Outreach: The Best Form of Marketing & Branding for a Green Company

Austin, Texas: I was asked at a panel discussion recently what would be the one best way for a green marketer to increase sales.  I immediately responded with OUTREACH.

After some discussion and debate, I came to the conclusion that I had given the right answer.

Sure, everybody wants to increase sales, so they start planning creative strategies.

Focus groups.

Visits with ad agency and or marketing departments.

New product features–gotta have them.

New ad campaign–a must to justify this campaign.

Sleeker packaging–why not?

The list goes on–products, features, benefits, etc.

All these are fine.  But so what?

Why should customers care?

The base for green products is not growing at the same rapid pace it has for the past decade.  The greenies are all on board, as I had mentioned in a previous post.

But what about the rest of the population?

If you are not doing outreach programs to promote green causes and the benefits of going green, you will not expand your market share. In fact, if every company in your field promoted a green product to the same base, your market share will dry up quickly, as competition for that segment will increase.

Set aside a good amount of your green marketing and advertising budget–and spend it on creating awareness for environmental issues:

• recycling
• reuse of products
• carbon footprint
• cap and trade
• sustainability
• alternative energy
• pollution reduction

Your products and services should only be mentioned in passing — or as an afterthought.

Outreach should be done to create passion.

To build the base.

To inspire social change.

Can it be political?  Sure.  Will it create some negative impact among non-greenies? Possibly, so tread carefully.  But if you are truly a green company, the positive will surely outweigh the negative.  And, if you are truly green, those that are most offended are probably not going to be your ultimate target market any way.

At your next show, will you be touting product benefits–or building the base through outreach?

Outreach first.  Sales will follow.

That is the best way to increase green product sales over the next decade–and beyond.

Let’s Make Every Day Earth Day

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Robert Piller, President of Eco Marketing Solutions, has over 25 years of experience in running and implementing green marketing campaigns and is a leader in the recycled promotional products industry, including offering one of the largest selections of reusable and organic tote bags, recycled and biodegradable water bottles, recycled pens and pencils in the country.

His company’s website, EcoMarketingSolutions.com, features over 25,000 eco-friendly promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find biodegradable, organic and recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame.

You can also reach him by email (robert (at) ecomarketingsolutions.com) or comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com or below at his Twitter link.

Companies of all sizes are mandating that they “go green” and are trying to become a responsible corporate citizens by reducing their carbon footprint. However, as I attend and exhibit at shows throughout the year, I continue to see business missing out on opportunities to practice better green stewardship and improved sustainability.

Thinking green should become an every day thought process for all employees – not just for executives or those in the “environmental/sustainability” department. Green should be encouraged all day, much as safety is practiced at manufacturing plants all day long— at work, at home and in the car.

Here are six simple ways to reduce your carbon footprint at your next trade show.

1) Stop with All Those Print Catalogs
Leave your 16 and 32-page catalogs home. Nobody wants to lug them around the trade show floor and they cost a fortune to ship (to say nothing of the exorbitant drayage charges).

Better, you can make up a double-sided single-page flyer highlighting show specials, new features, your blog, website, etc. Then, for those interested parties, you can drop the requested catalogs in the mail, so they will arrive soon after they return back to their office, not in a 25-pound pile at the bottom of a tote bag. Of course, you can stash a handful of your big catalogs in the back of your booth for those clients that threaten you unless you present them with a full-line catalog.

Another option is to bring digital versions of your catalog—either on CD’s or, better yet, on USB flash drives. These can be branded with your logo, and can be made of recycled material—and come in sizes up to 4 MB.

2) Give Away Green Promotional Products
I was at a recycling show a few weeks ago and saw exhibitors giving away rubber light up balls, plastic doodads and the like. I like yo-yos than make whirring noises as much as the next guy, but there are thousands of green-friendly promotional products, or swag that you can choose from that will have a greater impact on your customers and prospects. Practice what you preach…and give away imprinted eco-friendly advertising specialties that are either reusable, recyclable, biodegradable or organic. Functionality, like water bottles and tote bags, are also a plus.

3) Lighten the Load
As mentioned in Rule #1, by reducing the size of your paper handouts, you will drastically cut your freight bill, and reduce energy consumption.

Also, consider lighter trade show displays. I often take pop-up fabric banners and stands at my shows, which weigh under 7 pounds each—as opposed to my old pop-up exhibit that fits inside two rolling cases, which weigh about 35 pounds each. Many of my clients have switched from shipping wooden crates by freight line to shipping just a few boxes by UPS – and have not noticed any decrease in booth traffic, lead generation or sales.

4) Use Green Fabrics and Materials
From the flooring to the fabrics you use to cover the tables and in your banners and backdrops, try to stick with recyclable or recycled materials. Same goes for clothing that your booth personnel wear. Be sure all booth staff wears clothing made of natural materials. There are dozens of eco-friendly clothing options, including organic or regular cotton, bamboo, hemp, recycled cotton and other materials.

5) Car Pool and Share Rooms
When traveling, be sure to insist all personnel car pool or share taxis when traveling to and from the airport, convention centers, meals, etc. Reducing wasted energy consumption helps keep all employees thinking green all the time.

