Smart Messaging – Branding is Key to Organizational Sustainability

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Branding is not just for the Coke’s and Disney’s of the world. Branding is for everyone.

It’s more than a logo and tagline. Branding is a strategy.  When thinking about a strategic branding campaign for your business, begin with your audience. To whom are you speaking?

With a creative focus, we make businesses more visible by serving as change-agents and speaking directly to their audiences, thus modifying their behavior. We specialize in performance-driven communication solutions that support sustainable business practices. This is our unique value proposition at Visibility Marketing Inc.

It is important that we convey to clients and prospective clients that all of our service delivery will be aligned with their key performance indicators. It is not enough to say that your organization is diverse and inclusive. Diversity and inclusion must be linked to increased market share or measurable improvements in customer satisfaction. The cost savings realized as part of a campus-wide energy efficiency initiative at a major university can also help to minimize tuition hikes. Operational efficiencies, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility are inextricably linked.

However, many organizations miss the opportunity to leverage strategic messaging in ways that will build the brand. The $600 million dollar technology deployment and the $3 billion capital improvements plan represents unique opportunities to enhance the brand.

Some helpful considerations when considering your branding strategy include the following:

  • Business Transformation: All organizations now sit at the intersection of business and technology. Successful change management must include communication planning strategies that include mobile applications and social media as part of the branding mix.
  • Future State Business Processes: Integrated planning across functional areas requires the development of new processes that support the future state of the business as part of the business transformation initiative. This effort is imperative for customizing messages to small stakeholder segments.
  • Smart Messaging: Although messages to each stakeholder is to be aligned with the broader vision, each message must represent a unique and measurable value proposition to each stakeholder.

Any organization has to understand that the brand must align with the guiding principles of each stakeholder group. Smart messaging and branding are fundamental to organizational sustainability.

Smart Inclusion™ – The New Normal for Capital Improvements

Under ConstructionCommercial buildings account for 35 percent of US and 40 percent of global electric consumption. They eat up 30 percent of companies’ operating budgets and account for nearly 20 percent of worldwide carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

By integrating smart energy and water management practices, public sector institutions can improve operational outcomes as well as environmental outcomes. Adopting advanced conservation technology such as motion sensing shower heads and smart lighting can yield substantial cost savings. Equally important within public interest sectors is targeting strategic communications that incentivizes stakeholders to modify behavior in ways that lead to reduced energy and water consumption. This will only occur when a stakeholder benefit resonates in a manner that is measurable and personal. Messaging that public interest institutions can convey include:

  • Healthcare institutions must strategically communicate to stakeholders that their smart energy management initiatives help to improve public health and wellness by reducing carbon pollutants into the atmosphere.
  • Colleges and universities can communicate to its student population that their conservation habits can result in lower operating costs that can help to control tuition costs.
  • Governments and municipal utilities have to integrate smart energy and water management into the 21st century citizen engagement paradigm.

Austerity measures and global competitiveness are now forcing local institutions to expand their brand reach in order to survive. Healthcare systems are marketing newly constructed cancer centers to attract potential patients from the Middle East. Public colleges and universities that historically have recruited from within the state now market new research centers and business incubators to attract new students from China. Municipal utilities are investing in broadband technology infrastructure in order to attract new investment from international technology conglomerates. In order to align innovative messaging with transformational change, Visibility Marketing Inc. rolled out Smart Inclusion™. Smart Inclusion™ facilitates delivering strategic messaging across barriers that used to be avoided or ignored.

Smart Inclusion™ among colleges and universities, healthcare systems, and government entities is ultimately about embracing the fact that constant change and paradigm shifts within these sectors require innovative models of cross-sector collaboration. Major construction projects must have an identity that connects to a much wider array of stakeholders than ever before. Strategic communication that integrates Smart Inclusion™ is not merely a model of inclusion, it is model of institutional sustainability.

Alternative Ways to Communicate Your Company’s Sustainability Brand

You want to let the world know your work in sustainability, but it’s a daunting task. You do so much. What’s the easiest way to communicate it all? Thanks for asking.

You need to make your messages personal and relatable: Get to how people live. Start with where they are on a daily basis. What they do at home, work or in school. Then move on to more global environmental themes. For example, when addressing climate change, don’t start with facts, start with its impact at home. Communicate what impact your company’s practices and products have on day-to-day activities.  Then expand to how it affects the global environment.

