Could AT&T’s Digital Life Make the Smart Grid “Smart” for Consumers?

One of the biggest challenges smart grid implementations face is that utilities and other stakeholders have done a poor job of bringing consumer benefits to life. The ability to monitor and control home energy usage is what consumers seek, and that’s what’s lacking in smart grid rollouts. Some companies have started to rollout pieces, but the technology infrastructure to tie this all together and company to drive adoption has been absent— until now.

Enter AT&T.

Digital Life Suite, AT&T

It’s called the Digital Life Suite, and it brings security and home automation to AT&T customers. While I am guessing that the suite was meant to grab share from ADT and local security companies, home automation could be a huge driver for this product. After all, it does have the ability to activate appliances from a mobile device, and it could:

• work with other devices for energy measurement
• tie into smart grid information and give consumers real-time data
• provide accurate information on how much energy is used by appliances
• offer tips on optimizing energy usage

Given the low trust that many energy providers have, I’d partner with AT&T to promote smart grid benefits and let their brand cache help drive adoption and reduce consumer doubts. This could be a game-changer.

Digital Life Suite Links: http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=22821&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=34415, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHUP8UMAE8Q, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySpaGgj5U70&feature=related

Questionable practices to acquire electricity customers tarnishes the industry

Last week a Chicago Tribune  article reported on the onslaught of marketing activity by retail energy providers to acquire individual customers before municipal aggregration is awarded. These bulk contracts with power companies are currently in various phases of the bidding process in approximately 250 municipalities throughout Illinois. 

Trying to sign up individual home owners before aggregation contracts go into effect is a sound strategy. But not if it ruins your brand in the process.  Turns out, many suppliers are enlisting the help of door-to-door companies to switch residents and these contracted sales representatives are employing  questionable practices.  In fact, many are going so far as to imply that they are associated with the municipality. 

The article went on to report that the response from independent energy providers to complaints from prospective customers was that while they don’t approve of misleading tatics, they need to compete during this short window of opportunity and hard sell tactics are a necessity. 

At the root of this problem is that many of these energy providers are being characterized as fly-by-night, unknown companies.  And while most had the opportunity to enter the Illinois market last year, few took the time to build their brand, gain awareness and earn consumer trust before launching aggressive switch campaigns.  It’s a classic marketing mistake.  Companies increasingly view marketing as a silver bullet they hope will immediatley solve all their sales problems instead of understanding that recognition, relevancy and differentiation must be established in the minds of the consumer in advance of a sale.   

Our hope is that post-aggregation, building a brand becomes the new normal for energy providers.  However,  for many, repairing their brands’ reputation and regaining  respectability will have to come first.

So you want to be a Twitter expert: Part 2

Post 2 of 4: How to keep track of followers.

In my last post, I mentioned keeping track of users: who’s unfollowing, tweeting etc. If you found yourself worried, then this is where the good news comes in: you don’t have to do it by hand.

There are actually free —yes, FREE— programs that do it for you. But just like anything else online, you have to know where to look. Here’s a quick list to get you started:

ManageFlitter
Refollow
TweetSpinner
DoYouFollow
JustUnfollow
Twitter Karma
iunfollow

Now, there are some upsides and downsides to all of these tools. I could list what they are, but I find that people have different preferences. What I may consider a negative, may not be one to you. So as a marketer (or just as a social network user), you will have to test out each one until you find the one that meets your needs.

If I had to pick one myself, ManageFlitter does the job. It takes a bit longer to load then the rest, but it also lists who’s inactive and without a picture which, more often than not, turn out to be those pesky spam bots.

Quick Tip of the Day: When unfollowing a lot of people, reduce your screen to 50 percent. You’ll get more people in your view, allowing you to click down the list quicker.

Exciting New Ecosystem for Energy Efficiency

Want to see how much money is seeping out of your home in the form of energy waste? Essess, a startup in Massachusetts, is working to make it easy.

Essess is building a huge database of building photographs using multi-spectral thermal cameras. Similar to Google Street View, you may eventually be able to see your house – or any building you are considering buying – to assess its energy efficiency in full color…in fact the brighter the color, the bigger the energy waste.

Essess has also developed applications that will provide energy reports
pinpointing areas of concern and calculating the financial and environmental cost. The ultimate vision is to build an ecosystem within real estate databases like Zillow that will connect you with professionals and contractors who can help you improve energy efficiency.

Only about 10% of US addresses will be in the database by the end of the year, so it may be a while before this service is promoted. After the launch, will Essess also come out with proprietary marketing services and tools that will be attractive to contractors, energy efficiency specialists, utilities and retail energy providers alike? Time will tell.