6) Donate Unused Samples and Product
Many booths decorate with flowers or plants that can be donated to a local nursing home and samples can be given away to a local hospital, charity, school or other institution, rather than shipping them back to the home office. Face it, many times the materials never come back in good condition, take too long to sort and put back in the proper location and costs too much to ship back. If you have extra catalogs, give them to your local sales rep, if possible or ship back to the nearest one.

By practicing energy saving steps, you can help to reduce your company’s carbon footprint. Here is a link to a carbon footprint calculator. Multiply the savings over the number of shows your organizations attend each year, and you can notice substantial savings.

Here’s to a greener tomorrow…today.
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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any company interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

Since the price of oil has dropped over 50% in the past year, what effect will it have on the alternative energy industry as a whole?

With cheap oil available, the public outcry has calmed for new sources of energy.  Although this pricing condition is short-lived, the meltdown in the financial sector might have a more lasting and negative impact.

For example, the ethanol industry has seen its share of problems recently due to the skyrocketing costs of corn.  However, as all commodity prices have become turbulent in recent months, some ethanol producers have not adjusted to volatile price swings,  and firms such as VeraSun Energy Corp., have filed for Chapter 11 protection.

The $700 billion government bailout includes an 8-year extension of solar power tax credits, which is very positive.  However, absent an influx in capital investment funds, this industry will not advance as quickly as once believed.

Wind power has also been given a one-year extension of production tax credits.  Again, being that this industry is capital intensive, its growth rate will also slow to a crawl.

With a new administration promising $150 billion over the next ten years in alternative energies, it comes at a very opportune time.

Let’s hope the American people will not be lulled into thinking oil pries will continue to fall forever.  The time for investment into clean energy is now.

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Robert Piller is President of EcoMarketing Solutions LLC, a company that helps businesses promote themselves to their customers and prospects at trade shows using environmentally-friendly promotional products that won’t end up in a landfill. He is a frequent speaker and writer on issues of green marketing. He can be reached at robert@ecomarketingsolutions.com. You can also visit his blog at www.greenspotblog.com.

The word “sustainability” is used a great deal these days, without any clear or complete definition. In fact, the meaning is rather ambiguous, at best.

Probably the most recognized definition of sustainability comes from the 1987 report Our Common Future—better known as the Brundtland Report—which states that development is sustainable when it “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Steve Johnson, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, stated that ” We have a responsibility to sustain – if not enhance – our natural environment and our nation’s economy for future generations.”

It is interesting to note that neither statement favors environmental protectionism over commerce or vice versa. Rather it states that the two must work together for the common good. It recognizes the needs of the current population must be met in a way that does not adversely affect the environment.

Though there is no clear method to measure sustainability, climate neutrality is considered the highest of sustainability goals by many governments, NGOs, businesses and other institutions. Most charters that deal with sustainability encourage the integration of environmental, economic and social goals in policies and in activities—both on a global and local level.

The EPA’s Sustainability Research Strategy examined several interrelated and complex factors—such as growing human populations, increases in waste production, growing energy demands, and land development—in the hopes of better understanding their effects on the earth’s natural systems.

How does sustainability take into account the growing human overpopulation combined with current lifestyle patterns? It should be no surprise that there are studies that support both sides of the equation—both that the current world population is too large to support sustainability, and others that argue that it is sustainable. What can be agreed upon is that the “ecological footprint” of some countries is greater than others. For example, the ecological pressure of a US resident is believed to be approximately 12 times that of a resident of India and 24 times that of a Somali resident. Even in the Unites States, certain states have a stronger “ecological footprint” than others. For example, nearly one-third of the U.S. population resides in the 17 Western states, which include seven of the nation’s 10 fastest growing states. As these states continue to see a continued growth expansion it will continue to affect the allocation and use of resources.

As the population grows and shifts, it is interesting to note that natural resources have an interrelated effect on one another. According to the EPA’s Sustainability Research Strategy report, “since 1971 each 1 percent increase in worldwide GDP has resulted in a 0.64 percent increase in energy use. Most of the energy has been produced from fossil fuels, so the increased energy use has led to greater emissions of air pollutants from the combustion of these fuels. Nearly half of U.S. water withdrawals are used for cooling power plants and water is also used to scrub air pollutants from flue gas; so rising energy use increases both demand for and pollution of water. Extraction of fossil fuels from the earth requires use of more materials, changes the surrounding land, and produces more wastes (i.e. unwanted materials). Finally, increased energy use impacts ecosystems through such factors as silt runoff from energy extraction activities and the decline in water quality caused by runoff from mining facilities. Interactions like these demonstrate forcefully that a systems approach offers the best strategy for understanding environmental impacts and for designing cost-effective and sustainable policy responses.

In regards to land development, the Sustainability Research Strategy report notes the correlation to impervious surfaces , such as roads and rooftops, and the degradation of water quality due to increased” runoff volume, stream sedimentation and water acidity”. According to the report, a single “one-acre parking lot produces a runoff volume almost 16 times as great as would an undeveloped meadow of the same size.” Therefore, the importance of green building and green design is crucial as the population expands, both for new development and replacement construction.

