ecomagination

January 24th, 2011 • Uncategorized

The first time I heard about GE’s ecomagination initiative was at the 2010 International Business Conference. Kim Warburgton introduced ecomagination, its goals and its impact. Taking advantage of the trend of growing consumer concern about the world’s environmental challenges, ecomagination is GE’s commitment to developing products that meet this concern and the company’s vision of a better world. The program actively promotes the efficient use and management of energy and other resources on a global scale, and represents GE’s move towards investing in clean, energy-efficient products. The mere scale of this initiative is astounding, and its success has driven growth for the company.

With ecomagination, GE hopes to capture the imagination of ordinary people who have innovative ideas about clean energy use. Truly, ecomagination connects seamlessly with GE’s slogan, “imagination at work”. GE is reaching out to consumers who care about sustainability and renewable energy and challenging them to come up with the next big energy-saving idea. Then, GE’s takes the best ideas and puts them to action with tens of thousands of dollars of funding.

After I heard its story, I was very impressed with the concept of ecomagination, and what GE is trying to achieve. To show that they are truly passionate about sustainable business, one of the goals of ecomagination is to reduce GE’s own greenhouse gas emissions. As a company committed to addressing the pressing environmental issues faced by the world today, GE isn’t just standing on the sidelines. It’s striving to reduce its own carbon footprint while developing technologies that will help others conserve. In my opinion, this is successful marketing. They are driving the message to consumers that they are a green company. The way GE is connecting directly with consumers to inspire them with their ecomagination efforts is one of the most successful aspects of this campaign.

The many creative ads and projects GE has come up with for their ecomagination efforts has made it essentially a brand on its own. In sum, GE has successfully merged the green trend with what they do best to provide increased value to consumers and grow their company.

Learn more about ecomagination at http://www.ecomagination.com/.

blog marketing

January 19th, 2011 • Uncategorized

One activity I cannot go a day without doing is following other people’s blogs and sometimes, I find myself checking for new posts obsessively. Silly as it seems, blogging and reading other people’s blogs is possibly the most addicting and entertaining thing one can do on the internet. But why?

Fashion blogs, food blogs, and art blogs – they have become the destinations I frequent the most when I am browsing the internet. You can practically find a blog about anything you enjoy or value in the vast expanses of the internet. This fact is why blogs are so appealing, because people will read posts that relate to their interests. And this is how blogs can be a powerful marketing tool.

Blogs are a way that people can share their ideas and thoughts, whether negative or positive, and  anyone who is online can read them. One of the things marketing aims to achieve is communicating value to consumers. Blogging is a relatively inexpensive way they can reach out to people globally and achieve this. It is also an effective way they can develop two-way communication with customers and further improve their offerings. Perhaps the most astounding thing about blogs is how they can be used as a means of indirect marketing. As consumers use different products and services, they can tell the world about their experience through blogging. And people care about these opinions. This is why I frequent blogs, and why people look up movie critiques posted by reviewers before they decide to see it or not.

It is amazing what changes have taken place over the last decade. I remember when I was a kid, I used to ask my parents when I needed an opinion on something. But today, with access to the internet, finding out what others think about a product, or even what products are available, is only a click away.