Posts Tagged by new energy
Tough Realities – An Apt Description of the Migration to Renewable Energy
| July 7, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
I friend of mine noticed that the concept of “Tough Realities” (as in the title of my report: Tough Realities for Renewable Energy Businesses) resonates with people. I agree. That’s the reason that I’ve subtitled my book (“Renewable Energy — Facts and Fastasies”) as follows: “The Tough Realities as Revealed in Interviews with 25 Subject Matter Experts.”
For pretty-much everyone associated with this industry — and certainly for me — it’s clear that there are indeed Tough Realities faced by those working to drive the migration to clean energy. Nobody who studies this with any level of depth could possibly see this as a walk in the park, where the key players in energy are saying to one another, “May the best man win.” This is a complex story of big money, back-room politics, secrecy, and betrayal. You don’t find multi-trillion dollar industries unfolding without a heavy dose of the worst of cheesey human misbehavior. Now add in the disruptive element, i.e., the fact that “new energy” is a direct threat to “old energy.” For every kiloWatt-hour of solar, we need one fewer kiloWatt-hour from oil and coal.
Hold on to your hats. Sorry to say it, but we haven’t even begun to see the tough realities hit those battling it out in the energy industry.
Related posts:
Clean Energy and Market Research
| March 22, 2010 | Posted by Craig Shields under Renewables - Business |
One of my most important jobs here at 2GreenEnergy is speaking with the few dozen people who call or write each week looking for help with their clean energy projects. I conduct these interviews with an eye toward helping out in some fashion in any of the wide range of disciplines that is represented by our Associates: engineering, IP protection, raising capital, etc. But in truth, my first thought is to look at the caller’s problem as a marketing challenge. In the words of a friend of mine, “I’ve never seen a business problem for which more sales revenue was not the solution.”
In particular, I find myself repeating the same advice: conduct market research. Whether you do it yourself or outsource it to a team like ours, you need to find a rigorous, disciplined way to develop a profound understanding of your target customer segments.
Establish market demand — by segment. What do various kinds of people want? Why do they want it? How and where do they want to buy it? How are their workstyles and playstyles changing in ways that are most relevant to the matter at hand? What are the gut-wrenching emotional issues that are keeping them up at night – and how does what you’re offering address those topics?
I was looking at an old project database the other day and had a realization that made me feel kind of, well, old. Since I started out in the early 1980s, I’ve done more than 800 market research projects — for clients on five continents: IBM, H-P, Sony, 3M, Xerox, Philips, Pioneer, Magnavox, Mitsubishi, Porsche, AT&T, FedEx – not to mention hundreds of smaller, venture-capitalized start-ups and the like. From those research efforts were sprung some of the most well-known – and (at the risk of appearing immodest) most successful, highest-ROI campaigns the business-to-business marketing world has even seen.
If you’d like to discuss your venture in the context of market research, please don’t hesitate to contact us; we’d love to chat about your specific mission.
In fact, feel free to call right now; just hit “contact.” I’m in the office all this week — on and off the phone — as usual.
