SnoreWorld: A World of Relief

Snoring is a joke till it happens to you, then it’s no laughing matter. As a matter of fact, up to 40% of us snore.That’s not just here in America, but all over the world. Snoring can damage the health of the snorer and damage the relationships of those affected by it because of loss of sleep, fatigue, irritability and high blood pressure — not to mention the eruption of emotional issues caused by being kept awake by unpleasant and disturbing sounds. The bottom line is snoring is a major problem in search of realistic and effective solutions.

Till now, there has been no comprehensive website or single source to go to for advice, products and procedures. Because of this, an opportunity existed to serve the needs of this underserved target audience on multiple levels as a web-based aggregator of information, support and products which explain, educate and relieve snoring and the multiple problems that accompany it.

SnoreWorld.com was created to be a global resource for snoring and sleep deprivation issues. Unlike single solution sites, SnoreWorld’s goal is to build a community of snoring sufferers to share stories and solutions, and offer information and reviews on snoring products and programs.

Mind Over Markets’ strategy was to position SnoreWorld as the most complete snoring solution resource in the world. But just as important, to give the snorer and those affected by it the promise of relief. We not only wanted the persona of the brand to be open and warm, but to have authority and ingegrity so it would become a trusted source to be relied on.

We created a logo that reflected the moon and night. The heavenly orb is graphically made up of different facets to reflect the many facets of the snoring community and the many solutions SnoreWorld provides. When you scroll over each “facet” on their website, text pops up to illustrate their multifaceted approach to the problem which embraces the physical as well as the emotional side effects of snoring. This is where SnoreWorld stands apart from other online resources. They take a humane, understanding and empathic approach rather than just a hands-off clinical one to the problem.

We also wanted the logo to be restful. A big yellow moon on a velvety night sky to communicate peace, quiet and rest.

The tag line is another simple yet all encompassing promise: A World of Relief. That is meant to communicate a wide resource of snoring solutions and communication. It also says they are a worldwide resource with a broad range of methods and solutions.

Maybe if we could all get a better night’s sleep the world could be a more peaceful place. And that would be a world of relief for all of us.

What do you think?

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Every once in a while, we do a shameless promotion at Mind Over Markets. Forgive us, this is one of them…

“It’s the economy, stupid.” That’s what most green business gurus are saying today. Some are even going so far to say that green is dead. That’s simply not true. What’s dead are the messages that marketers are putting out there like, “It’s easy being green,” or “We’re saving the planet one (fill in the blank) at a time.” People don’t buy products or services to save the planet, they buy them to save and help themselves.

If your core messaging is not motivating your customers to engage in your business, if you are not getting it out there through the mediums that matter, we can help.

Mind Over Markets (affectionately known at MOM) has been living, breathing, designing, writing and promoting green products and services for over 10 years. Let us help you bring your business to a new level in this leveled market.

Announcing our Green Business Booster

This in-depth, hands-on, highly interactive process is designed to electrify your communications and take it to a whole new level. Here’s how we do it:

Where You Are Now. We will review of your digital and printed marketing communications including website, company brochure, etc. to evaluate where you are now. This includes a deep dive into your social media marketing efforts and communications.

Where You Want To Go. After reviewing your current communications, we will facilitate a highly interactive and creative process with you we call our Green Brand Discovery Session. This process will clearly position and message your product or service in order to capture its unique promise of value in a way that is meaningful to your target audiences.

How to Get There. Our Green Business Booster will help identify potent strategies to effectively communicate your message to your target audiences.

Making It Happen. This is where the rubber meets the road. Your three 60 minute Green Marketing Coaching Sessions will help you implement the communication and marketing strategies outlined in your Discovery Session. Now you’re rolling.

For more info on our in-depth Green Business Booster, contact carolyn@mindovermarkets.com or call 505-989-4004.

Green is here to stay. Are you?

