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Archives for August 2010

Marketing Fair-Trade Quinoa

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(Note to readers: Today’s post is a rambling observation with a nit while sharing and pushing a dotted line to marketing and social media; blink and you might miss the latter!)

Fair Trade Quinoa Farmers in Ecuador (Wikimedia Commons)

I eat quinoa (keen-wah) every day mixed with steel cut oats, ground flax, walnuts and fresh fruit with a dash of almond milk. This fuels my body until well after noon; however, I try to eat before I get hungry to maintain metabolism. (You can learn more about clean eating from my favorite cookbook author Tosca Reno.)

Quinoa is a complete protein grown in the Andes since 3000 B.C. It’s not always easy to find at the grocer, although I buy from Trader Joe’s and recently at Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati. As a buyer of quinoa for more than a year now, I’m dismayed its price has skyrocketed nearly 50 percent since January.

What’s happening? The classic demand and supply along with Fair Trade and good, solid marketing.

There are now quinoa products coming to our shelves straight from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru; priced higher to accommodate the world’s farmers in developing nations. The word “organic” is included on the packaging, too.

Remember the berry (true or not true?) and the recent pomegranate craze? These high anti-oxidant berries (blueberries, too) raised consumers’ consciousness about free radicals and anti-oxidants in our diets. How did this happen? With good, solid marketing!

I support fair trade, and I also support our need to eat healthier foods without worry from salmonella, pesticide, and other illness resulting from chemical additives. While I’m not a worrier warrior about this, it nags at the back of my head when thinking of food prep for my family.

Glance back above and note the date I shared with you…3000 B.C. That’s when quinoa began its production as “gold of the Incas” and a sacred food. Why has it taken so long to grace our tables in the North? We can thank fair-trade programs that bring more coffee, cocoa, quinoa and other products to consumers across the globe. We can thank social media and the Internet for making the world smaller to inform us about these products.

While that’s all well and good, it also means we pay more for health-oriented items while junk food costs less. Perhaps, there’s more work to be done by good, solid marketing to switch the balance of the previous statement.

What began here as the germ of a quinoa seed, sprouted into more on fair trade, marketing and price. Interesting to me, and perhaps to you, as well. Thanks for stopping by.

That Blogging Voice

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What's Your Voice?

Apparently, “voice” for bloggers is the Holy Grail. To get there as a newbie, you need:

1. Confidence you know what you want to say

2. Ignorance of others’ critiques when you’re having an off day

3. Knowledge about where you’d like to be one day (a few goals are good)

4. Patience and perseverance about design and techy back-end crapola

5. Strength of spirit to plug away as frequently or infrequently as you like

I had a stressful summer as is typical around my life as a working professional and mom. I struggled to manage time with travel, family and a reduced work day. The blog suffered.

Not only wasn’t I posting as regularly, I wasn’t feeling it either; yet, I pushed to post.  A few remarks (see number two above), and my confidence shattered to the point of almost throwing in the towel.

Rather than quit, I wrote (what some called by best post) “Blogging Takes Confidence,” a heartfelt rendition to share I was not on top of my game. Buoyed by support from that post, I am again compelled to tackle the world.

What’s changed?

  • My child is back in school.
  • I’ve regained four to five hours in my work day.
  • My desk is (relatively) clean again.
  • My brain is de-cluttered, and my countenance is calm.

So what is this “voice” thing?

Merely, voice is the confidence to believe what you’ve got to say has merit; to know the criticism of others is not intended to derail you but to help you get over a natural hump or two; it’s the ability to find a diamond in the rough and share it with the world from your own perspective and, well, I think that’s right?

Who is Today’s Entrepreneur?

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My 8-year-old announced she wanted to have a store (after the failed lemonade stand two years ago), so I commenced setting her up with the glass jars I’d been saving for rainy-

For Sale By Jayme's Daughter

day crafts. Her pencil jars are a hit; she’s pocketed $13 plus $.50 for two hand-made magnets.  She has an order for six more.

Now, that’s entrepreneurship.

A client of mine in 2008 declared that no one is an entrepreneur who doesn’t manufacture goods. I took that to heart; in fact, that ruined my impression that I, too, am an entrepreneur.

I’ve been launching companies since 1990; some with employees, health benefits and real office space and others, like Soulati Media, Inc., a virtual public relations firm that hires independent contractors and of which I’m an employee.  Alas, I deliver professional services in public relations, social media and marketing.  I am organized as a corporation and pay appropriate business taxes for my company and my person. I conduct my own business development to make money, and I do the work — you know, chief, cook and bottle washer.

Is that entrepreneurship?

