Posts Tagged ‘green marketing’

Green Conference: A Must For Responsible Business

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Conferences are an imperative part for effective facilitation of business. Effectively conveying and discussing KRAs, targets, methodology, plans, etc calls for a conference. These provide a perfect platform for exchange of ideas, brain storming and decision making.

Adopting means other than conferences has many disadvantages like messages getting lost in transition, distortions in understanding motives, failure in direct feedback collection, etc. Above all, establishing contact individually with widely spread team members can become a cumbersome process. Conferences overcome all these disadvantages and saves time and energy by allowance of addressing concentrated congregation at one time.

Though business houses are preferring webinars and online conferences, the utility and importance of traditional conferences is not yet ruled out. However, with environmental awareness and corporate social responsibility coming to a mainstay, adoption of green conferences that are a saver on carbon footprint is the need of the hour and earth.

How to design a green conference?

  • Paperless invitations: Gone are the days of printed invitations. Printouts are finding their place in the pages of history. Lightening fast emails, newsletters and SMS are a norm. They save paper, consume less energy and utilize already existing mediums to travel across, thereby leaving no carbon footprints of their own.
  • Grouped gatherings: Instead of arranging a big conference at a place that demands delegates to travel all across; regrouping and arranging three to four regional conferences will save on carbon footprint in terms of fossil fuel consumption per head.
  • On site accommodation: If the conference period is long enough to require delegates to stay overnight or for a couple of days; then arrange accommodation as close as possible to the conference venue to avoid travelling by gas guzzling vehicles. Otherwise, arrange for mass transports like buses to covey to the venue.
  • Open venue: Conferences held outdoors in a daytime will do away with artificial illumination and ventilation, and incur minimal electricity consumption. In case indoors are a must, look out for a venue that has plenty of windows or glass panels to allow for natural light and ventilation.
  • Electronic material: Kill your urge to distribute printed booklets, leaflets, brochures, etc. Send them via email in advance or after the event. Do not distribute CDs either. They contribute to e-waste after loading onto PCs.
  • Platter matter: How about offering altogether vegan menu with organic ingredients cooked with bio-fuels? It may not please your guests but certainly will please our planet.
  • Don’t stick to plastic: Your conference should be a no plastic zone. Don’t supply water in plastic bottles, eatables wrapped in plastic or use-and-throw plastic plates. If you must, then ensure that these land up in recycle bin.

It’s the matter of getting started with the first conference. Initiate delegates to propose green ideas and soon it will be a norm greener than expected.

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Posted in CopperBridge Corridor!, Trends! | No Comments »

Corporate Social Responsibility: Profits or Planet?

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Green marketing, green designing, sustainable marketing, etc are the buzzwords of the new generation marketing. Ever since the ecological concerns have crept in the psyche of the marketers, anything that is green has become venerable. Corporate and industries have been at the receiving end of the blame game that wants to locate the blame on somebody else and clean the self from its guilt. In order to oblige to the planet, corporate have added a social rather ‘ecological’ responsibility upon its shoulder.

Corporate social responsibilities should not be limited only to social contributions that encompass education, better living, health and cultural exchanges. As major contributors to the planet’s well being, and more appropriately ill being, corporate are realizing their accountability towards restricting further damage to the ecology.

This has, in fact, put many corporate in quandary. It is an imperative for the corporate to adopt advanced technologies to maximize their efficiency. At the same time they are forced to convert to non-conventional methodologies that may not be equally efficient, to preserve the environs.

Advanced technologies, most of which were introduced towards the last quarter of 20th century, are effective in maximizing the utilization of available resources without paying much heed to its impact on the ecology. These technologies were mainly concerned with garnering maximum revenues for the entrepreneurs.

The beginning of 21st century has thrown a spanner in the wheel by inputting the ideology of the corporate with eco-guilty consciousness. Most of the corporate were used as a scapegoat to pass on the blame of endangered ecology and imbalanced growth. Individual contributions towards ecological problems like global warming, pollution, etc, and misplaced government policies were swept under the corporate rags.

The important point that was sidelined was that the corporate are here to make profits. Most of them do it within the legal and ethical framework. They should not be held outright responsible for the damaged caused to the environments.
If the corporate spend their efforts on ecological sustenance, they may have to compromise with a major chunk of their profits. Though the advent of green technology is taking certain strides, it is in nascent stage that still is a far shot from its total acceptance and adaptability.

Corporate may be sitting on a fence as far as changing their designing and manufacturing processes are concerned. However, it looks imperative that they will have to forgo their short term profits in order to gain long term benefits for the planet.

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Posted in Internet marketing, Trends! | 1 Comment »

Go Green: Adapting Green Strategies for Marketing

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Marketing and advertising has always been a prime mover of economic activity. They create a huge direct and indirect employment, a flow of money and initiate consumer activity that is a lifeline of any economy.
Owing to the criticality and necessity in business and revenue generation, marketing activity has mindlessly taxed the precious resources to achieve its motives and targets. The resultant is visible in the form of ruthless ecological destruction, depleting resources and energy crisis. The global concern for sustainable development has highlighted the need for going green in every sphere of human life; and that includes marketing.

Green Marketing for better future
Green marketing means deploying resources in a manner that reduces adverse impact on the environment. It incorporates processes that take care of sustainable ecological development and advancements in technology simultaneously. Digital advent is effectively helping ‘greening’ of marketing activity by changing the very fundamental methods of marketing. Green marketing can be effectuated,
• By utilizing greener mediums of marketing like internet marketing. The internet has been the key-initiator creating paper redundancy. Hitherto traditional marketing methods relied heavily on paper that gobbled a chunk of our green cover.
• By using mobile phones and cellular network to send messages directly to prospective customers. It can do away with the need of circulating pamphlets, brochures and other printed material.
• By using solar, wind and other non-conventional energy resources for illumination. It can reduce our dependence on traditional energy resources that are generated by fossil fuels or natural resources.
• By doing away with the use of plastic and other non-biodegradable materials used commonly in marketing and packaging. Internet marketing can, instead, reach consumers’ homes without depending on these.

Green marketing from the core
Other than these outwardly methods of going green, the campaign will be effective and successful in a true sense only if it is incorporated at the root of every process including designing, manufacturing, marketing and waste disposal.
Internet marketing has already affected the marketing methods and strategies. More and more companies are adopting this eco-friendly method that rides on advantages offered by the internet. Consumer awareness program shall also be crucial in this aspect. Eco-aware consumers can opt for the product and methods that are less taxing on the environment. Large consumer preference for greener products will compel the manufacturers to adopt eco-friendly practices.

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Posted in Business over Web, Digital Advertising, Internet marketing, Product promotion | No Comments »