TakeBack America: Making the Case

Oct 30 2009 ∞

From E-Wonderland to E-Wasteland

Although the U.S. is one the world’s largest producers of electronic waste (e-waste), it is hardly a leader in addressing this problem, given that the country has “no legally enforceable federal policies requiring comprehensive recycling of e-waste or elimination of hazardous substances from electronic products,” the researchers say.

Instead, the U.S. government has largely delegated e-waste decision making to the states, where only 19 have e-waste laws (rules are pending in 14 others). “When you have different states having different policies, it’s very difficult to give manufacturers guidance regarding how to design their products or create take-back programs,” says Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of the University of California, Irvine’s Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention and a researcher on the project…

The researchers express concern that without a cohesive national policy, the e-waste problem will get worse. They estimate that obsolete devices in U.S. households add up to 747 million pieces of potential e-waste—more than 1.36 million metric tons. They are destined for countries such as Africa, China and India, where markets thrive for second-hand electronics and the devices’ valuable source materials (such as copper and iron).

Read Dr. Ogunseitan’s article published in Science magazine, The Electronics Revolution: From E-Wonderland to E-Wasteland.

Oct 28 2009 ∞

2010: The Year of the Good Idea

10 Integrated Marketing Trends from The Marketing Democracy:

1. Less will get done until we learn to do more with less.

2. Marketers will mistakenly ‘whack’ a medicum of the marketing mix.

3. Marketers rush to employ ’social networking’ strategies.

4. More data but even less ‘understanding.’

5. Lines between media will continue to blur.

6. Push vs. pull will become less relevant.

7. Great content will travel at the ’speed of share’ while ‘average’ experiences will evaporate.

8. The adult 18-49 demo will become even less relevant as a target cohort.

9. Symbiosis will create interesting and - at times strange - partnerships.

10. 2010 will become the year of the good idea.

Oct 26 2009 ∞

“ Do we siphon more of our (marketing) budgets from traditional media to feed the great online monster? ….our call-to-action is less about a medium switch and more about a change of method and mindset… Television is alive and well for advertisers who innovate and collaborate.

— Codeword: Partnership | The Hub Magazine

Oct 19 2009 ∞

Omaha.com - The Omaha World-Herald: Money - Businesses urged to get involved in USPS restructuring

When the president for the Association of Postal Commerce speaks in Omaha next Thursday, he will tell the business people in the audience that it’s time they tell Congress what they need and what they’ll pay for from the Postal Service. Like roads, the postal system is part of the nation’s infrastructure, but the country needs to decide how it should be organized and paid for, in light of today’s economy and increasingly popular electronic communication, Gene Del Polito said by phone from Washington, D.C. Del Polito, who has advocated for the mailing needs of business and commerce for 25 years, will be the keynote speaker at the Omaha Postal Customer Council Mailers Conference. The event, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., will be held at the Embassy Suites in La Vista. U.S. Postmaster General John Potter said recently that the Postal Service may face deficits of $5 billion or more annually unless lawmakers ease restrictions and let the agency operate more like a business. Advertising “We have to make some important public-policy decisions about the future of the Postal Service,” Potter said in a prepared speech this month before the National Press Club in Washington. “We’re facing cost requirements that just can’t be squared with the reality of the business.”

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Motorola's turnaround effort includes Facebook, Twitter | Chicago Tribune

“[Social media] engagement between us and the consumer has changed,” said Erick Soderstrom, Motorola’s vice president of marketing. “It used to be megaphone, megaphone, barter. Now it’s collaboration and conversation all the way through, and it has to be much more persuasive. You have to live in that space and be pervasive, but not intrusive.” Soderstrom said the company is ramping up cautiously. In June, Motorola launched an official page on Facebook and two Twitter accounts, one geared toward Android software developers and one for consumers that talks up new products and answers questions.

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Coupons Dictate Shopping Patterns For 1/3 Of Consumers | MediaPost

The Second Annual Benchmark Survey on Consumer Coupon Behavior, conducted by HarrisInteractive for RetailMeNot, found that consumers are increasingly defining their spending habits by whether or not retailers offer coupons:

30% of online adults will not make a purchase at an online store if they can’t find a coupon for that store, up from 27% in 2008
22% of online adults will go to a different store to make that purchase, up from 20% in 2008, while 8% will wait until a coupon is available to make the purchase (same in 2008)

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NBC Universal Tees Up Cause-Related Shows

With ad spending still in the doldrums, NBC Universal has won some extra business by offering marketers the chance to hitch their products to programs promoting a cause or health or social issue.

The General Electric unit is increasingly creating programs across its broadcast, cable and online properties—and packaging existing episodes—that promote a specific cause, such as the environment.

It is touting these issue packages as a way for marketers to better target their ads and product placements. Last week, the company, which is currently the subject of deal talks between GE and cable giant Comcast, announced its latest cause: health and wellness, with a focus on obesity. It is starting to sell ad time on programs based on those themes after previously offering similar packages tied to the environmental movement and women’s issues.

