A few of us had the opportunity to attend ExpoWest last week – the grand daddy trade show in the Natural Products industry – and judging from the attendance of both exhibitors and buyers, this segment is roaring back from the recession.  Everywhere we walked in the cavernous Anaheim Convention Center, we heard deals being cut, sales orders being written, and marketing spiels being perfected.  All to say, these are good signs that America is back to buying, and ready to commit to natural products and organic foods.

Our client Hero Nutritionals had a smashing show, and were very pleased with the turnout of customers, new prospects and media. And judging from the number of people interacting in their booth, I’d say it was a very successful outing for them.  As we toured through the wares of many exhibitors, we were impressed with the caliber of booth design, materials and overall savvy that many companies displayed. And surprised by the lack of materials that some others offered.

Overall the show was brimming with cool stuff, designed well and presenting a host of opportunities for creative marketing firms (ahem). Here’s a few of our favorites:

Sunfood – Great company selling raw and organic products like cacao paste and goji berries, and with style and panache. I even got a free tshirt.

Evolution Fresh – The freshest and most delicious organic/natural fruit drinks I have ever tasted. Love me some watermelon juice…

Mrs. May’s – Ridiculously addictive nut bars and crunches that are ripe (’scuse the pun) for growth. Could take off it a big way.

Sibu – OK this one is so out there that it has to take off big. Derived from the elusive Sea Buckthorn berry and grown only in the Himalayas, this product is good for your skin, hair and nails.  Tasty too – just like candy.

Honeynz – Pure New Zealand honey products, including delicious spreads made from honey mixed with apricot, cinnamon, raspberry and many other delicious natural fruits and spices. I predict this one will hit it big.

Kind Snacks – I love this company’s position and goal – to help the world through kind acts and nutrition. Wonderful use of cause-based marketing to create a movement.  Brilliant. And delicious.

Tetra-Pak – The most incredible innovation in packaging I have seen in years. This carton replaces the dastardly plastic bottles we all drink our water from. Buy stock in this company now.

Mrs. Meyer’s – Definitely one of the bigger brands on my list, this company does a fantastic job at marketing. Their trade show booth was a camper, with “Mrs. Meyers’ Kitchen” inside for all to see, complete with squeaky clean appliances, clothes line, and bright white linens.  Super fun.

We are all inspired to work more diligently in the area of natural products and with organic, eco-concious companies. It’s a growth market, and thankfully, one that is here to stay.

We’ve been talking a lot about being green, green marketing and sustainable lifestyles. Well, I realized that we have never come out and told the world what we do to live greener lives. We have a team here at Bailey Gardiner that is dedicated to finding ways for us to be minimize waste, be more efficient and sustainable, we call it bgreen (get it?). And in true agency form, we created an identity for the team.

Here are some of the things we have put into place to do our part.

• We changed our print settings to print in black and white and on both sides of the paper.
• We use scrap paper to make notepads for the office.
• We installed a filtered water fountain in the kitchen to reduce bottled water consumption.
• We recycle old coffee grinds for gardening.
• We started buying soaps and other liquid goods in bulk, this way smaller sink side containers can be refilled rather than thrown away.
• We started a recycling program for used electronics
• We altered the sleep displays on computers to cut down on unneeded electricity usage
• We buy recycled paper for everyday use. We also recommend that our clients print on FSC paper is they must print collateral.
• We trained staff to keep air and heat levels at a consistent temperature. We also hung reminders by the exit doors to remind the last person to turn off all lights and thermostats.

Do you have any other ideas of things we can do? We would love to hear about them!

Very often, we and other public relations firms get asked to “go big” and “hit the home run.”  We’re asked to miraculously get placements in Oprah and Good Morning America but as you may know, this caliber of public relations success takes time.