Consumers flocked to Zillow and Google Street View when those sites launched, and people couldn’t wait to share their experience with others. We would expect just as much buzz around the launch of this service. By helping to build a collective culture of energy conservationism, while also growing demand for energy-related services, Essess has hit upon a brilliant and potentially lucrative concept. Congratulations, and good luck to them!

Almonds Get a Heart-Healthy Checkmark from the American Heart Association

Whenever someone travels to my hometown, I always make sure they take a bag of almond chocolates for my Dad. Why almond chocolates? It’s because my father can’t resist his sweet tooth nor can he live without the crunchy texture that comes with almonds. He’s so particular about that crunch that, if I forget almonds in his gifts, I’ll get an email reminding me to “shop better” next time.

Such is the wisdom of fathers and, apparently, the American Heart Association (AHA) agrees.

This February, AHA has certified almonds with its signature Heart-Check mark to signify their approval of almonds as a heart-healthy food. AHA’s Heart-Check mark is one of the most consumer-trusted nutrition symbols on packaged foods. One study found that more than half of shoppers use the Heart-Check mark when purchasing a new product. If consumers haven’t already been swayed by the nutritional tributes of almonds, they can now easily identify almonds as a smart choice.

Nearly two decades of research have shown almonds to be one of the most outstanding nuts available to consumers. In fact, since 2003, the Food and Drug Administration approved a strong health claim regarding almonds: “Scientific evidence suggests, but does not prove, that eating 1.5 ounces per day of most nuts, such as almonds, as a part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.”

Jenny Heap, MS, RD Health Professional Marketing Manager at the Almond Board of California agrees that the AHA Heart-Check mark is a positive step. Heap says, “Now consumers will be able to more easily identify almonds in the supermarket as a heart-smart food, helping take the guess work out of shopping.”

Likewise, Al Greenlee, North American Retail Marketing Director at Blue Diamond Almonds, the world’s biggest almond supplier and a CBD Client, couldn’t agree more. Greenlee believes that it’s important to communicate to consumers where and how they can substitute healthier options in their diets: “By featuring the mark on our Blue Diamond Almond packaging and citing the certification in our advertising, we will help the AHA to communicate the importance to eating smart and becoming active to consumers in North America.”

In my opinion, Blue Diamond’s AHA Heart-Check mark couldn’t have come at a better time. The National Center for Health Statistics lists heart disease as one of the leading health concerns affecting baby boomers. I’m looking forward to AHA Heart-Check mark to remind me to choose healthier eating options – both for my father and myself. With almonds on my mind, I know Dad will be glad to know that I won’t forget to get them with his chocolates.

So you want to be a Twitter expert: Part 1

 Post 1 of 4: Developing legitimate followers

You’ve created your Twitter account and now you’re wondering what to do. Obviously, you want to gather a following, but that’s easier said than done. Some users make it a habit of unfollowing. Others pretend not to know the meaning of the word “participate.”

Naturally, the question arises: how does one develop a social network and make it, well, social?

The first step is laying down ground rules. In your Twitter description, tell others “how it is” without sugar coating it. Say that you only follow those who follow back or that you will block users who spam. The more open you are, the more others will be open with you.

The second step is figuring out who your target audience is. No doubt you know of Twitter’s #Discover button (If you haven’t, this would be your cue to take a look!) and how it recommends accounts you might like. Take a look around. Visit some pages. Note their last post, and get in the habit of constantly asking questions.

Were their posts recent? Did anybody respond?

If the answer is “Yes,” great… but don’t give in to clicking that follow button immediately.  Start a conversation with the user. Let them know that you are the type of person who cares about his or her audience. Only then will clicking  result in a mutual action.

Now, I know some of you may not have the time. And that’s what social media often boils down to -investing hours. So, if you’re the type of person who wants to develop fans quickly without actually becoming a social media manger, then perhaps you should look into different practices.

One suggestion is that you follow all the accounts you like, and keep a record of them. At the end of each day, give a “shout out” to those users. Tweet something like “@cbdmarketing Loved your tweets today; hope you follow back,” and you might find yourself surprised at the results. By simply following the users who respond and unfollowing those that don’t, your fan base will increase.

Sometimes, it really is that easy.

But regardless of which route you choose, keep in mind that the takeaway is always the same. If you give users publicity, they will return the favor. That’s the truth. Users love being mentioned online. I mean, don’t you?

Quick Tip of the Day: Some of you may be managing or participating on social media platforms for your company. Having your own Twitter account and learning how to navigate that platform will help you appreciate why Twitter for business can be such a great tool.