Green/Environmental
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
Wal_Mart is Keeping Eco-Score
Wal-Mart—which is challenging marketers’ on-shelf promotion strategies and making them rethink the way they build P-O-P displays—has a goal of cutting packaging on products in its stores 5% by 2013. That will save nearly $11 billion a year, mostly for brands using less cardboard and plastic and more eco-friendly materials. (That’s a mere 0.005% of the $2.2 trillion global packaging industry.) Wal-Mart itself will save about $3.4 billion a year, the retailer says....
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Six Tips for Going Green
Eric Lamphier, director of product management for Manhattan Associates offers six tips for helping companies achieve environmental and operational benefits by focusing on “green” initiatives in their DCs...
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Eco-Friendly Operations
Given that interest in global warming is heating up and that fuel costs have risen considerably in recent years, many companies are seeking ways to be more earth friendly and energy efficient. Distribution centers in particular have several reasons to investigate earth-friendly options. Here are a few earth-considerate tactics that some DCs have implemented...
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Saturn Grows Some 'Green' in Washington, DC
Saturn is turning heads in the nation's capital with a $500,000 marketing campaign that includes erecting greenhouses around the city to drive awareness for the automaker's environment-friendly hybrid SUV....
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GREEN MAILING
Is Your Data Green?
Each year, more than 100 million trees are destroyed, three million cars’ worth of energy is consumed and reprehensible-by-any-measure amounts of greenhouse gas is emitted into the atmosphere—all in the name of producing, distributing and disposing of direct mail solicitations.
The good news is that a growing number of companies, including major retailers, are starting to turn their attention to the problem. In particular, they’re considering the important role of customer data management. ...
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Precision Marketing is a Green Initiative
A growing number of retailers are engaging in well-publicized initiatives to reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution. Target Corp., for example, announced that it now recycles hundreds of tons of plastic wrap and more than 300 million plastic hangers a year....
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Green Beings
Why are more catalogers (Williams-Sonoma and Dell among them) agreeing to use recycled or otherwise eco-friendly paper now? And now that e-commerce has become so widely accepted, why do companies even mail catalogs anymore?...
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Green Day: Taking Another Look at Recycled Paper
Catalogers used to cite higher costs and lower quality as reasons for snubbing recycled stock, but those reasons are becoming less legitimate. For one thing, advances in printing technology and paper manufacturing have improved the quality of recycled papers. For another, growing pressure from environmental organizations is inspiring more mailers to look into recycled paper and consider testing it, which could ultimately help lower prices....
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Greenie Points
Everyone should be concerned about the environment, but those in direct mail should be especially sensitive. After all, the first complaint many people make about direct mail is “Look at the waste of trees in my mailbox.” As more legislative bodies contemplate do-not-mail lists, this is something to consider....
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The Model Student
One of a minority of catalogers that practice environmentally responsible practices, according to San Francisco-based environmental advocacy organization ForestEthics, is Portland, OR-based multititle mailer Norm Thompson Outfitters....
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GREEN FULFILLMENT
Think Inside the Box
One of many quandaries of environmentally friendly packaging is that just because a particular packaging material can be recycled does not guarantee that it will be. And that is just the beginning of the complexities surrounding the issue....
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DMA: Proper Packaging Protects Bottom Line, Environment
Environmentally sound order fulfillment minimizes the amount of packaging materials and maximizes the recycled content of materials used while providing appropriate protection to the merchandise being shipped. The key to effective environmental packaging and fulfillment policies is to reduce, reuse, and recycle....
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Trimming Your Transportation Costs
Along with death and taxes, multichannel merchants can count on rising transportation costs. The chief culprit for increasing costs is fuel, which affects your transportation costs on incoming shipments from your vendors and outgoing packages to your customers....
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SUSTAINABILITY
Environmental Affairs: Ecology and Economy
Good environmental practices are more than just paper management. They also involve environmentally produced products, environmentally friendly packaging, targeted mailings, up-to-date mailing lists, and consolidated deliveries that reduce shipment trips....
