How green was my pitch
Marketers plumb the eco-waters
By MARY SUE IAROCCI

In the past six months, Maria Perez’s clients have been requesting environmentally friendly devices such as solar-powered flashlights, staple-less staplers and clocks that run on any liquid (although water works best).

“At first people were very hesitant, but now clients are finding the money in their budgets to go green,” said Perez, president of Elmsford-based New Dimensions in Marketing Inc., a company specializing in promotional advertising and marketing as well as company name and branding information for medium- to large-sized businesses.

Perez said until six months ago, fewer than 1 percent of her clients were ordering environmentally friendly products; now, 25 to 30 percent of clients are looking to go green.
“Not only are the clients asking for organic products, now they’re asking for the ink used on the product to be environmentally friendly,” Perez said.

One recent promotion for client Smith Barney at the Sundance film festival featured hand-cranked flashlights contained in boxes with the message “shedding light on how to be green” written on them.

Perez founded the company with her brother in April 1999; she bought him out in 2001.

Now, the employee count has tripled from two employees to six, with a showroom in Elmsford with 700 items on display.

The company has a selection of 750,000 items that can be branded – the company mostly focuses in the tri-state area, but they act as consultants to clients all over the country.

Perez said a second office in Mahopac was closed on June 1.

“We consolidated, not knowing where the economy’s going,” she said.

Regarding the economy, Perez said many clients are placing orders at the midnight hour.

“What we’ve noticed is marketing is put on the back burner,” Perez said. “Instead of people planning sooner, they’re waiting to the last minute to place orders.”

Perez said certain clients always wait until the last minute, “but now we’re finding it’s become more of a trend.”

Perez said several factories that supply the items are putting out midyear catalogues, something she has not seen in her 15 years in the business.

The catalogues reflect new, higher prices.

“Clearly the most vibrant and visible thing is the response to the economy,” said John Rosen, executive director at MCAworks in Westport, Conn. “Whether that’s a short-term promotion or a long-term trend remains to be seen.”

Rosen said advertisements and promotions reflecting high gas prices and the rebate checks from the federal government have been hot marketing tools.

If the country is in a period of extended economic weakness, this could be a trend. Rosen compared the current marketing messages having to do with safety, fuel efficiency, casual clothing and planning for retirement to “fear-based” marketing during times of economic weakness in the 1970s.

“Good marketers try to play to that,” Rosen said.

“Economists could debate for days if these are trends or short-term responses,” Rosen said. “If we’re entering an extended period of economic softness, it will become a trend.

If it’s OK, marketers will revert back to ‘let the good times roll.’”

Rosen said examples of smart marketing in a weak economy include Wal-Mart’s advertising campaign to get people to cash in their tax rebate checks at the store; Owens Corning insulation ramping up its advertising with a “Pink Panther” approach to let consumers know that insulation in the attic will save them money on their heating and cooling bills; and car companies promoting fuel-efficient cars to consumers looking to beat the oil prices.

“That will be a trend if oil prices stay up,” Rosen said.

Rosen said there is also an emphasis on a more causal lifestyle, which reflects the current state of the economy as well as the state of aging baby boomers.

Rosen said the beginning of the business-casual trend 15 years ago was a balancing act for one of his biggest clients, Hanes.

The company made a lot of casual clothes, but they also made a lot of hosiery.

“At least fortunately for them, they were diversified,” Rosen said.

He is co-author of the recently published “Stopwatch Marketing,” a book focusing on the moment when a customer decides to buy after a long period of consideration.

“It’s a really exciting time to be in marketing,” said Deborah Garry, president of BBG&G, an advertising, public relations and marketing agency in Middletown.

Garry said the use of mobile marketing, such as using text messages to reach consumers, is on the rise.

However, “Just because the channel is there doesn’t mean we have to shove communication down it to the customer,” Garry said. “If we cross the boundary and overload them with messages that they don’t want, it will annoy them and send them away.”

Consumers can benefit from mobile marketing when the message is time sensitive.

Garry said a good example would be an alert from an airline if her flight has been delayed 2 hours, “but I don’t want every offer they come up with texted to me.”

“As much as technology is exploding, and as much as there are so many new media out there, as marketers we have to remember the basics: listen to the consumer,” Garry said.

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