In London’s Science Museum, a current exhibition entitled, “Climate Changing Stories,” is a free display that combines science, imagination and art with differing time periods and perspectives. It gives a unique view of our evolving planet. Co-sponsored by Siemens, Bank of America, and Shell, these corporations tied themselves to the green movement—one way of telling their story without words.

Global brands invest in efforts to persuade customers to live more sustainably. They only succeed if they strike the right tone. Aligning themselves with a local exhibit, they avoided the pitfalls of being perceived as too “corporate” and distant.

Smaller exhibits and community events are ways for smaller businesses to expand their reach with consumers and communicate their position on sustainability. Start with where people live, work and play…you then expand.

Majority of Americans Believe Climate Change is Caused by Humans

climate changeThere is so much talk about climate change that it sometimes makes my head spin. The pros and cons are everywhere. Some say it’s just a farce, others say we’d better start building bunkers in which to hide and store food.

It seems that over 60 percent of Americans now believe that over time, human actions are causing global warming. The spate of natural weather disasters are influencing this opinion, according the the fifth annual Sense & Sustainability Study.

The study indicates that 48 percent of Americans found water scarcity to be a concern. Media coverage of extreme weather events is a big influencer. Even if Americans are not immediately affected by storms, the news about hurricanes and droughts can evoke fear and concern.

While an increase in climate change awareness is happening, it needs to be higher. Last fall, leading scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced they are 95 percent confident that human influence is the dominant cause of global warming. The IPCC states that the last three decades have been warmer at the Earth’s surface than at any other decade since 1850.

Storytelling is effective strategy to make climate change relevant when addressing issues of sustainability and social responsibility. Companies need to take note, as only 21 percent of those surveyed said they believe the majority of businesses are committed to being “green.”

If you’re concerned, why not find a space to get busy “spreading the word.” You can begin with your closest family and friends…and by being an example.

Together, we can save the planet for future generations.

 

How an Electric Company’s Brochure was Created without Using Electricity

nonelectric brochureI will never forget the Northeast blackout in August, 2003. The blackout affected an estimated 10 million people in Ontario and 45 million people in eight U.S. east coast states. Ohio was one of them. I was pregnant with my daughter and could only think, “This is crazy. We do everything with electricity!”

It seems that we can actually live without it (at least for a short time).

The creative team at the advertising agency Leo Burnett Lisboa were hired to produce a brochure for the electric company EDP Group to educate consumers about its “Access to Energy” campaign. The campaign hopes to bring power to isolated communities and raise awareness about global electric consumption. And they produced a print brochure without using electricity.

In one month, designers drew by hand folded the brochures by hand. Sunlight was the light source and the printing was done manually. The process was documented by using analog cameras. Beyond the content of the brochure, the process makes a statement about sustainability. Watch it here:

Method’s C2C-Designed LEED-Platinum Factory Plans

method LEED buildingWhen childhood friends and former roommates Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan founded Method® amost 15 years ago, they set out to create “clean” cleaning products that you didn’t have to hide under the sink.

Now, the San Francisco-based Method® plans to build a LEED-Platinum factory in the U.S., where it will produce its environmentally-friendly cleaning products, which include soap and laundry detergent.

The state-of-the-art factory, designed by William McDonough + Partners is being built in Chicago’s Pullman district, where the Pullman railroad cars were built. Before construction, Method® will clean up the site, which is now a brownfield.

The factory will be run entirely on renewable power. Solar photovoltaic structures will generate electricity and provide shade for parked cars and solar thermal panels will provide hot water for the manufacturing processes. Building materials safe for people and the environment will use the Cradle-to-Cradle CertifiedCM protocol. This will restore and support the surrounding habitat and stimulate the neighborhood’s economy with an estimated 100 manufacturing jobs. A rooftop greenhouse will provide food for the local community.

The construction and operation of the factory serves to bolster Method®’s environmental philosophy and line of green cleaning products.

Talk about a company true to its mission. As we continue to celebrate Mother Earth, let’s support companies that support her, and ultimately us. Method® is definitely one of them.

