Recently in Messaging for Green Marketing Category

Where's the beef? Well...meeting value, that is.

Architect Scott Simpson described a concept KlingStubbins called a team structure and the industry now calls Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). The concept is key for a collaborative project approach, but its importance is more universal. The phrase that stuck with me was "decision-ready information".

Decision-ready information consists of the key facts required for a meaningful, final decision about a subject to be decided.

In an IPD project, major decision-makers are expected to attend every meeting, so that decisions made in the meeting have meaningful buy-in and closure. These meetings can be intense, not to mention very expensive.
 

It's the responsibility, therefore, of each team member to bring decision-ready information for the decisions on the agenda.

Wouldn't this information design approach make meetings more valuable...and engaging!

The green marketing opportunity here is to demonstrate the sustainability, incentives, and cost saving attributes of your green solution.  Manufacturers can arm their representatives with decision-ready information.

Think about what information -- what key metrics and performance demonstration --  about your product might drive project decisions, and make sure it's available in an easy format for your representatives to bring to the table.

Read more at BuildingProductMarketing.com

This site deserves its "7" page rank! Check out the clear design, comprehensive information and quality links. Who says that Internet data has to be less reliable than print?

The Art's Butterfly World website describes over 34 years of data collected by Dr. Arthur Shapiro, professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis, in his continuing effort to regularly monitor butterfly population trends on a transect across central California. Ranging from the Sacramento River delta, through the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada mountains, to the high desert of the western Great Basin, fixed routes at ten sites have been surveyed at approximately two-week intervals since as early as 1972.

The sites represent the great biological, geological, and climatological diversity of central California. As of the end of 2006, Dr. Shapiro has logged 5476 site-visits and tallied approximately 83,000 individual records of 159 butterfly species and subspecies.

This major effort is continuing and represents the world's largest dataset of intensive site-specific data on butterfly populations collected by one person under a strict protocol. We have also collated monthly climate records for the entire study period from weather stations along the transect.

This website was built as a portal for Dr. Shapiro's data and observations, supported by National Science Foundation.

It helps to have significant funding and partnering arrangements!

This site deserves its "7" page rank! Check out the clear design, comprehensive information and quality links. Who says that Internet data has to be less reliable than print?

The Art's Butterfly World website describes over 34 years of data collected by Dr. Arthur Shapiro, professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis, in his continuing effort to regularly monitor butterfly population trends on a transect across central California. Ranging from the Sacramento River delta, through the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada mountains, to the high desert of the western Great Basin, fixed routes at ten sites have been surveyed at approximately two-week intervals since as early as 1972.

The sites represent the great biological, geological, and climatological diversity of central California. As of the end of 2006, Dr. Shapiro has logged 5476 site-visits and tallied approximately 83,000 individual records of 159 butterfly species and subspecies.

This major effort is continuing and represents the world's largest dataset of intensive site-specific data on butterfly populations collected by one person under a strict protocol. We have also collated monthly climate records for the entire study period from weather stations along the transect.

This website was built as a portal for Dr. Shapiro's data and observations, supported by National Science Foundation.

It helps to have significant funding and partnering arrangements!

USDA's proposed BioPreferred eco-labeling program that will identify "bio-based" (i.e., made out of agricultural, forestry, or marine-based ingredients) products and packages.

The USDA "BioPreferred" list includes "BioPreferred" list include PLA-based plastics, vegetable oil-based cleaning fluids, and soaps made from natural ingredients--but not food or fuel.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is making it easier for consumers to identify biobased products through the release of its proposed BioPreferredSM labeling rule. USDA's BioPreferred labeling program, published today in the Federal Register, intends to create a product label that would appear on qualifying BioPreferred biobased products. When final, this regulation will allow biobased product manufacturers to participate in a voluntary labeling program to identify biobased products on retail store shelves. "Increasing the purchase and use of biobased products is a priority of the Obama Administration because it helps increase our nation's energy security and independence by using American agricultural products, while spurring economic development in rural areas," said Vilsack. "Consumers want to make more informed product choice decisions and BioPreferred will help them. This label will help consumers, businesses and Federal government purchasers easily identify biobased products." Manufacturers will be able to utilize the BioPreferred label, when finalized, to help customers identify their products as biobased. Currently, USDA has identified more than 15,000 commercially available biobased products across approximately 200 categories, from cleaning products to construction materials. Biobased products are available to consumers today and the new label will help make these sustainable products more accessible and serve as a valuable marketing tool for manufacturers and vendors of biobased products. Biobased products are products that are composed wholly or significantly of biological ingredients - renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials. A BioPreferred designated item is one that meets or exceeds USDA-established minimum biobased content requirements.

