The green and cleantech economy has reached a ‘tipping point,’ driven by fears of global warming and rising energy costs. We have all witnessed the explosion of media attention promoting cleantech, advanced energy and an emerging green economy. Clearly this has to be more than marketing buzzwords. Sustainability and environmental responsibility will transform the consumer landscape.
Consumers in the marketplace will not just simply “go green” or upgrade to cleantech products and services because it’s “the right thing to do.” Cleantech and advance energy brands and services providers will have to become masters of delivering the right value proposition to customers in the marketplace at right price if they expect to be relevant in the looming market share war.
Many of the first early adopters, energy brands, and cause messengers of cleantech, for the most part have been swallowed up by poor economic conditions. Others, as in the case of Solyndra, fell victim to mismanagement. Just a few have been able to breakthrough the noise and clutter by using the only tool that has ever moved minds, changed behaviors and shape markets, direct sales and marketing.
The cleantech market share wars are quickly approaching and are the battles to be had on the front lines of direct sales and marketing. Success will rest largely on the ability of manufacturers and service providers to implement the right online sales and marketing strategy coupled with the right offline direct sales and marketing approach, delivering an effective value proposition.
Market wars are brutal; there are winners, losers and collateral damage. Winning and losing always comes with consequences. In this case, winning means transforming the economy, creating the next generation of jobs and spreading sustainable practices throughout the global marketplace. Winning the cleantech and advance energy war is a call to arms for manufacturers and service providers to perfect their ability to deliver the green and sustainable economy value proposition to the customer in the marketplace in ways where the customer is present to both the cost saving opportunities of upgrading and the environmental responsibility to future generations.
Like the transformative economic periods that came before it, the cleantech and advance energy economy market share war winner will no doubt be cast in the role of an unlikely hero; full of potential to contribute something truly meaningful to the global economy and the environment and in the process, making a whole lot of green.
