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How to make your environmentalism pay!

STEP 1: Figure it out:

Every time that you drive your car you contribute to global warming. The same is true for turning on a light-unless you are purchasing energy from alternative sources.

This article will help you off-set those carbon emissions. It is not that expensive to do this, and you will be helping to pay for some of the environmental cost incurred by your company.

Discovering our carbon imprint wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be. I had heard about carbon offsets opportunities for a while, and we wanted to do it, but we did not know how. Most of the information used for determining the carbon generated is geared to the consumer, not the small manufacturing business.
We found these sites particularly helpful in trying to come up with figures and just having these links might save you hours of time:

http://www.carboncounter.org/

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/

http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/

http://www.carbonfund.org/site/

Using these sites, our company of ten employees produces carbon emissions from these six sources. The figures are in metric tons:

1. Employee commute: 28.9 tons
2. Employee business travel: 13.44 tons
3. Shop gasses (from soldering): .11 tons
4. Company vehicles: 6.02 tons
5. Electricity: 2.43 tons
6. Natural gas: .47 tons

Our biggest impact is employee commutes and travel. Electricity is low because ninety percent of our energy comes from green sources. Compact fluorescent light bulbs are used in the plant.

The question is, once you are able to figure out your actual offset, how do you turn it into your advantage? That comes with who you choose to work with for your offset.

STEP 2: Choose your organization

You can go on line and see a number of organizations that offer different offset possibilities. From this, you can actually see what you are going to pay for your off-set.

http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/carbon_offset_wind_credits_carbon_reduction.htm

There have been some rumors in the press that question whether money donated to certain organizations for off-set are actually being used for that purpose. Research your choice well.

The company that I chose to work with is not on this list. Forest Guardians, a New Mexico based environmental organization, has been involved with tree planting programs around streams beds in New Mexico, which supports most of biodiversity. Just as I was about to choose where to off-set my carbon, the assistant director, Carol Norton, gave me a call and asked me if I wanted to work with them. I have been a supporter of theirs for many years.

Their mission is:

“To protect and restore the native wildlands and wildlife of the American Southwest through fundamental reform of public policies and practices. Our goals are to protect and restore the native biological diversity and watersheds of the American Southwest; educate and enlist citizens to support protection of the forests, rivers, deserts and grasslands of this arid region; advocate for the principles of conservation biology in plans to restore degraded ecosystems and watersheds; enforce and strengthen environmental laws; support communities in efforts to protect their land and to practice and promote sustainable use of natural resources.”

Since I know the organization has integrity, I can be assured that the money will actually off set the carbon we use through tree planting. Also, I saw a greater opportunity to tap into their network.

One thing that particularly appealed to me about Forest Guardians is that their offsets addressed entire ecosystems. Secondly, they were willing to work with me in a press release. Going green is the right thing to do, but it costs money. So if you can, work with an organization that will give you publicity. Ask for a link from their site and see if they will write something about you in their newsletter.

In this regard, it is great if you can find a local organization because they are going to be more receptive and easier to access.

STEP 3: Write a Press Release

The critical thing now is to get support from the community that shares your green values. This is a huge advantage because socially responsible jewelry, even according to leaders in our industry such as Martin Rapaport, has the opportunity to become the luxury brand. A large number of people in our country, perhaps as much as twenty percent are interested in supporting companies that are socially responsible.

You need to make these people aware that you exist because you need their support. Being socially responsible costs money.

I write a lot of press releases and I used to just write boring ones. Here is an example of what I consider a bad press release.

Then, I realized that editors see hundreds of these a day, probably, and they are looking for press releases which are interesting and even provocative.

My last press release was about how I switched to a Fair Trade supplier in Bali even though it costs more than the people I was working with in India and Thailand.

I got the attention of a senior editor of a major trade magazine who was offended by my-calling Blood Diamonds a “red herring.” I wrote a long response to his protest. In the end, he really appreciated my point of view. I realize it was like playing with fire and fortunately, I was not burned. The release was picked up by JCK.

