Imagine being in a room filled with other green-minded business owners and execs and tapping into their smarts for 3 hours on behalf of your business? That’s what our Green Marketing Labs are all about.  Our first one in Denver is happening in a few weeks. Think of it, you can saturate on Saturday in our lab and ski on Sunday on the slopes. 

Here’s what happening in our first lab. 

Green Marketing Lab 1: Developing Your Marketing GPS (Green Positioning Strategy) on March 27.

With over 1,500+ new products enter the market each year, how will you break through the clutter and position your product or service so it’s not another “me too”? In this green marketing lab, you will:

Obtain a clear understanding of the current green market – its obstacles and opportunities

Identify how meaningfully different you are from your competition

Uncover the advantages that result from using your product or service

Identify your key target audience(s) and the rational and emotional reasons they buy your product or service

Develop a strategy statement to effectively communicate your message to your target audience(s)

These interactive, real-life marketing laboratories will give you the insights and tangible solutions you need to make your marketing meaningful in the maturing green market. So bring your questions. Bring your challenges. Roll your sleeves up and have some fun.

PRICING: $40 per lab or $130 for all 4 labs (discounts available for CORE members).

Saturday March 27, 2010, 9:00am – 12 noon

Location: All 4 labs will be held in the CORE offices at 1801 California Street, Suite 4900, Denver, CO 80202.

Register for all 4 labs or any of them individually at: www.corecolorado.org or call (303) 894 6333

Presenters: Irv Weinberg and Carolyn Parrs of Mind Over Markets, a dedicated green marketing communications company in Santa Fe, NM. To learn more about our work, go to www.mindovermarkets.com.

Hope to see you there! Can you help us spread the word and Retweet this or share this with your community?

Many thanks!

If you are anywhere near Denver in early March (skiing, soaking in the hot springs, etc.), our friends at CORE Colorado are putting on a sustainability summit that can’t be missed. We’ll be there. Visit us at our booth. 

Here’s all the info from Graham Russell, CORE’s Executive Director.   

 

2010 SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES SUMMIT + EXPO

March 2 – 4, 2010 | Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO

Looking for new ways to turn your company’s sustainability challenges into business opportunities?

The Sustainable Opportunities Summit + Expo, held annually in Denver, Colorado, is consistently one of the most comprehensive, actionable conferences in the industry.

 Our 2010 program promises to be the best yet. Among the sessions you will enjoy are:

Sustainability in the Supply Chain – featuring a plenary panel discussion of the Sustainability Consortium initiated by major retailers and including speakers from Miller Coors, KPMG and Wal-Mart. 

Plenary presentations by Andrew Winston: co-author of the sustainability best-seller “Green to Gold” and Peter Fusaro: author of NY Times best-seller “What Went Wrong at Enron?” 

Sustainability in the World of Sports: a panel discussion of how the sports industry is addressing the demands for more environmentally responsible sporting events AND greener sporting venues. Speakers from the Pepsi Center, Dicks Sporting Goods Park and Icon Venues. 

MORE THAN 60 SPEAKERS, 100 EXHIBITORS + COUNTLESS BENEFITS 

   Gain a global perspective and apply it to constructive local action.

   Turn corporate responsibility into long-term competitive advantage.

   The latest technologies in water treatment & conservation, recycling, waste minimization, sustainable agriculture, responsible mining and more.

   Learn how innovative energy ideas will create a robust economic engine.

   Connect with the most powerful sustainability players, locally and nationwide.

   Get access to key decision-makers, including buyers and investors.

Join Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, our speakers, exhibitors and hundreds of your colleagues to learn how sustainability is fast becoming the key driver of innovation, improved financial performance and more robust economic development. 

To register or for more info: 2010 Sustainable Opportunties Summit & Expo.

Back by popular demand, we’re starting our monthly Green Marketing Labs in Denver, CO in March. These fun, interactive, real-life marketing laboratories will give you the insights and tangible solutions you need to make your marketing meaningful in the maturing green market. So bring your questions, bring your challenges, roll your sleeves up and have some fun. 

This Mind Over Markets series is sponsored by CORE Colorado and takes place Saturdays, 9 am to 12 noon. Each lab is $40 or for $130 you can do all 4 and save 20%. Here’s the line-up.    