 

Chipotle Lists Climate Change as a Company Risk in its SEC Filing

chipotle sec filingToday is Earth Day. While whether or not we have control over climate change is still being debated, the fact that we are affected by how we treat Mother Earth is not.

When Chiptole listed climate change as a company risk in its annual 10K SEC filing, the language used served to downplay the risk. The “guacamole warning” stated that if weather events linked to global climate change continue, the availability of ingredients  used in certain products would result in Chipotle taking them off the shelves.

This statements opens up a climate change disclosure risk for other companies, driven by shareholders who can demand why climate change might not be a material risk. While Chipotle addressed the risk, many other companies do not and avoid using the words “climate change” as a whole. This practice is made possible by the SEC, whose disclosure requirements don’t demand transparency.

Companies should recognize that while climate change may be a difficult concept to address, litigation isn’t.  Failing to address this risk could leave them open to shareholder lawsuits. Companies should take appropriate action to prevent suits, starting with transparent disclosure.

Chipotle demonstrated both business and scientific sense to disclose the risk and addressed ways they could adapt.

Happy Earth Day! Do something good to make your “Mother Earth” happy.

Capital Improvements – It’s More Than a Construction Project – It’s a Message

When we see cranes, earth moving equipment and road detours, it abruptly informs us of major community construction projects.   I drive by such sites and wonder what is being built.  Sometimes a sign may provide evidence of a new hotel, a state of the art classroom building on a college campus, or some public works project.  In many instances, the active construction may take place for months before project details are known to the masses.

The tag line of our firm, Visibility Marketing Inc. (VMI) is “making you more visible.”  Since it is our job to increase visibility to the respective stakeholders of our clients, I may be sensitized more than most people relative to huge projects that manage to exist with a degree of obscurity.  However, we exist in a digital world where anyone can convey misinformation or biased messaging in minutes over the Internet.   In a world inundated  with 24 / 7 cable television and ubiquitous Internet access, it is now more important than ever to tell your story before someone else does.

The owner of a multi-million or multi-billion dollar construction project has to take a proactive approach in owning message delivery to its stakeholders.   Any project must have a clear identity.  This will essentially allow a project owner to define the project from pre-construction through completion.  VMI provided related services to a Northeast Ohio construction firm that recently built a government services building.  Trade unions, the surrounding community, and employees were among the stakeholders engaged on an ongoing basis.  A newsletter was published that provided information such as employee profiles and project status updates.  It was the human side of the project that really resonated with community stakeholders.  Our client repeatedly emphasized that communication to the community successfully separated fact from speculation.

A compelling project narrative also serves a purpose beyond the project itself.   Reinvestment and development in an economically depressed area can serve as an integral part of an urban revitalization effort.  An article entitled “University of Chicago Works on Its Neighborhood” was published October 23, 2012 in the New York Times.  The article highlights that The University of Chicago is investing $250 million in a mixed-use residential and retail project.  Leaders at major urban colleges and universities understand that they can no longer exist in isolation while being surrounded by blighted neighborhoods.  This neighborhood revitalization effort also includes a $130 million hotel project.  The University of Chicago is sending the message that it is a catalyst for urban change, and it is sending another message that it can provide a superior quality of life to prospective students.

The $334 million Opportunity Corridor three-mile boulevard construction project was announced this past July in Cleveland, Ohio.  At immediate glance, this is a massive road construction project.  Business and government leaders are conveying the more powerful message of urban revitalization.  The new boulevard is expected to provide access to existing cultural assets, educational institutions, and jobs.   This is a welcome shot in the arm to a city that has been disproportionately plagued by the housing foreclosure crisis and manufacturing job losses.   The collaboration among public institutions, government, and business leaders says to outsiders and native Clevelanders that the city is coming back!

The common thread in the Chicago and Cleveland illustration is that of sustainability.  We now live in a world that is global, tech-driven, and knowledge-based.   The attraction and retention of smart people within a city now determine whether the city lives or dies.  Cities are essentially competing for human capital.  Strategies that prompt migration and immigration are more critical than ever.   An immigration attorney recently stated to me that, “smart people are the new oil.” They are definitely the fuel of innovation in a 21st century economy.

The Millennial Generation (those born between 1980 and 2000) connect to smart urban landscapes.  Their numbers are estimated to be 80 million people in America.  High population density growth and transit-oriented growth resonated with them.  Values such as green building and communities accessible by bike, rail, and foot are also important.  Social, economic, and environmental factors now drive urban capital improvement initiatives. It is imperative that project owners articulate the project vision from the beginning of the project.   Stakeholders must be engaged across various communication medium (print, Internet, community forums, etc.) during the entire project life cycle.

Local chambers of commerce and local politicians must convey a message that connects the dots for various capital improvement initiatives.   A strategic urban plan has to communicate to diverse stakeholders that urban revitalization, transportation infrastructure improvements, and the expansion of a healthcare system is an integrated plan.  Sustainable development facilitates diversity of people, of industry, and of thought.

Regional growth and sustainability will increasingly align physical infrastructure with social infrastructure.  Smart construction accommodates people’s lifestyles and values.  Messaging must assert that economic development and human capital development are inseparable.  Messaging is also part of a continuum that may span for many years.  More importantly, the project identity narrative must be concise, engaging, simple, and value-added to multiple stakeholders. Welder working on steel structure

Brand Journalism – A New Way Companies Provide Useful Information

The world of journalism is changing. For example, The Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper, is moving from home delivery seven days per week to three. Those looking for news can still purchase the paper on non-delivery days, and they can also get their information online and on smart phones and tablets.

The journalism change also hits marketing communications and public relations professionals. There is now the opportunity to provide Brand Journalism, where we give more industry information, not just information about the company…blending the best of both worlds.

Look for Visibility Marketing Inc. to provide more information on sustainability. We want you to know and understand the industry, where it’s going and how you can participate. It’s all good. All of us are able to make our world better.

In the meantime, watch this short video from Ragan Communications that we hope will give you a better explanation about Brand Journalism.

In the coming weeks, we’ll provide “Brand Journalism” that will keep you informed about how we can all save money, save time and save our planet.

 

http://youtu.be/kpBdCpILNeI

In This Huge Sustainability World…You Matter

Almost every day I am reminded of being a good environmental steward.  Public service announcements have President Obama encouraging home energy efficiency from the oval office.  News articles tout the value of water conservation.  In my local community, I can place my recyclable glass, plastic, and aluminum cans for weekly curbside pickup.  Since this is voluntary in my community, it feels good to know that I am doing my part in preserving life on earth.

However, various studies have shown that most utilities have a long way to go on educating consumers about smart energy and water management.  Furthermore, I notice that very few of the neighbors in my suburban development recycle.  Surely, many of my educated and professional neighbors should understand the value sustaining our planet.

The fact is that this entire “green” movement is still abstract to the average person, and it does not resonate to most of us in a way that is immediately personal.  As I engage people on topics of the environment, it has occurred to me that I spend most of the time simplifying the message for people.  At that point, I get the “now I get it” response.

It’s not that hard, but it takes some effort. When President Obama ran for office his second term, there were countless commercials touting the effects of voting. “Yes, in the grand scheme of things your vote does count…” is what we heard. And it does. Every little bit counts. The same goes for recycling. Every bottle you recycle, every plastic bag that gets reused, every light that is not turned on…matters. The people need to know, and need to know the way they understand.

Messaging and strategic communication are critical.  Government entities, utilities, and major community stakeholders have to simplify the message.  We are told to get ready for the Smart Grid or to reduce our carbon footprint.  If we are to really prompt public behavior modification, then we have to put an end to the esoteric jargon.   This necessitates effective public relations and strategic communication planning.  When you can explain to a 93-year-old grandmother exactly how reducing her carbon footprint can require less of her fixed income, now we are onto something. In This Huge Sustainability World…You Matter

We Need Black and Brown in Green

You can call me an energy technology nerd, but I enjoy assisting clients in the development of energy management solutions that help to reduce our societal carbon footprint.  More importantly, I find it intrinsically gratifying to develop successful consumer engagement strategies that incentivize the average citizen to reduce water and energy consumption.  After all, we should all be good environment stewards.  Yet, I attend energy and water management conferences where I am literally one of few Black people among conferences with attendances that range between 8,000 and 12,000 people.  I also struggle to find Hispanics attending such events.

