Lorna Li | Green Marketing 2.0

Starbucks Ideas has been live for about 2 weeks and already customers have had plenty to say about what they expect from the world’s largest chain of coffee shops.

The move to launch a website that allows anyone to post ideas about how Starbucks can improve its service offering is part of an increasing trend by companies to use social networking applications to better improve communication with their customers. This move may be the best way for the struggling coffee maker to quickly turn its business around.

Starbucks Ideas is not a true social network play, rather is an an interactive forum where people can vet their best ideas in a manner much like Digg. Starbucks Ideas is powered by Salesforce.com and is the same social platform that powers Dell’s Ideastorm which won PR Innovation of the Year 2008.

Already, Starbucks has moved to implement the top two customer requests: free coffee for frequent buyers and universal free wi-fi, which is finally (woot, woot!) coming soon in Spring 2008. The thought that a multinational global corporation like Starbucks would be so responsive to the voice of its customers is encouraging indeed.

Can Customers Make Starbucks Become More Environmentally Responsible?

As I surfed through several pages of Starbucks Ideas I was struck by the number of requests for a Greener Starbucks. Below is a list of suggestions and comments that would Starbucks make a better environmental citizen, all of which I voted on:

Stop Trashing Empty Cards

We don’t need any more plastic in the trash. Rather than suggesting trashing an empty starbucks card, give people a 25 cent credit…for refilling it. To make it affordable, how about….

Re-fill your card…at $20 level…get $20.25 on the card.

Re fill at the $50 level…get $51.00 on the card.

Re fill at the $100 level…get $103.oo on the card, or get the $100…and your current single drink order free.

More on the plastic…less plastic in the trash.

Sell Reusable Sleeves

I have recently had customers who come in with their own rubber sleeves for their cups. They tell me they purchased them from Bed Bath and Beyond. They prefer to use them as the grip is more secure and they are helping preserve the trees. Starbucks should have these manufatured with the company logo and sell them for a really reasonable price point so we could also help save the trees etc

Recycle!

Recycle! Become greener!

Recycle In Stores

It concerns me that we do not have recycle bins in our stores. In Seattle, and in most large cities the opportunity to help the environment by recycling is readily available in our homes and many business. I would like to see Starbucks stores embrace this as well by providing Glass, plastice and compost waste in containers in all stores.

Recycle the Waste in the Back of Your Stores

I don’t think Starbucks has shown a real connection between environmental health and human health. Here is why: My local Starbucks produces a tremendous amount of garbage everyday and nearly none of it is recycled. Nearly all the store waste is thrown out and put in the garbage and taken to the landfill. Recycle the waste in the back end of ALL your stores. It goes beyond the polish of the front end and sales. Make it a real effort to connect environmental health and human health. Thank you.

Reusable Cups

I use my Starbucks reusable travel mug almost every time I order and this is what I often see:

- 99% of the time I don’t get the mug discount,

- some baristas have no real clue what to do with it,

- they stick a disposable cup inside it to take down the order and then throw the disposable cup away (I’ve seen stickers but they seem to be out of them a lot).

We need more people to use the mugs and reduce the number of disposable cups used. Push the sale of them (make them cheaper - why not just $5?) and then train staff on how to handle the cups!

Locally sourced (organic) baked goods

Offer locally sourced (organic or not) high quality baked goods similar to some of the baked goods Whole Foods offers, instead of the nationally consistent scones, cookies, pastries, cakes, and breads offered now. This sacrifices some of the national consistency now in place (though there is some variance already) but brings better quality, better tasting food to Starbucks, supports the local community, and elevates Starbucks above other coffee outlets (national outlets now also serving coffee) by cranking up the quality level and local community/local business tie ins. As a result, Starbucks will feel more like a local coffee store again rather than some big national chain.

Biodegradable drink and food containers - Yeah!

Replace plastic containers for cold drinks, straws, salads etc. with those made of biodegradable polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA). These are readily available and currently in use by forward-thinking entities like Paul Newman’s “Newman’s Own” products.

Fair Trade Coffee

I think that Starbucks should switch to only selling and brewing coffee, lattes … with only fair trade coffee. Fair trade coffee costs the consumer no more than regular coffee and still gives the coffee grower a fair price for their coffee. In return these coffee growers use organic means to grow their coffee making it environmentally friendly. That is why I would like to see Starbucks switch to only selling fair trade coffee.

