Wikipedia surpassed 2.3 million entries last month; Britannica Online claims 120,000 articles.
The National Geographic Society reports that cartography is another category hit hard by the Internet. Maps and pocket atlases have been severely hurt. But big atlases haven't been dramatically affected in the same way.
Online dictionaries and thesauruses are displacing print predecessors.
Some observers believe that online upstarts can't compete with the depth, context and authority that traditional publishers can offer.
“Wikipedia, or any free information resources, challenge reference publishers to be better than free,” says Random House's Russell. “It isn't enough for a publisher to simply provide information, we have to add value. Yes, you can find free information anywhere online, but reference publishers still have plenty to add to the conversation.”
“Some things Wikipedia doesn't do. It's not a 'how to'; it doesn't offer judgment. By and large, it can't have image-heavy articles. It's an overview,” he explains.
Recently questions have bubbled up from the L.A. Times and others about whether an operation the size of Wikipedia as a nonprofit with no advertising can sustain itself mainly on donations. For the moment, though, it remains just that.
“Wikipedia has no interest in keeping people on the site. It has no need to be sticky,” Broughton says, referencing the fact that Wikipedia often functions as a gateway to other sources of information—such as newspapers—in the form of the citations used to document articles. “To the extent that publishers commit resources to content online, a link may actually drive users there. There is a synergy with some traditional media in that way.”
The Solution?
Traditonal publishers are increasingly promoting their reference efforts online and incorporating multimedia elements.
For National Geographic, that can mean elaborate online book trailers for upcoming titles, showcasing the beautiful photographs and video the brand is famous for.
Editorial synthesis is also adding value to traditional publishing. Reference books that actively add context and commentary, like offerings from Barron's that provide ranked lists in various categories, are continuing to be strong sellers.
SOURCE: Publishers Weekly
Cell phone messages save paper and ink, as well as distribution transportation. They provide consumer convenience and are available 24/7, wherever the consumer wants to shop. This is a great solution for local consumer businesses with national market and brand visibility.
Think...Mobile Phone coupons.
Carvel, the ice cream retailer will now let mobile phone users send text messages to company spokesmammal "Fudgie the Whale" and receive in return a coupon for a blended coffee drink and a chance to win a 42-inch TV.Cell phone users who text "FUDGIE" to short code 78247 through July 31, 2008 will get a coupon for one of Carvel’s new Arctic Blender drinks.
OTHER Mobile Phone Coupon Applications: How about on-site, or "in the shopping mall" Point of Purchase mobile phone offerings?
Bath & Body Works announced it is offering coupons to its customers via mobile phone.
Cellfire
Cellfire Wins E-Tech Award For Innovation In Consumer Mobile Applications at CTIA Wireless 2008Brent Dusing, CEO of Cellfire says Cellfire 3.0 is the latest version of Cellfire’s mobile coupon and discount offer service that enables consumers to easily find, store, and use many discounts across multiple merchants and locations directly on their mobile phones. Unlike text-based offers, Cellfire’s application-based service is like a coupon wallet that consumers can access on demand to discover and use discounts specific to their geographic area. New merchants and offers are added on a regular basis.
Features in Cellfire 3.0 include an enhanced user experience, external offer discovery, 1-to-1 offers, and the ability for consumers to save on groceries with mobile grocery coupons.
Cellfire is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information or to download Cellfire, visit www.cellfire.com.
The business card—many of us use it more than any other single marketing item, yet it very often demonstrates the least marketing smarts.Ideabook is a treasure chest of design and business ideas. This tip for business card redesign ideas fits well into the green thinking stream, as well as general business. "High performance" is at the heart of green design. If you can make the simple business card work more effectively, you will need fewer of them, waste less paper, and improve your time management!
Even though design is a creative exercise, it is fraught with formula thinking—a newsletter is 8 1/2 by 11 inches, a brochure has a headline on the cover, text in the middle and a logo on the back, and a business card is 3 1/2 by 2 inches, printed on one side using a boilerplate layout and the usual information. Jolt thinking is the opposite of formula thinking. It challenges you to examine your mission, strategy, and execution of a project. How? By answering three basic questions: What is the purpose? Why is it done the way it's done? And how can I do it most effectively?
INFORMATION CARD One of the “whys” of business cards is to get folks to hold onto it until they need it. And one way to increase the chance of having it saved is to incorporate information your prospect might refer to from time to time. Charts, graphs, calendars, green tips, sources for information...etc.
