We tend to be acutely aware that the quality of so much of the “stuff” we have in our lives is deteriorating.  As I’ve written in connection with the wonderful series The Story of Stuff, this is due in large measure to planned obsolescence; manufacturers go to great pains to build things that will fall apart, but not so  soon that customers will become so furious as to never buy from them again.  I’ve come to learn that this is a modern-day art-form.

On the other hand, since I’ve promised to put on a happier face, let me point out that the quality of other things in our lives is actually going through the roof. The example most people might think of first in this connection is technology, especially health care and communications. We live longer, healthier, and far more connected lives than anytime in the past.

But another good, though often overlooked area of improvement is the quality of the messages we receive. Here in the U.S., it’s time for the baseball playoffs. Though I’m not a huge fan, it’s one of the few times a year that I watch a bit of commercial television – including the advertisements. I can’t believe how well they’re made. Here’s an ad for Chevy Trucks  that brought a tear to my eyes! That doesn’t happen often, I can assure you.

What’s the reason for this increase in the quality of messaging? Necessity. People have become tough to reach — and even tougher to impress — and only the best messages have any chance of making an effect upon their intended recipients. 20 years ago, I ran a marketing services company with, at one point, over 200 employees. My people could call into a Fortune-sized company, ask a live receptionist for the Chief Information Officer, CFO, or whatever, and have a decent chance of getting him on the phone. Today, you won’t even get a name, or a transfer of your call to one of a phalanx of administrators that guard him.

In response, advertisers and PR professionals have raised their standards, communicating at a deeper, more personal, high-impact level. This whole phenomenon has certainly forced me to step up my game when I write an article, a business plan, or a white paper. Casual blog posts (like this) may go out in a hurry, but I really sweat over the content I write for clients. It’s the only way I can compete against the people who made that Chevy commercial, I can assure you.  If you’re watching the playoffs, you know what I mean.

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I had a talk just now with an old friend — an extremely senior business visionary who helped me put a few things into perspective about the innovations that are reshaping our world. Coming out of decades of work for Deloitte Consulting and other top names in strategy, she explained:

There’s the BUY-side, the supply chain, which has been quite important through the last few decades. A change in tax law, for example, can mean huge savings by completely re-constructing this part of the business. However, it’s not where the energy is today.

There’s the IN-side, the core business. Here are all the changes you’re making within the enterprise. Again, not where the world’s attention is aimed now.

And there’s the SELL-side. This, of course, was always important – but now it’s where the world is truly focused.Apple doesn’t manufacture anything, but they’re the brand that owns the customer relationship. All the investment being made in smart-phone apps – for example, all the concentration of Kleiner Perkins and other VCs in this area is based on the notion that the future of business is relevance to the customer, not so much difference from what competitors are offering.

Customers ask: “How can this app give me good advice that is relevant to what I want? I don’t want to see ads; I want real assistance.”

Look at the concept of innovation. Obviously the “nov” in innovation means “new,” but the “in” really means “introduction.” Netflix introduces itself as a new TV channel. That’s far more important than building new things; look at MGM that just went bankrupt for want of a way to introduce its assets to its customers.

Certainly, the concept of relevance to customers is what it’s really about. The fact that this has taken a distinctly digital twist, with our myriad mobile Internet access devices, is interesting — but it’s hardly the complete story.

Whenever we devise campaign strategies for our clients, it’s always about the unmet need vis-a-vis the customer’s lifestyle. As I’m fond of saying, “It’s not about us; it’s about them.”  We refer to this as customer-focused marketing.

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Vision Motors is in the process of bringing us on board to do some marketing work for them.  This will truly be a labor of love; I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the task of promoting a company with a terrific product that, I believe, will essentially sell itself. 

I developed an instant affinity for the company’s CEO, Brooks Agnew, when I first met him in Charlotte, NC last year.  He’s sharp, likeable, treats people well, and carries himself with a bearing of success.  It’s always best to work with people that you personally respect and admire. 