Since environmental sustainability is a global issue, it would stand to reason that initiatives related home energy management, water conservation, or recycling of any kind be targeted in an equitable manner.  My point is not to make this a race issue, but to acknowledge “the elephant in the room”.  A white upper middle class public utility corporate communications specialist inherently knows how to connect to her suburban neighbors.  Tactics such as community forums, high-touch mobile displays, and engaging the church pastor will lead to significant traction in communities of color.  Politician running for office have known that for a long time.  After all, we are ultimately seeking ways to modify human behavior.  The methods and the messenger matter for African-Americans and Hispanics – a lot!

The 2010 U.S. census counts almost 90,000,000 African-Americans and Hispanics collectively.  Race or ethnicity aside, the fact is that we have to develop substantive consumer engagement strategies for such a large demographic. After all, everyone consumes water, uses electricity, and heats their homes.  Institutions that serve the total public such as utilities and local governments have an obligation to create value propositions for all.  If we are asking people to change habits, they have to understand what is in it for them.  For poor and working class people of color, water and energy conservation has to be linked to cost savings.  However, being an environmental steward may resonate more with higher income people of color.  If the message of environmental stewardship is being driven home by someone with significant social or political capital within the community, then you will have more success.  I have not even begun to overlay regional and age differences among communities of color.  The larger point is that it is time to better engage people like me.

Despite all of this, I see progress on the horizon.  Just as wireless phone providers slowly learned that people of colors also use cell phones, business models emerged to facilitate consumer preferences for communities of color.  Various studies now show that African-Americans have a higher cell phone adoption and use rate than America in general.  I expect the same phenomenon to occur in communities of color relative to the adoption of home energy and water management technology.  At a recent consumer engagement symposium in Texas, a utility executive told me that he is engaging African-American pastors and politicians as a means of generating Smart Meter and energy management awareness within the service territory for his utility.  Major energy trade organizations have made recent public declarations to develop consumer engagement strategies targeted to communities of color.

All of this signifies opportunity for people of color experienced in the development of customer segmentation strategies.  Whether you be the owner of a public relations firm or a corporate communications specialist for a utility, this is represents a tremendous opportunity to contribute to your triple bottom line (financial, environmental stewardship, social responsibility).  Retailers such as Best Buy are beginning to sell home energy management electronics.  Green is becoming main stream.  Pastors and grass roots community leaders also need to step up to the plate.  Being a protector of the planet is a spiritual matter.  The advocacy of green jobs workforce development programs can serve to economically revitalize many African-American and Hispanic communities.  Although I believe that government and public sector institutions need to do more to ensure equity in the green movement, ultimately African-Americans and Hispanics have to take ownership of changing the landscape.

Sustainability – It’s a Matter of Stewardship

While engaged is a discussion today regarding consumer engagement strategies for home energy management solutions, a colleague raised the question, “How do you make environmental sustainability resonate with the average person?’ For that matter, does the average person really connect personal driving habits to air quality? As we turn on our tap water, do we ever question whether clean water will flow? As I pondered these questions, it occurred to me that the questions are not really about conservation or reducing pollutants. We have to probe further into human nature to ask the right questions.

Although the “green movement” has gained significant momentum, tom many, environmental issues still remain abstract. Humans respond to things that are immediate and personal. People that experience the death of a loved one to cancer will often become the most passionate champions of charities committed to cancer research. The fact is that sustainability and environmental stewardship have to be personalized in similar ways.

Environmental stewardship has to be linked to outcomes that align with human values. Electric utilities have found that saving money on a monthly bill can motivate consumers to conserve energy. A reduction of carbon emissions may be viewed as a good thing, but financial stewardship at home in a tough economy is viewed as absolutely necessary.

In urban communities, people are more likely to live near electric generation plants that emit pollutants into the air. Environmental justice advocates assert that pollutants from cars and factories also disproportionately impact underserved communities and communities of color. They cite the skyrocketing rates of asthma in such communities as proof. Thus, many people are beginning to see environmental stewardship as a matter of life and death – literally. We are now speaking of a public health issue and not merely an environmental issue.

The fact is that we have to communicate to people in ways that are personal and compelling. The success of recycling programs, home energy management programs, and water conservation initiatives depend upon strategic public relations campaigns. After all, the focus is not the environment – it is ultimately the manner in which people treat the environment.