The Case-by-Case for Sustainability

This post is inspired by the question "What benchmarks do you use to determine if a company is green?" recently asked by a user on LinkedIn.

If a product has recycled content, it's green, right? Anyone who's even a little skeptical (and these days, I wish more people were) understands that you need to ask more than just this one question to determine if a product is green. And how do you know if an entire company is green? If they recycle their paper, or turn the lights and computers off when everyone goes home, does that make them green? The answer is, quite simply, it depends.

The Challenges of "Certified Green"

Increasingly, consumers are using certification to determine whether or not a company is green. There are a number of general certification bodies that have cropped up to help consumers and other businesses identify those who have met particular standards (see the end of this section for examples). Some of these are nonprofits, some are trade associations, and some are glorified PR outlets. Some local governments, especially in California, are also implementing certification systems.

The problem with these types of groups is that they themselves have subjective criteria that they apply to member businesses. So in order to determine if a certified company is legitimately green, one first needs to vet the certification program. This is the challenge I've run into with the San Francisco Green Business Program. The SFGBP is actually one of the most stringent government-sponsored certifications available in California. I've been doing a bit of consulting work with SF's Department of the Environment (just one of the city agencies involved in the program), trying to help them identify the best ways to build the program's credibility. Since there are now at least 285 certification programs to choose from, distinguishing the SFGBP as a leading program becomes even more important.



At the heart of the SFGBP, as with all certification programs, is the need to identify measurable criteria. The challenge, however, is that what is an appropriate and sustainable solution for one organization, business, industry, and/or process may not be so for another. The very nature of holistic sustainability is case-by-case, which makes it exceedingly difficult to create blanket criteria that actually work across all organizations. This leaves us with the simplistic solution of creating specific operational guidelines (as opposed to measurements) that are tailored to particular industries or business models.

The following certifications are just a few that I consider to be decently stringent, though none are "perfect." They're presented with the caveat that this is a partial list, and that my own assessment should be subject to your scrutiny:

• San Francisco Green Business Program (local only; all industries)
  
• Co-op America Seal of Approval (national; all industries)
  
• Green Seal
• FSC (international; wood-based supply chain)
  
• C2C (international; product design)
• LEED (national; building/construction
  
  *Full disclosure: I'm certified by the first two groups.

A Simpler Method of Measuring Green

Obviously, looking for viable certification is the easiest, quickest method to determine if a company is really green. But what if no certification exists, or if you want to vet the certification? In these cases, you can evaluate the following operational areas of the company:

• Energy consumption (amount of, type of)
• Materials consumption (amount of, type of, toxicity of)
• CO2 and other greenhouse gas output (amount of)
• Physical waste output (amount of, toxicity of, treatment of)
• Product output (nature of, life cycle of)
• Employee programs (existence of, nature of)
• Ethics (nature of, statement of, track record of)
• Community relations (use of local resources/vendors, distribution to local areas, enrichment of local communities)

Numbers alone, of course, don't tell the whole story. You'll still need to compare the identified efforts to conventional standards. Are they better, worse, or the same? By how much? Are there specific accepted standards that the company meets or exceeds in any of the given areas?

The Benchmark of Transparency

Another good measure of a company's greenness is their transparency. If an organization voluntarily discloses their operational methodology, and explains in detail the environmental measures they take, that's a pretty good indicator that they're at least addressing those areas. If you're wary of greenwashing (the act of paying lip service to environmental commitment), then look for generic statements, like "All of our products are green," or "We use an eco-friendly production process." Companies should be prepared to go into detail about their processes and back up their claims.

So there you have it: determining if a company is truly green or not is no simple task. Every day more benchmarking groups crop up to try and serve as a standard, but we're still a long way from consensus. In the meantime, any thinking about sustainability must by definition include flexibility, critical thought, and an understanding of the many complexities that go into judging results.

Finally, what methods do you use to judge how green a business is?

Recently Published in HOW Design Magazine...

The current issue of HOW, one of the leading professional graphic design magazines, features Jess' article Deflate the Tire Kickers. Every profession has their version of the tire kicker: those not-so-serious prospects that eat into your profitability. This five-page article walks designers through the client intake process, offering practical advice on how to identify and effectively handle this segment without losing your cool.