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Organic chicken little has been running around announcing that the sky has fallen on the green market. Our avian friend cites the bankruptcy of Solyanda Solar as the latest victim. What defeated them was a poor choice of power generation — kind of like Beta versus VHS all over again.

When beta went down it just meant that the form was wrong not the overall technology of video players. We think the same is true here. Green issues have not gone away and neither have green answers.

There is an entire industry waiting to be born and we need the White House and both houses to get behind it. Not only will this produce multiple benefits, it is actually the road to the future.

In a green world, we will give birth to a vibrant, job producing industry with enormous growth potential. Every state, local and federal building should be fitted out for solar. Only U.S. companies need apply. We will use US labor to install them and sell the excess energy back to the grid. The skies will be clearer, and we will no longer be panicky at the pump.

It’s a win-win-win all the way around.

Done correctly, it is the industrial revolution all over again but with safer, healthier methods and much better results. We have the technology…

The problem is the real deterrent to this gold mine is the forces that don’t want to let it happen. Clean coal, frackers, and energy companies have a vested interest in green going brown. But when people finally wake up and realize that the green isn’t about hugging trees, but creating a better, healthier and safer world for all of us, we’ll hop in our hybrids or EV’s and hum past those ancient relics of our old ways. “Remember gas stations?” we’ll say.

For this to happen, green needs to go beyond the planet, right to the personal. So instead of your product or service saving the planet one (fill in the blank) at a time, communicate how green can save their family, their lifestyle, their future. That’s what we call at Mind Over Markets “Greenstreaming” — taking green from the minority to the mainstream. Then we’ll really have something to talk about.

Want to Greenstream your product or service? Just Say Yes in the comment box below.

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Joel Makower of GreenBiz.com just declared that green marking is dead, or in his words, “Green Marketing is Over.”  To quote Mark Twain, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”  I think the same can be said of green marketing.

Here at Mind Over Markets, we’ve been saying for years that green marketing messages have not been communicated correctly and effectively right from the start.

The first task of green marketing, like all other marketing, should be an analysis of benefits. First to the consumer, and then to the planet. Too many opted for the latter, save the planet, as though you could with your cleaners and your pizzas. That never made any sense to me and it never will.

When Nissan Leaf used a polar bear hugging a man in their commercial instead of laying out the many advantages of EV’s to me and my life, when they don’t position their vehicles as personal benefit producers, when they don’t tell me what’s in it for me, then yes, green marketing is over.

When organic food isn’t positioned as better for your health, better tasting, fresher, more local and ultimately more enjoyable, no wonder it’s hard to justify the higher costs. The success of Whole Foods is probably based more on their gourmetness than on their greenness. They have the recipe right and continue to succeed.

The last time I saw a green marketing obituary it was centered on the failure of Organic Ragu Sauce. As though any organicite or foodie was going to buy Organic Ragu or Organic Heinz Ketchup.  That wasn’t a failure of green, but a failure of logic. When the largest manufacturers of caustic and corrosive cleaning solutions suddenly turns green, its no wonder that consumers scratch their heads and wonder if it’s real or just a mask.

When Kimberly Clark tells us they they’ve done “green right” instead of telling us that recycled paper is a better, saner way to make napkins and toilet paper than destroying old growth forests, no wonder we yawn and walk away.

To my mind, it’s not the failure of green marketing, but the failure of green marketers to have thought it out long enough and strategically enough to hire true green marketers and visionaries who actually understand not just the heart of green consumers, but the minds of the greater population.

Instead they wheeled out Kermit the Frog and melting icebergs. They should have been selling their products to me instead of making my purchases seem like a cause, charity, public service or a sacrifice that I have to make. By the way, you can’t actually save the planet all by yourself.

Talk about naive. At a time when people aren’t sure they can save themselves, much less the planet, is it any wonder that kind of thinking or marketing is on the endangered species list?

What’s saddest of all is that all the so called “green experts” failed in their expertness when they didn’t alert marketers that they were on thin ice right from the beginning. When they didn’t understand the balance of message, the need for benefits, and the need to tell consumers that they were not only doing what was right, but what was smart.

