CleanTech WebLog

I had the opportunity to volunteer this year with the California Clean Tech Open, a business plan competition in which fledgling cleantech businesses in six categories compete for a total of $600K in awards. The competition’s goal is to provide the winners in each category with the necessary support to get their idea from concept to business reality. The competition culminated last night in a gala event at the Palace of Fine Arts, where the winners were announced and awarded their prizes. (For a list of the winners, and specifics on sponsors and prizes, see http://www.cacleantech.com).

The awards ceremony was the finishing touch on months of education and preparation by the various teams to compete for the big prize, sponsored by AMD, Google, PG&E, Lexus, and others. The sponsors all spoke at the awards event and demonstrated a level of commitment to sustainability and new technologies that surprised many in the audience. It was a great event, and it’s been gratifying to witness the kind of innovation that I’ve seen throughout this competition.

All of these companies have a commitment to change the world. Winner Microvi Biotech, with clean water solutions exemplifies this, as does BuildFast, which supplies a quickly-erected housing kit for disaster relief. Innovations in consumer packaging, transportation, and renewable energy all had a place in the finalist offerings, and it is hugely exciting to imagine the impact that these businesses will have.

One of the greatest challenges for any startup is to find qualified advisors to guide them through the process of writing a solid business plan that tells a compelling story about their potential for marketability and funding. The participants in the California Cleantech Open had a great opportunity to be mentored and educated by industry professionals around the topics of sales, marketing, financial planning, and presentation. It’s an all-volunteer organization, and I am extremely impressed by the quality and quantity of education made available to these contestants.

Winning the prize was great, but available only to a few; the education and exposure received by all is an invaluable springboard to moving their businesses forward.

In August and September of this year, full-page ads appeared in my town’s local newspaper, the Los Altos Town Crier. “Brilliant!” I thought, after glancing through the ad.

The headline was targeted specifically at Los Altos and Los Altos Hills residents and contained a simple call to action: “Act Now and Save 15-20% on a Solar Power System.” It further stated that the “Promotion Ends September 28^th.” The ad contained an invitation to attend a “workshop” at the local community center and requested that attendees register online at the SolarCity website. Further down the page, the ad offered readers a free site evaluation and gave a toll-free number.

So what’s so brilliant about that? Well, it turns out that in order to achieve the discount, “the aggregate total of resident purchases of solar systems through 9/28/07″ must exceed 175kW per city. This is viral marketing at its best. It’s in the buyer’s best interest to make sure that their friends and neighbors buy a solar system, too. Then everyone benefits. Solar City calls this its “Community Solar Program.” Apparently, this promotion has been quite successful. So far the company has met its installation targets in 9 of the 12 “solar cities” listed on its website and is currently rolling the program out to three additional cities.

There are several things about the program that make it effective and worthy of our marketing admiration. Including even a few of these key elements in a marketing program can supercharge it. The program:

1. creates an impending event, a clear deadline for purchasing
2. stimulates viral marketing by appealing to the purchaser’s own self-interest
3. could potentially pre-empt competitors (if SolarCity essentially gathers all prospects into a buying group)
4. generates local reference accounts that are often literally just down the street
5. employs three different ways to directly capture prospect names (workshop attendance, workshop registration and calling for free site evaluation)
6. results in an impressive list of community testimonials and highlighted “solar champions.”

Not only is this marketing program seemingly quite effective, it also has to be pretty efficient for the company. When the bright green van with the SolarCity logo emblazoned on the side cruises through the neighborhood, it’s reaching exactly the right eyeballs. In addition, there may be operational efficiencies associated with installations that are geographically clumped together. And the company recently hired one of its customers and most ardent “solar champions,” Bruce Karney, to fulfill the role of Community Programs Marketing Manager. There’s hiring efficiency for you!

Everybody wins. The company wins customers. Customers win discounts. The community wins a small sense of pride. The environment wins a gentler carbon footprint.

If you know of other cleantech marketing innovations – whether in the business-to-consumer or business-to-business space, send your stories our way.

If you are an entrepreneur, executive, investor or service provider involved in the cleantech industry, this blog will be of interest to you. We define cleantech as technology that enables or facilitates efficient use, re-use, recycling or conservation of natural resources.

The authors of the blog, Kathleen Gilligan and Karen “KJ” Janowski, have lived and worked in Silicon Valley for many years, helping technology companies launch their products, increase their market share, and create dependable, predictable revenue streams. We share a long-time interest in the environment and sustainability.

Our topic areas will apply to this emerging sector, the sales, marketing and business principles we know through experience. We’ll explore issues of how cleantech companies are similar and different from other technology companies, and which marketing and sales practices have worked for those cleantech organizations that are experiencing success. Other topic areas will include strategies to generate and increase revenue, choosing sales channels, knowing your market, opportunities and pitfalls in promoting cleantech products, pricing your products and winning against the competition.

We will address these topics and others through news, opinions, interviews and tips. Your contributions and ideas are welcome!

Kathleen & KJ