The most basic function of branding, one that I hope our time together has accomplished (or began to accomplish) is that a brand is not a product, but a perception. It is a position in the mind. Brands survive by being unique and innovative. In simple terms: differentiate or die.
Jack Trout, one of the masterminds behind Positioning and Marketing Warfare, wrote about owning the attribute of "green":
"...Let us give you some guidelines on being environmentally sensitive as a differentiating attritbute. In order to make a strategy of environmental product differentiation succeed, a business must satisfy three requirements:
1. The business must find, or create, a willingness among cusomter to pay for environmental quality.
2. The business must establish credible information about the environmental attributes of its products.
3. The innovation must be defensible against imitation by competitors.
In other words, you've got your work cut out for you. Our view is that, at present, compies should be good citizens but find another way to differentiate themselves."
I think his words are wise. The "green" trend will swing high and low, just as all trends tend to do. What will give V2 staying power is not a me-too-istic approach of green, but one of constant innovation and newness.
Quality and value and service are not differentiating ideas. Quality and value and service are not objective tangibles, but subjective intangibles. They are perceptions. The perception of quality is far greater than unperceived, yet real, quality. (Without quality or value or service, however, a brand is inevitably doomed.)
People don't care what's true, they care what's new. Yes, you can save a tree or recycle metal. Its impact is negligible but needed. But you created the Hundred Watt House. You created the Oil Boil Garage. (Do you like the name? Catchy, yeah?) Those innovations are new and remarkable!
Don't stop innovating. Don't stop differentiating. For a time, everyone will try and stand for green. Your focus on green helps–you invoke the law of specialists. That specialization allows you to become an authority on green. Use your authority to innovate and push the boundaries of green. When the general population's infatuation with green dies down (and it will), the strongly established brands will still push forward with solid innovations and differentiating ideas. Their position will not just be green, but it will be even more sharply defined.
People don't buy a drawing or a design (they can rent a book from the library with plenty of great designs and drawings; that's what many a wise home-builder will do), they buy a brand, and the innovation, differentiation, and authority that come with it.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Poster II
Here is the sustainable/green concept revised to emphasize coherence with the surrounding environment, while featuring architectural drawings. The body copy has three words. V2 Design and Bozeman are the only other words on the poster. It's final size is slated to be 30" x 20". Your logo is small, an accent more than a dominant feature. I think it would be great to get V2 blown up onto a square poster for the booth, as well.
Click the image for the lo-res copy, go to "All Sizes," then click "Large" or "Original."
Any mention of the Hundred Watt House would stem from this poster, which would function to grab peoples' attention. I would have a simple three-ring binder available with a bit on the Hundred Watt House. It's a great concept to talk about!
And yes, it is 4:15 PST/5:15 MST AM as of the time of this post. ;)
Click the image for the lo-res copy, go to "All Sizes," then click "Large" or "Original."
Any mention of the Hundred Watt House would stem from this poster, which would function to grab peoples' attention. I would have a simple three-ring binder available with a bit on the Hundred Watt House. It's a great concept to talk about!
And yes, it is 4:15 PST/5:15 MST AM as of the time of this post. ;)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
What Are You Truly Selling?
Are you selling architecture, or are you selling the genius behind it? You are selling a concept, a feeling. iPod commercials feature people dancing. They sell fun, not an iPod. The iPod is the means to the fun. A Lexus commercial shows a Lexus car. It is a visual representation of the luxury and prestige behind the brand. Sometimes the product is featured visually, sometimes it is more abstractly represented.
It is not critical to show architecture just the same as it is not critical to show a plane if you are an airline. Sometimes it is great to show a plane, sometimes it is great to show the ocean. Southwest sells the destination, not the plane. A memorable commercial has a guy in a kayak slashing his way through white water rapids. The text reads, "4 hours ago, he was behind a desk. Funny how things change when you add a Southwest Fun Fare." They sell destinations. Anybody can sell flying.
You are selling intelligence. Integration. Economy. Eco-friendliness. This is true, yes? We must craft this into something remarkable and portable. You have a few seconds in which to capture somebody's attention.
Charles Revlon said, "In the factories we make perfume, but in the stores we sell hope."
In your studio you make homes and buildings, but you do not sell homes and buildings (everybody sells homes and buildings), you sell the economy of green, yes? What else do you sell?
There is no right or wrong answer.
These are just thoughts to keep in mind.
It is not critical to show architecture just the same as it is not critical to show a plane if you are an airline. Sometimes it is great to show a plane, sometimes it is great to show the ocean. Southwest sells the destination, not the plane. A memorable commercial has a guy in a kayak slashing his way through white water rapids. The text reads, "4 hours ago, he was behind a desk. Funny how things change when you add a Southwest Fun Fare." They sell destinations. Anybody can sell flying.
You are selling intelligence. Integration. Economy. Eco-friendliness. This is true, yes? We must craft this into something remarkable and portable. You have a few seconds in which to capture somebody's attention.
Charles Revlon said, "In the factories we make perfume, but in the stores we sell hope."
In your studio you make homes and buildings, but you do not sell homes and buildings (everybody sells homes and buildings), you sell the economy of green, yes? What else do you sell?
There is no right or wrong answer.
These are just thoughts to keep in mind.
Green Can (Posters for the Fair)
Here are the first drafts of the posters. They serve to be a remarkable conversation starter. Don't try to sell people on V2 at first. Sell them on what green can do. Green can mitigate one's impact on the environment, but few people are spurred on by such an attribute.
