Should the business step too far out of line in delivery to the market and no longer will the market offer support.

I have run an SME for the last thirty years, the last 6 of which I have endeavoured to guide our business toward a more sustainable future. The results of our actions are for all to see http://www.carthew.com.au/2007_report.pdf .

We are also endeavouring to dematerialise our activities so income earned is de-coupled from physical resources derived from the planet. We’ve stopped using direct mail for the very reasons you talk about… some 97% is in fact binned on average. At least the accursed spam email is a major advance here; as it involves a much smaller use of resources than the trees cut down to provide the medium of direct mail and so on and so on.

So yes, marketing can be greener but it also needs consumers to play their role. And it is here there is enormous opportunity to educate the wider community to place a value on attributes of a product that are soundly based on environmental credentials. Then and only then will we begin to see people and business move in unison toward a sustainable future.

Is there anything in particular that deviates from more common quarterly ROI reporting?

Robert - And businesses have to make a profit - that is the ultimate measure of return. The challenge is in determining what is driving your profit. It’s much easier for short-term initiatives than longer-term efforts that might more slowly build customer excitement, but the kind that lasts.

“Marketing, like manufacturing, stands at the doorstep of a great opportunity. An opportunity to revolutionize how we think about growth, measure return, and exist in relation to the communities that support us. Will we invest in developing better, smarter, more efficient ways to excite people about our products?”

Yes, we must step outside the conventional practices, we must continually work toward new and better ways to market. That’s what marketing is. It’s a shark. It can’t stop, or it dies.

But at the end of the day, real marketers know that ROI is the only thing that keeps that company afloat. So you have to balance between experimentation and pragmatic practice.

Nice post Justine, got me thinking.

Great point Justine, although a lot of people don’t want to hear that they have to make the changes.

I agree with you that forcing people out of their comfort zone, while un-pretty, can be extremely effective.

That space between comfort and effectiveness is called ‘growth’.

Great blog,
R:)

The part I took away from Justine’s post is that a company’s identity is what it is. You can’t brand your way out of bad business practices. Word-of-mouth isn’t an advertising strategy or a branding practice. And, no, you can’t raise all your awareness based solely on free PR forever.

Sustainable is making sure that you are walking your talk. Are your values (and business value!) in the right place? If so, your *tactics* spring from there. Some may be online community-building, some may be giving fans a place to talk about you, and some may include “traditional media.”

I think the point is that the tactics are just that — tactics. And those *must* change over time. We are continually changing the way we communicate as human beings, and companies must be aware and sensitive to those changes.

Justine, I’m glad you’re no longer afraid of using the word, “sustainable” as it’s applied to how people view a company, organization or product. Sustainability isn’t just about zero land-fill or greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a total model for organizational health.

I love it! Conventional ROI will only take us so far and can be a bad launching pad for creating better solutions.

Word of mouth marketing is ONE tactic. If you only rely on it you will be squashed. A multi-tiered integrated branding program (which could most definately include WOM is and will always be the best way for any company to go).

Use the strategies and tactics that work best for your company. Hey, maybe billboards don’t work for your company but they may for someone else. Ads may work better for you than others. Direct mail works incredibly for some (our clients certianly don’t average 1%). If done correctly all tactics should leverage a companies brand identity.

If you get stuck on word of mouth only, well it WILL be game over for most. Just my thoughts as a branding guy.