The magazine is currently on the newsstands at most major bookstores, and can also be purchased online. [Update: HOW Magazine has now posted the full text on their site, so you can read the article online.]

(And am I the only one who thinks the illustration looks like David Bowie? Which is, of course, totally rad.)

How a Marketing Plan Builds Your Business

It’s time to dust off that old marketing plan that’s been crammed in the back of your bottom drawer next to your business plan,and crack it open. Oh, right - you don’t have a dedicated, stand-alone marketing plan. But that’s okay, because you’ve got it all in your head, right? Wrong. Without a written, comprehensive marketing plan, you’re throwing money away without even realizing it.

What’s So Important About a Written Plan?

There are plenty of reasons why you, savvy businessperson that you are, need a written marketing plan, and the most obvious is that you don’t yet have one. Ask yourself: does the competitor down the street (or online) have a written plan? If they do, then you’re a step behind already and you better catch up. But if they don’t, which is far more likely, then creating one for yourself will give you an instant competitive edge.

A well-written strategic plan will provide you with several necessary insights:

• It makes clear where your money is being spent and where your money should be spent. A good plan includes an audit of your current marketing activity, which accounts for both direct and indirect marketing expenses. It also defines workable budgets for the future.
• It reveals strengths and weaknesses in your tactics, and provides specific ways to fix the weaknesses and maximize the strengths.
• It tells you if your marketing tactics are effectively aligned with your goals.

But even more importantly than holding a mirror to your current marketing activity, a thoughtful marketing plan provides you with a tactical step-by-step plan to reach those business goals. This necessarily sets you in a clear direction, making decisions about which marketing tactics to use, how to implement them, and how much money to spend on them, much easier to make in the heat of day-to-day business.

It’s important to realize just how inefficient on-the-fly marketing decisions can be. Making such last-minute, high-pressure choices will almost always dilute your efforts, which means you’ll yield a lower return for the time and money you’ve invested in those off-the-cuff, time-pressured decisions. Creating a strategic marketing plan that you can turn to in these moments will significantly reduce wasted time, money and resources.

So What Does a Good Marketing Plan Look Like?

Realistically, your plan can be as simple or as complex as you choose to make it. You’ll have to balance your available resources with your ideal plan, of course, and find the level of detail that works best for your business. A full-blown strategic marketing plan, however, should include at least the following elements:

• An analysis of your brand position, market segments, and product delivery strategy
• A set of specific marketing goals and objectives
  
• An audit of your current marketing tactics
• A step-by-step action plan to reach each goal (each action should build on the others to create a cohesive strategy)

There’s more to it than that, but those are the essentials. Without them, your marketing plan is more of a marketing notion. Remember: a plan should be executable, appropriate to your needs, and effective.

Can You Do It Yourself?

If your business is already struggling to come up with the cash flow to execute each individual marketing tactic already, it can be tough to convince yourself that it’s worth dropping the cash on a professional strategist. After all, who knows your business better than you? And you’re no stranger to bootstrapping. A DIY marketing plan is certainly better than none, and it will obviously save you money in the short term (though probably not over the long-term).

Start with a simple, one-page plan that you can put together yourself. It should include:

• Your overall business goals
• A short list of marketing tactics that can best achieve those goals (be picky)
• What steps you need to take to implement those tactics.

You must be aware, though, that this is not an ideal approach and it will not be a reliable plan over the long haul. Creating the above plan successfully is often harder than it sounds. Identifying appropriate, reachable goals, understanding which marketing techniques work best for those particular goals, and then identifying the specific steps you’ll need to take to maximize the effectiveness of your chosen marketing techniques, all require a level of marketing expertise you may or may not have.

If it’s not reliable, then why bother with a one-page plan? In actuality, it’s more of an exercise to prepare you for working with a professional strategist. Preparing such a limited marketing plan for yourself will reveal what you know and don’t know, and where you might need outside expertise. This is important information: the best business owners recognize their own weaknesses, and find ways to correct for them (usually by hiring someone for whom their weaknesses are actually strengths).