Green saves green.
Low quality PDFs are available from Pando.
A third poster will have your logo and a statement about green or your slogan, plus announce your location: Bozeman, MT. These posters are awesome!
Green saves green.
Low quality PDFs are available from Pando.
A third poster will have your logo and a statement about green or your slogan, plus announce your location: Bozeman, MT. These posters are awesome!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Benefits | The Manifesto
I like the amount of info provided by the Shelter Architecture website. Their logo is also great. They represent a great business model for sustainable architecture firms, do they not?
And what’s even better, they provide SO much information at the click of a button. I can download their logo, press kit, see press releases, look at designs, read about said designs, and the sadly untouched ability to book them as public speakers. The one thing that is missing is a blog. If they want to be public speakers, they should also have an ongoing blog.
The biggest argument people have against blogging is that they are too busy. Nobody is too busy to blog. If Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, can find time to blog each week, so can everybody else. Bob Parsons (owner/founder of GoDaddy.com) blogs religiously, as well.
Their intense levels of transparency and sharing of ideas helps do two things: one, build credibility as an authority, and two, give customers a chance to interact with them on a personal level. Sometimes the blogs are serious, sometimes they are fun. Regardless, they have email links on each, and they personally respond to each email.
Customers are like family, not corporate slags. You would never said a letter to your friend that read, “I acknowledge the pain and suffering incurred by parties herein, but we do not admit wrongdoings. We wish Mr. Smith Jr. the best in his future endeavors.”
No! You would write, “Jake, I’m sorry, buddy. I know life sucks for ya now. If I can help you at all, lemme know. Take care. I’m here for ya.”
Next, I looked at the BPA site. They represent that staunch, stuffy language I at which I was just poking fun.
The cleanliness of the BPA site is nice, but I don't like the rest of it. It's just not that engaging to me. Click on "PRACTICE" and what comes up? Gobs of text. And what is the first thing you read? "BPA is an award winning architectural design consultancy specializing in contemporary and innovative sustainable architecture."
WRONG! Their manifesto is impossible to pass on verbally. The investment one would have to take in order to memorize that, and then the dedication one would have to have in order to spread it, are cumbersome and prohibitive.
They are trumpeting their own horns. They start three paragraphs in a row with “BPA.” And they spend words like a millionaire.
I find a lot of comparatives, like “greater value” and “more for your money,” but what do those terms mean? Greater than what? More than what? Not only that, but they wait until the fourth paragraph until they really give me a real benefit: the home is economical and flexible with a visual connection with its environment. Worse still, they misuse the possessive form of the pronoun, its, by writing “it’s.” The sentence reads “The home is designed to be economical and flexible in it is/it has footprint with a visual connection to is is/it has environment.” That is sloppy, unprofessional, and inexcusable.
Content and words are not bad, but they are for the engaged. The first impression, the first flirtation that one has with a company must be simple and memorable. First impressions ARE direly important. Once the mind is made up, it is virtually impossible to change. What’s more, change takes effort. If they don’t care about you, they won’t take the effort to know about you or believe that you have anything of value to offer.
Let’s face it: hardly anybody gives half a crap about you or your company. And if you want them to, you had better give them a darn good reason. To the average person, you are yet another architect with nothing original to offer and a fancy set of letters after your name.
You and I know that nothing could be farther from the truth, of course! But you and I believe in you, in V2! Do you see the difference?
Think of an idea like a virus. Seth Godin created the IDEAVIRUS concept.
“(An idea that just sits there is worthless. But an idea that moves and grows and infects everyone it touches...that's an ideavirus. What’s an ideavirus? It’s a big idea that runs amok across the target audience. It’s a fashionable idea that propagates through a section of the population, teaching and changing and influencing everyone it touches. And in our rapidly/instantly changing world, the art and science of building, launching and profiting from ideaviruses is the next frontier.”
He could have just as easily called his book Word of Mouth Marketing, but there is nothing buzzy about that. There is a difference between telling someone about new concepts on an old idea and a flat out new idea.
So what became of his Ideavirus? It is the #1 most read eBook of all time, #5 all-time best seller on Amazon, and #4 all time best seller in Japan. And what of Word of Mouth Marketing (by Andy Sernovitz and Apple’s original buzz-creator, Guy Kawasaki)? It is #1,847 in books. They are both fantastic, and one is not necessarily better than the other. But better does not win!
Would his follow-up book, Purple Cow, have sold so well if it were called Differentiation Marketing? The concept of a Purple Cow is so easy to spread, whereas a book on differentiation marketing is likely to be filled with heavy conclusions backed by gobs of evidence. Both are effective, but one SPREADS easily.
To that end, the name is not the saving grace of a bad product, but it IS the catalyst of a great one. Even if Purple Cow had the exact same content (minus the Purple Cow reference), but the name was Differentiation Marketing, it would not have been so readily accepted and spread.
Your message must be simple, concise, and powerful.
What we SAY and what we CONVEY are two different things.
How can we say this in fewer words: V2 Design focuses on the environmental aspects of design and construction. By using passive solar design strategies, energy efficient technologies, and non-toxic materials, the resulting buildings require less money to maintain and create healthier, beautiful spaces in which to work and live.
Your manifesto is good. It states the benefit (less money to maintain, healthier, beautiful spaces in which to work and live), and it says what you do (environmental aspects of design and construction…by using passive solar design strategies, energy efficient technologies, and non-toxic materials). How can we say that in not-so-many words? How can we SHOW it?
