Total Marketing Solutions

Following on from the last blog, it occurred to me that perhaps - whilst it might be a case of STBO for many - with many SME’s still lacking any kind of sustainability strategy, it might be worth looking more closely at the reasons why we as Marketing Consultants are keen to ensure that sustainability is at the forefront of the work we do with our clients.  So why should we really care if our products are sustainable or not? Grab that cup of fairtrade coffee again and chew on this:

• The world’s population has doubled in the last 50 years.
• UN forecasts show a further explosion of 3.3 billion to 2050 - 90% of which will be in the developing world.  
• The predicted resulting growth in consumption of energy and natural resources is already ringing alarm bells. 
• The globalisation juggernaut is still gathering speed - creating a greater North-South divide, destroying habitats and species diversity, whilst CO2 emissions have doubled over the last 50 years.

Thankfully, it’s not all doom and gloom. Consumers are realising that their current levels of consumption are having a negative impact on the planet and are looking to change their buying behaviours to reflect a more responsible approach to being a consumer in the 21st century. Businesses are now also realising that reacting to this shift in consumer demand not only represents an opportunity to do the right thing but also is evolving into a real chance to develop their own competitive advantage.  This advantage could be down to successfully differentiating a product due to its sound environmental or social performance. Alternatively, it could be down to any cost savings due to a reduction in materials or energy usage. Either way, it’s a win-win situation that is too good to ignore. Understanding your customers’ potential appetite for sustainable products is key to deciding how to shape your strategy.

So where to start? Mentioning the Marketing Mix may warrant another slurp of that strong coffee to stave off the inevitable yawn, but it really is a good starting point. As Marketing Consultants, it still plays a valuable role in defining our customers current strategic position, particularly regarding sustainability. A quick skip through the 7P’s in the Mix can bring some real insight:

1. Product/Service - how sustainable is your product or service? What are the real social and environmental aspects of making, using and disposing of your product?
2. Price - What is the true cost of the product? Perhaps those costs are only really apparent at the end of it’s Product Life Cycle when it has to be disposed of.
3. Place (or distribution) - can your distribution channels be streamlined to reduce their impact on the environment?
4. Promotion - a tough one, but is your current product promotion encouraging excessive promotion? (Just upgraded your perfectly functioning mobile for a slicker model anyone?) Are any sustainability claims accurate, because if they are not, a bumpy ride ahead can almost be guaranteed. The aware consumer will not tolerate tokenism and any bogus claims will be quickly found out and fired right back at you.
5. Your people - are they treated fairly, paid a living wage? (That’s a good one to ask when you buy your £2 T-shirt.)
6. Company processes - do current processes actively encourage the enhancement of natural and human resources?
7. Physicals (lorries to livery) - are there processes in place to reduce excess usage and sustainable sourcing? 

This sounds like a lot, but many SME’s are now grappling with these issues as a basis for developing their sustainability strategy. They are not only starting to sleep more soundly at night but they will also start to see the improvements in their bottom line. 

Viral marketing’s ability to generate cost-effective word of mouse is undisputed. What does remain in dispute, however, is just how ethical it all is. Where do marketers now stand on viral marketing now that it has had time to evolve and develop over the past view years? When it all first started, a few companies tried their hand at incentivising a few influential bloggers who really should get out more. In many cases the plan backfired when the “independent” opinions were found to be anything but and the ensuing negative publicity undid all their good work.

Today, the ethical debate still rages. No longer the sole domain of big brands and big budgets, viral marketing has become a cost-effective means of marketing communication for an increasing number of SME’s too. But the question remains: how do we as marketing consultants and also as consumers ourselves feel about the whole spectrum of viral marketing? That spectrum ranges from total deception - i.e. sneaking into online forums to talk up the latest gizmo and infiltrating chatrooms - to full transparency via branded advertainment, which leaves no-one in the dark as to who is behind it all. The only clear issue is that, ironically, the more transparent you are, the less effective the impact of any viral marketing activity. So what to do?  

The whole area of word of mouse is now so vast that to attempt to enforce some ethical standards would be nigh on impossible, but there are a couple of things to bear in mind if one were to go down this route:

1. Any content to be used for word of mouse should have the legs to stand on its own, even if everyone knew it was destined specifically for viral marketing.
2. Make sure anything you submit is of interest and/or helpful to the online community you are targeting.  Nowadays, it’s not so much cloak and dagger and mouse and content. 
3. As everyone is becoming increasingly sophisticated in their use of social media marketing, the messages need to be relevant, creative and transparently invisible.

 Who said it was going to be easy? 

