Marketing: It’s A Brave New World … (again)
The world of marketing has gone through a number of dramatic shifts over the past 10 years. Companies that embraced the advent of the web and its convenience to (and its rapid adoption by) their customers have flourished while those that did not adapt to this new era have passed into history. Think of high-flying Blockbuster Video when Netflix entered their world. Blockbuster held on to their old model too long and is struggling – Netflix has taken their top spot. Same thing with Borders – Amazon has taken their place.
And now the world of marketing is changing again – and in an even more dramatic and significant way. This time Social Media is the change agent. People who are “plugged in” have known this for some time. Now it is time for the rest of the business world to wake up and catch up or be left behind.
Only a few years ago, marketing and branding were almost exclusively outbound activities. A company would deliver a message to the market about their goods and services in a marketing program that was intended to increase revenue, increase brand recognition, elevate their goodwill in the marketplace, etc.
Today’s successful company will still do marketing programs, but for most companies, equally important to outgoing marketing programs – and for some even more important – is social marketing. That means blogging and being otherwise socially present and socially active on the web. It means constantly monitoring applicable social sites and search engines in an attempt to respond quickly to customers who have a complement as well as those who have a beef. And the successful company of the 21st century cannot just be reactive and defensive. They will have to be proactive and social leaders in their field.
“Businesses are being Humanized” says social media guru Gary Vaynerchuk. If you are a marketing professional or a business owner/manager and if you haven’t seen Gary’s interview on MSNBC, you should. He has a book out entitled “The Thank You Economy” – all about the power of one-on-one attention – and his interview is eye-opening and very much on point.
Opening up your company to the social world in this way that can be risky. It makes a lot of marketing pros and business managers very nervous. Previously, all communication with the market was of an “official” nature and had to be approved up the chain of command. You can’t do that when you are responding in a social setting. Social Media requires constant attention and constant communication in small bites. If you send it up the chain of command, by the time it gets approved it is too late to respond and you have lost the opportunity.
Social Marketing is here and it’s now. It must be done and it must be done right. Even more risky is ignoring this paradigm shift and not going social at all.
Funding Clean Energy Projects Down in 1st Quarter 2011
First quarter tallies are in:
According to Jeff St. John at Earth2Tech, global investment in clean energy projects was down to its lowest quarterly level in two years. Global clean energy investment fell to $31.1B in the 1st quarter of 2011 – down from $47.1B in the previous quarter.
At the same time, equity investment by Venture Capitalists in late-stage clean energy start-up companies was strong. I haven’t yet seen the tally for Angel investment in early stage clean energy companies, but it seems from what I have heard through the solar powered grapevine that Angel investment was strong too.
This seems to be a change from 2 years ago when I was raising money for a clean energy start-up. At the time, everyone wanted to give me money for the projects we were working on, but no one wanted equity in what was then an early-stage renewable energy project developer with a huge pipeline of projects in the works.
One reason for the global drop-off in project investment is due to the reduction of feed-in-tariffs (FITs) and other incentives in Europe – most notably Germany, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic.
But other parts of the world are waking up to clean energy generation projects, including the USA. While our federal 30% incentive program is scheduled to lapse at the end of this year, there still have accelerated depreciation and other production tax incentives at the federal level and many states have their own programs that are gaining recognition. Renewable Energy Credit (REC) markets may also be taking root in limited areas across the country.
Unfortunately, here in the USA, we have a lack of orchestrated commitment at the Federal level. Every state is different and this creates confusion for the project finance community. Some states have strong renewable energy goals while others have exactly nothing. What we need here in the USA is a uniform “Renewable Portfolio Standard” at the Federal level.
But states that have taken bold steps towards renewable energy goals are reaping the rewards. Keith Matheny of the Desert Sun wrote in an article dated today “It’s been called California’s second gold rush: the clamor by large solar companies to stake a claim in southern California’s open deserts and capture one of its most abundant resources — sunlight.”
Australian solar technology manufacturer and solar project developer EnviroMission Limited has announced its 200MW Solar Tower project that will be located in western Arizona but will be selling its power to the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA). As shown in their animations, this emerging technology uses an interesting mix of both solar and wind to produce electricity, and requires no water (a good thing when you are building a power plant in the desert). The History Channel did an interesting history on this technology.
There seems to be a migration of investment dollars formerly earmarked for European projects now looking for projects in the USA, Brazil and China. Spanish investment group CGS Renovables recently announced it has opened its US headquarters with the intent of investing in quality solar projects in the USA. I spoke with the General Manager of their US operations and they seem dedicated to this market. In fact I will be meeting with them during the coming week and will have more information to share at a later date. Note: if you have a solar project you think could use funding from this company, send me an email and I will share what I learn.
Are you blue or green?
You may not know it, but there is a bit of a struggle going on between the Blue People and the Green People.
The Green People parade around talking all about “Green Power” – about changing national power grids from coal and natural gas to solar and wind. These people want us to throw away all our gas-guzzling cars and trucks and switch to electric vehicles, for crying out loud!
The Blue People are crazy about recycling and completely insane about organic foods that are supposed to save our planet and make us all healthier at the same time. “Don’t throw away your used coffee grounds” they say with those deer-caught-in-the-headlights eyes. They think we should use those used coffee grounds to grow and eat mushrooms that are all healthy and stuff.
Well don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself. Here’s a video message from the Blue People:
VIDEO MESSAGE FROM THE BLUE PEOPLE
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