Primen Study Reveals Techniques to Improve Utility Green Power Marketing
Posted on Saturday, July 17, 2004 @ 19:12:01 UTC by vlad
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Successful advertising campaigns for renewable energy provide valuable insights
Palo Alto, Calif. - July 15, 2004 - Though more than 500 electric utilities currently offer some form of "green power" to their residential customers, the participation rates in most of these programs are disappointingly low, averaging just above 1 percent. However, a select number of utilities defy this trend, with participation rates more than quadruple the average.
Why are some green marketing programs so far ahead of the pack in terms of market penetration? While multiple factors may be at work, superior-quality direct marketing is a big part of the answer, according to a recent study of seven successful green power direct marketing campaigns conducted by Primen, a Boulder-based energy market intelligence company affiliated with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
"Of the roughly 500 utilities in 33 U.S. states that have green pricing programs, the top ten account for 90 or 91per cent of the total market for utility green power," reports Brian Byrnes, Primen's research manager for Renewable Energy and a study co-author. "Clearly, the good programs out there have something to teach."
The study, "Designing Direct Marketing Materials to Sell Green Power," critically examined seven utility direct marketing campaigns to ascertain the common features that generate greater customer responses. The materials, either bill inserts or direct mail pieces, had garnered response rates up to 5.6 per cent, well above industry averages.
"We convened a panel of advertising pros - including both people with green power marketing experience and experts recognized for their understanding of advertising in general - to analyze these ads," says Byrnes, an expert on green power advertising. "Their insights helped us create straightforward guidelines that any utility can follow to develop more effective green power direct marketing campaigns."
The Primen study highlights which specific types of messages will resonate with potential green power customers, and methods for segmenting and targeting markets. For example, utilities should appeal to people's emotions, rather than using rational explanations, when pitching green energy programs. The report also provides guidelines for carefully crafting graphics and text.
Byrnes notes, "In other industries, once someone comes up with a winning idea, others emulate it within months. These leading advertising materials point the way for utilities that want to get the most out of their green marketing efforts."
The study also highlights the importance of testing and refining direct marketing messages. "Too many utilities have wasted money through multiple mailings of direct marketing pieces that didn't get good response rates the first time around," says Byrnes. "This needn't be the case, because direct marketing allows testing and retesting of different concepts and techniques. You can then market the winning combinations heavily to maximize response rates."
With surveys of renewable energy product managers indicating that about two-thirds of utilities have annual marketing budgets of $50,000 or less for their green power offerings, testing - even on a small scale - could help improve marketing penetration. Says Byrnes, "If budgets are that restricted, only the best-executed campaigns can be effective."
The "Designing Direct Marketing Materials" report is exclusively available to subscribers of Primen's Renewable Energy Strategic Service, which offers detailed, ongoing market analysis and comprehensive intelligence on technologies, customers, competitors, and regulatory issues. To request a copy of the report's Executive Summary and Key Findings, visit http://my.primen.com/Registration/pending/signin.asp (registration required), call 877.976.4681, or email ask@primen.com.
Primen (www.primen.com) is an energy market intelligence company that develops, analyzes, and delivers timely information and analysis tools related to electric and natural gas markets, competitors, pricing, and new energy products and services. Primen is a subsidiary of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
EPRI (www.epri.com), headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., was established in 1973 as a non-profit center for public interest energy and environmental research. EPRI's collaborative science and technology development program now spans nearly every area of power generation, delivery and use. More than 1000 energy organizations and public institutions in 40 countries draw on EPRI's global network of technical and business expertise.
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EPRI. Electrifying the World
Visit EPRI's web site at http://www.epri.com
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