This Federal Register notice announces the program's intent to create and make available a voluntary product label for increased commercial and consumer promotion of biobased products. USDA, through the publication of this draft rule, seeks to notify and gather feedback from interested groups and the public-at-large on this process. More information about BioPreferred's proposed labeling rule can be found at www.biopreferred.gov or contact BioPreferred at biopreferred@usda.gov. BioPreferred encourages interested parties to submit comments on the proposed rule until Sept. 29, 2009. To submit comments go to http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-17610.htm. The BioPreferred program was created by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (2002 Farm Bill) as a preferred procurement program to increase the purchase and use of biobased products within the Federal government. The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill) expanded the program's scope to promote the sale of biobased products in other sectors.

BioPreferred is comprised of two programs: a preferred procurement program for Federal agencies and a voluntary labeling program for the broad scale marketing of biobased products. A complete list and detailed description of each BioPreferred designated item, and items for future designation, can be found at www.biopreferred.gov or follow BioPreferred at http://twitter.com/BioPreferred

Do you have (or know of someone who has) a company producing green, sustainable, or high performance solutions?

We are launching a "green directory with a difference" -- you get a real opportunity to tell your green solutions story in the listing!  Up to 600 WORDS...and your listing can be included in FIVE categories. 

We also include BOTH Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer categories.  IF we don't have the right category for your solution -- let us know and we'll seriously consider adding it.

The SolutionsforGreen.com site is highly "search engine optimized" and the listings will probably appear higher on Google searches than your own company's listings for key word phrases.  We work hard at building a robust platform of sites to help drive traffic to the directory.  We're serious about greening our world...and want to help others who are also serious about the challenge facing us.  And who have solutions!

We would  love to have your company, nonprofit organization...or even public agency list your green products, green services...and green programs.  You don't have to be in the commercial market.  You just need SOLUTIONS!  Employee programs.  Festivals. Innovator groups. The broader the variety of solutions, the better! 

"Necessity is the mother of invention"...my mother taught me.  And we have necessity.  Now it's time to implement some great, innovative solutions.

And then get the word out for replicating good results.  So add your listing, already :-)

SolutionsforGreen.com

Excerpts from an article in McKinseyQuarterly.com:

It might not be "socialism", but what we are seeing not only in the US, but across the globe could be somewhat similar in concept:

State capitalism is an economic system in which governments manipulate market outcomes for political purposes. Governments embrace state capitalism because it serves political as well as economic purposes--not because it's the most efficient means of generating prosperity. It puts vast financial resources within the control of state officials, allowing them access to cash that helps safeguard their domestic political capital and, in many cases, increases their leverage on the international stage. But state capitalism also stems the rise of globalization, because to varying degrees it hampers the flow of ideas, information, people, money, goods, and services within countries and across international borders.

The rise of state capitalism

As the Cold War stumbled to a close, the belief that governments could micromanage national economies and generate prosperity seemed dead. The dynamism and market power of Japan, the United States, and Western Europe--fueled by private wealth, private investment, and private enterprise--appeared to have fully and finally established the dominance of the liberal economic model. As these countries' governments privatized businesses and pensions, companies such as Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Toyota Motor, and Wal-Mart Stores feverishly sketched out global expansion plans. Globalization became a household word.

But even before the still-developing global financial crisis had shaken the foundations of faith in free markets, the determination of a new generation of emerging-market heavyweights (many of them politically authoritarian) to chart their own courses toward prosperity and power ensured that public wealth, public investment, and public enterprise would make a stunning comeback.

The engines of state capitalism

Yet, despite the massive state interventions in economies across both the developed and developing worlds, many corporate leaders and investors act as though globalization remains the dominant paradigm. That is a mistake. In fact, the new importance of the state had become obvious well before the onset of the current crisis. Energy markets provide a good example.

The story extends well beyond energy. Across a broad range of economic sectors, China and Russia are leading the way in the strategic deployment of state-owned enterprises, and other governments have begun to follow their lead. In defense, a growing number of emerging-market governments--power generation, telecom, metals, minerals, and aviation--not content with simply regulating markets, are moving to dominate them.

