The Tray Way: The Business of Being "Green"

If you watch shows like The Office, The Tonight Show and The Biggest Loser, this you will like see the traditional NBC peacock dyed green in honor of "#Greenweek". According to the company:

We are focused on bringing an environmental perspective to everything we do, informing and entertaining the audience while driving more sustainable practices into our own operations. As one of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies, we want to participate in and help lead one of the most important dialogues of our time—and build a stronger business and a more sustainable world in the process.

While this movement on NBC Universal exudes social responsibility, the inevitable follow-up question is whether it is good for business. NBC is the weakest of the television networks, however, according to the Triple Pundit:

NBC’s Green Week has attracted upwards of $100 million in ad revenue for the network from companies who want to be associated with all things green. Subaru has been sponsoring Green Week since 2008, and for last year’s ads alone, they are rumored to have spent $10 million. Their investment paid off heavily: NBC’s numbers show that viewers who saw last year’s Subaru’s ads were a whopping 64% more likely to remember the ads if viewed on NBC during Green Week versus another channel. The associative link indicates that consistent messaging of Subaru’s green credentials with NBC’s explicit green programming had a profound impact on the minds of viewers.

Many a multi-national organization has recognized an opportunity to be successful by being socially responsible. This isn't new, but it almost feels unnatural to support a for-profit business that is doing something positive that also happens to be lucrative. At Tray, we pride our self on being "green" in an industry sector that has difficulty maintaining that standard. We do it because we feel it is the right thing to do, but admittedly, it also sets us apart from our competitors, and if that makes good "business sense", then we see it as a win-win for everyone involved.

So, this week, if you are enjoying any television on the NBCU family of networks, look at the green logo and the environmentally-friendly content and appreciate that the organization is trying to do good at the same time as they are trying to do better.

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The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our organization's capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages.

The Tray Way: Should Local Businesses Utilize Facebook? Yes, but....

Small, local businesses are always aiming to cut costs whenever possible, and with the advent of cost-effective social media options, the marketing budget is a common place to target. However, new research has indicated that shifting focus completely towards this new medium is not as beneficial to a local company.

In correlation with the newsfeed change on Facebook, EdgeRank Checker recently reported that popular Pages (those with more than 100,000 fans) have been generating a great deal more engagement (27.8%), smaller Pages (those with less than 5,000 fans) are generating about the same level of engagement. However, those Pages with less than 1,000 fans have seen an average engagement drop of 11.6%.

Inside Facebook presented it this way:

Most major brands tend to have at least 10,000 fans, so this may come as good news — they’re receiving a lot more Likes and comments. However, fledgling brands and local businesses that only appeal to a limited audience may find they’re receiving fewer impressions and engagement. This reduces return on their Facebook marketing investment and make their posts less likely to be reshared, a core way of organically growing their fan counts.

What does this mean for businesses trying to gain business in their immediate geographic area? From our perspective, we have two thoughts:

1. Social media is a great marketing tool for small businesses to formalize their brand (especially for the money it costs) and hit a target market, but putting all your eggs in the social media basket can potentially have a less than remarkable result, even for the investment. Tray's philosophy has always been to recommend an integrated approach, combining new media with more established, traditional media (e.g. direct mail). This actually offers local businesses a significant advantage over larger competitors because they have the necessary local insight.
2. To get all the benefits out of social media as a small business, it is worth consulting marketing experts that know where the gaps should be filled. The statistics in this report are accurate, but it is an average, meaning there are Pages that have seen growth. It is likely that those businesses have had experts in their corner to craft messages and plan campaigns that have worked.

Local businesses should absolutely not shy away from Facebook or other social media channels, but think of the smartest way to utilize the advantages you have. You know the community you operate in better than most, so think of the best mix of what your demographics want to hear and how they want to hear it.

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The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our organization's capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages.