Go For Green in 2009

The past is usually a good indicator of the future. And in 2008, we saw a lot of green marketing. Companies are starting to tout their eco-friendliness and that is sure to continue into 2009. So what can we learn from the green marketing in 2008? Here are the top 5 green marketing stories from that year and what they could mean for your business in 2009.

1: Presidency Change

Story
With Bush out of office, a major change for environmental politics is underway. Environmental groups have criticized Bush for his ecological ignorance and refusal to support clean energy alternatives, but these groups are now happy. Executives say that with Obama in the White House, green businesses and initiatives will flourish. Obama’s administration plans to boost clean energy, provide 5 million green-collar jobs and set strict environmental regulations for businesses.

For Your Business
As the green market gets stronger, you need to market your own greenness. Green business practices are becoming mainstream, so if you aren’t using recycled paper and sustainable procedures, you might want to put some in place so you can also claim some greenness.

2: Advertising Goes Green

Story
Cause-related marketing enjoyed 3 percent growth in 2008 despite budget cuts, and now represents one in nine dollars spent on sponsorships. GE, Walmart and HSBC won the first-ever Green Effie awards, while companies like Innocent Smoothies, Fiat and EasyJet were accused of making false green marketing claims. Consumers are paying attention to green claims and with a new site, Greenwashingindex.com, consumers can rate companies’ green ad claims and figure out who’s lying.

For Your Business
It’s pretty clear that the lesson learned from this story is that you need to be truthful about your green advertising. Consumers are wise to “greenwashing,” which means making false green claims.

3: FTC Updates Green Marketing Guidelines

Story
With so many companies making environmental claims last year, the FTC sped up the updates to their Green Guides, which regulate green packaging requirements and green marketing guidelines.

For Your Business
Revised FTC Green Guides in 2009 will become well-known so you’d better heed their advice. Competitors will probably be looking at your green marketing claims more closely and calling you out in their own ads. This is a tactic that you could use on your competition, too, of course.

4: Bottled Water Gets a Bad Rap

Story
Critics shunned bottled water last year for its wastefulness and contribution to climate change.

To extinguish scrutiny, Fiji reported that its bottled water was “carbon negative” and partnered with Conservation International for oversight of Fiji’s investments in renewable energy and conservation efforts in the Fiji rainforest. Fiji also assured customers that it will disclose its carbon footprint on its Web site.

For Your Business
As more businesses start to put statistics and specific numbers about their carbon footprint and environmental impact, you may want to consider getting your own stats on your product(s). Industries are starting to unite to share costs of finding out the carbon footprint for a lifecycle of a certain type of product, so you should look for a group like that to join.

5: The Crash of Detroit and GM Introduces Chevy Volt

Story
U.S. auto makers have been hit hard by the bleak economy and Asian competitors coming out with more fuel-efficient vehicles. GM and other auto makers are stepping up their acts to become more green and produce more hybrids, like the Chevy Volt.

For Your Business
If U.S. auto makers would have planned ahead, they wouldn’t have been so behind the times with the hybrid vehicles. Monitor changes in your industry and put plans in place to join any green trends as soon as you can.

Is Your OJ Green?

Have you wondered how much your morning glass of orange juice contributes to global warming?

PepsiCo, which owns the Tropicana brand, has tried to answer that question.

PepsiCo figured that since public concern is growing about the fate of the planet, companies will be required to figure and disclose facts such as these. And orange juice seemed like a good case study.

PepsiCo hired Math experts to measure the emissions from energy-intensive tasks such as running a factory and transporting the juice cartons. Surprisingly, it turned out that the biggest source of emissions was simply growing oranges. Citrus groves use tons of nitrogen fertilizer, which requires natural gas to make and can possibly turn into a potent greenhouse gas when it’s spread on the groves.

The Tally on OJ’s Environmental Impact
The equivalent of 3.75 pounds of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere for each half-gallon carton of orange juice. Now that the company has the info, how will they use it? PepsiCo execs have been debating on whether to cite this number in marketing efforts – would it make any difference and would consumers have any idea what it meant? This emission of carbon dioxide is known as a “carbon footprint,” and while most consumers have heard the term, they aren’t clear on what it means. PepsiCo also needs to figure out how to lower its carbon footprint on OJ. Until that time, would it be wise to promote that number?