The fight is not to against other green firms, but rather against traditional architecture. If it were against other green firms, nobody would question the benefits of going green.
What you are, then, is the catalyst for change. V2 Design: Go Green. We must reposition traditional architecture in the mind of the consumer, thereby making room for the new category, green. Green IS catching on, but mostly from a “good for the environment” standard. Green conjures images of Al Gore and hippies.
Shelter hit the hammer on the nail! Click on the image to see the full-size copy.
Reason number one, money. Reason number two, coolness. Reason number three, earth.
Wow! We should definitely borrow their links and sources. We’ll credit them, too. They’ll love us.
Their benefits are in plain site right away when one clicks on their site.
I would make that description the entire page, however. And “better” is subjective. It shouldn’t be said (although being said tongue in cheek certainly helps).
They don’t clutter their page with too many words straight away. They give the straight facts in an easily digestible format.
People hate tech-speak. People love informality and congeniality (especially from someone like you, who is noted as being a people person in such a macho, ego-driven category as architecture).
Do yourself a favor. Go out and buy a bottle of VitaminWater. Get Focus, it’s great. Read the bottle. Do you notice the absence of tech-speak? Do you extra notice the presence of informal, fun writings about Kelly Clarkson, and how to enjoy instructions?
They could have easily said something wordy and mundane like “100% natural” about the drink and “Plastic. Please recycle” about the bottle. Instead, they chose to say “the inside is natural, the outside is plastic.” This is written just below another clever phrase, “for best results, stick in the fridge.” Again, they could have just as easily said, “Best served chilled” or “Please refrigerate.” Bleh!
VitaminWater becomes an ideavirus by making its packaging simple and fun to read. The flavors are not at all flavors, they are concepts. Raspberry-apple is not at all raspberry-apple, it is Defense. Raspberry-apple is written below it in smaller letters, plus the vitamins in the water (c+zinc).
Strawberr-kiwi is Focus. Pomegranate-blueberry is XXX (for triple antioxidants). Wow! They even go so far as to call Multi-V (lemonade w/ a-zinc) a “drinkable Swiss Army Knife.” I love the visual metaphor!
So how do we make your manifesto fun and engaging? Let’s borrow a page (actually, lots of them) from Shelter. They are doing things oh-so rightly.
GREEN: design that rocks, saves the planet, and keeps more oink in your piggy.
That’s just one idea. Here’s another.
GREEN: jealousy-inspiring, planet-saving, mula-staying-in-your-pocket design.
GREEN: design you love, the planet loves, and your bank account will extra love.
GREEN: give me hip. give me beautiful. Give me money. And then save the planet, too.
green = hip design + earth awareness + money saving
These are just some ideas, but none of them are “it” to me. They condense the concept nicely.
Is there a parallel that we can draw between green and another product already placed in the minds? Perhaps the description of green could be how it relates to traditional architecture (again, not telling, but showing).
Tylenol did this by repositioning aspirin. It was widely known that aspirin could cause upset stomachs and trigger allergic reactions. So what is one to do? Take Tylenol!
How much does it cost to run electricity through a house the size of your Hundred Watt House for a year? How much will it cost to run heat in your garage versus a standard built one? Awards are nice (LEED Platinum, Gold, whatever), but they are not beneficial to the end user, only to you.
Advertising faces the same challenge. The best ads usually do not win awards. The One Show gives awards to flashy, fun campaigns that often do nothing to improve a company’s sales. The best ads are commonly simple and feature an easily accessible benefit.
The few examples that cover both (creativity and being beneficial) are truly powerful. Think of Apple’s iPod + iTunes commercials. They sell creativity AND a benefit: fun.
What are you selling? In as few words as possible, answer that. In one word, answer that.
We are on our way!
And what’s even better, they provide SO much information at the click of a button. I can download their logo, press kit, see press releases, look at designs, read about said designs, and the sadly untouched ability to book them as public speakers. The one thing that is missing is a blog. If they want to be public speakers, they should also have an ongoing blog.
The biggest argument people have against blogging is that they are too busy. Nobody is too busy to blog. If Mark Cuban, billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, can find time to blog each week, so can everybody else. Bob Parsons (owner/founder of GoDaddy.com) blogs religiously, as well.
Their intense levels of transparency and sharing of ideas helps do two things: one, build credibility as an authority, and two, give customers a chance to interact with them on a personal level. Sometimes the blogs are serious, sometimes they are fun. Regardless, they have email links on each, and they personally respond to each email.
Customers are like family, not corporate slags. You would never said a letter to your friend that read, “I acknowledge the pain and suffering incurred by parties herein, but we do not admit wrongdoings. We wish Mr. Smith Jr. the best in his future endeavors.”
No! You would write, “Jake, I’m sorry, buddy. I know life sucks for ya now. If I can help you at all, lemme know. Take care. I’m here for ya.”
Next, I looked at the BPA site. They represent that staunch, stuffy language I at which I was just poking fun.
The cleanliness of the BPA site is nice, but I don't like the rest of it. It's just not that engaging to me. Click on "PRACTICE" and what comes up? Gobs of text. And what is the first thing you read? "BPA is an award winning architectural design consultancy specializing in contemporary and innovative sustainable architecture."
