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Issues of “Green Marketing” and “Market Entry” Two issues that are extremely important in business to business marketing today are “Green Marketing” and “Market Entry. ” One of these issues is a relatively new issue and one of these issues is an issue that has forever existed, but remains a prevalent question. There is much information out there on each of these topics, and everyone seems to have their opinion. Thus, let us explore these two business to business marketing issues and discover the different facets of “Green Marketing” and “Market Entry. ” Articles
The first issue, “Green Marketing” is a newer issue in the eyes of marketers. “Green Marketing” is defined as the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Accordingly, this issue can encompass a significant range of activities. One of the first articles I found was on the Direct Marketing Association’s website about their new “Green Marketing” Professional Development Program. This article talked about for the first time the opportunity to earn career education credentials through this DMA Certificate in Environmentally Responsible Marketing is available.
The article states “DMA’s ERM certificate program, which we believe to be the first of its kind in the world of advertising and marketing, is designed to instruct marketers from all fields on practices that will help their marketing efforts to be relevant, responsible, and results-driven in increasingly important ways (DMA Introduces). ” Thus, this article illustrates just how important “Green Marketing” has become in our society. It is now being taught, and people are now being certified in it as an integral and necessary part of the marketing profession.
This also shows that it is moving from less of a trendy detail, and is more of a necessary detail in a marketer’s repertoire. Another article, found on the Direct Marketing Association’s website Mintel Comperemedia Sees Green Marketing, Business Tactics Used To Weather Financial Crisis posted on October 16 talks about how Mintel Comperemedia a corporation that tracks direct marketing and print advertising has observed more financial companies “going green” in recent months. Mintel expert Susan Menke thinks this is an excellent strategy for these companies.
In Menke’s opinion going green will help the companies cut overhead, attract environmentally aware customers, and stay abreast of the competition. All of these are good things to help the image of the financial industry not just in recent times, but looking forward in years to come. Many companies have gone paperless, they do online banking, and bank statements, these details simultaneously eliminate waste and cut down on mailing cost. Accordingly, online banking and bill pay options have been very popular.
Thus, this is an example of “Green Marketing” gone right (DMA Mintel). Another example of “Green Marketing’s” popularity is an article found on the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch about the Phoenix Chapter of the Business Marketing Association welcoming Author Derrick Mains to speak. Derrick Mains is the Vice President of Green Marketing for New Media Marketing’s GreenNurture platform. Mains said, “We will discuss how the collective eco-actions of individual employees can have a positive impact both on the environment and on their employer’s bottom line. Thus, as we see here and we see in the financial world the object is not entirely environmentally driven, but how we can use these environmentally driven issues to increase profits (Derrick Mains). This brings us to the next article about “Green Marketing” on PRWeb Make Your Marketing Greener: A Five-Step Approach for Businesses they announce the release of a book “Green Marketing 101: A Step-by-Step Guide” this book was written specifically for businesses and marketers and outlines five steps people can take to help make smart choices while developing a “green” campaign.
The article adds that although the idea of going green sounds great, it is not always easy to figure out. That is where this book is meant to come in. Thus, this book comes in along the same lines as the certification program offered by the Direct Marketing Association, it is just not quite as official, and I’m sure it cost less. However, it is apparent that there is a trend developing here where businesses and marketers feel that they need to be up to date on “Green Marketing” and its different strategies (PRWeb).
With this following article I now truly believe that the topic of “Green Marketing” is everywhere. Glassonweb a website dedicated to glass technology, under their news and events section I found an article about and upcoming seminar. This upcoming seminar is entitled Truseal Sponsors Green Marketing Seminar at GlassBuild America 2008. Truseal Technologies, Inc. is a world leader in warm edge spacer systems for insulating glass, and they are the company sponsoring this seminar on “Green Marketing. ” The seminar is to be titled “World Going Green: What Do Homeowners Want in Environmentally Responsible Windows? It will provide valuable information to window marketers who are addressing increasing environmental concerns, and growing demand for green products (Glassonweb). Accordingly, another enlightening article on the subject is European Union: Environmental Marketing in Europe an article by Felix Hofer. This article talks about Europe’s principles when it comes to the subject of “Green Marketing. ” This includes details like not being misleading, and should be accurate and balanced. Europe’s concern is that the communication will not be correct and that the people will be mislead in an attempt for a company to improve its image.
I thought this was an excellent article and bridges into some of the other research that I found very well (Hofer). While some “Green Marketing” is wonderful and does wonders for business, what about when it does not do good because the company is not doing its part environmentally, but trying to market themselves as such? In the article Businesses Need to Go Clean, Green and Really Mean It by Errol Kiong he talks about how a company can not just say that they have gone green they have to actually take the steps to do it.
