Usha Raghavachari, Car and Crossover Communications Manager, Ford Motor

She makes no apology that this is a marketing presentation. She gave her background, where she was born in India and grew up in England. Her presentation will be in a few pieces. This includes an overview of the environment. From the EPA work, there is an increasing sense of environmental awareness, from the 2007 Cone Consumer Environmental Survey / EPA / AdAge. Al Gore has also made
an impact, with the book and movie.

What does green mean for the automotive industry. Bloomberg stated that the taxis in NY will increasingly be more energy efficient. Most presidential candicates now are driving around in a hybrid. People also think of green as being hybrid. But, for the auto industry, being green often means having smaller SUVs or smaller cars. Diesel in Europe is more efficient than current US hybrids. Efficiency and green also means making vehicles lighter. She stated that people are happy to pay more money for this investment.
However, when I shopped for a new car, I saw that the hyrbid was $10 K more in cost and 1/5 less in power (hp towing).

Quick education–component parts, hybrids have smaller and efficient and technologically advanced engine. There is an electric motor/generator acts as a motor and as a generator. Benefits of a hybrid is more efficiency with electric assist and better fuel economy and less emissions. When an Escape Hybrid runs on the electricity and has turned off the engine component, the tailpipe gives our clean air. All hybrids are not equal–some are partial and some are complete. Some need to use gas at all times, and some
can run completely (at times) on electricity.

The Ford Escape is the first hyrbid SUV and the first hybrid in the US. The emphasis is that people want hybrid and green, but they do not want to give anything up.

Looking up at the slides after typing all this without looking up, I see an enormous amount of text on the slides. Wow, too much for a communications perspective. Makes me long for Seth Godin’s PowerPoint recommendations.

Hybrid customers are the most affluent and well-educated consumer they have. This population takes action in their lives toward being green (organic food, compost, recycle). They want an outdoor life and do not want to compromise. This sounds wonderful and as part of a group I want to be a member of; what a good marketer she is.

She is clear she is a marketing person, and was focused on communications. Ironic that as she stated that, she opened a Background slide with 3 paragraphs with a total of 14 lines. I wish the slides would have been as engaging as her marketing and PR campaign. I am now so distracted by all of it, that her credibility is called into question in my mind since there is a disconnect between what she is saying and what she is showing. She talked about how brilliant Kermit is and how much fun and engaging
their ads (including the American Idol ad that she played) are. Is she showing us what they did as a professional engaged in this work, or trying to sell us this car? As a visual learner, I can’t watch since the slide text is so overwhelmingly full.

She then showed the Ford advertisement with Kermit the Frog, “Easy Being Green.” Kermit has cross-generational appeal and it was launched during the SuperBowl. Now the Ford Escape Hybrid faces luxury and non-luxury competition. Thus, saying “green” today is no longer enough. Thus, they are now focusing an environmentally friendly, off road and on. It is a true hybrid and a true SUV. She then stated that they buy carbon credits to offset the manufacture processes of the vehicle.

I still do not understand the concept of buying carbon credits.

The moderator has been unsuccessful in giving her the sign that her time is over (already 35 minutes, and still not entry for questions). Ahh, is this true to marketing form?

Technorati Tags: EPA, Ford Escape, hybrid, Cone Consumer Environmental Survey,, Usha Raghavachari

Linda Recupero, EVP Public affairs , HSBC USA - “It’s Not Easy Being Green”

HSBC has been involved in corporate stewardship for a long time, and has a lot of green initiatives for some time now. She joked about being green and banks having a lot of green (money), but there is a belief that they should be environmentally green and believe it from every aspect of them as an organization.

Their core beliefs and strategic initiatives include corporate responsibility. They want to be one of the world’s leading brands for corporate responsibility and thus reduce their environmental footprint.

They look at their stakeholders with an environmental stewardship lens. There are a lot of people to consider. Their business and communications perspective. They want to engage customers in an emotional relationship and then having a positive sustainable impact on the communities where they work. There tag line, “The World’s Local Bank” and the fact tha HSBC is the 3rd largest banking organization in the world, this message rings true for them as well. For HSBC, environmental stewardship is central to who they
are.

Great focus on engaging their clients and customers, but the slides were not terribly engaging. Rather dull, which is something she even stated when she considered her slides compared to the National Geographic ones that preceded here work.

Rather than write a big check, they are trying to have policies and initiatives that support their work and mission. They encourage their employees to be active and engaged in nature conservation programs.

They focus on partnering with other organizations, and partnered in the WWF and EarthWatch. They then wanted to fund organizations that were focused on climate changed. The HSBC Climate Partneship was with four credible organizations–The Climate Group, Earthwatch, WWF, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. They funded this 5-year program with $100
M and want to encourage long-term work and involvement with people to be on expeditions and research projects.