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Sustainable Options As Part of the Brand
Our things define us; what we buy and use, what we keep and throw away, what we waste and what we save. The “stuff” that surrounds us bears witness to the kinds of lives we live. But in light of a rapidly changing global situation, consumer values are changing, making social responsibility and sustainability pivotal influences. As product innovators and packaging designers, we need to address these issues....
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Sustainability Looks to Hit the Mainstream
“Sustainability” is becoming a buzzword among enlightened consumers and marketers. An environmental, social, and economic concept, sustainability is all about preserving resources for future generations....
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Yahoo Launches Search for Greenest City
Yahoo Inc. is out with a marketing campaign designed to promote a healthy environment, and it’s using its massive reach to find the greenest city in an online contest....
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Top Ten: Marketing Ideas To Consider in 2008
Few marketing programs completely fulfill one's hopes. In the new year, marketers should avoid over-hyped opportunities to focus on measuring success by one satisfied customer at a time. Here are the key ideas you should consider....
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GREEN ADVERTISING
Color Blind Consumers
Anyone who's recently watched NBC Universal's networks like NBC, USA, Bravo or the Sci-Fi Channel, or a host of their other cable, broadcast, Web, and wireless offerings simply could not have missed how they leaped upon the environmental movement. "Green is Universal," get it?...
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FTC to Review Guidelines for 'Green' Advertising'
The Federal Trade Commission will begin a regulatory review of its environmental marketing guidelines on Jan. 8 at a meeting in Washington, DC. This periodic review is happening one year ahead of schedule because the number of "green" marketing claims made by advertisers has increased substantially, according to the FTC....
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GREEN BRANDING
The Color of Conservation: Tips for Going Green Online
As companies rush to "go green," determining the right approach to creating effective Web-based communications that capture the spirit of environmental conservation is crucial. Alan Ruthazer lists some best practices for developing green-oriented websites....
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Trend Spotting
One of the Most powerful steps a product or brand can take to get an edge on competitors and make more money is to respond to cultural developments in innovative ways. Emerging trends create specific demands. Smart marketers — in virtually any industry — can benefit enormously by satisfying these cravings with creative and engaging offerings.
For example, the current global obsession with eco-friendly and carbon-neutral actions emerged only recently, and is poised to grow even larger in the next few years....
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Staples Swaps Coupons for Old Office Products
Staples is offering customers coupons in exchange for old staplers and hole-punches as part of a recycling program the retailer is running to drive sales of its One-Touch products. “Staples is always looking for new and creative ways to build brand loyalty with our customers,” said Dan Wegiel, a vice president of merchandising at Staples. “The trade-in event is an ideal way for us to increase awareness of our One-Touch family of products while supporting the environment.”...
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Star-Struck Eddie Bauer Goes Green
Eddie Bauer’s parent firm, Spiegel, may be bankrupt, but that hasn’t kept the Redmond, WA-based apparel cataloger/retailer from trying to do something about the environment. On July 7, Eddie Bauer announced it was launching an environmental awareness campaign with eight Hollywood celebrities....
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Viva Terra Goes for the Green
With American culture embracing organic food and hybrid cars, Bob Perkowitz, a board member of the Sierra Foundation and the Environmental Defense of North Carolina, thought that the time had come for a catalog selling high-quality environmentally friendly home products. With three partners he cofounded San Rafael, CA-based Viva Terra. The company, which sells "environmentally sustainable and socially responsible" home, organic gourmet, personal care, and gift items, launched a print catalog and a Website in October....
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Green Street
It's one thing for a coffee bar chain to support the environment. It's quite another for a bank to do it.
Yet HSBC did just that in a recent campaign for paperless banking. Any new checking customer who paid three bills online received a green kit filled with coupons and other goodies....
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What’s Ahead for Brand Creative
As designers we need more than ever to be astute students of the social and technological forces that are reshaping our world and accelerating change at a breathtaking pace. While change is all around us, a handful of trends promise to have a major impact on how we approach our craft in the coming years if we hope to fulfill consumers’ ever-rising expectations. Let’s take a brief tour of some of the forces at work....
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