Real Fruit Smoothies

real fruit smoothies

Porcelain Cups

When I first started going to Starbucks, they used to ask here or to go, and if “here” you’d get a porcelain mug of various sizes. Would that be cheaper than buying all those paper cups. Too much washing dishes?

Corporate Social Responsibility at Starbucks

I’ve seen Starbucks come a long way. Since 1999, when it was assailed by numerous activist groups upset with the company’s fair-trade policies, labor relations, and environmental impact during the WTO talks in Seattle, Starbucks has evolved with a commendable corporate social responsibility program.

The mission of Starbucks’ CSR program is to work daily with partners (employees), suppliers and farmers to help create a more sustainable approach to high-quality coffee production, to help build stronger local communities, to minimize their environmental footprint and to be responsive to customers health and wellness needs.

In 2005, Starbucks received The World Environment Center’s 21st Annual Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development, where it was recognized for its leadership in sustainable development within the specialty coffee industry.
From www.greenbiz.com:

In particular, WEC commends the company’s development of Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, a set of environmentally, socially and economically responsible coffee buying guidelines created in conjunction with Conservation International that are designed to contribute positively to the livelihoods of coffee farmers while placing an emphasis on environmental conservation and supply chain transparency.

According to Calvert Funds’ December 2007 edition of Socially Responsible Investing News, in “Calvert’s view, Starbucks Corp. remains an industry leader with significant and progressive programs on renewable energy and the environment as well as workplace diversity and safety.”

While many love to hate Starbucks, I would point out that, over the past decade, Starbucks has proved to be more socially responsible than many other multinational corporations of equal reach and caliber. My Starbucks Idea is simply another way in which the company has demonstrated a willingness to address public opinion, even if its primary motivation is maintaining competitive advantage.

The power of social media for social innovation is evident. If consumers are vocal enough about Starbucks’ environmental impact, Starbucks Ideas may indeed be the catalyst to a Greener, more earth-friendly Starbucks.

Technorati Tags: starbucks, starbucks ideas, web 2.0, salesforce.com, corporate social responsibility, csr, social innovation, social media, social networking, green business, environmental sustainability, lorna li

In California we do.

As geeks and new tech enthusiasts, we depend on computer infrastructure and use a lot of greenhouse gas-emitting electricity to grok our world. Deep down inside, we hope the same breakthroughs in science, technology and innovation that make us Twitter with excitement can also help us restore our balance with Nature.

In and around the SF Bay Area, Internet companies are tackling climate change with what they know best - technology innovation and the crowdsourcing powers of the social web.

Google is probably the company with the most ambitious global warming corporate action plan on Earth. Fortunately, it has the budget to do so. Google has long indicated a commitment to addressing climate change, from both the Foundation perspective and from the standpoint of business operations. Google’s commitment to lightening its ecological footprint can result in some pretty nice employee perks such as free, mostly organic food for its 10,000 employees, and utensils made out of biodegradable corn-based plastic that can be turned into dirt in its very own composting facilities.

Google currently partially powers their huge data centers with solar power, installing 1.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels at their headquarters in Mountain View. The search engine not only invests in renewable energy and greener technologies, it has made a commitment to reducing its behemoth carbon footprint to zero. That’s a lot of clicks to make carbon neutral.

Not to be outdone, Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Green an excellent Green information portal that aggregates top climate change and environmental news, in addition to a section dedicated to Y! Answers about the Environment. Other Yahoo! Green sections include Global Warming, tips on how to live a Green Lifestyle, a Carbon Footprint Calculator, a Green Gift Guide, and a section where users can pledge to Take Action. Two search engines, two different approaches to being Green. As Michael Arrington pondered, Google vs. Yahoo, who cares most about the environment?

Green websites are hot, with TreeHugger snapped up by the Discovery Channel, and Zaadz, a LOHAS social networking site, purchased by Gaiam earlier this year. Even TechCrunch’s arch-rival, GigaOm launched Earth2Tech this year, a site devoted to the business of clean technologies, its innovations and everything else.