This is why it’s so important to make sure your public relations campaign is complete, including not only the big time goal publications, but filling it in with the little guys as well.  Here’s an example:

Bailey Gardiner has been thrilled to begin running the public relations for the creator of gummy vitamins, Hero Nutritionals, over the past few months.  If you aren’t already familiar with Hero Nutritionals’ Yummi Bears, Yummi Bears Organics or Slice of Life, the gummy vitamin for grownups, you must give them a try.  And if you’re wondering why the ladies of BG have shinier hair, an unfathomable amount of energy and glowing skin, you can attribute that to the all-too-tasty Slice of Life!

Our goal for Hero, of course, is to go big.  We’re talking Everyday with Rachael Ray, Oprah Magazine, Shape, Good Housekeeping and the likes. So the Hero Nutritionals team has been fervently sending samples across the country to win over the writers and editors of these major publications.  Just last week Carrie and Maya spent a week in New York where they met desk side with countless editors including those at Woman’s Day, the Today Show, Family Circle, Parents and Health Magazine to share with them, face to face, information and samples of Hero Nutritionals’ products.

So in the meantime, we put forth our efforts in creating a complete public relations campaign by targeting bloggers and websites with niche audiences.  Our best luck thus far has been with the ever-popular mommy bloggers and healthy living bloggers.  Within the latter category falls the even more specialized gluten-free blogs, nut-free, vegetarian and other specialty dietary needs blogs.  With more than 14 placements over the past two months garnered by working within these niche categories, a few stand out:

On January 21st, Stephanie secured inclusion for Slice of Life in a Health.com article on vitamins you’re not getting enough of.  The following week, this article had boosted Hero’s website visitors bringing 159 visits to the site on its own, making health.com the 6th top referring site for the month of January and the 1st top referring site behind search and other Hero Nutritionals’ websites.

A giveaway in FabulousFunFinds.com led to three other postings on blogs that blog strictly about giveaways.  This placement alone, though, brought 47 visits to the site, making it the 14th top referring site for the month of January in just a matter of days.

With both of these placements hitting after January 15th, they make great examples of an often-overlooked part of a PR plan – the very short-term, long tail placements that complete a public relations campaign. We’ll waste no time while Oprah snacks on her gummy vitamin samples.  We believe that placements such as these are imperative in completing a successful public relations plan by finding those purchasers who know exactly what they’re looking for.

When working with your public relations firm of choice, I hope you’ll take these tips into consideration:

• Be sure that your timeline not only fills the team’s or consultant’s retainer fee, but results in placements when you want them (all the time or surrounding one major announcement).

• Make sure your team or consultant is reaching not only the most people they can but the most people that will convert as well.

• Allot room in your budget for social media.  This can boost the buzz surrounding your PR and fill in some of those quiet holes.

• Consider the “outdated” means of publicity as well.  Not all products’ customers are online.  Consider radio, newspaper and even….books.

• Consider more than just your primary product to get you in the news.  Is your spokesperson an expert in his/her field for bylined articles or speaking opportunities?  Do you have such passionate fans that they’ll start social media pages for you?

Do you have more suggestions to add?

Today, there are more ad dollars going towards perceived environmental impact and awareness than ever before. Ten years ago “green” referred to having a green thumb, being green with envy, or  wanting greener pastures, but that’s definitely no longer the case. Whether it’s telling customers about a 100 percent recyclable water bottle (cool!) or Prius ads that combine humans with the earth; companies are dying to tell us that they too care about the environment. But which companies are actually influencing the public’s perception of their environmental impact?

Lucky for us, Newsweek has already been ranking 500 of the biggest U.S. companies based upon their environmental impact, green policies and performance, and reputation. Yet, there are some major discrepancies between the Environmental Impact and Green Policies and Performances Scores and the Reputation Survey Score. Keep in mind that Newsweek polled CEO’s, corporate social responsibility professionals, and other environmental experts (a.k.a. people who know a lot about this) to form the Reputation Survey Score and all scores are out of 100. The Green Score, again out of 100, is a combination of the previous scores.