It really is a shame that the lemmings will watch the green hearse go by and help drive green even further off the cliff. That others will continue to not only sell, but tell things wrong and then lament the passing of one of the most significant opportunities to actually make things better for all of us.

– Irv Weinberg

Read what Jacqui Ottman says in her post “Green is Alive and Kicking”.

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Dear Seventh Generation:

We love what you’re moving towards in terms of your new paper bottle packaging. Anything that replaces plastic with its long tail of environmental no-nos is a welcoming development. And it’s one that sure to set you apart on the shelf.

Word of caution: Be brave.

Don’t do what SunChips did and panic and retreat the first time a package compromises itself and falls apart on a consumer’s kitchen floor. Better, safer, more eco-friendly packaging is an important thing to do, and something our planet, now battling nuclear contamination, surely needs. But please remember your package is only part of the package. It’s what’s inside the package, not the package itself, that really counts.

We all know that green, by itself, is just a part of the story. That means you can’t just tell us what you’re not, you need to tell us what you are. A superior detergent that will get my clothes clean, and take out stains as well or better than conventional detergents.

Now that you’ve gone mainstream and sit on Wal-Mart’s shelves, you need to come clean and tell me why I should vote for you with my dollars? Products that go mainstream need a message that deals with mainstream values like economy and efficacy.

And that’s your next big challenge.

When you have a name like Seventh Generation which means thinking about life 140 years in the future and a focus on mainly green issues, I think you need to reassure us all about today. How you serve us right here and right now.

A recent consumer trend study by EcoFocus Worldwide reveals that younger consumers (18-35) believe that most of the efforts they take to be green or eco-friendly probably won’t have an effect in their lifetime. So why not assure them (and all of us as a matter of fact) that “We ARE the seventh generation” and what we do today matters today. The time is now and we CAN have an impact. Then the fact that you have all this cool new packaging will mean even more.

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Jacqueline Ottman is a woman who has been immersed in green marketing way before green was the scene, before hybrids were hip, before Al Gore was well, inconvenient. Yes, she’s seen it all – and studied what works and what doesn’t.

Fast forward to 2011. According to Ottman, the rules have changed. “’Saving the planet’ is not nearly as effective as ‘saving you money’ or ‘saving your health’ in green marketing,” she says. We couldn’t agree with her more. Our mantra at Mind Over Markets has always been bringing the planetary down to the personal.

So to help you navigate this emerging, ever-changing market, Ottman just released her new book The New Rules of Green Marketing (Berrett-Koehler; February 2011; $21.95) where she provides insight into the changing needs of mainstream consumers, how companies large and small have responded with fresh green marketing strategies, what it takes to succeed, and what the future of marketing will look like.

This comprehensive dive into green marketing is a must if you’re serious about making it here. Ottman goes into depth on subjects such as:

Green consumer motives and buying strategies

Designing green products from life cycle approach

Strategies for eco innovation

Communicating sustainability with impact

Establishing credibility and avoiding greenwashing

Ottman’s new book is chockfull of practical checklists at the end of each chapter, an extensive 25-page green marketing resource guide, and dozens of inspiring case examples of the most successful greener products and companies today.

Whether you are a start-up or C-level executive, you will find Ottman’s book a reliable compass into this fast-growing, and sometimes green grab bag arena. “Meeting today’s consumer needs won’t be easy,” Ottman admits. “Many challenges are associated with sustainable branding and green marketing – and many notable attempts, inadvertent or deliberate, of ‘greenwashing’ abound. But consumers want worthy businesses to succeed.”

How worthy is your business? What are you really contributing?

Listen to “Me First, Planet Later” with Ottman on Women Of Green.