AdReady promises to ease the headaches and guesswork
and to lower the costs associated with buying display ads. A Ford
dealership in California can pick from a pool of templates and
customize an image of a revolving Ford car with the dealership logo and
contact information. Then, the dealer can buy ad space through AdReady
on major Web sites targeted to reach only Web surfers in California.
The AdReady system suggests tweaks, such as changing the ad background color, that have proven to draw more people to click on
ads.
Advertisers can spend as little as $20, and AdReady is paid a cut of the ad buy.
AdReady and other services also give advertisers the ability to tie ad spending to response results that show how many people viewed a specific ad and how many people clicked on it. The car dealer could then decide it wants to turn off the ads that received the fewest clicks and run more of the ads that were more effective.
By drawing in new ad buyers, the self-service options also aim to address one of the nagging problems with the display-ad market: cheap prices.
As a flood of new Web sites compete for consumers'
eyeballs, sites such as Facebook are having difficulty raising prices
for ads. The cost for reaching a thousand Web visitors can be as little
as a few cents on Facebook or MySpace.
Reaching the same number of viewers of a prime-time TV show can cost $30.
SOURCE: New York Times May, 2007
THE CASE STUDY: ...the ad was seen more than 250,000 times. Quickly, Bonobos sold out of Clarks, at $120 a pop. Total cost for the ads: about $63.
Facebook is only one of a rising number of self-service ad options. There are new entrants such as AdReady Inc., AdBrite Inc. and AdItAll LLC. MySpace, like Facebook, is offering do-it-yourself ads that marketers can tailor to individual interests on the social-networking site. (MySpace, like [The Wall Street Journal], is owned by News Corp.)
Time Warner Inc.'s AOL Internet unit and Google have new self-service ad options for the opposite side of the equation -- for Web publishers who want to attract advertising to their sites.
The rising number of self-service options underscores the expanding market for display ads, the graphic- and video-heavy ads in fixed spots on a Web page. The market for display ads reached $5 billion in 2007, according to market-research firm eMarketer Inc. That is far less than the estimated $8.6 billion in spending for text ads tied to online search. But in coming years, the mix is expected to tilt in favor of display ads, thanks to the rise of online video and the increasing push of brand marketers such as car companies into the display market.
But for the majority of mostly small- and medium-size businesses, it remains too difficult and expensive to buy display ads. To create an ad, businesses have to navigate the 15 standard sizes and half dozen standard formats and design something that will be eye-catching. They have to pick which Web sites or networks to buy ad space from, test multiple ads, track which ones draw the best consumer responses and adjust marketing campaigns accordingly. Doing this alone is daunting, and paying an ad agency to do it might cost thousands of dollars. Sites such as Yahoo Inc. often require advertisers to promise they will spend tens of thousands of dollars a month on advertising. SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
As a publisher of original content and aggregated news, I cringe at some of the prices being paid for search ads...there comes a point at which publishers can no longer afford to create quality content that is supported by bargain basement advertising. Hopefully, the ad networks will be cognizant of that fact and the plight of the traditional media who are now feeling the sting of cheaper online advertising will serve as a warning and guidepost for what can happen to online content development.
We don't have to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs!
TIP ONE for marketers: Look at tips for consumers, and reverse engineer the themes and messages that appeal to consumers...for your retail and community clients. For instance:
Sustainable tourism covers a variety of criteria, from low environmental impact and energy use to respect for the culture and well-being of the local population.
There is more than one way to travel green. Eco-Friendly travel (ecotravel) is tourism that promotes a sustainable environment. By its nature, travel can be both an opportunity for people to experience the environment they visit and at the same time is a threat to it. Destination Villas offers the seven sustainable travel tips.
- Travel less and stay longer. Air travel leaves the largest carbon footprint than any other form of travel. If you must fly, do it fewer times per year and stay longer, or travel closer to home.
- Don’t fly at night. Dr. Piers Forster from Leeds University has discovered that trails of condensation from aircraft - contrails - have a greater warming effect at night, trapping heat but without reflecting any of the sun's rays back into the atmosphere as they do during the day.
- Leave no trace. Enjoy the beautiful places on the plant but be mindful that your very presence damage it. Do not pick flowers, take rocks or break coral. Don’t liter. Be familiar with cultural mores prior to arrival be respectful of cultural practices.