So, which company scored a perfect 100, A+ on the Reputation Survey Score? Good Ole Wal-Mart. Unfortunately, that was the only category they scored a perfect 100 in; their environmental Impact Score, based on things like green house gases and water use, was only a 59.2 and their Green Policies and Procedures Score, based on “a comprehensive analytical assessment of a company’s environmental policies,” was only 41.06. Even the professionals think Wal-Mart is a lot greener than it is. Perhaps commercials like this, which is dated from this January and may accurately represent a new effort, are creating and reinforcing this very positive perceived environmental impact. Overall, Wal-Mart ranked 59 and had a Green Score of 80.38.

On the flip side, Hewlett-Packard, which ranked #1 in 2009 with Green Score of 100, and Dell, who came in at a close second with a Green Score of 98.87, both had a reputation score under 90. Dell’s reputation score was only a 70.8 despite having a Green Policies and Performance Score of 100.

Green marketing is powerful stuff. Companies are successfully changing their perceived environmental impact, for better in the case Wal-Mart, and it’s a category that is only gowing to grow. Consumers who care about environmental impact need to look past the advertising to see which companies are truly green and which are just full of fluff.

The past few years, we’ve seen an increase in companies that haven’t necessarily been known for their eco-friendly ways jumping on the green bandwagon.  While some may call this greenwashing, is it really such a bad thing?

During the Super Bowl, Audi released their new “eco-themed” commercial featuring their latest car (and winner of Green Car Journal’s “Green Car of the Year”), A3 TDI.  The ad follows a squad of “Green Police” that obsessively seek out and arrest regular Joes for their environmental ignorance.  My personal fave is the scantily-clad gentleman running away from a SWAT team-sized crew of green police chasing him down for having the hot tub temperature too high.  The commercial is timely, humorous, and informative in its own way.  However, there are mixed feelings about the ad, as seen in the comments of this popular green blog, Ecorazzi.  So, what are the issues?

1)  Is it greenwashing?  While A3 TDI sets itself apart from other Audi vehicles by being more eco-friendly, Audi is not adjusting its branding to fit this one product.  It can be a step in the right direction for the luxury car industry, raising the bar when it comes to responsibility, and raising awareness about simple changes that can be made in daily life.

2)  Is it demeaning to green-enthusiasts?  While this is an extreme case of environmentalism and it may seem to poke fun at die-hard eco-savers, the ad also offers comic relief when a lot of other brands may take a more “shame-on-you” approach to environmental education.

3)  Is this A3 TDI REALLY green?  As consumers, we all want options.  Whether or not a Hybrid car is the greener alternative, Audi is opening the door to competitors, which means companies will begin working harder to decrease their carbon footprints.  And marketers will get a lesson in sustainable marketing.

So, do we applaud this large-name brand that’s spreading the eco-friendly message or do we disregard them because we would have chosen an alternative way to get the message across?  Please share your thoughts/feelings on greenwashing in the comments.

When pitching a natural living product, there are specific green publications that will be instrumental in your public relations efforts. While editors at major lifestyle publications may not ask the tough questions, green publications that pride themselves on providing the most current and accurate information will. Below are four tips every public relations representative must know before venturing into the world of green.

1. Differentiate between Healthy Living and Natural Living: While there is a lot of overlap between healthy living and natural living, there are also a lot of differences. Items that are good for you, may not be good for the environment and items that are natural may not be healthy. Understand which category your product fits in and then research the appropriate green publications, healthy living outlets, or both. It’s easy to categorize them together, you know how everyone in Oregon grows their own vegetables, wears Keens, and drives a Prius? But the reality is caring about your health and caring about the environment are two different things. Just because your product is organic, it doesn’t mean the packaging it comes in is recyclable or the company that produces it is sustainable. Which brings me to my next point.

2. Know Key Terminology and Definitions: What does “green” mean? Since when were there 7 types of recycling? CFL’s or LEDs? Is this product sustainable? Am I sustainable? And now the gas pedal on my Prius might stick? All the labels for healthy and natural living can make your head spin. Doing your part to help the environment is quickly becoming a lot more complicated. Before you write a pitch, fact sheet, or release (let alone call a green publication) know which terminologies apply to your product and which don’t. Know if the bottle is recyclable, if whatever is inside is organic, the difference between vegan and vegetarian, or whatever else could differentiate your product from another. Sometimes this means getting to know the product AND the company. While it’s great if the company subscribes to the same ideals as it’s consumers, that may not always be the case.