WiserEarth, a nonprofit venture launched by Paul Hawken, founder of the Natural Capital Institute, is compelling community directory and networking forum created on a structured wiki platform. The site maps and connects non-governmental organizations and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more.

Whether for profit or nonprofit, California clearly likes to fight global warming with technology. The state has become the nation’s biggest hub for green tech companies, attracting hundreds of $ millions in investment. In 2006, California’s green tech businesses soaked up $884 million, 36 percent of all the money venture capitalists spent on the industry within the United States.

For decades, California has led the nation with its clean and green policies. But population growth and increasing energy consumption, coupled with aggressive greenhouse-gas reduction laws mean the next stage of environmental progress will need to be stronger, faster and more innovative than in the past.

Can a handful of pioneering, VC-funded, bleeding-edge tech companies come up with solutions that will help turn the tide of global warming? I hope so.

Technorati Tags: google, yahoo green, earth2tech, treehugger, zaadz, gaiam, green tech, california green tech, greentech, wiser earth, paul hawken, natural capital institute

Simplified for Small Business, Green Enterprise, and Nonprofits

Google PageRank (PR) is a link analysis algorithm developed by Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the late 1990s. Google PageRank contributes to your search engine ranking on Google search engine results pages (SERPs).

Google PageRank is one benchmark for understanding the popularity of your web site based on the number and quality of sites that link to you. A high PR page that links to your web page will confer more PageRank to your page than an inbound link from low PR page.

According to Matt Cutts, Google’s spokesperson on SEO, PageRank values are published approximately once every 3 months. Therefore, Google PR is not an accurate metric for site popularity, as it is a cached value that is usually out of date.

What’s my Google PageRank?

If you want to view your Google PageRank, you can download the Google Toolbar or try the nifty SearchStatus plugin for FireFox.

The Google Toolbar’s PageRank feature displays as a green bar on the bottom right of your browser window. Scroll over and you will see a visited page’s PageRank as a whole number between 0 and 10, with PR 10 web site being the most popular.

If you don’t want to download the Google Toolbar, you can submit your site url to a number of free Google PageRank tools on the Web, such as the Google PageRank Lookup Report which will check the PR of up to 10 web sites.

PageRank Values for Popular Green & Environmental Web Sites

National Geographic - 8
An Inconvenient Truth - 7
The Discovery Channel - 7
The Nature Conservancy - 7
World Wildlife Fund - 7
TreeHugger - 6
Change.org - 5

Top PR sites include:

Google (of course) - 10
Yahoo - 10
Wikipedia - 9
MySpace - 8

How important is Google PageRank?

Don’t obsess over your Google PageRank - it is just one factor in the collective algorithm that Google uses to build SERPs. While having lots of relevant, inbound high PageRank links is a good thing, high PR does not guarantee high placement in SERPs.

Bear in mind that Google calculates your PR based on the page criteria and title tag of the linking page. Google can penalize a site if it detects a large number of irrelevant links. How effective Google is at determining link relevance is a subject of debate among SEOs. However, building relevant links is a good rule of thumb in order to follow if you want to increase your site’s PR.

How do I build PageRank for my site?

Andrew Gerhart’s Understanding and Building Google PageRank gives a detailed overview on how PR works and what to do to improve it. Here’s a summary:

In order to understand how to improve PageRank, you must understand how a site’s linking structure absorbs PageRank from other sites. Suppose you are TreeHugger, with a PR of 6 for your homepage.

This means a number of web sites with PR 5 and above are linking to your homepage. Your second level pages, will then have a PR of 5, and your tertiary pages have a page rank of 3, and so forth.

How Internal Linking Affects PageRank

Your internal linking structure does not have an effect in increasing PR, but sharing PR within the overall site, with decreasing powers as you go deeper into the structure of your web site.
From www.searchengineguide.com:

* Make sure that your primary page(s), the index.htm page, links to your secondary pages or secondary levels.
* Make sure that your secondary pages link to each other
* Link your secondary pages to the third level pages within their sub-directory, sub-domain, or level
* Link the third level pages within each specific sub-directory or sub-domain to each other.
* Link the third level pages back to the secondary page that it was linked from
* Make sure that the there is not heavy linking between third level pages
* Link to pages, regardless of level, that are relevant
* Link to pages, regardless of level, where the text on the page being linked from is keyword specific to the page that you are linking to
* If there are fourth level pages, follow the same linking structure that has been laid out in this checklist
* Only link pages within your site that are relevant to each other
* Use keyword specific link text when linking between pages
* Use standard HREFs in links that are easy for the search engine robots.