A professional marketing strategist will inevitably bring a different set of skills to the table: they’ll provide you with a broader market context, a better understanding of your competitors, insight into the most effective marketing methods available to you, and an understanding of how to combine everything into a holistic, effective strategy. And perhaps most importantly, a professional will bring a level of objectivity you simply can’t achieve on your own. When you spend all day, every day making your business work, it’s easy to lose perspective and begin to see everything through the lens of that business. Hiring someone who has both your best interest in mind, and the ability to see beyond your business, will result in a marketing plan that you can easily implement, and implement successfully.

And Finally...What To Do With That Plan

Whether you choose to handle your marketing plan yourself, or hire someone to help you with the process, it'll be useless if you cram it back in that drawer and let it gather dust. The best way to make sure you actually use your plan is to start with a solid foundation. Take the time to do it right from the start, and implementing it will come naturally.

Once it's written, review it regularly. At the very least, you should be reviewing your marketing plan every quarter, but every month is even better. This will allow you to align your cash flow with your upcoming marketing expenses, make adjustments, and generally avoid being caught with your pants down (as in, I meant to start putting money aside for my new catalog last quarter and now I have no budget!).

Reviewing your plan regularly will also give you the satisfaction of checking off action steps as you take them and making adjustments as necessary. It's awfully rewarding to cross things of your to-do list, especially when you can watch those to-do items turn into sales. And that might be the best part about creating a written marketing plan: seeing that plan turn into reality before your very eyes. Because the very nature of such a plan is to build momentum and, ultimately, build your business.

How to Find Green Vendors

My latest installment of The Sustainable Studio is now online, and this month I focus on how to implement a sustainable purchasing policy. Whatever industry you're in, the advice contained in this article will help you understand what sustainable purchasing is all about, ideas for implementing your own policy, and where to begin your sustainable vendor search.

"So just what makes a vendor sustainable? Is it as simple as finding a printer who stocks recycled paper? There are currently no strict definitions for what makes a business sustainable, unfortunately, so it is up to each of us to find a system that is both meaningful and practical. As a San Francisco-certified Green Business, I have a simple yet stringent purchasing policy in place for Roughstock Studios. I assign a single point for each of the following attributes that a potential vendor meets..." [Read the full article on Business of Design Online]

I'd love to hear your reaction to the idea of implementing such a policy, as well as any questions you might have about how to practically do so. Feel free to leave a comment either here, or on BoDo!

Hey, what's included in that design fee?

A recent thread in one of the professional design forums I frequent raised an interesting discussion about how designers justify their rates. I find it endlessly fascinating that design buyers—everyone from corporate ventures to mom and pop shops—have such a hard time understanding what it is they are actually paying for.

It's not uncommon to get questions like why so expensive; it's just a five-page website? and It can't possibly take that long to design a logo, can it? and even the old But there's no way to know if it's even going to work or not, so why should I have to pay premium prices?



The problem with this line of questioning is not that the client wants to know why they're paying what they're paying. We all have a right to know what we're spending our money on. The real problem lies in what it reveals: the client who asks these questions has no idea what they are actually purchasing.

When you buy a car, you expect to know the gas mileage, the type of engine, the horsepower, etc. Most of these details are disclosed outright by the manufacturer. In the design world, these details are the equivalent to deliverables, which include stuff like:

• Number of files
• Type of files
  
• Final printed pieces or live website
  

But when you buy a car, you're also paying for the manufacturer's name and reputation. With name and reputation come implied skills of craftsmanship and knowledge (advanced manufacturing processes, quality parts and materials, assembly line production, engineering, etc). Design buying is no different:

• Ability to concept and problem solve
• Research skills (general market research, competitive research, image research)
• Understanding of the structure, rules and implications of typography
  
• Color theory
• Grasp of composition, balance, contrast and layout and their impact on viewer behavior
  
• Production technique (software, assembly, handwork)
• Graphics editing (color and light/shadow manipulation, effects, cleanup, resampling, etc)
• File prep and prepress (bleeds, printer marks, color separations, file types, etc)
  

These skills vary from designer to designer, which is why there is so much range in pricing out there. Designers love this car metaphor; you can pay premium prices for a Porsche, or value prices for a Hyundai. Both are cars, but there can be no argument that one is sexier and handles better on the road. Maybe as a design buyer you don't want a Porsche, or simply don't have the budget for one. But you'd still shop around for a safe one, wouldn't you? One that won't break down every year? You'll always have to ask yourself what you're willing to sacrifice in order to save a few bucks.

