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In 2007, total utility green power sales exceeded 4.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), about a 20% increase over 2006. Approximately 600,000 customers are participating in utility customer choice programs nationwide.

Green Power Marketing Industry

Utility green pricing programs are one segment of a larger green power marketing industry that counts Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and colleges and universities among its customers, and helps support more than 3,000 MW of new renewable electricity generation capacity.

Green Marketing Tips

NREL analysts attribute the success of many programs to persistence in marketing and creative marketing strategies, including in some cases, utility partnerships with independent green power marketers. In addition, the rate premium that customers pay for green power continues to drop.

NREL performs analyses of green power market trends and is funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle.

China gets bashed about the latest contamination problem ...but the real question is one of transparency. Transparency requires monitoring, disclosure of information about the supply chain of products. Many companies feel this is disclosure of competitive advantages -- after all, your system is your business model.

But in health care -- or any essential product or service -- transparency is about having 100% accountability. And the buyer of the product needs to rely on the system put in place to provide that security. After all, aren't reliable results what they pay extra for? And medicine today certainly charges that "extra" amount that high performance is supposedly offered.

This brings to mind the change in consumer perceptions about health care. And it ties directly into attitudes about "greening".

It's about cures vs. prevention.

Preventative health care has always struggled. Eating less and better just isn't attractive when restaurants place huge helpings in front of you loaded with sugar and fat for tastes that explode on your taste buds. Exercise is just plain hard work and sweat still isn't very glamorous. But a diet pill is easy. Even if it costs $3 a pill. Even if it's made in China?

Consumers so far haven't been willing to pay that extra amount for green products because they don't offer an instant cure.

Green is preventative:

• Green prevents future increases in your electric bill
• Green prevents future health care crises
• Green prevents water supply shortages
• Green prevents obesity
• Green prevents getting a cold from your co-workers.

But Americans don't like prevention!

They are addicted to instant cures even more than they are addicted to oil!  The question facing us is whether we can change that orientation in OURSELVES first, and in our families and offices next.

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“In an era exploding with user-generated content, social media, and Web 2.0, it’s important for those in business-to-business communications to understand how journalists are using technology when it comes to reporting news,” said Mike Neumeier, principal of Arketi Group, an integrated marketing and PR company.

Technology Tools Used by Reporters

Not surprisingly, all those surveyed (100 percent) say they rely on the Internet to help get their job done. One-quarter (25 percent) of journalists say blogs make their job easier, while 18 percent say instant messaging makes their job easier.

Ninety-seven percent of journalists surveyed say they enjoy using new technologies. And nearly one-third of journalists (30 percent) say they use some type of instant messenger for professional communication.

Sixty percent of journalists say they spend more than 20 hours a week on the Internet. When asked how journalists use the Internet:

• 98 percent say reading news
• 97 percent say emailing
• 93 percent say finding news sources
• 89 percent say finding story ideas
• 72 percent say reading blogs
• 67 percent say watching webinars or webcasts

“Clearly this survey shows that business journalists are embracing user-generated content like blogs, webinars and webcasts as useful in their day-to-day reporting,” said Dr. Kaye Sweetser, APR, assistant professor of public relations at the University of Georgia’s Grady College. “Savvy companies know this and are looking for ways to legitimately increase their participation in creating and growing online content using Web 2.0 methods.”

Read more about finding story ideas at CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com 

Respect is part of sustainable community...and business.

Gender differences are important elements of communications and relationship building, but at the same time, equality and equity are respected. The past decade of brain research has identified both differences and similarities between male and female brains -- in how they handle communications and relationships, etc.

Deloitte is exploring and implementing new strategies to sell and service their women clients. "Tapping into women's professional psyches has become more important as more women become corporate decision makers," says the article in the Wall Street Journal about Deloitte's new strategic posturing.

• Don't be frustrated if female clients reevaluate or modify their initial requests; because they discover as they shop, women may be very receptive to suggestions about other services.
• Women clients want to know and trust their consultants personally as well as professionally; sharing personal details can help build trust.
• Women often prefer business lunches to dinners, because they tend to have more responsibilities at home. And they may be more receptive to evening social invitations if asked with sufficient time to make arrangements at home.
• Body language differs by gender. Men tend to stare as they listen and nod to signify they understand. Women may nod when they don't yet understand to encourage the speaker to keep talking.
• Women clients want to know and trust their consultants personally as well as professionally; sharing personal details can help build trust.
• And while consultants often seat themselves beside a male client as their "right hand man," women are more comfortable seated face to face.
• Companies such as American Express Co. and International Business Machines Corp. target women business owners with such tactics as sponsored conferences and networking events, but they say they don't systematically pitch women differently than men.
• Normally, one male consultant says, he's quick to propose his own ideas. But facilitators at the workshop had suggested listening and asking questions first. Women sometimes interpret experiences differently than men and believe they are being slighted because they are women.