How External Linking Affects PageRank

External linking plays the strongest role in determining a site’s PR, but it is the factor over which you have the least control. Understand that link building campaigns can be a slow, tedious process. You can request, beg, and cajole a site owner to link to you, but they may not respond in a timely way, if at all, and will likely request a reciprocal link, which confers less link juice to you than a one-way inbound link would.

It’s not within the scope of this article to discuss link-building strategies, but to understand how external links pass PageRank to your site.

The exact algorithmic calculation that Google employs will likely never be divulged, but simply speaking, Google confers PR to you based on its evaluation of the linking sites PRs and their relevance to your page. Spammy, irrelevant links can negatively impact your PR.

If the sites linking to you all mention “Organic, fair-trade chocolate” and have above 6 PRs, and your page talks about “Organic, fair-trade chocolate”, your PR will likely be close to 6 as well.

Don’t make the mistake of randomly sending all inbound links to your homepage or the top level page of a section - the max PR you will reflect the cumulative PRs of the sites pointing to you, adjusted based on their relevance to your homepage.

Let’s say you have an e-commerce site specializing in fair trade products from around the world. The theme of your homepage is “fair trade products”, but one of your categories is “fair trade crafts”, and your subcategories are “houseware”, “jewelry”, and “stationery”. Identify high PR sites and pages for “fair trade products” and solicit links from them to your homepage. Then do the same for your “houseware” page, and then for each sub-category below that.

Tips on Boosting Google PageRank Through External Linking

* Understand the way PageRank trickles down through a site’s internal linking structure.

* To improve the PR of your site, identify the theme and market segment of each page, find relevant web pages with higher PR and ask the site owners to link to you.

* Work on the external linking for every page from the homepage to sub-pages based on each page’s topic - prioritize top level down.

Where should I seek links from to boost my Google PageRank?

Identify the keywords relevant to each page’s theme, and then Google-search these terms. The sites that show up in the top positions are the sites you want to solicit links from.

Google Directory - Science > Environment > Forests and Rainforests

Another good place to begin is the Google Directory, which lists sites by category in order of PageRank. However, a site’s willingness to link to you is directly proportional to the content of the page. If your content is not that exciting, you will have a harder time getting links.

TreeHugger moves one step closer to its mission of greening the mainstream. Last week, Treehugger, the stylish, Webby Award-winning eco-blog, was acquired by Discovery for, rumors say, approximately $10M.

Discovery Communications, owners of the Discovery Channel, boasts a large network of online and television properties. Its acquisition of TreeHugger allows it to buy a piece of Web 2.0 cool. However, Discovery intends to look to TreeHugger for strategic direction on its Green initiatives, allowing this social media success story to reach the non-tech savvy masses in unprecendented ways.

TreeHugger is an award-winning blog whose mission is to make the mainstream sustainable. TreeHugger, currently ranked 16 on Technorati, serves more than 1.5 million unique visitors a month and has attained 50 million page views since its humble beginning as a MBA class project, nearly 4 years ago.

Other TreeHugger initiatives, like TreeHugger.tv, and Hugg - the eco-Digg are immensely popular within the Green community.

Discovery is TreeHugger’s Perfect Partner

While TreeHugger was courted by 15 large companies over the past year, the partnership with Discovery was a match made in Green heaven. In spite of interest by a number of compelling parties, TreeHugger did not compromise on its values and its original vision… and waited until the perfect partner came along.

“We had many conversations and concluded that we needed a partner with a sizeable, international audience, a kindred brand and a high level commitment philosophically and financially to green, “said TreeHugger Founder, Graham Hill.

Discovery, which reaches 1.5 billion subscribers around the world, with, primarily, high-quality, nature-related content, was a perfect fit. Furthermore, Discovery has committed over $50M towards the development of Green content and programming for its various online and offline channels, including a portfolio of leading Green web sites.