When you buy a car, you get a warranty, right (we really haven't pushed this metaphor far enough yet)? Of course, you'd be an awfully lucky client if your designer gave you one of those. But there are some things you should get with your designer's fee to protect you:

• A written contract that spells out the project parameters, final deliverables, project timelines, client expectations (what you need to provide your designer so they can get the job done), and so forth. These details will protect you should the project seem to get off track. They'll ensure clear communication between client and designer from the get-go.
• Usage rights, or licensing rights, that guarantee you have permission to use the designer's work for its intended purpose. Your usage rights may vary from designer to designer and project to project. They might be exclusive, ensuring the designer can't resell the design to someone else, which is a good thing to have for logos. Always know what rights you're paying for.
  

There's something else that is expressly included in a designer's fees, something that's far too often overlooked by designer and client alike: return on investment. This is the Great Intangible that seems to make everybody cringe. How do we know this will work? There a couple of ways to measure ROI on design, and they depend largely on the type of project. Identity and branding projects can be tough to measure, for example, without conducting focus groups and surveys both before and after the project (and this is why the big boy agencies earn so much for their work—they actually do these things...I hope). But small scale metrics are available to even the independent shop:

• Direct mail can include ID references that can be tracked when taking inquiries. "Mention code ABC to get your discount," is a common one. Or send the recipient to a specific web address and track incoming visitor statistics.
• Sales numbers can be analyzed before and after the design piece is issued.
• Market comparisons and case studies can be used to decide if a particular project type has a successful track record. One of my clients, for example, was going to send out fund-raising invitations formatted in Microsoft Word and printed at Kinko's. They came to me for suggestions, and I convinced them to let me design a two-color piece with custom illustration that was professionally printed. The event ended up filled to capacity and they easily surpassed their $100,000 goal.

Finally, there are a few more things that may or may not be included in your designer's fee. These really depend on your designer's experience, history and focus, but they are extremely valuable skill sets:

• Marketing expertise including branding, positioning, outlets (media and distro) etc.
  
• Business expertise like project feasibility, budgeting, time and project management, legal issues, and so on.
  
• Vendor management (incredibly important to the final product), which includes print specifying, materials specifying, professional relationships, billing, etc.
  
• Writing skills: voice and tone consistency, concepting, grammar and usage, styling techniques, behavior change and persuasion techniques, etc.
  

As you can see, your designer (ideally) brings a lot to the table. You're not just buying a pretty picture—you're buying a set of skills and experience that directly impacts the success of the project itself (whether or not it's a smooth, trouble-free, enjoyable process), as well as the success of your business (whether or not the designed piece actually accomplishes anything).

So the next time you're surprised at a quote from your designer, consider the above list and decide if all of this makes the price tag worth it. Remember: it's your business and your money. You should know what you're paying for.


© 2007 Jessica Sand | For reprint permission, just ask. | And if you want to share this with your clients, by all means do, but be sure to include the following text: "© 2007 Jessica Sand, www.roughstockstudios.com"

Roughstock Gets Switched

A recent surge in stats tipped me off to Freelance Switch's recent link to my Killing Off Five Design Myths (in which I...kill off five design myths). This gives me the opportunity to pass on two lessons:

1. Check out Freelance Switch if you happen to work for yourself. It's a consistently solid resource in a world of blah advice sites.
2. This is a great example of how tracking your stats can provide useful information. Simple, yes. But now I know I'm on Freelance Switch's radar, as well as the radar of their thousands (yes, I said thousands) of readers who are specifically interested in graphic design. If you blog, and you don't track your stats, you really ought to start (check out Six Essential Questions for the Business Blogger for more info).

Thanks, FS!

Six Essential Questions for the Business Blogger

Six Essential Questions for the Business Blogger is now available in the Articles section!

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been toying with the idea of starting a business blog, or if you’ve been feverishly blogging about your company’s widgets for years: you have plenty more to learn. A quick look through Google’s list of “business blogs” reveals some common problems: lack of activity, poor readership and appalling representations of the businesses they’re meant to promote. These issues do more than render a company blog ineffective; they can do real harm by giving potential customers the impression that the business simply can’t be bothered to get it right... [Read the full article]