WRONG! Their manifesto is impossible to pass on verbally. The investment one would have to take in order to memorize that, and then the dedication one would have to have in order to spread it, are cumbersome and prohibitive.
They are trumpeting their own horns. They start three paragraphs in a row with “BPA.” And they spend words like a millionaire.
I find a lot of comparatives, like “greater value” and “more for your money,” but what do those terms mean? Greater than what? More than what? Not only that, but they wait until the fourth paragraph until they really give me a real benefit: the home is economical and flexible with a visual connection with its environment. Worse still, they misuse the possessive form of the pronoun, its, by writing “it’s.” The sentence reads “The home is designed to be economical and flexible in it is/it has footprint with a visual connection to is is/it has environment.” That is sloppy, unprofessional, and inexcusable.
Content and words are not bad, but they are for the engaged. The first impression, the first flirtation that one has with a company must be simple and memorable. First impressions ARE direly important. Once the mind is made up, it is virtually impossible to change. What’s more, change takes effort. If they don’t care about you, they won’t take the effort to know about you or believe that you have anything of value to offer.
Let’s face it: hardly anybody gives half a crap about you or your company. And if you want them to, you had better give them a darn good reason. To the average person, you are yet another architect with nothing original to offer and a fancy set of letters after your name.
You and I know that nothing could be farther from the truth, of course! But you and I believe in you, in V2! Do you see the difference?
Think of an idea like a virus. Seth Godin created the IDEAVIRUS concept.
“(An idea that just sits there is worthless. But an idea that moves and grows and infects everyone it touches...that's an ideavirus. What’s an ideavirus? It’s a big idea that runs amok across the target audience. It’s a fashionable idea that propagates through a section of the population, teaching and changing and influencing everyone it touches. And in our rapidly/instantly changing world, the art and science of building, launching and profiting from ideaviruses is the next frontier.”
He could have just as easily called his book Word of Mouth Marketing, but there is nothing buzzy about that. There is a difference between telling someone about new concepts on an old idea and a flat out new idea.
So what became of his Ideavirus? It is the #1 most read eBook of all time, #5 all-time best seller on Amazon, and #4 all time best seller in Japan. And what of Word of Mouth Marketing (by Andy Sernovitz and Apple’s original buzz-creator, Guy Kawasaki)? It is #1,847 in books. They are both fantastic, and one is not necessarily better than the other. But better does not win!
Would his follow-up book, Purple Cow, have sold so well if it were called Differentiation Marketing? The concept of a Purple Cow is so easy to spread, whereas a book on differentiation marketing is likely to be filled with heavy conclusions backed by gobs of evidence. Both are effective, but one SPREADS easily.
To that end, the name is not the saving grace of a bad product, but it IS the catalyst of a great one. Even if Purple Cow had the exact same content (minus the Purple Cow reference), but the name was Differentiation Marketing, it would not have been so readily accepted and spread.
Your message must be simple, concise, and powerful.
What we SAY and what we CONVEY are two different things.
How can we say this in fewer words: V2 Design focuses on the environmental aspects of design and construction. By using passive solar design strategies, energy efficient technologies, and non-toxic materials, the resulting buildings require less money to maintain and create healthier, beautiful spaces in which to work and live.
Your manifesto is good. It states the benefit (less money to maintain, healthier, beautiful spaces in which to work and live), and it says what you do (environmental aspects of design and construction…by using passive solar design strategies, energy efficient technologies, and non-toxic materials). How can we say that in not-so-many words? How can we SHOW it?
The fight is not to against other green firms, but rather against traditional architecture. If it were against other green firms, nobody would question the benefits of going green.
What you are, then, is the catalyst for change. V2 Design: Go Green. We must reposition traditional architecture in the mind of the consumer, thereby making room for the new category, green. Green IS catching on, but mostly from a “good for the environment” standard. Green conjures images of Al Gore and hippies.
Shelter hit the hammer on the nail! Click on the image to see the full-size copy.
Reason number one, money. Reason number two, coolness. Reason number three, earth.
Wow! We should definitely borrow their links and sources. We’ll credit them, too. They’ll love us.
Their benefits are in plain site right away when one clicks on their site.
I would make that description the entire page, however. And “better” is subjective. It shouldn’t be said (although being said tongue in cheek certainly helps).
They don’t clutter their page with too many words straight away. They give the straight facts in an easily digestible format.
People hate tech-speak. People love informality and congeniality (especially from someone like you, who is noted as being a people person in such a macho, ego-driven category as architecture).
Do yourself a favor. Go out and buy a bottle of VitaminWater. Get Focus, it’s great. Read the bottle. Do you notice the absence of tech-speak? Do you extra notice the presence of informal, fun writings about Kelly Clarkson, and how to enjoy instructions?
They could have easily said something wordy and mundane like “100% natural” about the drink and “Plastic. Please recycle” about the bottle. Instead, they chose to say “the inside is natural, the outside is plastic.” This is written just below another clever phrase, “for best results, stick in the fridge.” Again, they could have just as easily said, “Best served chilled” or “Please refrigerate.” Bleh!
VitaminWater becomes an ideavirus by making its packaging simple and fun to read. The flavors are not at all flavors, they are concepts. Raspberry-apple is not at all raspberry-apple, it is Defense. Raspberry-apple is written below it in smaller letters, plus the vitamins in the water (c+zinc).
Strawberr-kiwi is Focus. Pomegranate-blueberry is XXX (for triple antioxidants). Wow! They even go so far as to call Multi-V (lemonade w/ a-zinc) a “drinkable Swiss Army Knife.” I love the visual metaphor!