They have the first Gold LEED certified bank branch in Greece, NY. Moving forward, they want every branch to have a component of being green and reducing their footprint.

Another of their tag lines for one of their campaigns is “there’s no small change” www.theresnosmallchange.com, which has incentives for making small changes in people’s banking and personal lives support these efforts.

It seems HSBC is very active in this area, and I am glad to hear it. I had no idea they were doing to much, so from a corporate communication perspective, they are quite active. As an organization with their people and customers and consumers and facilities, they are really making strides toward following their mission. Their chairman, Stephen K. Green, promotes this and believes and espouses promoting the green movement within HSBC.

The questions once again came from a global audience. The first question was about that most people are probably not aware of all the work HSBC is doing within this space. The question is about how HSBC can promote itself as a green-focused firm, and how they can use that within their marketing efforts. They are planning to actively begin marketing their work, especially as they are somewhat new at marketing and promoting their CR and Philanthropy and PR groups. They now realize how important this message and
the PR can be (compared to their marketing efforts). They have been humble and quiet in the past, and now are becoming more proactive in their approach. There was another question about how to filer this CR and green message to filer down, especially when the CEO is already in favor or and an evangelist of this message. A big piece of this is within employee education and e-learning and individual employee goals. They encourage people to be involved in conferences, and have a sustainability officer who then promotes
this and working with outside groups. Another question is if they have done a sustainability report, which they did. She believed this is critical, and they just released their report a month ago and offered to get it to the questioner (yet, oddly, did not share any of the results with those of us here).

Technorati Tags: Earthwatch, HSBC, Linda Recupero, Smithsonian Tropical Research Insitute, The Climate Group, WWF

Stephen P. Giannetti, VP and Group Publisher, National Geographic Magazine

He broke his presentation into 3 sections. At National Geographic, they are focused on where the consumers are going. Then, he wants to share about what the organization does with their employees. Finally, how they will communicate the message as a sustainable lifestyle.

1. Consumers want to feel better about what they have. They want to enjoy themselves and live their lives, while also knowing they are being good. 250 M people read the magazine and watch the cable channel. Really? Much greater reach than I expected or supposed. They are now referring to people today as a population that lives and has a “Valuable Life.”  This means living life to its fullest while also taking on personal responsibility. Thus, aware of impact on the environment and living with the consequences.
   There are also more opportunities for making a difference now. The slides he was using are very full with a tremendous amount of text. I have been typing by listening to him, but as I looked up at the slides, I am overwhelmed by the amount of text and columns and data and information. I think I will listen again, as I am distracted by looking at the slides. He stated they are focusing on the full-committed consumer or supportive consumer, which are now 41% of the population ( but not clear which population, the
   US or the world?).
2. National Geographic with their employees. Their new mission is to inspire people to care about the planet. I like this new mission, though it has been current for two years now. They want their employees to be brand ambassadors of trying to live this way around the world. This will help them to be more credible, as the employees will see this in their lives and not just in their message. Thus, they want attainable and sustainable goals. Their building is the first certified green building in the US, and they
   have a lot of internal initiatives (such as aggressive recycling in the cafeteria, Earth Day initiatives, and other ways to professionally and personal live greener lives, great use of wind power). National Geographic Magazine reaches 6.5 M readers each month, and they are looking to make a difference in how they create and print the magazine, as well as how their work and stories support their mission. They will then work with the World Wildlife Fund to do an
   internal audit of their green initiatives, as well as a new green section on their Intranet.
3. Communicating green and how they leverage their brand. Their global Mission “Inspiring People to Care about the Plant.” They are a non-profit and all their income supports their magazines and worldwide cable channels (communications vehicles) and they then also support people and projects who support their missions. They will bring these people together and then brainstorm how they can better support and spread what they have learned about the melting of the glaciers and the recession of the Redwoods (from projects
   of people who have walked across these areas to record this information). Climate Connections is a segment on NPR every morning, where they discuss articles and components from their work to further spread the word. They also licensed a cruise ship for a National Geographic expedition where passengers learn from their experts based on where they are traveling and what they hope to learn. He really encouraged
   and praised the work they do, and recommended people look at the practical and free resources on their website. They also purchased the Green Guide, a print and online publication for health and practical suggestions for living a greener life. Their article in the July 2007 issue, The Big Thaw. It was greatly read and the feedback is that people decided to take action after reading it,
   so from a financial perspective, it was somewhat lucrative for them. He also spoke about another magazine; National Geographic Traveler.