For generations, the importance and seriousness of sustainability have been understood, so why has there been so much resistance to it? The precautionary principle states that “if there is a risk that an action could cause harm, and there is a lack of scientific consensus on the matter, the burden of proof is on those who would support taking the action.”

Therefore, as long as there are pundits on both sides of the sustainability equation, change will continue to be gradual. However, as global warming continues to heat up the planet, many developing nations are beginning to implement policies in support of sustainable development. Coupled with corporate social responsibility, greater public awareness and a better understanding of carbon footprints, the goal of sustainability can become a reality.

Here’s hoping for a clear and legitimate definition for sustainability, so we can help work towards a solution.

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Robert Piller is President of Eco Marketing Solutions LLC, a company that helps businesses promote themselves to their customers and prospects using environmentally-friendly promotional products that won’t end up in a landfill. He can be reached at robert@ecomarketingsolutions.com.

In my discussions over the years with clients, one question seems to pop up more than any other: Are Americans willing to pay more for environmentally-friendly products?

For the segment of the population that is most affluent, most educated and most eco-conscious, the answer has always been – yes.

Now, a survey conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, shows that an ever increasing number of Americans are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products.

“Many American consumers, even in the face of economic uncertainty, express a willingness to pay more for environmentally friendly products,” said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of Yale Project on Climate Change.

Half of the respondents to the survey said they would “definitely” or “probably” pay 15% more for eco-friendly clothes detergent (51%) or for an automobile (50%). Forty percent said they would spend 15% more on “green” computer printer paper and 39 percent would do the same for “green” wood furniture.

What has been most surprising in this study is the fact that Americans who said their current financial situation is “fair” or “poor” were just as willing to spend 15% more on such environmentally-friendly products as detergent or wood furniture as those Americans more confident of their current financial situation.

As the green movement continues to grow, this survey should make it clear to industries across the board that green products will continue to increase in demand. Whether you are a manufacturer, small family business or service provider, it is important to increase the development or repackaging of your products as environmentally friendly.

As green becomes the norm, and probably the cost of entry for most products within the next 3 to 5 years, those firms that get a jump start on their competitors will have the best chance of capitalizing on this premium price differentiation. After that time frame, the green premium will most likely disappear and companies will have to look for the next marketing edge.

In the meantime, go green. It makes economic sense.

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Robert Piller is President of EcoMarketing Solutions LLC, a company that helps businesses promote themselves to their customers and prospects using environmentally-friendly promotional products that won’t end up in a landfill. He is a guest speaker and writer on issues pertaining to green marketing. He can be reached at robert@ecomarketingsolutions.com.

Is God an environmentalist? Does Scripture teach the need for environmental stewardship? Why are churches going green and preaching the “green gospel”.

Well, more than ever, churches, temples and mosques are promoting the green movement in connection are part of a growing trend toward matching science with religion.

Pope John Paul II, once described environmental concerns as a “moral issue” and noted in 1990 that people have “a grave responsibility to preserve [the earth's] order for the well-being of future generations.”

The environmental organization, Sierra Club, has publicly recognized and welcomed the “growing level of commitment and leadership among people of faith working to connect environmental awareness with widely shared values including stewardship, justice, and concern for future generations. We also recognize that lasting social change rarely takes place without the active engagement of communities of faith.”

One organization, the National Council of Churches of Christ has begun a campaign to promote the ideal that, according to their website, says that “God calls us as stewards of God’s creation. Making our churches a more environmentally friendly place can provide a healthy, toxic-free sacred space as well as help us protect God’s creation for current and future generations.”

Another organization, the Interfaith Power and Light, is trying to engage faith communities to “talk actively about environment and faith”.

Their website says, “We are an interfaith ministry devoted to deepening the connection between ecology and faith. Our goal is to help people of faith recognize and fulfill their responsibility for the stewardship of creation.

Specifically, the Interfaith Power and Light campaign is mobilizing a national religious response to global warming while promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation. People of faith have an opportunity to put their faith into action and help reduce the devastating effects of global warming.”

This organization is fast growing throughout the South and Southeast and its philosophy is catching on. In addition to offer sermon suggestions and helpful tips on reducing energy consumption inside the places of worships, they have created kits to encourage going green throughout the holidays, including using energy-efficient light bulbs on menorahs for Hanukkah or Advent. This organization also has trained over 150 religious leaders for grass root campaigns to make environmental messages as part of their sermons, as well as part of their building and education programs and in their community life.

The importance of a strong environmental movement is gaining rapidly among all faiths as the cause and impact of global warming on the world’s poor has become more pronounced. One survey shows that in the United States, 67 percent of Americans say they care about the environment because it is “God’s creation.”

What does the future hold for the green movement at churches? You’ve got to have faith.

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Robert Piller is President of EcoMarketing Solutions LLC, a company that helps businesses promote themselves to their customers and prospects using environmentally-friendly promotional products that won’t end up in a landfill. He is a guest speaker and writer on issues concerning green marketing. He can be reached at robert@ecomarketingsolutions.com.