So how do we make your manifesto fun and engaging? Let’s borrow a page (actually, lots of them) from Shelter. They are doing things oh-so rightly.
GREEN: design that rocks, saves the planet, and keeps more oink in your piggy.
That’s just one idea. Here’s another.
GREEN: jealousy-inspiring, planet-saving, mula-staying-in-your-pocket design.
GREEN: design you love, the planet loves, and your bank account will extra love.
GREEN: give me hip. give me beautiful. Give me money. And then save the planet, too.
green = hip design + earth awareness + money saving
These are just some ideas, but none of them are “it” to me. They condense the concept nicely.
Is there a parallel that we can draw between green and another product already placed in the minds? Perhaps the description of green could be how it relates to traditional architecture (again, not telling, but showing).
Tylenol did this by repositioning aspirin. It was widely known that aspirin could cause upset stomachs and trigger allergic reactions. So what is one to do? Take Tylenol!
How much does it cost to run electricity through a house the size of your Hundred Watt House for a year? How much will it cost to run heat in your garage versus a standard built one? Awards are nice (LEED Platinum, Gold, whatever), but they are not beneficial to the end user, only to you.
Advertising faces the same challenge. The best ads usually do not win awards. The One Show gives awards to flashy, fun campaigns that often do nothing to improve a company’s sales. The best ads are commonly simple and feature an easily accessible benefit.
The few examples that cover both (creativity and being beneficial) are truly powerful. Think of Apple’s iPod + iTunes commercials. They sell creativity AND a benefit: fun.
What are you selling? In as few words as possible, answer that. In one word, answer that.
We are on our way!
Monday, July 2, 2007
2007 Fast Cities | FastCompany
An interesting excerpt from Fast Cities 2007, featured in FastCompany. Notice, if you will, Minneapolis' listing under "Green Leaders" and Bozeman's listing under "Startup Hubs."
What makes a Fast City? It starts with opportunity. Not just bald economic capacity, but a culture that nurtures creative action and game-changing enterprise. Fast Cities are places where entrepreneurs and employees alike can maximize their potential--where the number of patents filed is high, for instance, or where the high-tech sector is expanding.
The second component: innovation. Fast Cities invest in physical, cultural, and intellectual infrastructure that will sustain growth. "The real forces for change in America and around the world are the mayors and the local communities," says Florida, now a professor of public policy at George Mason University.
Finally, Fast Cities have energy, that ethereal thing that happens when creative people collect in one place. The indicators can seem obscure: number of ethnic restaurants, or the ratio of live-music lovers to cable-TV subscribers. But they point to environments where fresh thinking stimulates action and, by the way, attracts new talent in a virtuous cycle of creativity.
What makes a Fast City? It starts with opportunity. Not just bald economic capacity, but a culture that nurtures creative action and game-changing enterprise. Fast Cities are places where entrepreneurs and employees alike can maximize their potential--where the number of patents filed is high, for instance, or where the high-tech sector is expanding.
The second component: innovation. Fast Cities invest in physical, cultural, and intellectual infrastructure that will sustain growth. "The real forces for change in America and around the world are the mayors and the local communities," says Florida, now a professor of public policy at George Mason University.
Finally, Fast Cities have energy, that ethereal thing that happens when creative people collect in one place. The indicators can seem obscure: number of ethnic restaurants, or the ratio of live-music lovers to cable-TV subscribers. But they point to environments where fresh thinking stimulates action and, by the way, attracts new talent in a virtuous cycle of creativity.
Creative Class Meccas
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Los Angeles, California
- Mumbai, India
Global Villages
- Boulder, Colorado
- Seattle, Washington
R&D Clusters
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Rochester, Minnesota
- Tokyo, Japan
Green Leaders
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Sacramento, California
- Tallahassee, Florida
High-Tech Hot Spots
- Des Moines, Iowa
- San Diego, California
Urban Innovators
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Culture Centers
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Omaha, Nebraska
Unexpected Oases
- St. Petersburg, Russia
Startup Hubs
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Bozeman, Montana
- Beijing, China
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Web Design Horrors
This poor lady seems to be going through what you and I have endured with my former developer. It's an interesting article, both informative and wise.
The design firm mentioned later on in the article, I Design (http://www.idesigninc.net/), is fetching $2,500 for her project. She is extremely happy with their work for the price. They are, by all standards, pretty typical of what one can expect for $2,500.
To give you an idea of what $2,500 fetches, take a look at some of their work:
http://www.nashborovillagetennis.com
http://accesstalentnow.com
The Ken Weatherford site is no longer up–he had somebody else redo it. Wow. Design dollars seem high, until one prices them out comparably. Yikes.
Business Week Online
JUNE 25, 2007
BW SMALLBIZ -- FRONT LINE
Vendors: Web Design Horrors
Be sure you get the site you bargained for
In 2005, Genma Stringer Holmes, founder of Holmes Pest Control in Nashville, hired a Web designer she'd met through her church. She wanted him to create two Web sites to boost sales for her 11-employee, $500,000 company. Holmes wasn't looking for anything particularly fancy—she just wanted an informational site about her company that would include the latest news about pest control. Two years later, she says, she's stuck with two sites that can't be updated. Since the designer registered the names himself, only people he designates can change them. Holmes can't shut the sites down or have another Web developer redo them. The Web designer hasn't returned her phone calls or e-mails since February, 2006. (He did not return calls from BusinessWeek SmallBiz.) Says Holmes: "I was naive and didn't know what I was doing."
