In Focus

More than par for the course

The PGA's new FedEx Cup playoff format was supposed to drive the game to new heights, intensifying competition and increasing fans' interest. Instead it has been derided in the press, and top players have skipped Cup events. Like a well-struck golf shot, new marketing programs are not always a hole-in-one but can be a mixed bag of flawed execution and occasional good fortune. As we look ahead to 2008, effective marketers will avoid the hazards of over-hyped opportunities and focus on the practice that makes perfect, measuring their success one satisfied customer at a time.

Hit the green
Just as hitting greens in regulation is de rigueur for the pros, having a "green" plan is no longer a luxury for any company. Every day, another venerable brand, from Renegade client HSBC to BP, Wal-Mart to Intel, Toyota to Con Edison announces its commitment to creating a more sustainable future. Much of this noise is superficial "green washing," and it delivers modest environmental impact at best. But help is coming via new rating services like B Corporation, which will soon set standards that will have all but the Luddites fighting to prove they are more green than the competition.

As companies like GE announce billions in green-related sales, and others like BP fend off bad eco-press, you might even find a new eco-seat in the boardroom, soon to be known as the Chief Green Officer or CGO. DuPont and Dow Chemical are the first to my knowledge to have such a position, although they refer to them as Chief Sustainability Officers. If you want your brand to be a hit in '08, think green or get ready to be booed off the course.

Author notes: Drew Neisser is president and CEO of Renegade, the New York-based integrated idea agency. Though his golf scores are quite unpredictable, his annual predictions have been above par for the last five years. Read full bio.

 

Comments

Drew Neisser
Drew Neisser January 2, 2008 at 9:42 AM

Richard--I'm not a scientist and I can not offer concrete evidence of man-made global warming. However, it is easy to see man's negative impact on the environment--try taking a deep breath in Beijing or LA without coughing. Even if the cause of global warming is not man-made, why wouldn't we want to reduce carbon emissions, reduce oil consumption, recycle natural resources and reuse whatever we can? The political and economic advantages of reducing oil consumption alone would rationalize an aggressive "green" movement. I'm hard pressed to figure out the harm in promoting greener behavior.

Richard Bramwell
Richard Bramwell January 2, 2008 at 9:08 AM

Judging from the context of your use of the term Luddite, you have inverted its meaning.

Luddites were opposed to technological advances -mainly those associated with the textile industry. They using rationalistic arguments and misleading statistics that would have kept citizens, and especially their children, trapped in impoverished smoky cottages working with hand operated spinning wheels and looms. Children would have had no chance of a better education or of advancing their material lives and happiness.

It is the Greens that that are the Luddites, not those who recognize the falsities that abound in environmentalist arguments. E.g., *anthropogenic Global Warming is a complete Luddite fraud. Tens of thousands of scientists recognize this (http://www.oism.org/pproject/), yet are ignored by the media (and I suppose yourself). Global temperature changes have, again and again, been shown to be driven primarily by such cosmic factors as solar output, cycling orbital and axial shifts in the Earths relationship with the sun, ocean currents and cosmic radiation (which dramatically affects cloud cover). Only 2% of Greenhouse Gases are influenced by human activity, yet the Greens (the true Luddites) would have humanity curtail major aspects of technology and economics to alter a small portion of that 2%. To do so they clamor for a reduction in productive activities that advance human life without meaningful (to mankind) harm to the environment, regardless of the increased cost of living those reductions will cause. Of course, the poor will, yet again, suffer the most..

As a professional biologist, for 30 years, I am embarrassed by the blatant unscientific thinking among so very many of my peers, its support by the media, and the mindless kowtowing of big business --all at the expense of human life and happiness. Even a few hours of due diligence via the Internet would readily demonstrate how unfounded all major environmentalist claims truly are. Few bother. Shame.