Here’s my press release for my Zero Carbon. I admit, it is a little zany, and I may modify it for certain editors who I know would not be into it, but for a general release, it might just catch the attention of some people.

Also, here are some press release services that we use:

http://www.prweb.com/

http://home.businesswire.com/

http://www.i-newswire.com/

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/

http://www.pr.com/

After you release your info to these sites, go to Google alerts and trace where it gets picked up. Simply enter your search terms in the box provided and select how often you want updates. Google will then send you emails to the email you provide, with all instances of that search term being used for the time selected.

You can then go through them, one by one and see how many found you or someone else using that term. These are great because though they can take a little time to explore, they can be troves of marketing treasure. If you go about this, please come back to this site and share information, particularly if you are able to find more about going zero carbon. We are always looking for ways to improve.

Marc Choyt is President of Reflective Images, www.celticjewelry.com, a jewelry company that practices socially responsible business.Marc authors www.fairjewelry.org a movement website for consumers and jewelers supporting green and fair trade jewelry. He also originated The Circle Manifesto, www.circlemanifesto.com, a business model based on indigenous traditions.

Many people say that the key to succeeding in business is through constant improvement and innovation, the ability to keep up with the ever-changing trends in the industry. So if you ever notice why some of your competitors enjoy more attention and interest than you do, you better move fast and find out the answer before its too late. Complacency has certainly no room in the highly aggressive world of business.

In marketing and advertising, branding goes beyond just merely creating a strong company name, it should also ensure that people would be able to easily recall it and would stay in the periphery of the consumers minds for a long time. A powerful brand would be able to differentiate your companys products and services in a highly positive way. In effect, this will create a lingering effect on consumers, thus making them potential buyers of your products or future clients that will seek your services. The company logo is unquestionably one youre your major marketing tool to get across the message that you would want to send out.

So what makes an effective corporate branding logo design? Contrary to what others believe, a logo is not just an ordinary symbol that represents your business. Such assumption could potential render the conceptualization of company logo as ineffective. To be able to maximize it to its fullest potential, a corporate branding logo design should be treated as an important communication tool that you can use to interact with consumers. Use your company logo to convey your companys message, to project a competent and highly capable company and most importantly would efficiently educate the consumers what is the nature of your products or services.

So here are some useful tips that could help you in creating a powerful corporate branding logo design:

Direct and concise – a logo usually comes with a tag line. It would be ideal to create a short one that would easily be recalled even by children. Avoid using flowery or elaborate words, as this would only defeat its purpose and confuse your consumers.

Distinctive and bold – a strong corporate branding logo design should be visible easily be seen even from afar and should not be confused with any other establishments. Being distinctive does not it has to be really a complicated design, this will only alienate and confuse consumers.

Graphic Imagery – Needless to say, if you are using an image for your logo it should complement the companys name and the nature of the business. Consistency is the key here since you wouldnt want to send out mixed signals.

Suffice it to say that brand name and brand logo is the primary tool in reaching out to consumers and developing consumer awareness. Anyone who sees a distinctive crown logo would readily associate it with Hallmark. So in conceptualizing your very own logo design, make sure to incorporate all the marketing and advertising elements to make it more effective.

For more articles and information or to view a selection of articles and information for medium sized business and articles and information for non-profit organizations visit Articles.net.au – Your source for free Articles, Information and Website Content.

College marketing courses teach the four Ps, in a marketing mix and are defined as product, price, placement and promotion. These four Ps are essential in developing a marketing strategy.

The marketing aspect of business takes into account what your business is going to sell and how it is going to sell it. It is how your company markets itself.

What your business produces to sell is a reflection of what you company is all about. In other words, your product could be your company’s brand, and your company could be a brand on its own such as Coca-Cola or Starbuck’s Coffee.

Whether your business produces duck decoys or electrical services, your goal is to build and sell a quality product that will ultimately be your company’s brand. Basically, we need to build a better mousetrap!