WHOSE DOMAIN IS IT?
Small business owners are getting a lot less than they bargained for from some Web vendors. "This happens all the time," says Jan Hulswit, a sales associate for Chesterbrook (Pa.) Web hosting company 1&1 Internet, where Holmes' domains are registered. Hulswit says he gets about eight calls a day from business owners in similar predicaments. "People think they are getting someone reliable to build their Web site, and they don't think about the details, such as actual ownership," he says. "When things go sour, the designer comes out on top. It's almost like [small business owners] are being held hostage."
The most common problem is that the Web developer, rather than the business owner, will register the domain name. Other times designers vanish before a site is finished. And a business owner whose expectations are unclear is asking for trouble.
The Council of Better Business Bureaus in Arlington, Va., received 1,971 complaints against Web design outfits in 2006, compared with just 603 in 2003. "The problem is definitely growing," says Alison Preszler, a BBB spokesperson. "More small businesses realize the need to have a Web presence, so there's more demand for Web designers. But as more companies enter that market, you're seeing more that are not on the up and up."
Yankee Group analyst Gary Chen says that since 2005 there has been a sharp rise in the number of small companies turning to outside designers. "The typical cycle for Web sites is that entrepreneurs design the first one themselves and then they want something more, maybe e-commerce, so they hire a professional," he says. Unfortunately, not all of those professionals deserve the title.
There's little recourse if you believe your Web designer has cheated you. If you and the designer are still in contact, you may be able to buy back your domain name from them. The next step is court. Small-claims courts may enable you to recover any fees paid to your developer. But because they are set up to deal only with simple cases, these courts "generally won't give emergency injunctive relief, like an order telling a developer to give you the code for your site, or to release control over your URL," says David Tollen, principal at Tollen Legal, a San Francisco law firm specializing in technology. In most states, small-claims judges just don't have that authority.
Plus, the amount of money you can try to win in small claims court is capped in each state. In California, for example, awards max out at $7,500 for an individual and $5,000 for a corporation, limited liability outfit, or other entity.
Those who choose the traditional courts face a tough slog. Ownership disputes are fairly straightforward, but without an ownership agreement, the Web developer is going to win. If you're arguing about whether the developer delivered the site it promised, "that's not the kind of thing you want to rely on a judge and jury for," says Michael Cavaretta, a lawyer at Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton in Waltham, Mass. "They don't have the technological expertise to sort these things out."
SPELL OUT DETAILS
To protect yourself, you'll want to start with some of the same precautions you'd use with any new vendor. You'll need to check references and look at plenty of the designer's work for other clients. You'll also want to consider the designer's location—a face-to-face meeting can do wonders for a relationship that seems to be going south.
To eliminate the chances of a misunderstanding, make sure you're clear about how your site should look and what it should do. Then structure payments based on milestones. You could pay a portion of the fee when you get a final design showing what the site will look like and another chunk when a mock-up of the first page is finished and ready to view online. You might also ask the developers to produce a shadow site on their own server that you will approve before your site goes live. Be sure the developer explains what he or she will do to maintain and refine the site. All this should be in a detailed contract, or an addendum to a basic contract the designer provides. And while it may be tempting to pay hourly, be warned: "The more incompetent the designer is, the more you end up paying," says Richard Neff, a Los Angeles attorney with Greenberg Glusker.
INTO THE ETHER
When Holmes talked to a lawyer in March, 2006, he explained that the odds were against her and that a lawsuit probably wouldn't be worth her money. "He said it's hard to sue virtual people," she recalls. Her designer was "somewhere on the World Wide Web. Emphasis on world." She says she would settle for reclaiming her domain names, and she plans to continue calling and e-mailing her former Web developer until he responds. Meanwhile, she's launching a new site this June under the URL holmespestcontrol.com, which she recently acquired, and she put in an order with GoDaddy.com to buy the domain name holmespestcontrol.net—currently owned by her developer—as soon as it comes up for sale. She has once again hired a Web designer, but this time she did much more homework, looking at lots of work and checking references. She ended up paying $2,500 to I Design, a firm in Brentwood, Tenn., that she calls "a pleasure doing business with." One good sign she noticed right off the bat: "He insisted I register the domain name myself."
By Eve Tahmincioglu
The design firm mentioned later on in the article, I Design (http://www.idesigninc.net/), is fetching $2,500 for her project. She is extremely happy with their work for the price. They are, by all standards, pretty typical of what one can expect for $2,500.
To give you an idea of what $2,500 fetches, take a look at some of their work:
http://www.nashborovillagetennis.com
http://accesstalentnow.com
The Ken Weatherford site is no longer up–he had somebody else redo it. Wow. Design dollars seem high, until one prices them out comparably. Yikes.
Business Week Online
JUNE 25, 2007
BW SMALLBIZ -- FRONT LINE
Vendors: Web Design Horrors
Be sure you get the site you bargained for
In 2005, Genma Stringer Holmes, founder of Holmes Pest Control in Nashville, hired a Web designer she'd met through her church. She wanted him to create two Web sites to boost sales for her 11-employee, $500,000 company. Holmes wasn't looking for anything particularly fancy—she just wanted an informational site about her company that would include the latest news about pest control. Two years later, she says, she's stuck with two sites that can't be updated. Since the designer registered the names himself, only people he designates can change them. Holmes can't shut the sites down or have another Web developer redo them. The Web designer hasn't returned her phone calls or e-mails since February, 2006. (He did not return calls from BusinessWeek SmallBiz.) Says Holmes: "I was naive and didn't know what I was doing."
