The ninth and final day (well maybe…there is a rescheduled day due to the fire on day 3) was delivered by Leigh Ashton, Managing director of The Sales Consultancy. Straight away she set the tone of the day with her positive and direct sales attitude which became slightly infectious after a while, even to a slightly cynical designer like myself. However we quickly realised her presentation style wasn’t by chance, it was a honed and highly developed sales tool.
Get yourself noticed
The first step in any successful marketing/sales plan is to define the key steps you need to reach a goal. Five seems to be the magic number, because as for the 5S system of Lean manufacture, Leigh had also settled on five keys ideas for success. They are as follows:
You can now view Pli’s current range on the Architonic website: this is one of the best international resources for architects and designers to search and specify products for your projects.
Here’s how Architonic describes itself…
About
Even for large firms of architects it is difficult to keep track of the current wealth of materials, furnishings and fittings on the market, not to mention the constant flow of new designs. For private property owners and design enthusiasts it is all the more difficult.
Architonic provides the solution to this problem by constantly monitoring the worldwide market with its team of architects and designers, making it quick and easy for you to find the products selected by the team.
Our aim: the best products, materials, designs and concepts for the best in architecture - always up to date, impartial, selective.
The result: more than 45,000 products from 4,500 designers and 1,400 manufacturers. Every single month more than 230,000 people visit the Architonic site, of whom 68% are architects, interior architects, and planners. About 60% of the visitors come from Europe, 20% from the USA and 20% from Asia and the Middle East.
Architonic AG, which has its head office in Zurich is an internationally-based network consisting of architects, designers, IT experts and marketing professionals. With its contents and concepts Architonic focuses on the generation and distribution of knowledge and information among architects, designers, research and industry.
Over the last two days I attended the first two parts of a pilot programme on New Product Development at the London Metropolitan University. It is a module style course that helps start-ups, furniture designer/makers, and manufacturers pin points weaknesses and develop strengths in their product development. Pli being a company that focuses on effective product development both Christopher and I jumped at the chance to attend the free pilot of this programme.
Day One: Product strategy
We started with an introduction, then quickly moved on to the first module focusing on product strategy. Delivered by Matthew Lewis, from Furniture Works, we went through different elements of product strategy including, market placement and adding value to products. Some of these elements I knew well while others were gems of knowledge that cleared up various confusions I had been “living with” up until now. Read more »
Pli is offering a 20% discount on our Grass media tables through selected online retailers, including Nigel’s Eco Store. To take advantage of this offer–while stocks last–click on the logo.
The Grass media table is designed for modern home interiors. It combines sleek good looks with simply sustainable materials and an affordable price. Grab a bargain.
The ubiquitous Treehugger has invited Jerry Stifelman to write more on green marketing and how we are certainly not going to save the world one cliché at a time. His suggestions are wise and succinct, boiling down more or less to ‘it’s the product, stupid’. If ‘green’ messages are going to work in mainstream markets they must finally advertise products that are good stuff as well as good thoughts.
The winners of the Observer ethical awards seem to bear out this simple truth. Finisterre, the ethical fashion category winner, is a great little company that stands out for me for its customer service and product quality. I bought one of their jackets last year and I soon forgot that their fibres are recycled and their suppliers fair.
Natural Collection, the winning online retailer (which does not, unfortunately, sell furniture) commented at the 2006 awards that they already have the ‘green’ customer’s attention: their website is aimed at mainstream customers with a green interest.
All this good sense brings me back to Pli’s principle: we don’t like ‘green’, we like ‘transparent‘. After an enjoyable day answering tough questions from potential retailers, I’m learning to keep the conversation focused on the benefits for the customer, not so much of the big picture stuff. Nobody’s going to kid them into selling something their customers don’t need. Why should they?
Futerra is a communications agency in London and New York — they specialise in corporate social responsibility. It’s rewarding to follow their thinking and ideas on communications and sustainability. If you are trying to learn the language of sustainable product design and how to communicate it, they’re on your wavelength.
Futerra has recently compiled it thinking on Greenwash…
They neatly summarise the concept of greenwash and why it’s corrosive to sustainable product design. Importantly, they also give you pointers to avoid looking like greenwash when your message really has merit.
(and see Pli’s tagged blog posts here)
Les Mandelbaum, co-founder and president of Umbra, is to our way of thinking. Here are his comments on his company’s sustainable product strategy from the floor of this year’s International Contemporary Furniture Show in New York. The interesting point he makes is that, once you have started down the road to sustainable design and product development, it eventually pervades the whole company and becomes an essential aspect of business and customer relations. The video chops off just when he gets into his stride.
This link came to us via Environmental Leader, a wide-ranging blog site about sustainable strategy for corporations. Worth a look. Read more »
Pli’s latest products are now available through the UK’s leading online sustainable furniture retailers. A group of new and established retailers are offering eco-friendly furniture and homeware for competitive prices and we are really pleased to have been chosen as a supplier to so many already this year.
You can find selected designs from our Grass, Reee, Hoop and Twist ranges at Nigel’s Eco Store, One Eco Home, The Greenhaus and Hidden Art. More retailers will be stocking our products soon and we will be announcing them over the next few weeks.
When researching eco-friendly consumer markets, it’s tough trying to find a balance between the opinions and ideas of enthusiasts, sceptics and the rest of us. The BBC News site has started to aggregate its consumer and industry environmental news into a section called the Green Room.
I think most of my colleagues would agree that encounters with marketers may not always turn out to be the most pleasurable. You might get the feeling that you are being taken for granted. A stereotype is that you are the designer with no clue whatsoever about how to earn money, and if you are a designer with a soft spot for green issues, green designer, that makes you twice naive. Well, there’s now a ‘dictionary’ for you to avoid getting lost in translation: The Green Marketing Manifesto
Inspiration posts