He makes a really great reference to a book by John Grant in which he writes “You can’t put lettuce in the window of a butcher’s shop and declare that you are now ‘turning vegetarian’. ” That quote sums up the article because that is the point that Kiong is trying to make to companies, that they have to take the extra time and spend the extra money to make sure that their efforts are actually environmentally responsible, and not just because it is the trendy thing to do, but because it may soon be government regulation (Kiong).
Another article that hit along the same lines as the Kiong article is called Green Marketing ??? A Thousand Flowers Blooming, or Weeds? In this article the author Tim Wheeler goes through a host of press releases that claim companies’ efforts on being environmentally friendly. He says “All of the company products, policies and pledges mentioned may well be sincere and legitimate. I have no reason to think otherwise. But when taken together, I’m reminded that actions speak louder than press releases. This is meant to be a reminder to companies that regardless of what is said, your claims need to be backed up (Wheeler). The other issue, which is a time tested issue, but is still prevalent, is “Market Entry. ” What time is right to enter the market? How much money should be spent on research and development? These are questions directly linked to the issue of “Market Entry” One of the first articles I came across while doing research on this issue was one called To Innovate or Imitate?
Entry Strategy and the Role of Market Research by Elie Ofek and Ozge Turut. This article talks about what a firm should do when thinking about entering into a market that is already dominated by another firm. How much money should the firm invest in research and development and what kind of product should they develop? Should they be an innovator, or a fast follower in the market (Ofek and Turut)? Questions about market entry are raised continually and answered through much research and market research is an important part of answering these questions.
I found one article making an announcement about a province in Canada injecting funds into having a local market research centre. The article said “The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation is providing $117,500 to establish the Northern Insights Research Laboratory at Confederation College. Many companies use market research done by facilities such as this to answer their own questions about appropriate strategies for market entry (91. 5FM). “Market Entry” might also, have to do with an existing product that a ompany would like to expand the growth of that product into additional markets. For example, in the article Market Research Report Detailing the Prospects for the Global Run-Flat Tires Market it talks about a type of innovative tire that was picked up by auto manufacturer BMW that is designed to run for an extended period of time following the loss of air pressure. This is to be a new safety and convenience feature in BMW’s new cars. It also reduced the weight and saved interior space.
Now these tires can make their foray into other markets as in other automakers, other countries, etc. Thus, being innovative ended up paying off well for this company (Run-Flat Tires). Another article, GlobalLogic Partners With Alliance Development Group: Partnership Provides Business and Technical Services to Assist Technology Firms with Entry into China Market talks about “Market Entry” in the sense of entry into a countries market. These two companies are partnering together to facilitate the possibilities of other companies wanting to do business in China.
This is an excellent strategy since China is the market every company wants to infiltrate and these companies are sitting there at the gate telling other companies that they have the solution, which is genius (GlobalLogic). The US Companies’ China Outlook: Market Growth…But Where Do We Go from Here? It is an article that was put out by the US-China Business Council it talks about the outlook of US companies in China. It discusses major issues companies face like how licensing in China can be a major headache and can often impede market entry.
It also talks about economic nationalism and protectionism and how these are things that might restrict investment expansion and will favor domestic technologies. These raise good points and are things that a company should think about when it comes to “Market Entry” and the possibility of moving into another country (US-China Business Council). Accordingly, and article in the Wall Street Journals, Market Watch called OutsourceWorld Sees Rise in the Outsourcing of Professional Services and Increased Popularity of Mid-Sized Service Providers the article talks about ompanies wanting to outsource more services to focus on core competencies. These companies however want to find partners for more than just your average outsourcing they want partners for tasks like product development and new market entry. This comes in an economic hard time when money is tight, product development and market entry cost a lot of money; thus, it makes sense that companies would be interested in partnering with someone on these ventures to take on some of the financial burden (OutsourceWorld).
An article that talks about the possibility of being an innovator in the market is The Commercial Suborbital Sounding Rocket Market: A Role for RLVs? In this article it talks a little bit about what kind of money you would need for the research and development to be an innovator and introduce a new rocket. For just a prototype 5 million dollars is a lot of money, and that would only be a drop in the bucket before the company would actually get their rocket design off the ground and widely used.