PepsiCo is among a large number of companies that hope to get ahead of probable government directives and curb their energy use as prices and long-term supply grow less certain.

These companies also want to promote supposedly low-carbon products to consumers anxious about rising global temperatures; this type of labeling is already in use in Europe.

The companies that have taken steps to reduce carbon emissions include: Nike, Coca-Cola, BP and I.B.M. Yahoo!, Google and Dell are among the companies that have declared that they will become “carbon neutral.”

PepsiCo is one of the first companies that have provided an absolute number for a product’s carbon footprint, and now that they’ve found a way to find that number, it’s expected that disclosing specific environmental data will become a trend. Although the number is on the Web site, the company has not yet decided whether it will put the number on the OJ package.

Fighting Greenwashing
Many companies claim to be green, but aren’t really. These companies are guilty of greenwashing, which is lying about the greenness of the company. This infuriates environmentalists, as well as companies that are truly green but are getting trampled by companies that only claim to be green.

Companies can apply the standards for determining a carbon footprint in any way they see fit, and they can decide how rigorous they want to be in counting emissions.

Right now, the numbers are practically worthless, according to some green experts.

But, it’s great that companies are thinking about the environment and reacting to the public’s environmental concerns, but until there are carbon footprint standards across all industries, and identical processes in place to determine the numbers, it might be best to leave the specific numbers out of marketing.

Help for Small Businesses Going Green

PrintPlace has gone green, and since the environment is so important to us, we’d like to give other businesses ideas on how to become green. If every green company helped another company go green, think of all the pollution we could prevent from seeping into the air and all the resources we could save. PrintPlace is trying to do its part by offering these tidbits of green info for businesses going green.

Learn Environmental Regulations
Even though there is no national governmental certification for going green, there are rules you need to follow from the EPA. EPA environmental regulations are spelled out for you, including what permits you need and how to comply with the Clean Air Act, among others. Knowing these rules will put you well on your way to becoming green.

Create an Environmental Plan
You need to come up with an environmental policy statement and communicate eco-friendly responsibilities to employees. You should also set goals, such as lowering your water consumption or using 100% recycled paper by a certain date. Business.gov’s web page on Environmental Planning can help you with your plan. You can even look at samples and get ideas for your industry.

Build Green
If your small business is in a building that needs to be renovated, or perhaps you have the capital to build an office, you can go green with building materials. Install energy efficient heating and cooling systems, buy energy efficient light bulbs and install insulation so that you can maximize the sun’s warmth when needed.

Buy Green Products

Green products are:

• Made from post-consumer, recycled materials
• Bio-based
• Non-toxic
• Energy efficient (look for the Energy Star logo)
• Locally produced
• Renewable and recyclable

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
By reducing the amount of waste your company produces, you not only help the environment, but save money. Waste reduction means lower removal costs and cuts cost on raw materials, equipment and office supplies. If you can streamline your operations to reduce waste, you’ll also save money on manpower by becoming more efficient. Instead of having an 8-hour workday, you could have a 7-hour workday, and shut down the lights and equipment an hour earlier each day. On the flip side, you could make and sell more products because of your higher efficiency and lower production costs.

Market Yourself as Green
Add green claims and eco-labels to your marketing strategy, including packaging. Let customers know that you’re a green company – many customers make purchasing decisions based on this info. Join an EPA partnership or stewardship program to learn more about being eco-friendly and to join other businesses that are helping to save the Earth.

Costs of Printing a Marketing Postcard

Many factors go into the price of printing marketing postcards. Here are the standard decisions you’ll need to make about your postcard that will affect its price.

Size
The bigger your postcard, the more it’s going to cost. A standard 4×6 postcard is usually plenty big enough, but if you want to bump it up to a 5×7 or 6×8, you can expect to pay another $15 to $50 per 250. To make a smaller postcard stand out from the normal bills, pay a little extra for a bright color, like orange or yellow. Be sure the color you choose isn’t too dark so that it doesn’t make the text hard to read.

Design (graphic designer)
Some printing companies have free postcard templates that allow you to design your postcard to your liking. The trouble with this is that your postcard could end up looking like the company’s down the street, or worse yet, your competitor! It’s best to design it yourself, or hire a freelance graphic designer. Experienced designers can cost anywhere from $25 to $100 an hour. You could hire a graphic design student from a local university for much less, probably $10 to $20 an hour.