Jobless claims jumped 12,000 to 500,000 last week, according to the U.S. Labor Department. This is the highest level in nine months. The Wall Street Journal (darn, if I can find that piece) recently wrote a story about the link between unemployment and lack of education suggesting a college degree is a must-have.

That said, how many people are starting home-based businesses to find alternative means of earning? This story suggests somewhere in the range of 38 million home-based businesses now exist according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or the U.S. Census Bureau.

Those who launch home-based businesses…are they entrepreneurs?

I don’t much like the definition of entrepreneurship in Wikipedia (and, neither does Wikipedia, if you open this link). How do you define entrepreneurship? The definition is no longer cut and dry.

Greenpeace’s Social Media Win Has Losers

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Rainforest

If you were paying attention to social and traditional media, you will recall the Greenpeace/Nestle global crisis communications situation primarily in March and April this year. I wrote about it here; it was a fascinating study in public relations. (I would’ve liked to have been teaching a PR class when this was unfolding.)   

The issue became quite ugly quite fast when Greenpeace launched a crusade with a viral video accusing Nestle of killing orangutans in the rainforest due to its purchase of palm oil from a company in Indonesia that harvested palm oil from the rainforest and sold it to the likes of Nestle.

Nestle went on the defensive on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media hot spots and garnered thousands of hits to its page. Social media erupted against Nestle, as well, and Greenpeace watched their fireworks for weeks. In spite of Greenpeace’s social media win, the losers are still trying to uncover.

The accused Indonesian company from which Nestle and Unilever had been purchasing palm oil, PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources & Technology (SMART), ceased doing business with the two global giants as a result of the allegations. Unilever had been purchasing 47,000 tons of palm oil from SMART annually.

On August 11, 2010, this headline in the Wall Street Journal grabbed my attention, “Palm Oil Firm Rebuts Greenpeace Claim.” STAR paid to conduct a third-party audit of its estates to determine research “shows the company wasn’t responsible for cutting down forest and destroying orangutan habitat for palm cultivation.”

While I can’t corroborate the research report (Greenpeace is rebutting it), I can give you the skinny:

DAMAGE DONE, GREENPEACE “WINS.”

The public relations and social media strategy behind the Greenpeace maneuvers are amazing; and, they’ve been doing this for years.  These campaigns are the most well-orchestrated on a global scale; why? Because we live in an interconnected world where videos go viral within hours, and instantaneous, real- time, in-bound communication on social networks heightens the crisis to unmanageable proportion.

The tools are available to all the players except STAR. I have not done my research on this company’s mission, values or business philosophy (here’s a link to Business.com with some info). What I can assume is that people in Indonesia lost money and jobs because of this campaign and monkeys perhaps lost homes, too. World-wide, real-time refute via social media of the allegations by STAR were not possible, but the Wall Street Journal provided the company a solid foundation for which to air its side of the story.

As I weave this story again, I’m drawing your focus to the profound impact social media has all companies. Size Doesn’t Matter!! Word-of-mouth marketing is an amazing channel. If you watched the man in the video biting off the finger of an orangutan when he opened a Kit Kat, it’s highly likely you’ll never eat another (uh, chocolate bar).

Awesome Customer Service Story

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eReleases editors welcome Soulati Media, Inc.

Let me tell a story about good customer service.

I fielded a phone call in the spring from a man selling for eReleases. At the time, I didn’t have a need to send a traditional press release on the traditional wires because so much of Soulati Media, Inc. business is oriented to online press releases.

But, I saved his number and phoned him within the last month. After explaining the package levels and how to use the e-Releases services, he informed me he no longer worked at the company. Now, that’s customer service #1!

Recently, I used the company’s services and was pleased to be able to distribute my story on the PR Newswire for 2/3 the cost; cool. Afterward, a welcome note comes in the snail mail with $100 coupon and hand-written ideas from the editors on staff suggesting other ways I might consider writing a follow-up story. Now, that’s customer service #2!

Today, trolling through my in box of 7,000+ horrid emails, I found a note from the editorial staff of e-Releases with a clever, funny, happy photo of the gang there welcoming me to the e-Releases family. See the photo above; you can’t miss the feel-good customer service of that effort  (sent to me a month ago, sadly; but, I still saw it!). Now, that’s customer service #3!

So, what’s the summary here?

  • Welcome new customers into the mix in a personalized way.
  • Welcome new customers into the mix with a coupon for the next purchase.
  • Welcome new customers into the mix in a clever way that brings a smile.

Thanks, e-Releases, for some amazing customer service to cut through the clutter of every-day online life.

What awesome addition can you make to this story about customer service over and above?