Also, the article mentions that investors like to see a return rate of about 18 percent meaning the rocket would have to start making revenues quickly in order to return the investors back their 18 percent. As this article shows when you get into investors, innovation, research and development, and market entry with a product it is a much more expansive and difficult process than one would like to believe (Jurist). The best article in the research that I have done on the topic of “Market Entry” is called Beating the Odds in Market Entry.
This article was written by three individuals John Horn, Dan Lovallo, and S. Patrick Viguerie for The McKinsey Quarterly. This article talks about how for every successful market entry about four other fail. It also discusses how to avoid the cognitive biases that undermine market entry decisions. We are all biased and sometimes that bias in executive decision making is what destroys market entry decisions. This article goes through how to step outside the company and the pre-disposed bias in order to make unaffected decisions that will be best for the company in the long run.
However, these cognitive biases are hard to overcome and that is what this article outlines (Horn, Lovallo, Viguerie). Key Points All of these articles do one very important thing; show the relevance of the issues of “Green Marketing” and “Market Entry” in today’s business marketing world. From the “Green Marketing” articles a company can learn when it stops being a trend and starts making good economical sense. Also, it is important to do what you say, all companies’ want to look good, but it will definitely not look good if the firm is caught in a web of lies.
Accordingly, along the same lines the lessons to take away on “Market Entry” are that every company is different and that every economy is different. This current economical situation has firms trying some options that would not have been considered a couple of years ago, but today the options of partnering up to take care of cost look good. Thus, market entry applies not only to entry in a new product field, but to entry in a foreign market; both very good options when looking to expand business.
Companies should not forget market research is important, and there are a lot of questions to ask when it comes to decision of “Market Entry. ” When it comes to these issues the implications for a purchasing practitioner is as vast as the issues themselves. A company looking to purchase would want to know that they are purchasing from a company with excellent “Green Marketing” and “Market Entry” skills. Thus, a purchaser would want to purchase from a company that is not only making claims to be environmentally responsible, but is backing up those claims whole-heartedly.
This would be an important decision because as a purchaser you want to associate your company with other companies that are socially and environmentally conscious, and hopefully share the same views as your own company in this respect. So in the issue of “Green Marketing” as a purchaser one would look for a company that markets green and backs up their claims. Along those same lines, with the issue of “Market Entry” as a purchaser one would look for a company that is ambitious about growth, but that is smart.
It is not a good idea to get involved with a maverick of a company that may not be in business next week because they were overly ambitious, but on the same token one does not want to get involved with a company that will never change or grow. Accordingly, this is a much tougher decision, but as one of the articles said when you ignore cognitive biases the decisions can be made. When making a decision, becoming involved with a company that knows when to enter a new market, when to take a chance, and what new opportunities are the best for that particular company in the particular economic situation given is the best bet for any purchaser.
Company Profile A company that could use a little education by way of these issues is a locally based Anywhere, USA company called Anonymous Business Services. They are an accounting firm that does payroll and tax services. They state, “We offer the benefits of years of experience serving individuals and small and medium sized business and professional practices. Our staff members are credited with many hours of continuing education courses each year in order to stay abreast of current tax issues and better serve our clients. This company in reference to these issues is stuck in a rut. They do not make any efforts to “Market Green” they also have not made any efforts in the last 20 years that I can see at “Market Entry. ” The only new clients they get come in on a referral basis and their attempts at anything new are slight. This information is hard to see from their website because they do actually put on a very good front, but from knowing someone that works there I know the lack of motivation, innovation and change that really exists.
Although the company is profitable and has a very loyal client base, they could find a lot of good out of incorporating the issues that have been discussed in this paper. “Green Marketing” for example, doing more business online. Making it possible for people to keep and submit documents over the internet to cut down on the paper trail would be an easy way to eliminate waste, cut down on cost, and then they could market themselves as an environmentally conscious accounting firm.
They do a small amount of online submissions, but there is no reason they could not be doing much more. This is a company that uses a lot of paper. By using recycled paper, and by continuing to recycle, and doing other small things around the office they could take advantage of “Green Marketing” not only to make themselves look good, but to cut down on costs as was mentioned in several of the articles found. This could be a great opportunity for a company that is slightly behind the times to make themselves seem a little more relevant.
It would make the other businesses that they market to look at them as a more savvy company than before, perhaps a little more up on the game. Also, it would make it look like the company has taken an interest in something, and the environment is a great issue to take on. “Market Entry” is another issue that this company could think about in the context of possible expansion into neighboring cities, or possible expansion of their service line. As of right now the company has the one office and they have a limited service line.
