Melodies in Marketing

Lewis Green asked the following question to his readers in this post:

Sustainability is Hot! Are you? What does it mean to have a Sustainable Brand and/or be a green company? Do today’s businesses, some of whom are rushing to be labeled green, get it? Is authenticity key or can a company use marketing to get consumers to see they are green?

With some great responses you can read from his post, here is mine:

It means to be both environmentally conscious and be economically minded, through extreme efficiency and a goal of zero waste in operations, manufacturing, marketing, and product development. Setting goals and auditing to meet performance metrics will determine progress.

Authenticity and transparency are important. The degree to which you want to promote it though, will be up to the organization and the circumstances. In many cases, companies are already being responsible in their supply chain or other areas. The point is then to responsibly create an awareness program that at least states the facts, as part of a public relations package on corporate social responsibility. For other firms that are seizing the market opportunity on sustainability, obviously their communications are much stronger on the green/clean message. But their responsibility toward ethical communications remain the same.

But when the product is supposed to be green/sustainable, one must naturally be careful and not claim superfluous attributes that are vague. Perhaps the deep truth is real. In that case, marketing copy, language and graphic design has to be carefully constructed so as not to be critically/vaguely perceived. Third party audits and certifications are helpful, but only to the degree that the third party is recognized and credible. There is literally a fight going on among organizations that want to claim their label as being the best. Much of it is ego-driven, but most of it is about money. The labels with the most recognition and adoption by reputable companies will win. However, the government is the largest purchaser of most goods. It’s their actions to really watch under the radar, because although they’re slow as dinosaurs, they have a responsibility to the public to be very fair and objective. I’m still talking about product-orientation, everything else is CSR related and another world of its own.

Much of this reminds me of health food marketing. But claims like “99% fat free” (by weight doh!), won’t work in the green space because misleading claims are going to be found out about, blogged on, and criticized by others (and the competition).

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What do YOU think?

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[Video Link for Email/Other Subscribers]

{UPDATE 7/15: Due to some recent concerns on a few of these videos, unfortunately every one except #2 and #32 will be temporarily removed. We live in the social media age and for a topic this important, I hope all these videos can be made publicly available for the educational community. Please leave a comment if you’d like to know when they’re available again. Merci mes belle Amis…}

A 10-Minute Highlight video of some sessions I filmed at a great conference I attended in early June: Sustainable Brands 08. All of these videos cover topics in marketing communications, product development, operations, human resources, and management. The camera may not be always perfect, but I tried my best to get the best audio and sharpest resolution. Rollover a link for a quick abstract. On each individual page, there is descriptive information below the video about the speaker(s), the presentation’s summary and analysis, and additionally related articles and resources for further learning.

If someone you know may benefit from the incredible educational value of these sessions, please send them a link to this page or one of the videos below. They are under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license, and may be downloaded and redistributed as appropriate. If you’d like to learn more about the process involved in producing & distributing video through online social media, please send me an email at: mvellandi [at] yahoo.com . ~ Adieu

{UPDATE: Thanks to the Universities that have taken interest in these video case studies. I hope they serve essential value to educators and students interested in responsible & ethical approaches to sustainability}

1. SMaRT Sustainable Product Standard (Special Event)
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2. Environmental Defense Fund - Beth Trask
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3. California EPA - Leonard Robinson
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4. Clean Tech Investment - Bob O’Connor, Wilson Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati
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5. CleanFish - Tim O’Shea
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6. Brown-Forman (Alcohol) - Rob Kaplan
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7. Green Marketing - Jacquelyn Ottoman
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8. Dow Chemical - Julie Fasone Holder
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9. Clorox Co - Bill Morrissey
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10. PANEL: Consumer Green Brand Perceptions for 2008
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11. Keen Footwear - Bobbie Parisi
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12. Seventh Generation - Jeffrey Hollender
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13. PANEL: Designers Accord (summarized for conciseness)
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14. World of Good / Ebay - Robert Chatwani and Priya Haji
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15. PANEL: Environmental Labeling
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16. Big Green Purse - Diane MacEachern
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17. PANEL: The New Social Ethic, Making Sustainability Personal
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18. Climate Change Film Producer - Patrick Gregston
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19. Method Products - Eric Ryan
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20. Yahoo for Good - Erin Carlson
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21. New Belgium Brewery - Greg Owsley
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22. PANEL: On the Path to Carbon Neutrality
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23. PANEL: Establishing Credibility, Avoiding Greenwash
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24. Blogosphere Green Consumer Insights - Janet Eden-Harris and Averill Doering, Umbria
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25. PANEL: The Greening of Traditional Media
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26. Design for the Other 90%
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27. Fabien Cousteau - Undersea Adventures & State of the Ocean
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28. The Future of Sustainability - Mark Lee, SustainAbility
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29. PANEL: Building a Sustainable Brand at Gap Inc
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30. Hewlett-Packard, Printing & Imaging Division - Michelle Price
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31. PANEL: Innovations in Sustainable Packaging
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32. John Edson - Sustainable Product Design
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. . .