Not many people would argue with the fact that businesses have literally driven the transformation of the modern world. From the original Bell telephone, which eventually led to the electronic information age, the list of consumer goods that have appeared in an evolutionary eye blink is endless. And it’s only getting faster. Disney produces a new product every five minutes whilst Sony launches three new products per hour. Seventy percent of Hewlett-Packard’s revenue comes from products that didn’t exist a year ago. This constant rush to market has dramatically improved and transformed human life — not only doubling our life expectancy and improving the quality of living but expanding our horizons too.

At the same time, the rush to capture more market share, propelled by the profit motive, has caused untold damage to this planet. The momentum of the corporate juggernaut is so powerful that trying to alter its course might seems almost impossible. “We are not just marching toward disaster,” says noted business consultant and author Ichak Adizes, “we are sprinting toward it.”

However, an increased awareness of the importance of sustainability is creating a new consciousness – and not just amongst the large global corporations. Companies of all sizes are now recognizing that as their customers’ views towards sustainability are growing, they now need to respond to these changes in order to have any stake in the future. And marketing stands to be at the forefront again – but this time as a force for good. As Marketing Consultants to SME’s we are now seeing an increasing number of clients seeking to build sustainability into their business.

Marketers are at the frontline in their relationship with customers and it is customers who are now driving the demand for companies to be more accountable. Britons spent nearly £26 billion on ethical goods in 2004, up 15% on 2003 – far more than a passing fad. It is marketers now who can take their unique customer insight to the rest of their company. They can have a direct impact on processing, packaging, and distribution whilst communicating their new approaches to sustainability to both the customer and the rest of the company.

Marketers now have the opportunity to lead creative responses and to encourage different, more sustainable responses. For those of you already doing the basics, how about:

• Implementing a sustainable sourcing policy – only buy from suppliers who operate sustainably.

• Introducing flexible working patterns at times outside of the rush hours to reduce idling traffic pollution and encourage working from home for some of week if possible.

• Looking at your packaging – are there any ways it could be reduced or degradable materials substituted? 

• Looking at your supply chain – could you source more locally if possible?

More radically perhaps, look at re-engineering your products and services to extend their product life cycle or remove any built-in redundancy. (How many of us have recently thrown away a perfectly good mobile phone to replace it with a fancier version?) Any step away from this current “disposable society” has to be a step in the right direction and the time for marketing to lead irresponsible and unsustainable consumer demand is probably over!

The business case for businesses to implement any steps towards sustainability is strong indeed and something which we, as Marketing Consultants, are keen to encourage wherever possible. There is real competitive advantage to be found in communicating sustainability credentials. By switching to sustainable suppliers, you are more likely to receive reciprocal business from like-minded organizations.

However, beware! In communicating your company’s green credentials you run the risk of “greenwash” – using a statement of ethical intent as a means of gaining competitive advantage, rather than demonstrating any real commitment to the cause. Only by ensuring that any move towards sustainability is real and not simply added on in an attempt to lure ethically-minded customers can you avoid an unpleasant attack of “greenwash.”

If you are serious about generating cost savings and creating competitive advantage, whilst adding to your reputation, take a long, hard look at how to adopt a more sustainable approach to doing business. It’s one of the few win-win situations out there any more and a real opportunity for marketing to shape the future.

Recent news articles have signalled some bad news for Google. The company, whose good-guy image and motto of “Don’t be evil” have helped it to survive previous bad news stories, such as the ongoing concerns over the length of its cookie to the furore over its censorship of results for Chinese users. And it’s likely that the news that Google is planning its first job losses will fall into this category, particularly as they’re a result of its acquisition of DoubleClick.

However the news that will give Google most cause for concern is that the rapid growth in advertising clicks has faltered. The Guardian reports that January 2008 saw zero growth in paid clicks, while February saw just a 3% rise. This contrasts with monthly increases of between 25% and 40% in 2007.

So what’s behind this? Are Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisers spending less or are users becoming more choosy about what they click on? My feeling is that it’s a mix of the two. Advertisers are now better at tracking results, and are acutely aware of the difference between traffic and sales. The days of generating traffic for traffic’s sake are gone. And users are aware that some paid adverts can find them just what they’re looking for – but some advertisers try to hijack traffic to sites that are light in content, perhaps in the hope of earning commission as an affiliate, which can result in a poor experience for the user.

I don’t believe that Google’s dominance is under threat, for now. As an online marketing consultant I know of PPC advertisers who spend significant sums with Google AdWords but don’t bother with Yahoo/Overture or MSN as they don’t deliver volume. As long as Google dominates search traffic, it will dominate the PPC market.

And what does this mean for SMEs? Not too much, for now. Consider your Pay Per Click campaign like any form of marketing. Keep a close eye on it and track your results. And if it’s not working to target, cut it out.