This is part two of an ongoing series of developing thoughts on the intersection of authentic messaging and sustainability. In part one I introduce the concept of greenwash-fighting marketing that follows 5 “PRIME” principles: Participation, Rigor, Intentionality, Mutuality and Exchange. Please join me now as I consider the role of participation in smart, authentic marketing efforts. As always, comments are appreciated and encouraged.
PARTICIPATION
For an organization to anchor its sustainability efforts (and correspondent messaging) on solid ground it must express the right information to the right people at the right time, in a participatory manner. A brand that isn’t fully engaged in the sustainability world will have a hard time ascertaining all of these “right” factors if they haven’t committed the proper resources to their efforts.
Inbev, the Belgium-based conglomeration that in 2008 purchased Anheuser-Busch, has recently made headlines for announcing that it would make a “30 percent reduction per unit of production in the Company’s water usage worldwide since 2007” which is both important (considering they’re the largest brewer in the world, meaning that this reduction amounts to the equivalent of 25,000 Olympic-size swimming pools) and commendable; but it is still a rather shallow step when compared to the efforts of the eighth largest brewer: New Belgium Brewing.
While Inbev has committed to making some process improvements that are smart, better for the planet, easy to implement and directly tied to their bottom line, New Belgium has done those things and proceeded to take an even more holistic approach, demonstrating tremendous participatory depth and breadth. Not only does New Belgium use their water efficiently, their website explains that they collect two valuable byproducts from their wastewater efforts: methane and a nutrient-rich sludge. They use the methane in on-site energy production and they have partnered with another company to install a small treatment plant next door to their facility that takes their process wastewater to produce a sludge that creates a high protein fish food for aqua-farms.
[I know what you’re thinking, “But Caleb, won’t the fish get drunk?” Yes, dear readers, yes they will. Those lucky darn fish will get fed and drunk off some of the finest booze this side of Ambrosia-ville. See, New Belgium even cares about giving the fish quality grub and grog! Social justice points!]
Do they launch a huge advertising campaign about their new getting-fish-sustainably-drunk program? No. Do they hire models in fish outfits? No. But they certainly make the info readily available to people who are inclined to learn more. Authentic participation in the efforts to push the sustainability envelope— full-circle thinking—it’s hard to fake and really inspiring to see.
I had an interesting conversation this evening with Lisa Peyton, the founder of the Thoroughly Modern Marketing blog, about how to use social media marketing to build your brand as a small business. In a nutshell, this is what I told her:
1. Keep it real.
2. Keep it relevant.
3. Keep it meaningful.
But to expand, here’s what I was thinking:
Keep it real. By that I mean, be YOURSELF. Don’t be all corporate or attempt to be overly professional in your posts on social media channels like twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. Be human. People want to engage with people, not with these false identities known as businesses. If you’re a small business, customers probably like the people that make your business work. Embrace your people and their unique personalities. Yes, that means occasionally tweeting about what you had for lunch, but see points 2 and 3 for more on that!
Keep it relevant. To the extent possible, stay within your sweet spot. Tweet about things that you know. If your business sells shoes, find compelling and unique content about shoes and share it. This can establish category expertise and ensure that your audience looks to you for the latest relevant information on shoes. The point here is to establish yourself or your brand as a voice in the category.
Keep it meaningful. Relevance only gets you so far if you’re not adding insightful points of view to the content. Relevance might get you ‘followed’ or ‘friended’, meaning gets you contacted. Stand out from the crowd by connecting the dots for people. Teach, share, and add value. Retweeting, for example, can be relevant. Overlaying a point of view can create meaning, as can engaging in REAL dialogue in these channels. If I look at your brand and see that you’re blasting one-way messages without much interaction, you’re not creating meaning.
-Scott
Cool Stuff•
on March 16th, 2010•
I love mass transit and I love Google Maps. I love them both together. LOVE ‘EM. I love Google because they are all about beautiful information and lowered search costs. Google Maps promptly provides gobs of useful information, entertaining streetview images, great bus connection information and, now, it even has bike routing info! One major shortcoming for us mass transit advocates, however, is that Google Maps only knows when the buses are scheduled to arrive, not when they’ll actually arrive. While Trimet buses are pretty decent about on-time performance, these discrepancies are painfully apparent on cold, wet days such as Portland is known for. This is something I’ve often pondered: how can we make mass transit more appealing to more people? I think that reducing the wait time is a pretty good place to start, eh?