Oct 11 2009 ∞

Manufacturer Interstate Takeback System Debuts in Washington | EWORLDWIRE

E-World Online announces August 11 the debut of the Manufacturer Interstate Takeback System (MITS).

Conceived and developed by E-World Online, with direction from Sony Electronics, the system will perform multiple functions: tracking the collection, transportation and responsible recycling of household, small business and small government electronics waste in various extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs throughout the U.S.

MITS is currently looking for service partners to sign up as collectors within the state of Washington for 2010.

The MITS program is ultimately a national solution for manufacturers of electronics to effectively handle EPR programs. MITS simplifies electronics recycling for consumers, collectors and recyclers, by offering a fully integrated, simple and convenient electronic information exchange customized for the industry. This highly advanced online system bridges the geographical gaps for transparency in global recycling. All data is tracked and recorded in real time, giving MITS partners a clear, concise and transparent approach to seeing what has been collected, transported and recycled. MITS intends to expand reach nationwide, one state at a time.

Washington is the first independent state plan filed by the MITS Group which is seeking partners to act as collection points for scrap TVs, monitors and computers. Responsible recyclers with R2 and RIOS compliant operations that can demonstrate full knowledge of its downstream processors and compliance with international standards are encouraged to participate.

MITS was established to integrate into the E-Cycle Washington program, and it is poised to follow multiple state initiatives as they come online in the near future.

Additional information on how to manage other types of electronic waste is also found on MITSecycle.com (‘http://www.MITSecycle.com’).

Upon state approval of the MITS plan, consumers in Washington State can, beginning in January 2010, simply go to ‘http://www.ecyclewashington.org’ or use the zip code finder for the nearest drop-off location on ‘http://www.MITSecycle.com’. Once a location is selected, recycling is easy. Consumers take their old televisions, monitors and computers - regardless of brand, to any other MITS collection partners. Sony and ViewSonic will pay all recycling fees and de-manufacturing costs.

Interested parties wanting to earn extra money collecting old TVs and computers are encouraged to notify MITS and sign up as a collector. It’s as easy as visiting www.MITSecycle.com and clicking the “collector registration” link. Fax and e-mail are also available for sign up. MITS has a goal of signing up more than 100 collection points by Nov. 1, 2009. The MITS system will be fully operational by year’s end.

“It is Sony’s goal to provide consumers with a convenient, sustainable solution for recycling electronic products,” said Doug Smith, director, Sony Electronics with management oversight for the company’s corporate environmental initiatives. “We look forward to using the MITS system and to making recycling unwanted electronics easier for consumers.”

E-Cycle Washington is the newest statewide recycling program available to consumers in Washington State. Households, schools and school districts, charities, small businesses and small governments are eligible to participate in this manufacturer funded program for the recycling of computers, monitors and TVs. Details about the program are available at ‘www.ecyclewashington.org’.

The customized data system from E-World Online is created with years of experience in the electronic recycling industry, and accommodates the needs of all users - the consumer, the service providers, and the manufacturers. “E-World is dedicated to using all of our resources, and modern technology, to create a sustainable recycling system,” says Bob Erie. “Our vision is to be a leader within the electronic recycling industry, promoting and maintaining the highest level of environmental integrity and product stewardship, while reducing costs and increasing revenues for all of our partners. E-World will provide immediate reporting, compliance and personal attention to the specific needs of our clients.”

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“

Two trade groups, the Consumer Electronics Association and the Information Technology Industry Council, are suing New York City over its recycling law, which will make electronics manufacturers provide free collection of electronics weighing more than 15 pounds. That includes “orphan” waste made by now-defunct manufacturers.

The groups contend the law, which requires detailed paper trails documenting their recycling, will cost their member companies more than $200 million annually.

Parker Brugge, the Consumer Electronics Association’s vice president of environmental affairs and industry sustainability, said the states’ laws burden manufacturers with drafting state-specific recycling plans. His group would prefer a national e-waste law that sets a uniform policy and spreads the responsibility of recycling among companies, consumers and local governments.

Barbara Kyle, national coordinator of the Electronics Takeback Coalition, a group that promotes e-waste recycling, thinks manufacturers really want a national policy with less teeth than the state laws.

“They talk about how much they want a federal bill, but what they want is a weak federal bill. They don’t want to have to do what the state laws are making them do,” she said. Several e-waste bills have been introduced in Congress over the years but none has passed.

In April, the House authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to award grants promoting e-waste recycling. The Senate has not yet voted on it.

— Increasingly, States Push for E-waste Recycling | Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Managing beyond Web 2.0 | McKinsey Quarterly

As markets morph into Web 2.0 “conversations” and consumers gain much greater freedom to pursue their own interests, customers are doing things that online marketing managers don’t necessarily want—or expect—them to do. For example, they can easily connect with one another, often using multimedia sites such as YouTube and Flickr, so they themselves can satisfy their need for information about products. What’s more, consumers may trust information obtained in this way much more than they do information from your company

What’s a business to do? LEAD: Listen. Experiment. Apply. Develop.