Why is it that Starbuck’s coffee is larger than Gloria Jeans’Coffee or Seattle’s Best Coffee? (Starbucks has recently purchased Seattle’s Best Coffee). I am sure some of it has to do with capital investment and timing, but most of Starbuck’s success is the result of marketing its coffee as a brand and developing the brand so that it is well known. This is known as brand awareness and brand recognition.

We are all aware that Starbuck’s exists and we are very knowledgeable of the company as a brand. As consumers, we are all brand conscious shoppers, even though we may not be aware that we are.

For example, what does GE stand for? Most consumers would say that GE sells washers and dryers, so GE must stand for washers and dryers.

Actually, GE puts more emphasis on the quality of everything they produce, which results in consumers buying most of the things GE produces, whether it is washers and dryers, home appliances, financial services, or airplane engines. As consumers, our perception is that GE produces high- quality products.

The same could be said for Carnation in the western U.S. (Nestle USA has discontinued the Carnation brand). Back in the sixties, the Carnation label meant that contented cows produced the condensed milk in the can. Does the mood of a cow really affect the flavor of the milk? Carnation made us believe that it did and that their condensed milk tasted better than the rest.

So what is it that you produce that distinguishes you from your competition? Some will say that your pricing should set you apart from everyone else. This may not be true because your pricing could affect the perception of your product. Consumers may interpret the price of your product as a reflection on the quality of your product. Be careful when apply price to your products.

Wine is an excellent example. Most people believe that higher priced wines are better wines. This also may be false. Quality makes a wine good, and many wonderful bottles cost less than $10.

Unless you are like Microsoft, where the demand of your product is greater than the supply, you cannot be as flexible with pricing as you might think.

Consumers are fickle: Anything you do to annoy them could cause them to stop doing business with you in the future. So, what separates you from the rest of the business owners in your field? It could be pricing, service, or quality. It should be that your product is unique and that it satisfies a specific need for consumers.

For example, if you are a doctor, lawyer, mechanic, plumber, or electrician, you will always be able to market yourself as such. Everyone needs your expertise. Keep in mind, though, that everyone does not need poor service, high prices, or poor quality. Your field is saturated, and consumers have choices.

On the other hand, some consumers will go with the first company they might see in the yellow pages or on the web. So your goal should be to separate your product by producing a quality product or service making yourself the first choice your customers think of when they realize they need something.

There are “barriers to entry” that marketers develop to keep competition at bay. What are the barriers that keep your competition at bay?

Placement has to do with the channel of distribution in which you sell product. For example, if you own a successful bakery and you want to grow your business by offering your baked goods to more than your current client base, where do you sell?

Currently you may only sell to the customers in your neighborhood, but let’s say you would like to grow your business and start selling to the local grocery store bakery or the local university foodservice establishments on campus. Placement identifies your distribution direction.

Let’s think of other strategies that separate your business from the rest. I think poor service is easy to figure out. If your business treats your consumers poorly or really doesn’t care about consumers after they have purchased your product, it will only be a matter of time before consumers pass the word along. Word of mouth is also an effective marketing tool.

Again, unless you have such a unique product like Microsoft did 20 years ago, you should take customer satisfaction into account. As small business owners, we don’t have the luxury of television advertising. We must rely on positive word of mouth. It is the best and least expensive advertising a small business can have. The quality of your product and the quality of the service you provide is going to get around.

I like to think of marketing strategy development as brand building. Everything you do to manage your business should incorporate brand building. When you are having staff meetings, ask everyone to think about the impact decisions have on your brand. As your staff engages customers, they should be thinking of ways to make such encounters a better experience for your customers.

When we think of marketing, the first thing some of us think about is getting our name recognized. This is known as promotion, it’s about getting your good name out there as opposed to just advertising. You are promoting your company and you are prmoting one particular product or all your products.