Here’s a paper he just sent me that explains the company’s approach.  I think readers will find it quite informative about the nature of the electric vehicle market and the direction that he (and I) believe it will be taking. 

Catching up with Vision Motor Cars

(By Staff)

 Two years ago, VMC founders introduced their all electric pickup truck called the Everest.  Once poised to begin production the Spring of 2010 from their Williamsburg, Kentucky plant utilizing what everyone thought was going to be strong government support for electric vehicles, VMC had to make a change in plans.  The DOE’s now well-known policy that small business has no business building electric vehicles forced VMC to find other sources of funding.  You would think that with 150 thousand orders for their vehicles that it wouldn’t take long to find a solid source of funding, but as the independent electric car makers of American unanimously testify, the DOE’s commitment to electric vehicles turned out to be a whole lot of clucking without seeing any eggs.  There now appears to be financial light at the end of the tunnel for VMC, and none too soon for the American automobile consumer.  VMC is hopeful there are other independent electric car makers who are able to negotiate past the carnival of political and financial opportunists and get their vehicles to the American market.

Common sense has rarely been a design philosophy in the automotive industry.  Detroit’s relentless development horsepower is like bringing thoroughbred racehorses to a petting zoo.  The vast majority of production vehicles shading showrooms all over the world are quite capable of burning rubber past every traffic law on the books before getting out of second gear.  While required to comply with federal safety standards crafted for collisions of less than 35 miles an hour, they’re spending billions to build cars that go zero to one hundred to zero in less than 20 seconds.

 Drivers overcome by the temptation to press the skinny pedal hard enough to take advantage of Detroit’s adrenalin infused fuel management programs have been almost immediately hammered by a revenue-hungry law enforcement community.  And after painfully paying the judge, the insurance companies will come along and spank that rash for another couple of years.  Does it make any sense to design TV commercials featuring a tire-smoking, sideways drifting sedan to a buyer who can’t afford to pay their kid’s tuition because of high fuel prices?  No.  It doesn’t.  Maybe this is why the Detroit buggy whip makers needed a $40 billion bailout that was never repaid to the taxpayers.

High-horsepower, internal combustion engines aren’t wanted by American consumers anymore.  It isn’t safety that they’re thinking about.  It’s their wallets.  And while idling police cruisers lurk in the hiding places along the highway, the revenue from citing drivers is so low that homeowners are facing higher taxes to come up with the shortfall.  People are driving the speed limit, and it’s costing Detroit a fortune. 

There are other American budgetary decisions that are changing the market.  Fuel prices have finally become so painful, that American consumers are looking for alternatives.  No, they’re not ready for public transportation.  They are, however, ready for electric cars.

That’s precisely why Vision Motor Cars refused to give up.  Seasoned automotive engineering experts inside VMC have designed an affordable electric vehicle that drives and costs the same as a gasoline-powered vehicle.  Most electric vehicles are like golf carts with doors.  Their solid light-duty pickup truck has proven it can work hard day after day hauling payloads of up to one thousand pounds and yet can achieve ranges of one hundred miles or more on a single charge.  Their Omni-Charge^tm system recharges 100% recyclable batteries six ways, including being able to plug into any available source of electricity or recharging from sunlight.

VMC has an open-door policy to any innovation in energy storage, generation, and management.  They have crafted a new product develop strategy that allows leading edge technology to get into the car in months, not years.  While Detroit’s designs are leftovers from five-year-old DOE grant programs, VMC’s designs are up to the minute.  VMC places a lifetime warranty on their drive train.  There are no belts, hoses, water, oil, and only a few moving parts which make the annual maintenance costs a fraction of those of other electric vehicles.  The motors are designed to last for 50 years.  Their digital throttle allows complete programmability for the operation of the vehicle.  That means the driver can configure their vehicle any way they like.  It’s freedom to perform.  It’s freedom from shoveling the planet into the gas tank and burning it.  It’s freedom.