His content was very interesting, but toward the end it seemed almost too sales and marketing focused. There is a lot of great work they are doing. Being Green Is No Longer and Option was a focus. We then saw a preview of a new movie that National Geographic is about to release–Arctic Voice.

There were then questions. One asked about how to educate without just trying to make money. Everything they do goes through a group consensus filter. For them, ratings (on tv) and mission are not always synonymous, so that is why they partner with NPR and PBS and the like. Another question asked about how to address the green issues of perception vs. reality, and what is acceptable for them and for the consumer. At worst, things are left in the same condition, and at best they are left in better condition. The
people who asked questions came from all over the world (the Caribbean, London, etc.). Another question was about the brand — are more people coming to the brand and then looking at what their clients and advertising are doing. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) advertising is doubling. Climate change as a problem and the solutions, and there is a lot of misinformation there. He thinks Europe is ahead of us, though this is not my experience in England, where I did not see any recycling whatsoever three
weeks ago. Another question asked about education for children, and he stated that they are actively involved in curriculum development and a kids’ magazine, which is now the most read children’s magazine in the world. The question about fully recycled paper, and how expensive this is, is a great challenge they are striving to do (they are committed to 100% recycled paper in the future). Hilton  in New York, has installed a fuel cell and encourages people to not wash their linens every day).

Technorati Tags: Green Guide, National Geographic Magazine, NPR, PBS, Stephen P. Giannetti, corporate social responsibility, WWF

Steve Etzler, Founder and CEO of Business Development Institute

He stated that there are 250 people here and 1000 attending live online.

He took a pole and asked people to raise their hands (corporate communications people, pr people, green people, etc.). The venture people did not really raise their hands, somewhat understandably. BDI presents conferences and sessions in the area of communications, and as an organization it sounds interesting.

They did not do any paper-based marketing–only. no plastic bottles, no plastic, and only using large water bottles with paper cups. Even the flatware is made from corn (how, he was not sure). The brochures were all from recycled paper, also.

He then thanked people on the staff and those sponsors who gave space and other forms of leadership for this event. What a wide range of sponsors: corporate and non-profit and government. Engaging and energetic kick-off and welcome.

Adrienne Garland, VP of Marketing, PR Newswire

She explained how BDI and PR Newswire bring groups and people together in marketing and communications, especially with corporate social responsibility and the green movement.

Her speech was very good, excellent, actually. However, she read it word-for-word and it did not come across as authentic or heartfelt. If only she would have looked up and engaged the audience more, it would have continued the momentum Steve began.

Her description of some of the products that PR Newswire offers made it seem like a goldmine of resources. I will have to check it out later.

Technorati Tags: Adrienne Garland, Business Development Institute, Green Communications, PR Newswire, Steve Etzler

I am sitting in the Microsoft Executive Customer Briefing Center at 1290 6th Ave. in Manhattan, waiting for the Green Communications: The Case Studies event to begin. I recall seeing this in the Social Media Club email and website, but the title did not strike a cord in me until I received a call from Howard Greenstein yesterday encouraging me to consider
attending. Billed as an event that bridges the area between corporate communications and green / corporate social responsibility initiatives, this is directly within my area of personal and professional interests as a corporate communications instructor at NYU Stern School of Business.

While I am awaiting the beginning of the event, there are a few things about this space that strike me as somewhat unusual.

• Firstly, for being in a large conference room at a Microsoft facility, I am surprised there are so few power outlets. I have one of the only two near any of the seats that I found in the entire room (which I scouted out as I arrived early).
• Another thing that surprises me is that I am the only one with a laptop out and in use. Not that I expect others to be liveblogging this event (can I ever stop my research once I have started it??!!), but for an event that targets corporate communications people, I wonder if more traditional note-taking strategies (I see lots of pads of paper and pens) are still more commonplace. Nevertheless,
  live and learn.
• Another thing that I find somewhat interesting is that there is not any publicly available wifi that I can determine. There are lots of available streams, but they all require authentication (which I as an attendee do not appear to have). Of course, without live wifi, this liveblogging will again be done using Ecto, where I will maintain things as written and post them later in the day when I again have wireless.

Ahh, two others now have laptops out . . .

Technorati Tags: Green Communications, Howard Greenstein, Social Media Club

There is a revealing article in today’s New York Times (the complete article can be found here) about how some of the most successful people in business today have large personal libraries that contain few of the best-selling business success books that fill the bookstores today. While this makes sense (why would somebody who is already successful
read books about how to become successful?), what is most surprising is what they are reading. According to this article, they are reading subjects that include:

• poetry (such as Blake)
• philosophy (such as Aristotle)
• classic literature
• classical works on science and weather (i.e., global climactic change)

Having a personal library has always been important to me as well. I am always buying (and even reading) books. Philosophy, adult education, classical literature, non-fiction, and academic and professional journals line my bookshelves. As they get full, I have to move them to other locations as well as weed-out the ones that just are not needed (which usually means they were never needed in the beginning). With all the increasing emphasis on electronic content delivery and management, I still like having books
in my hand, and I think Seth Godin expressed most concisely why this is:

Holding and owning the book, remembering when and how you got it… that’s what you’re paying for. Books are great at holding memories.