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Simran Sethi, an award winning journalist and an associate of Carolyn said on Women Of Green that organic food isn’t only an environmental issue but a public health one. She emphasized reframing green or environmental issues so that “everyone can understand it”. She’s right in many ways — from consumption to communications. If you’re eating organic tomatoes to save the planet, it’s time to chew on this. You’re not only saving the planet, you are also saving yourself from the tons of toxins that find their way to your table via conventional agriculture. If you’re buying a Prius to be part of the green revolution, that’s great but getting 40-50 miles per gallon is what’s going to move the needle toward green for most. If you’re opting for LED lighting because its easy being green, you’re also getting the benefits of 75% savings on your electric bill.

Bottom line, if the thrust and focus of your green message is purely planetary, you’re actually cheating the green movement of its ability to become the global movement it needs to become to affect the planet in the positive ways you’re intending. The Achilles heel of the green movement is its inability to move out of being a political causal movement to become a public benefit movement. If it falls along “liberal versus conservative” fault lines, therein lies its fault.

When it’s a derogative to be a tree hugger, when its too easy to put “wacko” at the end of environmentalist, then you know something isn’t being communicated well. When the rust belt can become the green belt and provide new industry, new jobs, boost the economy, take us off foreign oil, and clean up our waters and our skies, then it’s more than green. It’s progress.

Green is about starting things, not stopping them. It’s about growth, not stagnation. So, next time you’re in a conversation about green issues or green values, remember the real goal of the green movement is the health, welfare and prosperity of the citizens of the planet, not just the planet itself. A little self-servingness isn’t a bad thing as long as it serves the needs of all of us.

– Irv Weinberg

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Whether or not you believe in global warming, no one can debate that the green movement has taken the planet by storm. What started out as a cause has become a because. Because, in every way from the ecologic to the economic, green is not just a good conscience move, it’s a good business move with direct correlation to the bottom line. It’s the domino effect played backward.

By that we mean if you increase your energy efficiencies, you use less power. If you use less power, not only does your energy bill decrease but your need for power decreases so less energy has to be generated. If less energy is generated, less fuel is burned to create more power, less money is spent building plants, and less land is cleared to build energy producing plants, and so on and so on. In the end, even one energy-efficient LED bulb is one bright idea because it can produce a lot more savings than just on your energy bill.

But where do you begin? For many companies, greening their business might start with purchasing recycled paper or using soy inks. This is a good beginning. However, greening your business needs to begin with defining what green is in the first place. So it’s not merely a checklist but a “checking out” of your company’s social, environmental and economic beliefs and aligning them with your goals in order to meet the needs of the present without comprising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.

This internal exploration helped our team at Mind Over Markets define what is at the very core of green. We developed several ideas described below.

Green is about first what you believe and second what you buy.

Green is about making decisions, taking the time to decide what you really need, not just what you want. Green people buy from their intellect as well as their values.

Green is about long-term thinking not short-term. It is living as part of something, not apart from everything. It concerns believing in a future for everyone, our kids and their kids.

Green is not about stopping industry or progress. It’s about creating more efficient industry and progress.  It’s about new opportunities and new jobs, new careers and new technology.

Green is education. It is information, making decisions, and knowing that your choices make a difference.  It is about being transparent. Green is not just about the talk, it’s about the walk.

Green is not necessarily about moving off the grid or changing your life. It’s not even about hugging a tree although that would be nice. It’s about trying to walk more softly. It is understanding that we are a species among other species.

It’s about thinking about what you do before you do it. It’s about reusing, recycling, and picking up after yourself, or even after someone else.  It’s about all of us caring about all of us.

Ways to Change

This internal exploration led to an exploration of how we, as a marketing company, can change the way we look at everything in the marketing business and beyond.

Can we host a presentation using Webcams instead of driving to the airport and flying to a meeting?

Can we contribute to the reduction in greenhouse gasses by phone conferencing instead of driving?

Can we send PDF files over the Internet instead of printing brochures?

Can we place our marketing materials and our client’s materials on a flash drive and hand them out at a trade show instead of leaving a paper trail?

