Sustainable Marketing - Eco Market Storm

One of the key issues for many eco / green / sustainable businesses, is how and when to take their share of the market place. Many ecopreneurs are concerned about others copying their ideas and have to weigh up market visibility V eco sales.

There are a lot of matters to consider, but the key point is - if no one knows you are there, how would you expect anyone to buy from you? The fact is, that there are many competitors for most products or services. Will your competitor’s steal some of your ideas before you have a market share? The answer - is probably YES! It’s a cut-throat world out there and unfortunately there are many so called “Ethical” companies out there who would quite happily steal your ideas, along with many more who wouldn’t dream of being so mean.

I was discussing ethical investments last week with a number of people. One chap pointed out that it is possible to say that Adolf Hitler, Ghengis Khan and Martin Luther could all be deemed “ethical” as they had a set of ethics and stuck to them. Whilst most people would certainly not lump infamous people in to the “ethical” camp, it is important to stress that we all have different ethics - some one might consider “good” and others “bad”. So when your eco marketing campaign suddenly shoots you in to the public arena, how can you avoid the Genghis Khan’s and focus on the the Martin Luther’s?

Advertising is not for everyone, but if you have deep pockets and an excellent media agency - it can help you to storm the eco market. The truth is that most green businesses do not have deep pockets. There are few ecopreneurs with the available capital to afford to keep up national advertising campaigns or even start them in the first place. With enough money behind you, it is possible to storm the eco market and take the largest market share rapidly. If the market share you desiered is yours, then any competiton becomes an also-ran and it is then a question of maintaining your market share. By this stage any anxieties about copying have been limited.

If you cannot afford a national advertising campagn - what do you do? Will you lose market share by others copying your enterprise? Many accountants or solicitors would of course tell you to be careful - why? - because that’s their job. But should an ecopreneur be setting out to make sure they are not a failure, or setting out to make sure they are a success? Hiding your light under a bushel forever is unlikely to help you to succeed - is it?

At some point all sustainable companies need to bite the bullet and tell the market place that they have arrived. One of the best ways to reach the Martin Luthers and avoid the Ghengis Khans is to use eco telemarketing. Rather than announce to everyone that you exist, why not target prospective customers that are more likely to be the good guys? Of course, you can never be certain about the outcome - but you can limit the risks.

Many ecopreneurs have what I would describe as “good ethics” - such as treating others as you would wish to be treated yourself. In a world of spin, hype and greenwash, it’s easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because a disreputable company mis-selling renewable energy is bad, does that mean the World should not embrace renewable energy? Similarly, should all marketing been seen as bad? Marketing itself is not bad, just as money is not bad - it’s how we use it.

The problem is often that most people don’t understand eco marketing. Worse still, most people don’t understand eco direct marketing. Eco direct marketing is the front line of marketing - it’s all about green sales generation rather than window dressing. Eco direct marketing is about telemarketing, telesales, direct mail, email marketing - all methods to create sales opportunities and close on them. But does your eco team possess these skills?

ECO1 is a group of eco direct marketing experts. Rather than hiring a full-time Business Development Director at say £40k per annum, ECO1 fills in the gaps from as little as a couple of days per month. If you need to storm your eco market place, then you must either have the experience yourself or seek help from an expert. An expert can help you to identify the best routes to market and to reach your goals as fast as possible. Whether your budget is £600 per month or £6,000 - take some advice on key decisions such as your eco market storm. ECO1 offer a FREE first consultation - it could well be the most important hour of your ecopreneurial life!

This entry was posted on 22/05/2008 at 09:53 am and is filed under Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.