- All transportation requires the combustion of fuel, so the greenest thing you can do is use public transporation. When possible, try taking the train or bus instead of flying. If you're driving, try to get as many people in the car as possible, instead of taking multiple vehicles. Always rent a hybrid vehicle.
- Visit eco-friendly destinations that use renewable energy sources: visit Burlington, Vermont, Dry Tortugas National Park or Vail, Colorado.
- Choose eco-friendly lodging. There is a wide variety of eco-friendly lodging these days. Start with the Green Hotel Association and EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com or DestinationVillas.com.
- Shop local: Head to local markets, where you can purchase fresh
food from local vendors. This benefits the community by increasing
their economy, and you will get fresh fruits and veggies and maybe even
some handmade souvenirs. Never buy products made from endangered
species.
Source of Eco-travel tips: Destination Villas
Ecolutionary Selling
She guides you through reducing the confusion in the sustainable furniture market and turn GREEN into GR$$N.
Environmental claims are regulated by the FTC -- and it is the manufacturer's and retailer's responsibility to provide credible information. This book about furniture can help you identify those credible claims so you’ll never be accused of "greenwashing" your product(s) when you know the rules.
And, since no one wants to go into new territory blind, Hunt has also included a sample of a Sustainable Standard application, plus a glossary of all the terms you’ll need to know.
Ebook Primer for Designers, Retail Sales, Buyers, Distributors and Manufacturers of Sustainable Furniture.
Most importantly you have the backbone of what makes up a Sustainable Marketing Data Sheet, and how to create your own.The "Ecolutionary Selling" ebook includes:
- A snap shot of Sustainable Furniture Trends
- An overview of Life Cycle Assessment and why it’s central in a credible standard.
- 24 Criteria that goes into Standards
- Who’s doing what and why?
- A two page comparison checklist of standards you need to know about.
SOURCE
Mary Clare Huntwww.EcoLutionarySelling.com
How do you get employees to buy into change? Even green and sustainable change?
Self-interest always gets attention, and when you couple self-interest with the need for getting comfortable with change, companies have an interesting opportunity to lay the groundwork for workplace greening.
By starting with an employee benefit program that saves money, energy or air quality AT HOME first -- you get personal buy-in.
For example, provide financial support for adding a solar thermal or solar PV system to employee homes. Out of this specification, buying, installing and maintenance process, a few employees will rise as leaders, and more employees will feel comfortable with the technology. And they will tell stories to their coworkers. And you will have stories to add to your employee meetings and newsletters.
There's reason to believe that educational research is applicable to this phenomenon. Siblings and fellow students learn from one another more than they learn from parents and teachers! Coworkers also learn from one another!
Once employees are comfortable with "change" required for the new green initiatives, and they see the savings in their own wallets, they will be willing and able to apply their knowledge at work. Everyone wins, you have happy employees, you have new leaders, and your employees have added new skills and knowledge base to their capabilities.
And you save money and natural resources in not just one place...buy many!
SOLUTION: Personal experience at home is the foundation for change at work.
Comparing marketing channels helps farmers determine how to use each channel, as well as which channel can be most profitable for their specific kinds of produce and time commitment.
Comparing Farmers Markets, CSAs and Wholesale Profits
Where's the core of farm produce profits?While farmers' markets have become increasingly popular with consumers, farmers themselves are beginning to ask how profitable selling at a farmers market actually is.
UC Small Farm Program director Shermain Hardesty is finalizing a case study of three farms that each market their products three ways: farmers markets, wholesale and through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, in which subscribers regularly receive boxes of food from the farm.
Net Revenue for Farm Produce
Preliminary results of research found that- Farmers markets generated the lowest net revenue return for all three growers
- Wholesale provided the highest net revenue return.
- The net rate of return for CSA revenues was in the middle.
Farmers markets can also provide an outlet for produce unmarketable to wholesale channels and can support new farmers developing new businesses.
To help growers determine the cost and return of their different marketing options, Hardesty and student researcher Penny Leff offered use of their formulaic spreadsheets to workshop participants and walked them through tabulation of their costs and returns. "We want to show farmers how they can determine their actual marketing costs themselves," Hardesty said.
For more information, contact Shermain Hardesty at (530) 752-7774, sfpdirector@ucdavis.edu.
RESOURCE: UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