WHOSE DOMAIN IS IT?
Small business owners are getting a lot less than they bargained for from some Web vendors. "This happens all the time," says Jan Hulswit, a sales associate for Chesterbrook (Pa.) Web hosting company 1&1 Internet, where Holmes' domains are registered. Hulswit says he gets about eight calls a day from business owners in similar predicaments. "People think they are getting someone reliable to build their Web site, and they don't think about the details, such as actual ownership," he says. "When things go sour, the designer comes out on top. It's almost like [small business owners] are being held hostage."
The most common problem is that the Web developer, rather than the business owner, will register the domain name. Other times designers vanish before a site is finished. And a business owner whose expectations are unclear is asking for trouble.
The Council of Better Business Bureaus in Arlington, Va., received 1,971 complaints against Web design outfits in 2006, compared with just 603 in 2003. "The problem is definitely growing," says Alison Preszler, a BBB spokesperson. "More small businesses realize the need to have a Web presence, so there's more demand for Web designers. But as more companies enter that market, you're seeing more that are not on the up and up."
Yankee Group analyst Gary Chen says that since 2005 there has been a sharp rise in the number of small companies turning to outside designers. "The typical cycle for Web sites is that entrepreneurs design the first one themselves and then they want something more, maybe e-commerce, so they hire a professional," he says. Unfortunately, not all of those professionals deserve the title.
There's little recourse if you believe your Web designer has cheated you. If you and the designer are still in contact, you may be able to buy back your domain name from them. The next step is court. Small-claims courts may enable you to recover any fees paid to your developer. But because they are set up to deal only with simple cases, these courts "generally won't give emergency injunctive relief, like an order telling a developer to give you the code for your site, or to release control over your URL," says David Tollen, principal at Tollen Legal, a San Francisco law firm specializing in technology. In most states, small-claims judges just don't have that authority.
Plus, the amount of money you can try to win in small claims court is capped in each state. In California, for example, awards max out at $7,500 for an individual and $5,000 for a corporation, limited liability outfit, or other entity.
Those who choose the traditional courts face a tough slog. Ownership disputes are fairly straightforward, but without an ownership agreement, the Web developer is going to win. If you're arguing about whether the developer delivered the site it promised, "that's not the kind of thing you want to rely on a judge and jury for," says Michael Cavaretta, a lawyer at Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton in Waltham, Mass. "They don't have the technological expertise to sort these things out."
SPELL OUT DETAILS
To protect yourself, you'll want to start with some of the same precautions you'd use with any new vendor. You'll need to check references and look at plenty of the designer's work for other clients. You'll also want to consider the designer's location—a face-to-face meeting can do wonders for a relationship that seems to be going south.
To eliminate the chances of a misunderstanding, make sure you're clear about how your site should look and what it should do. Then structure payments based on milestones. You could pay a portion of the fee when you get a final design showing what the site will look like and another chunk when a mock-up of the first page is finished and ready to view online. You might also ask the developers to produce a shadow site on their own server that you will approve before your site goes live. Be sure the developer explains what he or she will do to maintain and refine the site. All this should be in a detailed contract, or an addendum to a basic contract the designer provides. And while it may be tempting to pay hourly, be warned: "The more incompetent the designer is, the more you end up paying," says Richard Neff, a Los Angeles attorney with Greenberg Glusker.
INTO THE ETHER
When Holmes talked to a lawyer in March, 2006, he explained that the odds were against her and that a lawsuit probably wouldn't be worth her money. "He said it's hard to sue virtual people," she recalls. Her designer was "somewhere on the World Wide Web. Emphasis on world." She says she would settle for reclaiming her domain names, and she plans to continue calling and e-mailing her former Web developer until he responds. Meanwhile, she's launching a new site this June under the URL holmespestcontrol.com, which she recently acquired, and she put in an order with GoDaddy.com to buy the domain name holmespestcontrol.net—currently owned by her developer—as soon as it comes up for sale. She has once again hired a Web designer, but this time she did much more homework, looking at lots of work and checking references. She ended up paying $2,500 to I Design, a firm in Brentwood, Tenn., that she calls "a pleasure doing business with." One good sign she noticed right off the bat: "He insisted I register the domain name myself."
By Eve Tahmincioglu
Friday, June 1, 2007
V2 Web Development Update
After weeks of planning, the site is starting to come together visually. What do you think? Here is the first screen shot.
How do these categories strike you? Find any press you can on the Bozeman Public Library + any of your other jobs. Case studies will be an important sales tool–you can show how different green elements have helped different projects. Two or three case studies will be good for starters.
The text will dominate the pages, with links to further materials, like your collateral, case studies, press, and so forth. (See the ABOUT page from the link above.)
To my way of thinking, the site should function as repetition of V2's beliefs, not as a sales tool in and of itself.
Thoughts?
How do these categories strike you? Find any press you can on the Bozeman Public Library + any of your other jobs. Case studies will be an important sales tool–you can show how different green elements have helped different projects. Two or three case studies will be good for starters.
The text will dominate the pages, with links to further materials, like your collateral, case studies, press, and so forth. (See the ABOUT page from the link above.)
