SImple, Effective Ideas

I am delighted with Recycleworks, who supplied by water butt (still hasn't rained yet by the way!).

I forgot to mention that when we opened the box inside was a leaflet detailing more useful, environmentally friendly products - great selling opportunity.
They have also today sent me an email thanking me for my order. It is personalised, simple and to the point - but another great selling opportunity with links to the site and a kind offer of help and assistance.

See, marketing doesn't have to be complicated to be effective. Just treat customers like friends.

It doesn't have to cost the earth in monetary terms either, a price comparison with other water butts made Recycleworks appear expensive, but (pardon the pun!), unlike others their price was postage and packaging inclusive so it actually worked out a better deal.

Well done Recycleworks!

Week 5: Be a patron of the arts...

This week I am supposed to buy art made from recycled products and I have already done this!
I have bought branded pens for CIM that are made out of recycled car parts and I can't wait to receive them.

Surfing the net on this topic I was sorely disappointed with three of the recommended sites in the book - two did not exist any more, one was under re-development and so didn't have anything on it!. C'mon guys, if we're going to get this right we need to make our basic marketing tools effective.
There is no point advertising our website if there's nothing on it - how many people are going to look back later if there wasn't anything there the first time to entice us?

Some websites that didn't disappoint are -
www.remarkable.co.uk
www.dolphinwilding.com (this has changed it's name and address but I was seemlessly redirected)

And it didn't rain!

Would you believe it, the water butt arrived two days after purchase (excellent service) and it hasn't rained since!
We put it together on Sunday morning, which was great fun - getting fingers trapped, reading and re-reading the instructions and a few curses - and it is now sitting proudly in our garden just waiting...

Week 4: Set up your own sustainable water supply...

This week I've been told to open up the shed (which I don't have!) and put my working gloves on (which I do!).

I'm told that fitting a water butt is 'relatively cheap and easy' and will mean I can water the garden without depleating our valuable clean water supplies.

I've found a website that does a flatpack water butt and you can buy online, so here goes!

www.recycleworks.co.uk

On a roll!

Tony and I went to Spain to visit his parents for a long weekend and whilst we were in the air he told me about this website he had come across called carbon neutral.

It calculates the carbon footprint of your travel and recommends how you can neutralise this in a variety of ways -what a super idea.

So, getting back to my computer today I was keen to investigate more and here is the address for you to do the same.

www.carbonneutral.com

I also found www.treesforlife.org.uk, which does something similar, and I was taken aback when it calculated that the 46,000 miles that my car has done should cost £115 to neutralise by planting trees in the Calendonian forest.

We are going to monitor our monthly impact from now on and I am sure we will be taken aback many more times. I think we're both on a sustainability roll now!

Week 3: Learn to breathe...

This week I found out that 100 million people around the world suffer from asthma, just one of the many respiratory disorders. Some of this is caused by smoking, damp houses with poor ventilation, carpets, dust, stress, etc. So, my 'breathe easy' task is to find out about breathing and to reduce my stress levels.
I already have a regular back, shoulder and neck massage, which is where I feel it if I'm stressed.
I study Tai Chi, swim, have many hobbies, weekends with family & friends are sacred... and my New Years resolution is to keep these good habits up.

I visited www.yogaatwork.co.uk as directed and picked up this quote -
"Breathe in, breathe out, as long as you keep breathing in and out you can’t die." Dr Erik Peper

If only it was that simple!

Week 2: Get out the garden bench...

'52 Weeks' suggests this week that I should make a stand against exploitation of the natural world.
Not that I am looking to purchase a garden bench but I will from now on think about where the wood we purchase is coming from. I quote '"The best option is to look for the fsc - Forstry Stewardship Council - logo. This WWF sponsored non-governmental organisation has been set up as an eco-labelling authority for timber and timber products sourced from sustainably managed forests."
To see the logo and find out more visit www.fsc-uk.info

From a marketing point of view it is a very simple and effective use of a marketing tool.
Most people think of logo's as expensive and not really meaningful, or at best status symbols. But just think of how the fsc is using their logo to promote, educate and facilitate a who new way of life.

It wasn't difficult, in fact it was quite fun!

Tony was keen to investigate the energy saving light bulbs and we spent at least an hour that night discussing it. So we now have a list of what energy saving bulbs we need as and when the existing ones need replacing.
It sprang a whole new adventure for us and we spent ages in Tesco on Saturday night (yes we know how to party!) looking at all the eco friendly/sustainable products we could buy instead of our normal shop. We bought recycled biodegradable bin bags, organic milk and decided against buying tin foil.
Back to the light bulbs though, I've done some surfing the web to see what else was out there on this subject and here are two more good sites for you:

www.lowcostbulbs.co.uk
www.est.org.uk/myhome/efficientproducts/lighting/bulbratings

The thing that strikes me as odd as a marketer is that both the blt and the lowcostbulbs sites don't really shout about the energy saving bulbs, they are just lumped in with the rest. I wonder why this is when this is such a hot topic at the moment. You only have to turn on the TV to see organisations attempting to educate us, change our habits and opt for eco friendly/sustainable products.
I think they're missing a trick.

Week 1: Use good design to beat global warming...

This is an email received from our Facilities Manager at the CIM just before Christmas:

Dear All
Some useless facts to help us to remember to switch off the office equipment

• Energy used by office equipment left on standby would be sufficient to roast 4.4 million turkeys!
• Equipment not fully turned off would be sufficient to micro wave 268 million mince pies!

Have a good Christmas,
Jon
Not just useless facts but a stark reality check - we are wasteful and we need to think more about the consequences of our actions.

'52 Weeks' suggests this week that I should change my light bulbs and cut my emissions of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. No one really knows what greenhouse gases are doing to our climate, but it is changing that's for sure.

This is my husband Tony's domain and so I am emailing him the suggested web address from which to purchase energy saving light bulbs right now - www.bltdirect.co.uk - with an opening line of...

Save Money! Each low energy light bulb saves £7 worth of electricity a year and lasts 12 times longer than normal ones.

That will get his attention.

New Year, New Challenges

It's 4th January 2007 and after going through my 100+ emails, returning phone calls left over the holiday and doing a general catch up on 2nd and 3rd, I am now in a position to embark on a new challenge - a blog!

In my appraisal just before Christmas I was charged with the task of writing articles for the press. I must admit this came as a bit of a shock and so I have taken a couple of weeks whilst nursing a cold to think about it.

It certainly makes sense. In my capacity as Regional Director for The Chartered Institute of Marketing in the North of England, the more PR we get the better.

But what to write about?

I bought myself a book for Christmas called '52 Weeks to Change your World' by Allan Shephard and Caroline Oakley. The opening line is "52 Weeks is a primer for the planet - pick it up and sort out your priorities..." It is basically saying do your bit for the environment.

This is a hot topic for marketers, a key challenge - for businesses to address environmental responsibility, social awareness and economic profitability, or what some people are calling The Triple Bottom Line.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing is currently exploring this in detail at www.cim.co.uk/shapetheagenda

And so, armed with my book and a clear direction, join me as I endeavour to change my world and write about it!