You could also pay an advertising or marketing firm to design a postcard for you, but the rates will be even higher than the freelance designer’s. I’d advise against this unless the firm is also designing the rest of your marketing materials.

Front and back design
A postcard with a 4-color front and back versus nothing on the back will cost you about $20 to $25 for 1,000 postcards.

Mailed proof or instant, electronic proof
Any more, everyone is going to a PDF, electronic proof, which is normally free. The bad news: the colors you see on screen won’t exactly match what you’ll get with a printed piece. You can pay an extra $1 to $6 for a mailed proof.

Folded, perforated flap
Add about $20 to your order of 1,000 postcards for one side to be perforated. (This is actually a pretty good deal, since it will make it more likely for people to return your form.)

Rounded corners
If you want your postcards to look a little more stylish, you can pay about $30 more for rounded corners.

Turnaround time
The quicker you want them, the more it’s going to cost you. This is where it pays to plan ahead. Expect to pay another $15 to $30 for rush services.

Mailing services
Mailing services usually include addressing your postcards, as well as checking your mailing list for USPS format errors and then putting postage on the postcards and mailing them out. Some printing companies even sell mailing lists. Mailing services could run you between $100 to $300, with purchasing a mailing list included in the upper range.

Bulk order
The more you order, the less you pay per postcard. Instead of ordering 250 at 30 cents each, you can get 500 at about 13 cents each. Up that to 1,000 and you’re looking at only 7 cents each. The savings are significant, if you need a high quantity.

Full color versus one color
By going full color on both sides, you spend about $20 to $40 more than if you did full color on one side (for 1,000 postcards).

6 Ways to Cut Direct Mail Costs in 2009

The recession we are experiencing now will most likely continue “at least through the middle of [2009],” says Wachovia Corp. Senior Economist Mark Vitner. Other economists agree with Vitner and think that the economy will be flat for the second half of 2009.

For marketers, that means tighter budgets all around – with advertising, public relations, marketing materials, Web promotions, etc. However, direct marketing budgets are expected to outpace general advertising in 2009, capturing 53% of total advertising spending according to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). The DMA’s “Power of Direct Marketing Report” also predicts that the ROI for direct marketing will increase, from $11.63 in 2008 to $11.74 in 2009.

Many large corporations are increasing their direct mail volume, with Chase and Capital One increasing 90% and 140% respectively in 2008, according to Mintel Comperemedia.

Using direct mail as a low-cost means of marketing can work for any type of business; just use the following tips:

1. Use targeted mailing lists. This isn’t the time to waste money on people who aren’t remotely likely to be interested in your product or service. The “spray and pray” tactic won’t fly now; it will only bring down your ROI, which won’t look good to Accounting. By purchasing targeted mailing lists, you’ll up the chance for a better ROI and will move inventory off your shelves more quickly.

2. Mail postcards. Postcards are generally the least expensive type of direct mail to send. Not only are printing costs cheaper, but mailing costs as well. Save the brochures and catalogs for those customers who meet all of your target audience requirements or who have shown an interest in receiving these heavier (and more costly) direct mail pieces.

3. Mail letters, and don’t forget to use the envelopes! What I mean by this is not to just send a plain envelope. Many people throw away direct mail in envelopes without even peeking inside. A great way to urge people to open the envelope is to include some kind of offer they can’t resist, like “Free gift inside” or “$50 coupon inside.” This isn’t the time to play games with people – tell them exactly what’s inside the envelope and why they should bother opening it. By printing on the envelope, you can get twice the persuasive power with only little more cost than printing the original letter.

The New York Times recently sent out an intriguing two-color, 1-page letter, with a perforated form at the bottom to return. The letter consisted of a brief list of benefits of getting the newspaper, and then the offer of 50% off for 6 months. The envelope included the teaser “Free gift inside” that made me open it. The free gift? A bookmark that had clues on how to fill out a crossword puzzle with tips for NYT Crossword Editor Will Shortz. A bookmark is a perfect gift, it’s cheap, and relates to the audience, who are presumably “readers” who would use the free gift. Make sure if you offer a free gift or a coupon, it’s toward something of value to the customer or prospect.