Can we allow our employees to telecommute a portion of their workweek?

Can we send our company holiday cards via the Internet instead of using paper and post?

And what about work space health?  Is our flooring off-gassing harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) into our workspace air?

Do we use as much natural light as we can?

Do we use nontoxic cleaning products?   All of these things contribute to healthier workspaces, which contribute to greater worker productivity and a better bottom line.

Can we source bleach-free recycled paper and print on both sides?

Can we print on our outgoing e-mails, “Please do not print this e-mail unless you really must?”

Can we encourage our printers to switch to toxic free soy-based inks and recycled paper?

Can we help green industry events by offering organic foods, less paper products, and an acoustic band instead of an electrically powered one?

The answers to these questions for us are yes, and more. Once you start thinking green, green grows all around you. Actually greening our business is an ongoing, highly creative process. It takes a little adjustment to your reflexes to ask yourself questions like, “Do I have to print that e-mail?” What would that little act save when multiplied by 200 e-mails a day, five days a week for a year? A lot of trees and money.

Here’s another good example of green thinking. Simply reducing the margins of our documents to .75” on all sides, results in a total reduction of paper use by 4.75 percent, according to a study by Penn State Green Destiny Conservatree. For one ton of paper, the savings would be 19 reams, which then saves 1.4 trees. Multiplying that by 5.4 million tons of office paper, which is the amount the United States consumed in 2003, saves 6,158,000 trees. Not to mention the energy costs and waste products generated:

1,459,535,366 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to CO2 emissions from 132,528 cars.

584,398,539 pounds of solid waste, equaling 20,871 fully loaded garbage trucks.

4.8 billion gallons of waste water, enough to fill 7,408 Olympic-sized pools.

You see, one margin can go a long way.

Once we recalibrate the decision-making process by thinking of all the ways we can be more efficient and less wasteful, making other adjustments gets easier and easier. Even simple changes like printing our presentation boards on both sides cut our usage in half. It is the domino effect once again. Use less paper, need less paper, need less trees, and less paper manufacturing plants and less energy to run them. By now you get the picture.

How are you greening your business or office? Share it here.

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One of our clients is Dream Designs, a chain of organic lifestyle stores in Vancouver that manufactures and sells organic bedding, sheets, towels, mattresses. fashion and more. They are a perfect example of how knowing your customer informs and molds the advertising messages.

By definition, the Dream Designs customer is educated, affluent, hip, adventurous and interesting.That tells you that the best way to communicate to them is to make the communications as interesting and adventurous as they are. The other challenge is to do all of that in a small media space. No small task.

We created a series of six ads that could be repeated and run on a regular, weekly basis to build momentum around the stores and the products Dream Designs sells. “Are you good in bed? featured their 100% organic sheets was how we began. After all, 100% organic sheets with no chemicals or pesticides in the cotton growing cycle is good to be in bed with. We followed that with “Sleep like an ecolog” featuring their 100% organic mattresses.

Next came ads for their organic pillows, “A case for our pillows” and “Are your pillows a sham?” And then ”Make a blanket statement” featured their organic designer blankets. For their 100% organic cotton towels, we asked a serious question: “Does the “t” in your towels mean toxic?” We even did a fun, 50% off sale ad with the headline “Beddy buy.”

Why did we have so much fun with their ads? We knew that their customers would appreciate the humor and intellectual exercise of getting the meaning and personality of Dream Designs advertising.That way we implied quality without having to say it. We said the stores would be fun to shop in without having to tout it.

When your product is really good, you can show your style and imply all your positive attributes without spelling them out. When your customers can join in on the fun of your communications, you have created a relationship that makes them want you to succeed. Best of all, having your customers actually look forward to your ads and what you are going to say next is the best of all possible worlds.

Be brave, have fun, entertain as you inform and even your small space ads will make a big splash — and a big impact. We can’t wait to do more.

How are you being brave, having fun?

To view more of our work, check out Mind Over Markets.

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