VMC is targeting the average consumer with designs that makes sense and look good.  VMC’s website traffic was so high it crashed GoDaddy’s servers with their  first announcement on national radio.  While the major car makers are trying to ensnare consumers with zero margin vehicles and a pay-to-drive charging grid revenue model, VMC provides the freedom to recharge anywhere, anytime, and by whatever means the consumer desires.

The Company’s founder, Brooks Agnew, believes that when consumers are provided an affordable electric vehicle that soothes the withdrawal from gasoline addiction with equivalent performance, they will drive away from the showroom happy.  He also believes the market is so large that independent electric car makers should stop eating each other’s young and work together to develop this supply chain that is traditionally not automotive.  VMC’s confident it will take ten major manufacturers to even scratch the surface of the electric vehicle market, but he cautions that people will not pay to charge, and they will not pay the equivalent of five or ten year’s worth of gasoline in price of the car.  Working Americans will be looking for an excuse to leave the showroom if the price exceeds $25,000. 

VMC’s Plug-and-Play Vehicle^© may be the perfect splash in a pool full of gasoline powered sharks.  And should VMC buyers decide to go after that skinny pedal, at least they’ll have the extra money to pay for playing.  Drive electric.

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In my recommendations, I wrote: The choice should be made in favor of an attractive woman with a youthful appearance, preferably one who is known for a considered, deliberate (rather than frivolous, irresponsible) approach to life.  Though the initial list of candidates is fairly long, it’s gets short quickly once this criterion is applied.  As much as we may admire Dustin Hoffman, I think it goes without saying that the world would much rather imagine Scarlett Johansson lying on a silk sheet; the reader is invited to review this photographic comparison if he’s having trouble agreeing with me here. 

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I believe that the most fundamental ingredient in successful marketing is understanding your target market’s “self-concept.” Generally, people like themselves; they approve of who they are and how they think. And they manifest this self-concept by aligning themselves with brands that reflect that approval back to them. If you doubt this, I offer this simple challenge: write down a few of the values that are at the core of your own self-concept—the beliefs that make you who you really are. I think you’ll find that the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the books you read, etc., are all a very direct reflection of those values.  And no place is this more important than in the marketing of environmentally sustainable products and services.

I know that you and I are are totally wrapped up in the idea of clean energy — both on a personal and professional viewpoint – and I’m cautious about thinking that everyone on Earth is as tuned into this as we are – which is obviously not the case. But each time I wash my 14 year old BMW with its 206,000 miles on it, I remind myself of the promise I made to myself (that I’ll never my another car without a plug on it). I’m SO done with traditional transportation, with defining myself in terms of what I drive, with needing a car that will go 130 MPH, with driving a car that causes a little piece of environmental death each time I step on the gas. I simply can’t help but think that other people must be tired of this stupidity as well.

I believe most of the 25 tips apply fairly well to businesses of all types, but I have to think this concept is even more relevant in the clean energy space. As I’ve written elsewhere, the zeitgeist that surrounds environmental stewardship is probably the most pronounced and sweeping trend of the 21^st century. 

I’m reminded of the seachange that took place in the fur industry in the 1960s, when civilization took hold of the brutality by which minks and chinchillas were slaughtered to make ladies’ coats.  In a very short period of time, women who didn’t get the message and weren’t willing to make this minor sacrifice were regarded as pariahs.  It seems to me that the situation is the same now, with Hummer drivers and others who somehow haven’t developed some level of eco-consciousness. 

In a few words (by no means original), I would say that this consciousness is summed up as:

I live in a world where others’ rights — even the rights of those as yet unborn — are just as important is mine.

I do not own the Earth or any piece of it; I am a caretake of Earth for a short period of time.

I am proud and happy to make sacrifices of my own convenience and comfort to ensure that the world a better place for us all to live — now and forever.

My advice:  Do some research to validate the idea that this spirit is alive in your target customer base.  If it is, work hard to capture the essence of that spirit in your marketing.

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