4. Use a student or university services to mail out your pieces. Many college designers are great at what they do, and can design a simple brochure, postcard or sales letter for you at little cost. Also, check your local university’s printing shop – with students manning the presses, these shops can pass on the lower wages as savings to you, while giving the students some real-world experience.

Finding a Unique Ad Network

Advertising is penetrating more and more of our daily lives. If you watched the ball drop in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, you probably saw the word “Toshiba” illuminated multiple times on the billboard behind the ball. Ads are showing up in odd places, such as barf bags on airplanes (US Airways) and eggs (CBS).

Even if people don’t like them, they’re talking about them, and that’s exactly what an ad is supposed to do – get people talking. The more unique placements and ad networks you can join, the better. But only if you do it right.

Why Unique Ad Networks Don’t Work
1. Companies don’t do a complete review of their addressable market size. Many companies mistake their industry’s market size with their addressable market size. The industry market size is the total revenue generated in the industry, by all of the companies that make up that industry added together. A company’s addressable market size is the total amount of revenue your company could generate if it obtained every potential customer. The group of potential customers is the addressable population.

Of  course, your company’s addressable market size is proportional to your position in the marketplace, but the point here is to make sure you’re not counting on 1.2 million to see your product ads, when in reality, you might only reach 100,000 with your ads. This misconception (or, really just a mistake with the numbers) makes it look like ad networks don’t work.

2. Ad networks require both advertisers and owners of inventory (inventory refers to Web sites, TV stations or whatever kind of media is being used in the ad network) to subscribe to the ad network. Venture capitalists say that there once was a time when advertisers didn’t want to insert ads into radio shows, magazines and the Internet. At the time, the idea was too radical, too unique. Sometimes the opportunity associated with the inventory isn’t enough to drive others to try it, sometimes it is. You have to be okay with being a pioneer in that media and to take the risk, or the ad network won’t work.

How to Find a Unique Ad Network
To find an ad network that works for you, you need to:

1. Do your research. Not only do you need to find your correct addressable market size, but you also need to figure out where your addressable population is – if you want to join an online ad network, narrow down the types of sites your population frequents – blogs, forums, news sites, music sites, etc.

2. Choose which products to advertise on each network. Some networks work better for certain products than others. If you have a product that doctors might need, advertise that product on a medical network. If you have a product that musicians might want, advertise on a musical ad network. By tailoring your products to an ad network, you have a higher chance for click-thrus.

3. Do a test run. If you’re low on funds, run an ad on just one unique network for a trial period (at least 6 months), and see what kind of results you get. Or, run a few different products on a few different ad networks to see which ones are most successful. You won’t waste money this way because you’ll know which categories and networks work, so you can up your budget when the time comes.

19 Memorable Christmas Ads

I love the Christmas season. And the Christmas ads that come out are sometimes the most ingenious ads of the year. Most of these work off of some variation of the Christmas tree, and it amazes me how many adaptations have been created. The ones that play on Santa (as does the first Hellmann’s ad) get a few extra credit points, but the ads that get “A”s are the sled, manger and M&M reindeer scene, in my opinion. Which ones do you like best? Are there better ads out there? Leave your thoughts. 

HellMan’s Mayo

 

Suna GPS Traffic Updates

 

Tide

 

Axe

 

 

Laundry Before Christmas

 

Volkswagen

 

Got Milk

 

Adidas

 

Creads

 

McDonalds

 

Mazda

 

Mercedes Benz

 

M&Ms

Publicis Singapore

 

Heineken

 

Nespresso

 

Another Volkswagen Ad

 

Don’t Drink & Drive

8 Interesting Alphabet Designs

 

 

 

 

A nice jumble of products adorned with letters and numbers. The alarm clock is obvious made of numbers, but the change of type is nice between the hours and minutes.

 

 

 

Marketers Focusing on Loyal Customers Instead of Masses

According to the Wall Street Journal, many companies will not be using the shotgun approach to get new customers this holiday season. Companies simply want to keep the customers they have.

Targeted ads to existing customers are the smart choice this holiday season for many retailers who don’t want to risk the time and money to attain new customers.

Retailers such as Sears and Gap are using statistical models and other technologies to figure out how to send specific consumers promotions based on what those consumers are more likely to buy for gift giving. This goes back to old advertising 101 techniques. Getting a satisfied customer to return is cheaper than trying to attract new customers. With the economy in a recession, this is adage is more important than ever.