I think I will do some reading this afternoon. Ahh, the choices!

Technorati Tags: bookshelf, New York Times, personal library, Seth Godein

I have been writing about evidence and transparency and expertise recently, and found a new definition that may help end the week with a laugh.

While in Oxford recently, I went into Blackwell’s and, after browsing for the 15 minutes I had before I leaving to catch my train to London, I bought a copy of The Philosopher’s Magazine (more about this publication coming soon). While looking through it, I came across an ad for an interesting-sounding book written by two of the editors, Ophelia
Benson and Jeremy Stangroom. The book, The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People, is a work of comic relief that plays with various terms from a postmodern (or cultivated?) perspective. As many aspects of my life in the last year can be labeled as nonsense, I thought perhaps this may be the book for me.

As a converted postmodernist, this book made me laugh out loud, especially from the first word that I opened to when I flipped through it: Evidence. They portrayed “evidence” as (p 38):

1. Something that can be tailored to the requirements of my arguments.
2. A tiresome thing that may conflict with something that I believe.

How clever. I recently worked on an academic editorial of the concept of “evidence” from the perspectives of various disciplines, and while most sources want to use evidence, there is not exactly consistency of what this may encompass or how it may be clearly and universally defined. Rather, we have a shifting perspective of what may or may not constitute evidence from this or that source, time, experience, context, belief, and framework. With all that, voilà–I am right back to Benson
and Stangroom’s definition. Interesting how things work like that at times. 

Now, before this goes to far, a quick look at the Merriam-Webster definition reveals that evidence is “an outward sign.” Upon second-glance, is that “official” definition any clearer, more definitive, or better?

I think their little book can offer many profound (or overly-simplified and common-sensical) twists on terms encountered by the modern academic or cultural traveler. For the rest of us, it is simply funny.

Technorati Tags: Blackwell, Blackwell’s, Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense, expertise, Jeremy Stangroom, Ophelia Benson, evidence, transparency

This weekend, I was able to spend some time outside working on a brick walkway that had to be adjusted since the driveway was recently paved. I rebuilt the end of the walkway, cutting the bricks and adding several bags of sand to fill the gaps and help hold everything in place. I thought this was a pretty good job for an amateur, especially as I have never been trained in laying bricks, landscaping, or even gardening. I read some books in cutting bricks, and then went off to the Home Depot, since they told me I can do it and they can help. Yes, I actually spent the little free time I had this weekend working on this project.  

Why would I want to do this? Most of the work I do all week is behind a computer or in front of groups of people. I do intellectual and academic work full-time, whether in instructional design, organizational communication, theory development, or research. I love working with all of this, yet it is rare I can ever see any immediate results of my work. I get excited with it, but the results are often far in the future with my writing and audience. 

Laying bricks? I can see the results of my labor immediately. If they are not what I wanted, I can redo them (as I in fact did several times). I can get it just right and then stop. Not so with theory. Not so with project plans. Certainly not so with communication or research. Ironic that to get immediate satisfaction and sense of accomplishment, I have to spend my free time doing strenuous, physical labor. This is not what I thought would be the case before I started working on and finishing the four graduate academic degree I have. What they never tell you in college . . .

Technorati Tags: communication, instructional design, laying bricks, physical labor, what they never tell you in college, theory development

My teeth have been bothering me for a few days, and chewing hard food was starting to become uncomfortable. Having recently gone to the dentist about 3 weeks ago to have an old silver filling replaced as well as two bondings for my teeth where my gums are receding, I thought that perhaps something was stirred up in my mouth, and began anticipating a larger round of dental work.

Before I scheduled the appointment, I decided to floss. With some popcorn coming out from a movie I saw a week earlier, as well as the discomfort from not having flossed since the dental work itself, my teeth no longer hurt. As it turns out, it was the stuck popcorn itself that was causing the discomfort, with the pain signaling to my body that it had to be addressed. Rather than look for the simple solution, I was ready to have major work done.

I wonder how often I (we?) fail to notice signs and keep plugging away at other solutions that have little to nothing to do with the cause? The dentist would have found the problem, but the cost and time and efforts would have far surpassed the little it really took me to resolve the issue myself. There seems some lessons here beyond the value of periodic flossing . . .

Technorati Tags: popcorn, flossing