Read the rest at WSJ.com

Green Marketing Doesn't Stop with the Sale...

Stop Single-Use Bag Waste with CHICOBAG

• The average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year.
• If everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain, the chain would reach around the Earth not once, but 760 times!
• According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 1999 the U.S. alone used 10 billion paper grocery bags, requiring 14 million trees to be cut down.
• Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photo-degrade—breaking down into small toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food-chain when mistaken for zooplankton or jellyfish.

Packaging runs rampant in American business (and elsewhere).  It's not unusual to see 4 or 5 layers of packaging for a product -- especially food.  One easily remedied marketing solution for the millions of disposable plastic bags is to provide customers with organic or recycled content, REUSABLE shopping bags and REWARD them for using them, at least until they make it a habit!  A good reward program has many benefits:  it reduces the cost of disposable bags; it brings customers back to your store...and it makes them smile when you give them a SECOND reward for their good behavior.  What a positive feedback program!!!

The ChicoBag Company
48 Losse Way
Chico, CA 95926
530.313.5252
888.496.6166
530.267.5434 fax
info@chicobag.com
CHICOBAG

We are visual creatures!  And with the growth of desktop computer design software, television, video, and design everywhere...we are emotionally attached to VISUAL DESIGN.

Even in transportation.

A big visible difference from non-hybrids, big fuel economy gains and a small price difference have determined winners and losers in the growing segment of hybrid automobiles, say market observers.

Dan Gorrell, president of Auto Stratagem, a research and consulting firm in Tustin, Calif., says. "Consider the hybrid Highlander (SUV). It hasn't sold well, partly because it violates a major issue: you need to look different. A lot of why people are buying hybrids has to do with being noticed; it's a self-esteem issue."

READ MORE -- SOURCE:  CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com

Energy Investment Payback Is Critical to Conservation

Energy conservation is difficult for consumers because they are caught in a "system" that promotes and benefits from more consumption.  Utility companies make more money when consumers use more energy.  Appliance manufacturers make more products when they are "sexy" with features that use more energy.  Consumers choose to be "up to date" with their neighbors and fall prey to ever growing use of energy.  They only notice it once a month on their electric bill -- and they adjust.  Conservation by family members is difficult.

Enter...a solution at the source:

Utilities may be more willing to make investments in energy savings than the average consumer. James E. Rogers, chief executive of Duke Energy, supports the idea of utilities covering the upfront costs of energy-saving consumer items—such as more-efficient but costlier air conditioners for people’s homes—and then adding a small fee to the customer’s electric bill as a return on the investment.

Nancy C. Floyd of Nth Power, an investment banking firm that specializes in energy, notes that because utilities already have a relationship with individual home and building owners, they are well positioned to promote efficiency. CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com

California has changed the profit equation for utility companies -- and with a complex formula, allows utility monopolies to profit MORE from conservation than additional sales of power. 

Internal marketing is often overlooked in strategy sessions and top management priorities.  Marketing your message to employees, supply chains, investors and current customers are often neglected if not avoided altogether in the mad dash for new customers.  But organizations thrive because of their  CURRENT stakeholders and many of those stakeholders resent being taken for granted. 

They need reassurance, talking points to virally market your company to the many, many people they can influence face to face.  Including themselves!  Do you face a talent shortage in an innovative marketplace?

Many organizations continue to face a talent shortage even when the headcount is right. There are enough people, but not enough of the right talent mix. Great talent comes into the organization and a few years later, if not properly developed and trained, that talent will be out the door. Not a lot of discussion about it, they will just leave and take their skills to an organization that cares about who they are and how they can develop their talent.

According to the Wall Street Journal (1/28/08), “Companies haven’t been grooming talent and training enough employees for promotions and now have a mismatch of talent.” It is like the organization is wearing mismatched socks, right colors, wrong pattern.

Retaining, motivating and developing talent is the job of a good leader.  And good leaders are needed at every level of management -- from the board room to the maintenance room.  With today's high tech platform, every job has become (or should become) more talent based as tools are leveraged with insight, observation and innovative problem solving.

Ten Talent Tips

1. Understand future needs of the organization and business units
2. Have a method in place to identify key talent
3. Give existing talent stretch assignments for development
4. Reshuffle roles in the organization, people will learn new areas
5. Make training and development a priority, even in the tough times
6. Find out what skills are missing and fill the gaps
7. Acknowledge and appreciate the great talent that you have
8. Re-look at your mission and vision, are they bold enough to attract and retain?
9. Implement coaching for development
10. Become a mentor to aspiring talent

These talent tips from Valarie Willis at Bluepoint Leadership Development are part of the internal marketing -- part of social responsibility to your own family.  Don't let your company or organization suffer from the "cobbler's family had no shoes" syndrome.  Bringing your message to your people can reap long term profitability and vitality far beyond the marketplace!  

RESOURCE:  Bluepointleadership.com