Such state-corporate activity is fueled in part by the emergence of a new class of sovereign wealth funds. States with large holdings in the currencies of other countries are establishing ever larger risk-taking funds meant to maximize their return on investment--and their political influence. With the global credit squeeze making funds harder to come by, sovereign wealth funds have become even more important for the financing of state capitalism.

The global recession has accelerated the trend of state involvement in markets as governments around the world spend billions to stimulate growth and bail out vulnerable domestic industries and companies.

Winners and losers As the landscape shifts around them, international companies and investors will discover that the large-scale injection of politics into market processes will produce its own set of winners and losers. Because political factors unique to each state will determine the response to each domestic economic slowdown, countries with relatively strong political fundamentals will have a better shot at a quick recovery.

Given the vast sums its government can spend on fiscal stimulus, China will likely emerge from the global recession before most of the developed world.

In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has over the past several years forged a durable consensus in favor of disciplined macroeconomic policy.

Second-order effects

There are other implications of these trends worth considering.

We're likely to see new restrictions on the access to certain foreign markets for some companies.

• Tit-for-tat protectionism will remain a serious threat until the global recession comes to an end.
• Social upheaval will pressure politicians to turn increasingly toward a familiar and reliable tool: subsidies.
  
• Some of the regulatory changes will favor domestic firms... and SOME domestic firms.

Read more at McKinseyQuarterly.com

I was working with my marketing advisor this morning about refining our green marketing strategy and the term "gap analysis" came up as a description of what I wanted to work on.  I did what most people these do in the information gathering phase...I visited Google.

Resource one that caught my eye:

The GAP Analysis Program
"Keeping Common Species Common"

The goal of the GAP Analysis Program is to keep common species common by identifying those species and plant communities that are not adequately represented in existing conservation lands. Common species are those not currently threatened with extinction. By identifying their habitats, GAP Analysis gives land managers and policy makers the information they need to make better-informed decisions when identifying priority areas for conservation.

I always learn from natural systems...so this was interesting.  Community matters! Survival matters!

Resource two:

gap analysis definition  -  from BusinessDictionary.com
Technique for determining the steps to be taken in moving from a current state to a desired future-state. It begins with (1) listing of characteristic factors (such as attributes, competencies, performance levels) of the present situation ("what is"), (2) cross-lists factors required to achieve the future objectives ("what should be"), and then (3) highlights the 'gaps' that exist and need to be 'filled.' Also called need-gap analysis, needs analysis, and needs assessment. www.businessdictionary.com/definition/gap-analysis.html

Change...yes!  List factors.  Cross factors, and objectives.  Highlight gaps.  Fill them!  An updated needs assessment.  That makes sense.

Resource three: ... this was a synthesis of what I was looking for!

Image results for gap analysis

 Report the following images as offensive. Confirm CancelThank you for the feedback.

Gap analysis is a very useful tool for helping marketing managers to decide upon marketing strategies and tactics. Again, the simple tools are the most effective. There's a straightforward structure to follow. The first step is to decide upon how you are going to judge the gap over time. For example, by market share, by profit, by sales and so on.

This will help you to write SMART objectives. Then you simply ask two questions - where are we now? and where do we want to be?

What is Gap Analysis?

Your next step is to close the gap. Firstly decide whether you view from a strategic or an operational/tactical perspective. If you are writing strategy, you will go on to write tactics - see the lesson on marketing plans. The diagram below uses Ansoff's matrix to bridge the gap using strategies:

Strategic Gap Analysis.

You can close the gap by using tactical approaches. The marketing mix is ideal for this. So effectively, you modify the mix so that you get to where you want to be. That is to say you change price, or promotion to move from where you are today (or in fact any or all of the elements of the marketing mix).

Tactical Gap Analysis.

This is how you close the gap by deciding upon strategies and tactics - and that's gap analysis.

Thank you Marketing Teacher!

... the only problem is... these are not traditional times!  Traditional marketing methods don't necessarily apply. Do they?

With social media, and YouTube and Google and Ebay and the Obama Stimulus Plan... do the old rules apply?

Having been around for a few decades, my husband and I have been through this recessionary cycle before.  And we've seen long recoveries and deep drops...like this one.  And the latest fads in marketing all came tumbling down.  Just like now. 

I hope Google survives.  I hope YouTube survives.  I hope...well, I'm not so sure about Twitter.