To my way of thinking, the site should function as repetition of V2's beliefs, not as a sales tool in and of itself.
Thoughts?
Friday, May 18, 2007
Duality
Now that we have established who your competition/enemies are, we can begin to build your brand identity. You have a narrow focus–green. This is good.
We must now turn our attention towards how we can position you uniquely in the category of green architecture in Bozeman. After all, it is not BETTER who wins, but the LEADER. There is a place for number two (and, in some areas, three, four, or more) to still be profitable.
If you are not the leader, however, then you must be positioned in accordance with the leader. Pepsi's position was (and still is) determined by Coke. Everything, from their identity down to their color scheme, comes in stark realization of, and contrast to, Coke. Coke represented "the real thing." They had been around since 1886. Pepsi then positioned themselves as the "young" drink. They proclaimed themselves to be the "Pepsi Generation."
It was not until the advent of said campaign that Pepsi began to make a dent in Coke’s market share. Throughout the 70’s, heavily advertised blind taste tests “proved” that Pepsi tasted better than Coke. “So?” came the response of a bored nation.
As a category matures, it becomes a two-brand affair, with lots of bottom feeders gnawing on scraps. In keeping with the Coke and Pepsi analogy, the two brands own 95% of the cola market.
Sun Tzu wrote, in the famous Art of War, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
A lot of brands are competing for the coveted top spots in the green category in Bozeman. Only a select few will be true leaders. How you are positioned will be determined by their positions. Whether or not you were first to the market (which is what, up to this point, we have promoted) is not as important as if you are first into the mind. Are you first in the mind in your category, green architecture in Bozeman?
Be not dismayed, however. There is plenty to go around. This trend towards green will not always be such a boom, however.
In the early stages of the green category, there will be many brands. Sales are increasing, and new, unsophisticated customers are coming into the market. Often times, they don’t know who the leaders are, and brands that look interesting or attractive get the nod. Sometimes, these interesting and attractive brands are the number three and four brands.
As time progresses, consumers will want the leading brand, because they assume that the leader is better. This thinking, while not necessarily correct, is the driving force behind why winners stay on top and losers fall away.
Who is the true leader in green in Bozeman? Who is number two? Where does V2 fit in the green category–honestly?
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Consumer Benefits
In green architecture, the benefits are greater to the consumer than they are to the environment--to the consumer, that is. Green is a very lucrative market. Virtually everything is green nowadays, including sustainable clothing, heat-resistant windows, rechargeable batteries, and high-efficiency lights.
Read the following article from BusinessWeek writer Karen E. Kline.
There's no doubt the green niche can be lucrative. Environmentally aware consumers tend to earn more and be willing to pay more for green products, such as organic produce and hybrid cars. The problem, however, is that only a very small percentage of consumers make their buying decisions primarily based on the environmental qualities of a product, says Edwin R. Stafford, an associate professor of marketing at Utah State University's college of business. Depending on what your product is, it may very well be difficult to sustain sufficient sales within that niche alone.
Read the following article from BusinessWeek writer Karen E. Kline.
There's no doubt the green niche can be lucrative. Environmentally aware consumers tend to earn more and be willing to pay more for green products, such as organic produce and hybrid cars. The problem, however, is that only a very small percentage of consumers make their buying decisions primarily based on the environmental qualities of a product, says Edwin R. Stafford, an associate professor of marketing at Utah State University's college of business. Depending on what your product is, it may very well be difficult to sustain sufficient sales within that niche alone.
Stafford and his colleagues, Cathy Hartman and Jacquelyn Ottman, have done research on green marketing through a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored research program called "Renewable Energy for Rural Economic Development (RERED). "They've found that positioning green products on their inherent mainstream benefits can broaden their consumer appeal and enhance their likelihood for market success.
"While consumers say in surveys that environmentalism impacts their product choices, a variety of factors typically can impede green purchasing behavior, ranging from their immediate availability to price to convenience to perceived green product effectiveness," Stafford says. "A number of personal motivations and external factors impact green purchasing behavior, and targeting the elusive 'green consumer' can be challenging.
Educating the Consumer
Fortunately, he says, there is great opportunity for marketing green products to the masses, and there are many examples of green products that have gone mainstream due to their practical consumer benefits, including front-loading, energy-efficient washing machines and other appliances, organic foods and heat-reflective windows. "What we see is that the success behind many green products is not their 'greenness,' but the practical value they provide consumers," Stafford says.
Sometimes practical consumer value may not be readily apparent in a green product, however, and that's where education will need to play an important role in your marketing efforts. Make sure that you bundle "consumer value" into the marketing messages for your green product.
"One of my favorites is the slogan, 'Long life for hard-to-reach places,' for General Electric's (GE) energy-efficiency CFL flood lights," Stafford says. "That communicates how a CFL's five-year life can be very convenient. The goal of green marketing communications should be to educate consumers that green provides practical consumer value."
Another place where you can take a cue is from the construction industry. Originally, mainstream consumers worried that green buildings would include inferior building materials, leading to decreased longevity. "Mention 'green building' to a traditional home buyer, and the image of Gilligan's Island and bamboo huts comes to mind," Stafford says. "The reality is, however, that green buildings are increasingly cleverly designed, often technically innovative structures that are super energy/resource-efficient, and work in harmony with the seasons. The construction industry has increasingly adopted the term 'high-performance building' to reframe 'green' away from any potential negative connotations.
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