Marketing your company or products through print advertisements and billboards is a great avenue. But I want to make sure you understand the value of marketing a good company or product rather than just approving the advertising budget.

You need to understand what it is that you are trying to tell consumers about you and your business. They are going to want to know who you are and what you sell.

Consumers also want to know about the quality of your product, and they will also want to know if your company is good at what it does. That information can only come from their experience with your product and your company. Think of it this way: You never get a second chance at making a first impression.

When you are ready to advertise, it is important for you to know whether you have a unique product or service and if your product or service is a quality product or service. Most important, you need to know that you can satisfy consumers’ needs. Do you know what you customers really need from you?

Let’s look at this scenario:

Let’s say you have the budget for a billboard advertisement on Main Street and your agreement is for three months. In three months, 5,000 possible consumers of your product see your advertisement. Twenty of them are interested in your service. Of those, let’s guess and say that 10 never call, because they just simply don’t call. Four of them call but decide, for whatever reason, they’re not going to purchase just yet.

We need to find out why we lost those four potential buyers. If we don’t understand our product, we will never know why we lost those potential consumers. Three of the 20 potential consumers just don’t call because they heard negative comments. The other three actually come to us and buy our product or use our service, but wait; we made mistakes during the transaction and two of the last three are dissatisfied.

Here is the marketing question: “What did we lose by all that”? Well, let’s take into account the cost of the billboard advertisement, the cost of losing potential consumers, and the negative impact of our brand. We lost a lot! I can’t put a dollar figure on it, but I can tell you that we lost some serious money in this example. How; future business?

You MUST know your business inside and out before you present it to the general public. Part of this process takes into account some form of management, most of which is marketing. That means marketing the right product at the right time. We can market our product directly to specific groups of consumers, but we can’t do that until we know what it is we sell, how we sell, the quality of what we sell, consumer expectations, and our own expectations. Consumers can tell if you know what is happening in your business based on how you market your product.

I always say; consumer perception can make or break your business, unless you have supply and demand advantages. Here’s something fun. Notice your purchasing habits the next time you go to the grocery store, notice your buying habits. Why do you buy what you buy? Think about it.

Marketers play to particular stimuli that consumers react to. As a business owner you should create marketing stimuli that entice your future customers. Differentiate your business and your product or service. Create large barriers to entry, keeping your competitors at bay, and develop products or services that meet the needs of your customers.

Luis Luarca is the President of Allectus LLC, a management consulting company helping small to mid size businesses and is the author of “Business Management for Business Owners; How to Manage Your Small or Mid Sized Business”. http://www.allectus.com

Nowadays, it is quite fascinating how companies from different industries try to constantly outdo one another. If you are not observant enough, try checking out the all the creative advertising and branding strategies they use to their advantage just to gain at least a few significant steps ahead from their competitors. Its a constant battle on who gets to most patronage from consumers, which will equate to a bigger market share that would ultimately mean generating higher sales.

The art of advertising and branding is quite complicated than an ordinary person would normally think. All concepts are painstakingly developed and deliberated, researches and endless surveys are made to determine the markets current preferences. This is all geared towards making an intelligent forecast and calculation on the consumers reactions to certain products, and what would be the most effective approach in introducing such product in the market. In advertising and branding, nothing can be attributed to simple stroke of luck or an instant, phenomenal success. Everything is a product of grueling work. That is why advertising think tanks employs an elite team of highly creative people to conceptualize and ensure a certain products success in the market.

So how can one correctly gauge the victory or failure of any advertising and branding effort? Well, its quite simple, really. You can try showing a certain image, logo, color combination, a pattern or a tag line to a number of consumers, and if they are able to properly identify the product behind it, you one can say all marketing efforts have achieved a certain degree of success.