TreeHugger will play an active role in defining Discovery’s Green initiatives, such as its global multiplatform initiative, Planet Green, which includes the first 24/7 eco-lifestyle TV network, which will be launching in 50 million homes in 2008.

I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Aster, a San Francisco web developer and one of the founding members of TreeHugger, in October 2006. During this time, I was in deep in the throes of launching Mariri Magazine, a rainforest webzine powered by Joomla! Nick graciously agreed to an informational interview on the art of online publishing. After an hour-long conversation, I realized my tiny rainforest webzine had a long, long way to go.

I was, and still am, obsessed with understanding the secret to launching a successful online magazine, how to develop develop a never-ending flow of compelling content, create community, and monetize traffic all on a shoe-string budget. TreeHugger began with far bigger budget than I - seed funding from Graham Hill, eco-design entrepreneur, which was enough to support a team of 4-5 Presidio World College Sustainable MBAs to develop and the launch the site full time.

TreeHugger’s content is excellent, thanks to its ability to pay writers around the world for blog posts. Its highly engaged community generates new content daily. It has great ads, and is able to earn enough revenue from sponsorships and ad placements to provide each of its team members with a modest income.

TreeHugger is the “hip” in the “hippy”. Rather than bombard the masses with the unpalatable, guilt-ridden message of most conservation activists, TreeHugger succeeds because it appeals to the consumer in all of us.

Graham states, “99.9% of us are not going to wear loincloths and live in a commune. They are going to continue to buy things, so why not have them buy good things?”

Sources:

This Week’s Podcast with Treehugger by Heather Green

TreeHugger Acquired by Discovery Communications for $10M

TreeHugger Acquires Discovery Communications

Technorati Tags: discovery, treehugger, discovery acquires treehugger, green planet, graham hill, nick aster, lorna li

According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). North American advertisers spent $9.4 billion on search engine marketing (SEM) in 2006, a 62 % increase over 2005. SEMPO researchers also estimate SEM spending to double by 2011, at an aggregate spending total of $18.6 billion.

However, while only a tiny percentage of small and medium size businesses currently contribute to this huge volume of advertising spend, many analysts predict that the number of small businesses will grow significantly over the next few years.

If you are a small, environmentally sustainable business with a limited advertising budget or a nonprofit seeking other avenues of funding, PPC ads can be an inexpensive, cost-effective way to reach a targeted segment of customers. And now is a great time to get in on it, before the green industry gets uber-competitive.

PPC - More Bang for the Buck

Pay-Per-Click Ads are small Internet text ads with a short description that link to a Web site that usually appear on the right hand side of your search engine results pages (SERPs) and in designated sections on many content-driven Web sites and blogs. Advertisers bid to have their ads show up when users search for certain keywords, or when Web site features those specific keywords in the content of that web page. Advertisers only pay when a user clicks on their ad and visits their Web site.

Depending on how competitive your market is, the cost-per-click on certain keywords can be as cheap as a few cents a click to $5, $10 or even more. However, anyone can start a PPC advertising program on as little as a few dollars per week.

The first great thing about PPC advertising is that it is treeless. With print direct mail, at a 2% response rate - which is considered to be good - 98% of your mailing gets trashed. In my opinion, no matter how “successful” the campaign metrics, print direct mail is an incredible waste of time, energy, and resources.

The second great thing about PPC advertising is that your campaign results are available within days of the launch of your campaign. By contrast, direct mail advertising campaigns often take at least 3 months to close, and the first responses typically roll in 6 weeks after the mail date. Other forms of traditional marketing - print ads, TV and radio commercials - can be extremely expensive, yet, entirely unmeasurable. It is nearly impossible how many people viewed your glossy magazine ad, and how many of those people actually went out and bought your product.

With PPC, you can track all metrics from number of clicks to conversions in less than a week. Furthermore, based on your campaign statistics, you can tweak and adjust your bids, edit your text ads, and perform A/B split tests on ad creative and multivariate tests on your landing pages as often as you want, when you want - and see the results the following day. This is impossible with other forms of traditional media - not only will it prove to be very expensive, it will drive your designers and media vendors utterly crazy. And you won’t receive your results, if you are lucky, until the following quarter.

