Nothing To Do With Marketing

This post has absolutely nothing to do with marketing.

Or, maybe it does. An upcoming post will discuss the upcoming NCAA FBS championship game. In the meantime, I think these new Oregon Ducks uniforms unveiled by Nike for the championship game are just pretty damn cool. And I had to tell someone. I love how brands take advantage of major sporting events to make an impact.

Give me some input for my NCAA post — do you think the NCAA is a customer-centric organization? Why?

The Need for Green

No, I’m not talking about money. Of course we all need that.

I’m talking about “going green” with your marketing message. And it’s not just a fad. Many marketers are doing meaningful things not just by greening their messaging, but with actual green actions that provide a meaningful impact to business and the environment. On one end of the spectrum you have Nike, which is actually making sneakers from recylcled trash. Ok, not all of us have the resources to do that grand of an effort. Yet there are plenty of marketers doing small things that make difference internally as well as with customers.

In my own company, and throughout the CME business in general, we print less paper for our events, and put information online or on CDs or on USB drives that attendees can download whenever. For our staff we use metal name tags instead of paper, so they can be reused. There are also a bunch of other little things we do to make a tangible difference in our practices.

Here’s two ideas that can provide a small start for you. Greening isn’t just something you want to do for purely business reasons — it’s something to promote to your customers. Get them involved in it, make them partners in your intiative. It makes a difference in how they perceive your business. What kind of customer wouldn’t love a company that helps take care of the environment? Not one that’s the future of your business, that’s for sure. Anyway, back to the tips:

Help your customers learn how to be greener travelers

Get smarter about green marketing by taking a good, long look at this green marketing blog

Again, that’s a small start — we’ll come back to this topic soon. In the meantime, charge ahead with green. And tell your customers, and get them involved.