 

Lab 1: Developing Your Marketing GPS (Green Positioning Strategy) – Saturday, 3/27

The green market has matured since Kermit was King with his “It’s Easy Being Green” campaign. Now over 1,500+ new products enter the market each year. It ain’t so easy anymore. How will you break through the clutter? How do you position your product or service so it’s not another “me too”? In this marketing lab, you will: 

Obtain a clear understanding of the current green market – its obstacles and opportunities

Identify how meaningfully different you are from your competition

Uncover the advantages that result from using your product or service

Identify your key target audience(s) and the rational and emotional reasons they buy your product or service

Develop a strategy statement to effectively communicate your message to your target audience(s)

 

Lab 2: Creating a Compelling Green Brand in a Crowded Market – Your Positioning Line  – Saturday, 4/24

The most powerful asset a company can own is its brand. It is the marriage of all the elements of how your product or service will be presented in the marketplace. It says, “This is what I stand for.”  In this marketing lab, you will learn how to: 

Drill down to the creative core of your product or service and turn it into a powerful communications theme

Take your Green Positioning Strategy and develop a clear and compelling positioning line    

Integrating your brand message into all your marketing materials   

 

Lab 3:  Creating a Compelling Brand in a Crowded Market – Your Visual Identity – Saturday, 5/22 

No branding effort is complete without the investigation and development of a compelling visual identity for your product or service. Your visual presentation, which includes your company logo and website, is way more than “pretty pictures”; it’s a visual cue that quickly and effectively communicates your company’s personality and what it stands for in the marketplace. In this marketing lab, you will learn how to: 

Create an accurate visual identity based on your brand’s positioning strategy and line

Create a graphics standards that will serve as a guide to ensure your consistent use of design elements, formats, and templates in all of your communications

Integrate your visual identity into all your marketing materials

 

Lab 4: Creating Persuasive Messaging for Social Media – Saturday, 6/19

To make it in social media, you need to unlearn the rules of traditional marketing messaging. No more hard sell. No more creating customers. What you are creating are relationships instead. And those relationships can be your single greatest sales force. In this marketing lab, you will learn:

How social media is used by entrepreneurs and business owners

Why you need to serve, not sell    

Why content is still king and how to make your marketing messages compelling

The importance of relevancy and frequency

How to integrate your brand message into your social media marketing

 

“It’s like having your own Marketing Department!”

                                                     - David Wolf, Wolfs Bagels

 

Building green and selling green in tough economic times might sound counter intuitive but the reality is, it’s not. A recent survey conducted by National Real Estate Investor in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council showed that sustainability in commercial real estate is growing in leaps and bounds.

More than 88% of developers and 86% of corporate executives say they consider green design to be as or more important than it was before the current economic slump. In fact, LEED certified projects showed an impressive 47% increase over the previous 12 month period.

These buildings represent 273 million square feet of new construction and major renovation on commercial and institutional properties, up from 133 million square feet the previous year. Another 25,608 properties totaling approximately 6.3 billion square feet are currently registered with the LEED, up from 1.3 billion square feet last year.

The reason for these green spikes are much more personal than they are planetary. Green can be a major selling point to investors and tenants alike. These initiatives not only offer significant and measurable savings in terms of energy usage, but contribute to the health and well being of the people who live and work in your project.

Healthier materials, paints, finishes, carpets, cleaning supplies and more natural lighting make contributions that are becoming more accepted, more desired, and more understood each day.

Healthier surroundings contribute to greater well being, less sick days, and therefore greater productivity of those who will spend a majority of their time inside what you build.

There is no question that green is the way to go, the question really is how healthy and robust your communication of all that will be to your investor, purchaser or tenant base. Of all the green things you may be considering building into your project, green messaging might be the most important one of all.

After all, one of the keys to selling is educating. So much of the green message has focused on what’s in it for the planet that people often forget it’s just as important to focus on what’s in it for the potential purchaser or renter. It’s important to remember that green is not just a physical thing, it’s also a state of mind. It’s the place where value can be added in a very measurable sense.

Be sure not to make the mistake of assuming that just saying you’re green is communicating your message. Put your green communications in human terms. Tell your customer base why you’re going green and what that’s going to do for them.

Of course, talk about tax credits and energy savings, but also talk about how your green initiatives help control the one environment it’s possible to exercise the most control over. The one we live in or work in each day.

Talk about the added-value thinking green has brought to your current project or the ones you’ve created in the past. And remember that people don’t want to live in or invest in a laboratory, but want esthetics along with everything else.

Recently, an ultra green residence was built in the town I live in. It was loaded with green features including solar panels that tracked with the sun, a zero-energy loss envelope, no paint or carpet, water reclamation systems — the works.

Unfortunately, they forgot one thing.  The WOW factor. For $2 million. people want something that’s not only efficient but stunning. And that’s what was left out. Instead of natural stone, granite or marble floors, they went with ceramic tile. Instead of finding ways to maximize the heat output of stylish, architectural fireplaces, they went with highly-efficient wood stoves.  Lots of heat, but no fire. It all looked good on paper, but not as good in the living room.

The point of marketing green or building green is to take all the available technology and make it human and accessible — and above all beautiful. Just look what designer, Erin Adams, is doing with her recycled glass mosaic tile and home furnishings. You see, you can have your cake and eat it too. 

Remember that green means alive, vibrant and healthy. And that includes your communications. Don’t just go earth tone and tell me you’re saving the planet. The market and people’s understanding of the green message has progressed far beyond that.