Understand PPC before you begin, or you will waste your money

Implementing a successful PPC campaign requires a certain level of skill and understanding, so read up about it before you begin. You will need to:

• set up your account correctly
• know how to select and price keywords
• know how to write compelling ad copy
• have at at least one landing page
• know how to perform ad testing and landing page tests
• be willing to monitor and tweak your campaign frequently

While PPC professionals will employ a number of arcane techniques and strategies, there are 4 main factors to PPC success that everyone should know. I will start with what I believe to be the most important:

1) Get Creative With Your PPC keywords, then Narrow it Down

Come up with a large, robust initial list of keywords and key phrases, and then narrow it down to the ones worth bidding on. To further fine-tune your targeting and avoid paying for clicks from people unlikely to buy your product, create a list of negative keywords - search terms where you don’t want your ad to appear. For example, if you are selling gourmet, organic, hand-crafted and fair-trade chocolate truffles, you will probably want to include the negative keywords “free”, “cheap”, and “discount” in your campaigns.

Also, if you have a limited budget, you may want to choose to display your ads only on the search network and turn the content network off. In general, content network ads tend to have a lower click through rate (CTR) than search ads. By showing your ads only to people actively searching for those keywords, you will get more bang for your PPC buck.

2) Put Your Keywords In Your PPC Ad Text

If your ad text is not relevant to the search term, chances are, no one will click on it. A low click through rate (CTR) can cause Google to render your ad inactive for that keyword, which will require you to increase your initial bid in order to enter the market.

Make sure your keyword is in the headline, and if not, at least in the description. The user’s search query will show up bolded on the SERP, so if your ad creative has matching keywords, these will appear more prominently as bolded text, and your ad will stand out more on the page.

3) Send PPC Traffic to a Relevant Landing Page

One of the most important factors to PPC success is driving targeted traffic to a landing page, NOT your homepage. Your landing page should be directly relevant to the ad that links to it. For example, if you have listed a text ad for “Sustainable Bamboo Cutting Boards”, be sure to send visitors to a landing page about eco-friendly bamboo cutting boards, and not bamboo products in general, or you will lose them.

Design your landing page to quickly take your visitors to product selection, purchase and check-out with a little clicks as possible. If you want them to sign up for something, make the form as simple and hassle-free as possible. Think of your landing page as funnel. Create no distractions, leave no option for escape.

If you are running a nonprofit, link your text ad a donation page, and not a general info page about your organization’s mission and vision. If you are raising money for your rainforest Adopt-An-Acre campaign, make sure your Adopt-a-Rainforest text ad takes the visitor to a landing page about this specific program, and not a page about a different conservation initiative, nor your general donation or membership page.

4) Test, Test and Test Some More

Finally, running a successful PPC program depends on your ability to track results and tweak your campaigns on a frequent basis. As the bidding landscape changes daily, you will need to monitor and adjust your strategies accordingly.

You will want to test ad creative and improve your ad creative. Google and Yahoo are set up so that split testing is easy. You will also want to test your landing pages and determine which variables - such as headline, main image, ad copy - attract more conversions. Google Optimizer allows you to easily perform multivariate testing on your landing pages.

Finally, running a successful PPC program depends on your ability to track results and tweak your campaigns on a frequent basis. As the bidding landscape changes daily, you will need to monitor and adjust your strategies accordingly.

You will want to test ad creative and improve your ad creative. Google and Yahoo are set up so that split testing is easy. You will also want to test your landing pages and determine which variables - such as headline, main image, ad copy - attract more conversions. Google Optimizer allows you to easily perform multivariate testing on your landing pages.

The fun part about developing your PPC strategies is testing “out of the box” ideas. For example, most of us who care about environmental conservation are keenly aware of how active the Bush Administration has been in dismantling existing environmental laws and undermining the nation’s overall environmental policy. The Bush Administration’s environmental track record is, for most conservation-minded individuals, a miserable failure.

Some of you might be familiar also with the Google bomb for the keywords “miserable failure” that linked to the biography of George W. Bush.

The last time I Googled “miserable failure” a text ad pop up that said, “Yes, We Think So, too”. Who was that ad from? The Natural Resources Defense Council.

Technorati Tags: Pay-Per-Click, PPC, SEM, search marketing, paid search, green marketing, PPC primer, lorna li