The very first key role of advertising and branding is generating awareness and recognition of a certain product or service. The second most important thing is to actually condition the minds of consumers as to what image you would want them to associate with the product, whether its cheap, durable, dependable, etc. This is the intrinsic value of advertising and branding and can be a little harder to determine. For example, if you mention toothpastes, what brand would first come to mind to consumers? Or if you ask for a most wonderful vacation hotspot, what would be the first word they would be likely blurt out? This does not necessarily mean they have actually been to that particular place, its their perception of the place for what they have seen and heard that made them believe its actually the top choice.

However, on the other side of the coin, once having established a very strong and powerful brand name, companies will find it hard to step away from its shadows. If in the future, the company would want to project a new image, or take on a different market position, it can be a difficult task to veer away for the identity that have been established. This would take another series of powerful marketing effort to transform the image of the product. It all whole new ball game, and a very expensive one at that. This is the beauty of advertising and branding. It is certainly the most powerful marketing tool that can make or break a company.

For more corporate branding articles or to view a selection of marketing articles and information and market research articles and information visit Articles.net.au – Your source for free Articles, Information and Website Content.

The business world is all about first impressions. If a customer likes what they see right away, they are likely to engage with your internet marketing efforts. That first impression is the essence of your brand message. It’s the promise of what a consumer will encounter when dealing with your company. Create a compelling message, and you will entice potential customers to dig deeper and explore what your company has to offer.

How to Develop a Strong Brand Message
Begin by identifying your target market. Your branding strategy will depend heavily on this factor. Obviously, you will choose different messages depending on whether you are marketing to wealthy, retired men or adolescent girls. Your brand message goes even deeper than that. Your brand message is, in essence, a promise to your audience. Your brand message is the entire experience a consumer has with your organization.

So how does this promise tie into brand development? The spending habits, interests, age, gender, education level, and many other factors will play into your branding plans. If a hefty portion of your potential customers read the New York Times, the promise of your brand will be an upscale, intellectual experience. If they are a more tech-savvy bunch, making your brand hip, fast, easy and one step ahead of everyone else will hit the mark there.

Once you know who you are trying to speak to, you have to figure out what you will say. Decide what makes your company unique. What distinguishes you from the other guys? What compels a customer to choose you instead of the competition? Developing those unique selling points (USPs) will help you put a face to your company. Choose those stand-out qualities and focus on them in the branding process.

Getting Your Brand Noticed
Your brand, the promise of your company experience, exists only in relation to your consumers. There are two primary ways to realize this relationship: the visual approach, and the verbal approach. The visual approach involves the “look,” a strong visual identity that will be recognized no matter what the context. This includes logos, colors, layouts, images, any graphic representation of your brand and its message. Remember: what the eyes see, the brain remembers. Whether it be an identifiable font or a memorable graphic, the visual side of branding has become increasingly important in our media-saturated culture.

The verbal aspect of branding is directly connected to the visual. It also needs to stand on its own; especially in the context of article marketing, where the visual aspect is largely absent. The verbal message of your brand becomes even more importance when separated from the visual.

Establishing a strong voice and style for your company is critical. Everything you write — whether articles, press releases, site content, emails to your affiliates — is written in the same voice and style. Once you’ve established a strong verbal identity, consumers will begin to intrinsically know that they are reading something from your company.

The verbal brand often includes trademark phrases, a standard lexicon for job titles and departments, and an overall tone in everything your company puts into words.

A tagline is another effective way to solidify your brand message. Think of Taco Bell’s recent tagline, “Think outside the bun.” A strong tagline presents a vivid summary of the USP of the company. Something clever or catchy will stick in the memories of customers the same way an attractive logo will.

Marketing With Confidence
A devotion to the promise of your brand displays a devotion to your customers. It also shows that you have confidence in your product. Consumers will perceive that confidence and subconsciously internalize a feeling of trust for your brand. That positive gut-reaction is the sign of a successful brand. A creative, confident brand is generally the face of a creative and confident company, and that is something any customer will appreciate!

Carol Palmatier is the brand manager at Article Marketer, a highly popular article distribution service. Take advantage of the power of article marketing to build your brand identity.

http://www.articlemarker.com