Trying to get a new customer into your store can cost as much as five to seven times as much as maintaining a relationship with a current customer, says Marc Fleishhacker, managing director at WPP’s Ogilvy Consulting, who directed Sears’ holiday campaign. “I don’t have to tell you where the store is, I don’t have to tell you the virtues of the brand,” Mr. Fleishhacker says. “I just have to say, ‘Thank you for coming to Sears. We have even more products and opportunities for you.’”

Ogilvy and Sears have created a system that identifies the categories of goods that customers have purchased in years past and measures the probability that they will buy those kinds of items again this season. Sears takes that info and emails specific offers to individual customers. Whenever someone buys something from Sears’ Web site, Sears send a confirmation email that includes a promotion tied to the product, such as a warranty for a new appliance. The info gathered by Ogilvy and Sears even allows Sears to offer customers different discount based on the predicted value of the customer in the long run.

Gap, on the other hand, isn’t buying TV commercials, instead opting to up their dependence for sales on targeted emails and online promotions. But even if marketers target the right consumers with the right technology, that doesn’t mean consumers will be spending. The Monday before Thanksgiving, research firm eMarketer lowered their holiday online buying prediction to $30.3 billion for November and December. That’s up only 4 percent from last year; earlier predictions had the growth at 10.1 percent.

Gift spending per person is expected to drop this year, but with banks touting lines of credit and credit card offers still floating around, we’ll see in a month’s time if consumers can really stay loyal to those marketing to them or if they go elsewhere.

Logo Basics: Why You Need One and How to Create It

Logos are a necessity for any business. A logo doesn’t have to be fancy. Even if the logo is just the company’s name in a certain font, that combination gives consumers and customers a certain feel for the company. That logo now has a personality and a brand that communicates with people.

It gives customers a feeling of security. Start-ups that don’t have any money are generally the businesses without logos. If you have the money and the initiative to create a logo, that tells customers that you plan on being around for a long time. Your business will look more stable with a logo across all materials.

It can focus your marketing materials. If your business card has a different look and feel from your brochures, which have a different look and feel from your letterhead, you won’t look like a unified company. Some might think they’re looking at marketing materials from different companies. By focusing your marketing materials, your business looks more professional. You look like a company that can be counted on.

Creating a Logo
Many logos have some sort of shape: Target has the bulls eye, Nike has the swoosh, etc. That’s not to say you can’t just use your name. FedEx comes to mind (although theirs has an arrow shape between the “E” and the “x”, which is so clever – I love it!) along with Hobby Lobby. Lowe’s is mostly their name, albeit with an outline of a roof around it. But see, that just shows how simple a logo can be and still be effective. You don’t need fancy graphics – you just need something that is unique that consumers will know is yours and not your competitors’ down the street.

Now this logo isn’t for a company, it’s for Reno’s green initiative, but it’s a good example of what could be a logo based on type. This could easily be Reno’s green initiative logo.

Even without the tree background, the words could stand on their own on a business card or letterhead. The leaves and branches growing out of the “green” as well as the coloring adds to the uniqueness of the logo. The connection of the “p” and “g” also give a feeling of growth. And by changing the weight of the font of “reno” it gives the logo some depth and focus.

Do some research into businesses like yours for logo ideas. Don’t steal anyone’s idea, but use other logos as a jumping off point.

Look at fonts to see which give off the personality and brand of your business. A cursive font would work for a whimsical store but not a lawyer’s office.

Pick colors that represent the feeling you want. Research color psychology – color affects people’s thinking. Red can make people aggressive while blue can be relaxing.

Design a clean logo. Less is more when it comes to logos. The more lines and images you have, the worse it’ll be. Pick no more than two fonts and no more than two images to create your logo. Generally, one of each is plenty and the best logos only use either text or an image – not both (Nike, Target).

Don’t use clip art and don’t get trendy with the design. Your logo should stay with you for at least 5 years, or better yet, for at least 20 before you change it. If you keep changing your logo, your customers won’t know how to recognize you.

Above all, your logo needs to be memorable and it has to be unique to your company. Get lots of second opinions on logo options and pick the one that conveys your company’s values the best.