But good companies need to survive.  Good products are needed to put food on the table and connect us to our loved ones and get us to our jobs ... if we still have them.   What we've observed is that during down times, fluffy marketing strategies fall away and we get back to basics.  Product, price, promotion and place. 

PRODUCT: Product adjustments are in order:  people and companies are buying ESSENTIALS. Things to fill definite NEEDS.  As in "find a need and fill it," kind of business.

PRICE: Prices are adjusting.  Banks are once again trying to gouge their best customers to bail out their mistakes,... but for the rest of us, we are adjusting our prices to balance between what we need to survive and what our customers can afford to pay during these stressful times.  We respect our customers' needs as much as our own.

PROMOTION:  It still starts with the people we already know.  I know...the giant blogosphere is tempting...but strangers use us and throw us away because their best bud or their cousin drops by and offers them a deal they can't refuse!  Internal promotion to your own customers and the folks who know you will work best during these lean times.

PLACE:  Distribution is still rather local, rather bricks and mortar.  We know that shop owner down the street.  Local is back.  When times get tough we band together and distribution becomes a matter of supporting one another because we care as much as because it's the best price.  That is, IF we have any of those relationships! 

So the four P's of marketing still matter.  They still can shore up a business during tough times.  They still make sense, even in the era of YouTube and Twitter.

People are asking themselves the ageold question...who will take care of me when I'm down and out?  That's who will get their business after they come to their senses.  And if we're smart, we'll come to our senses before we burn all our bridges -- our relationships with the people who make our food, make our cars run, educate our children, manufacture our clothes and pass the word along to readers like you :-)

That's gap analysis and gap solutions! 

Carolyn, your steadfast friend, right?

Barach Obama's campaign mastered the use of social media.  This slide presentation points out the seeds of that mastery for growing a movement...not just advertising it.  Excellent points to consider in social marketing and social change marketing.

Best Practices for Carbon Management

The effectiveness of any organization's climate change policy depends on their ability to:
(1) accurately measure their emissions from direct and indirect sources,
(2) analyze their emissions inventory to identify opportunities for reduction, and then
(3) mobilize employees and suppliers to meet reduction targets.

Clear Standards provides web-based software to help global businesses conduct analysis on their environmental footprint from operations, proactively manage carbon liability, and identify optimal paths to meet sustainability goals. The enterprise-class solution can be integrated with external data sources, to help companies visualize their carbon footprint and manage their portfolio of environmental initiatives, including tracking offset purchases and evaluating energy reduction projects. From carbon management to environmental compliance, Clear Standards enables organizations to assess their footprint, analyze impact, and act on green initiatives.

Finance and Procurement can get complete visibility into your organization's carbon liability.

Green printing is more than using recycled paper.  California is one of the forerunners in recognizing that not only does the ink and paper matter -- but the printing processes including washing the press after every run.  Many operations you never see make a difference in green printing.  Including getting the printed product TO you.

GreenPrinter has put together a solid green printing strategy.  They offer a variety of FSC certified paper stocks for your diverse needs -- from weights to finishes.  They offset transportation by purchasing offsets.  They participate in their local green business certification program as well as FSC certification.  This is good!  I always love to see a company's growth in their green strategies and I've watched GreenerPrinter for several years. 

My hat is off to this greener approach to resource management and quality business service.

Eco-friendly design, printing and online print ordering from GreenPrinter

Conduct your printing online using recycled papers and a green certified company. GreenerPrinter delivers green  quality printing and design and they're 100% Wind-Powered via Renewable Energy Credits (REC's).

That's why in addition to featuring recycled papers exclusively, GreenerPrinter also:

• Adhere to the strict environmental standards of being a locally Certified Green Business.
  
  
• Operate on 100% Wind Power through investments in Renewable Energy Credits (REC's).
  
  
• Print using only water-based coatings and soy & vegetable based inks.
  
  
• Offset the carbon emissions of our shipments through the purchase of carbon offset credits.
  
  
• Adhere to the practices outlined in GreenerPrinter's FSC Chain-of-Custody Certification.
  
  
• Eliminate dangerous chemicals and compounds from the GreenerPrinter production facility.
  
  
• Invest in printing technologies that reduce makeready and ink wash-ups, and eliminate plate processing.

Greenprinter
Berkeley, CA 94710
http://www.greenerprinter.com