Something that they should really think about is opening a Moorville office. Moorville is a growing area with a lot of booming business and it is becoming more and more likely for Moorville businesses to stay and do business in Moorville. Thus, to grow their clientele in the Moorville and more than likely the Hollybrook areas, ABS should open an office there to penetrate that market. A small staff out there to start with, backed up by the staff in the main office would be ideal and I think in no time they would see the client base start to grow.
Especially, if they used some simple marketing efforts like the “Green Marketing” that would put them over any other average company with similar services. This company, because it does so well as certain details like customer satisfaction and customer loyalty could see some impressive gains if they were to take on some of these marketing issues mentioned and make them work in the context of their business. With just a few simple changes they could see maybe even a boost in excitement from the workforce.
Anytime a company can charge some excitement into its workforce it is a step well worth taking. Thus, through cutting cost with doing business online with “Green Marketing,” with improving the image and drawing in a new crowd of environmentally conscious clientele ABS would be improving the bottom line. Also, through expansion into Moorville the gained clients in the Moorville/Hollybrook area would vastly out way the cost it would take to open an office there proving that “Market Entry” is a relevant issue for this company (company website).
As it is apparent through articles, key points and company analysis it is apparent that these two key issues “Green Marketing” and “Market Entry” are important issues in a business to business environment. Both of these are strategies that can be used to help your business grow, but must be used right. If not done properly either strategy a “Green Marketing” strategy or a “Market Entry” strategy could back fire and end up costing the company a lot of money. However, it is just as any venture, do the research and go into it knowing the risks and rewards.
In today’s market the rewards out way the risks if the time is taken on either issue to do it right. Thus, the most important points drawn on the issue of “Green Marketing” was for the company to do what they say that they are doing. Never lie about being environmentally responsible! Also, the most important point on the issue of “Market Entry” was for the company to try to ignore their own cognitive biases when it comes to making executive decision. Make decisions based on a set of facts not opinions!
It is easy to see why these are important issues though one is newer, and one is older they will both remain relevant issues for years to come. “Green Marketing” and “Marketing Entry” are definitely details that companies should not overlook at any stage of the game. Works Cited DMA Introduces ‘Green Marketing’ Professional Development Program: A Certificate in Eco-Responsible Marketing. www. the-dma. org/cgi/disannouncements? article=1194. 10/16/2008 DMA Mintel Comperemedia Sees Green Marketing, Business Tactics Used to Weather Financial Crisis. ww. the-dma. org/cgi/dispnewstand? article=9743. 10/16/2008 Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, Business to Business Marketers: Author Derrick Mains to Address BMA Phoenix Members. www. marketwatch. com/news/story/business-business-marketers-author-derrick/story. 10/19/2008 PRWeb. Make Your Marketing Greener: A Five Step Approach for Businesses. www. prweb. com/releases/2008/10/prweb1456534. htm GlassonWeb. Truseal Sponsors Green Marketing Seminar at GlassBuild America 2008. www. glassonweb. com/new/index/8494 Kiong, Errol.
Businesses Need to Go Clean, Green and Really Mean It. www. nzherald. co. nz/business/news/article. cfm? Hofer, Felix. European Union: Environmental Marketing in Europe. Hofer Losch Torricelli. October 6, 2008. Wheeler, Tim. Green Marketing ??? A Thousand Flowers Blooming, or Weeds? www. weblogs. baltimoresun. com/news/local/bay_environment/blog/2008/10/green_mark Ofek, Elie and Turut, Ozge. The Journal of Marketing Research. To Innovate or Imitate? Entry Strategy and the Role of Market Research. 2008. 91. 5 FM News.
Province Injects Funds into Local Market Research Centre. www. ckpr. com/news. aspx? cid=112469 Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, Market Research Report Detailing Prospects for the Global Run-Flat Tires Market. www. marketwatch. com/news/story/market-research-report-detailing-prospects/story Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, GlobalLogic Partners With Alliance Development Group. www. marketwatch. com/news/story/globallogic-partners-alliance-development-group/story The US-China Business Council. US Companies’ China Outlook: Market Growth…But Where Do We Go from Here? 008 Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, OutsourceWorld Sees Rise in the Outsourcing of Professional Services Increased Popularity of Mid-Sized Service Providers. www. marketwatch. com/news/story/outsourceworld-sees-rise-outsoursing-professional-services-increased-popularity-of-midsized-service-providers/story Jurist, John. The Space Review. The Commercial Suborbital Sounding Rocket Market: A Role for RLVs? www. thespacereview. com/article/1228/1 Horn, John, Lovallo, Dan, Viguerie, Patrick. The McKinsey Quarterly. Beating the Odds in Market Entry. 2008.