Although my garden machete couldn’t make the picture, my essential message remains the same:

Reductionism is a noble value for healthy living

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Where can you trim excess in your activities and plans?

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One year ago, I wrote an article for a nonprofit multi-author book project called “The Age of Conversation“. At the time, social media in the form of online blogs and other interactive/collaborative content was a very hot topic in sociology, journalism, and business circles among others.

While I saw the obvious benefit for social media tied to public relations and customer service, I tried to expand my mind beyond the traditional applications. After all, effective communication is important to every business/org function across a variety of industries. While many of these will not be conducive to blogging per se, there are other online applications that can be built and used as platforms for research and collaboration as well. Since I had originally worked in Sales & Product Development, while coordinating at times with Manufacturing and Logistics, I had a unique perspective on how new media ‘tools’ could perhaps be used to improve communications among parties.

Blogging is but one tool; others may include polling, surveys, process documentation, creativity sessions, seminars, conference calls, remote meetings, design collaboration, multimedia sales presentations with feedback…the potential list can go on and on; and that’s where the fiery imagination can begin to stir, rubbing the hands, thinking: “How can what we’re doing now, somehow be done better?”. In an effort to expand the mind to potential online applications that employ conversation and discussion, I wrote the following article. If you enjoy it, please send it on to a friend who you’d think might enjoy it. ~Thanks.

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The practice of research and inquiry has been with us throughout the ages. We have built intelligence by analyzing synthesized information and data, then adding personal insight and experience to make it relevant. Mankind has applied this common process for scientific, socio-economic, and political development in both positive and negative ways including the advancement of medicine, the harvesting and processing of food, and the art of war and provincial management.

Let’s add a unique dimension of this process: Conversation

Soliciting feedback and conducting polls is an excellent form of information gathering. By doing so, analysts and decision makers mitigate the risk of making bad judgments based on inconclusive data. When conducted correctly, the process will have an additional benefit: the establishment of trust, loyalty, and appreciation among all participants to the organization or cause.

The illustration shown, classifies voices into 5 major categories. By starting a conversation with the attitude of a desire to collaboratively create a better product, service, relationship or experience NOW…we exhibit our commitment to unconditional quality and being a true team player. Being firm and sincere will always win attention and command respect. Regarding competitors and antagonists, human behavior would normally not lend itself to voluntary cooperation and the sharing of feedback or intelligence. However, the improvement of common macro-level processes and goals has historically been a powerful incentive by nations, organizations, and individuals to collaborate so that the tide of excellence and well-being for all boats in the water will rise.

In order to obtain great data and information from your participants, we must follow some basic rules. First, each conversation should be customized to each audience category’s profile. Second, give immediate transparency to all submitted information to promote candor and more honest feedback among participants. Third, some form of descriptive data is absolutely necessary; polling is helpful but optional.

After individuals and organizers have collected, analyzed and created intelligence, they must further process it in order to draw value. This is the stage of stripping out ‘nice-to-knows’ and creating actionable intelligence, from which clear organizational and personal strategies can be made. The benefits can include competitive advantages, process improvements, better products/services, improved relationships with others, brand evangelists, and best of all: more goodwill to spread around for all to enjoy.

Now that you know the process, let’s just make it simple: Start a new conversation today. Be honest and open-minded…see where it takes you.

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After this delightful reading of “Made to Stick“, I’ve come away with a lot of great insight on how to improve my communication across ALL channels. There’s no way to summarize the main points of this book without reading it yourself. So I’ll just refer you to the authors’ official blog and Cam Beck’s posts about it (one, two, three, four). But I will impart some recommendations on why this book is important.

Beginning with my enlightenment into the humanities as a teen and always having a passion for the intellectual (perhaps it’s the German in me), I’ve appreciated the abstract and Subjective. However, after being introduced to Ayn Rand and Objectivity (especially applied to leadership) in my twenties, I saw the distinct values in being direct and focused.

Well-rounded individuals will appreciate both schools of thought and apply them appropriately to various aspects of their lives. This book explains how to integrate both philosophies into our communication with others, so that our messages will strike a subliminal creative harmony that well…sticks. But most importantly, the techniques and methods Chip & Dan describe can be applied by ANYONE. Good and Poor communicators exist across all levels of our society. We all have the potential to more effectively deliver our messages in an effort to elicit the responses/actions we desire.

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