Waiting 10 extra minutes for a late bus is not terribly appealing but, as a pro-mass transit car owner, I’d really prefer to not drive to work when the bus can do it for me. What if, instead of waiting for an extra 10 minutes for a late bus, I could know precisely when the bus was actually going to show up? Meet PDXBus. A free iPhone app that, working with the GPS-based location of buses that Trimet themselves use, can tell you just when that (possibly tardy) #72 bus will be gracing your presence in all of its carbon-efficient, crossword-friendly awesomeness.
It’s simple, yet ingenious; clean, yet robust. The best thing is that PDXBus doesn’t reinvent the wheel. The buses already have GPS tracking in them. My phone already has GPS in it. Trimet already knows—and, while it leaves something to be desired, does share—the specifics of when the buses will actually arrive. All that PDXBus does is connect things that already exist: pertinent Trimet information with my location in a manner that is streamlined and intuitive.
PDXBus allows me to know that, instead of spending 10 curbside minutes losing my non-driving eco-resolve, I can sit in my warm, cozy tea shop and amble out right when I need to be there. The full implications of this are not insignificant: by reducing the lag time for picking up a bus, it effectively shortens the time required to make a bus-based trip, thus stripping away some of its disadvantage in relation to driving a car. In other words, it lowers one of the most common barriers to mass transit participation.
True, PDXBus isn’t groundbreaking, but that’s one of the things I like best about it: it demonstrates to all of us that we can make real sustainability inroads today. And all without depending upon congress, eco-coercion or cold fusion. It’s a simple product that might have big implications and it’s precisely these sorts of small, modest and immediately achievable advances that we need to champion. There are, of course, some huge environmental and social problems that require game-changing and adaptive solutions. But some of those will require dozens of years and billions of dollars. PDXBus enables everyday people to streamline their lives and reduce their carbon footprint. Today. For free.
Bravo.
What other simple, useful and accessible solutions have you come across? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
- Caleb
ps – PDXBus is on Twitter, too. And no, they’re not a client.
So I’ve been chatting with a lot of organizations and individuals lately about ways to articulate a lively and meaningful sustainable brand presence on an increasingly cluttered web. I see many brands using Twitter but cringe when I see them merely using it as a channel for announcing their latest press release. That cringe becomes a grimace when the corporate blathering is concerned with unreal sustainability claims.
I started thinking about the instances when sustainability claims ring hollow and the times when they really resonate with people. I was thinking about some of the brands who do a good job of using the social web for talking about sustainability issues and found a few commonalities. From these I came up with a short list of qualities that seem to be vital for such authenticity and resonance:
Sustainability claims:
- Are conveyed in a manner that demonstrates that the company has really internalized the matter (they haven’t merely added a sustainability intern to the PR department) [Participation]
- Are based upon measurable, tangible and verifiable targets or numbers [Rigor]
- Are in line with an evident and earnest interest in progressing toward a more sustainable system [Intentionality]
- Use, whenever possible or necessary, third-party partners for support and advancement of their goals [Mutuality]
- Are accompanied with an invitation to talk more about the company’s “walking of their sustainable talk” [Exchange]
Once I had these qualities drawn up, it was only a short hop and a conceptual skip until I’d created something that the business world really needs more of: catchy acronyms!
Participation, Rigor, Intentionality, Mutuality, Exchange: PRIME
Some of my favorite non-greenwashy companies (I used to work in the outdoors industry, so some of the first ones to come to mind are: Timberland, Keen, GoLite, Nau) exemplify all of these things. What I find myself wondering now is if it’s useful to others to think about things in terms of the PRIME construct.
These are some rough preliminary thoughts, but I’m curious to get your input—Is this a useful mechanism for describing such important characteristics? Do these qualities fit the bill? Are some missing? Does the business world need another buzzword acronym (a buzzronym?) in the first place? -Caleb
Glossary•
on March 2nd, 2010•
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising future generations to meet their own needs.
Messaging•
on March 1st, 2010•
I have honestly never experienced a napkin dispenser that is harder to use than these little numbers at Sparky’s Pizza. The URL for www.antagonizeyourcustomernap.com must have been taken, so they went with EasyNap instead.
Easy!? Not at all.