3. Understand Your Clients Strengths (and Weaknesses): If you get lucky and your client is organic, completely recyclable, sustainable, donates to CoastKeeper, and practically has a negative carbon footprint,  then skip to number four. Otherwise, you need to know what makes your client special and what doesn’t. If your client donates to a green charity, play that up. If they are going to make the change to solar energy,  note that. But also know that with all the green buzz, green publications are going to want the facts. Any good public relations professional can pinpoint the not so glamorous aspects of there clients and this is going to come in especially useful when dealing with green publications.

4. Prepare for Different Knowledge Levels: All journalists have different knowledge levels about any given subject and, as a public relations person, you need to be able to talk about your product to the most beginner green writer or the most experienced green editor. Knowing how to explain the new process your client just created in layman’s terms will help when calling a green publication. Especially when you only have 15 seconds.

To a lot of people, paper is just that, paper. But, when you work in an industry that involves printing a wide range of items for your clients, (think letterhead, save-the-date cards, pamphlets, and other such collateral) you quickly learn there are thousands of different types of paper. Out of these thousands of types, there are quite a few options for those who want to print on eco-friendly paper and with companies becoming more and more environmentally conscious, we propose at least one eco-friendly paper option to all of our clients.

Below are the types of “green” paper that we use most often:

1) Recycled Paper: Many brands have “recycled paper” options but the vast majority is not 100% recycled. Usually a portion of it is. This is a good option for companies who are environmentally conscientious, but may not have the budget to print on a 100% recycled paper.

2) FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Certified Paper: This paper has come from trees that were grown in an area where funds have gone to to eliminate habitat destruction, water pollution and violence against people and wildlife. Sometimes you are able to find a FSC paper that has also, been recycled – a doubly green choice.

3) Post-Consumer Material (PCW) Paper: This paper has been used and then separated from solid waste to be recycled into new paper. This paper is made from all types of products, therefore re-using even more waste than a recycled paper uses.

4) Seed Paper - The coolest new trend is that people are starting to print on seed paper which is a type of paper that is embedded with an array of wildflower seeds. You can actually take this paper, plant it and grow flowers. And the best part is this paper isn’t even made out of trees. We often go to Green Field Paper in San Diego where they specialize in 100 percent tree-free products. They make their paper out of recycled uniforms from Seaworld, mixed with 100 percent organic cotton and an array of other ingredients that would have been thrown out in the trash. I think this is my new favorite type of paper. Such a cool concept!

When the green movement first started garnering major awareness a few years ago, it seemed that any eco-friendly product or service was able to capitalize on the attention and get positive press and accolades.  As the movement continues to grow and green products flood the market, however, it has become harder for new brands to infiltrate the cluttered marketplace of  green marketing. As consumers continue to get inundated with green messaging, new products and services are under much more scrutiny and must do more to differentiate themselves from the pack. Having handled the public relations for a few green brands, I have a few tips for how eco-friendly products can distinguish themselves in the green market.

Provide value

The down economy affected the green market considerably. Just being green isn’t enough anymore, and consumers are much less likely to pay a premium for green products and services. Consumers have to see green products as providing value to their lives, especially if the products cost more than a non-green alternative.

Implement a corporate culture of sustainability

These days, just having an eco-friendly product or service is not enough. Companies have to practice what they preach and embody a corporate culture of sustainability. Has your green company implemented sustainable business practices, such as recycling, using renewable energy, consuming less and conserving water, as well? Is your company involved with green charities and organizations? Green initiatives should be implemented across all sectors of the company.

Provide a unique product or service

Provide something new and different to the market. It is much harder to gain recognition if there are 20 other brands that offer a very similar product or service to yours.  Do we really need another basic, organic cotton t-shirt company?

Be committed and authentic

So many brands are trying to capitalize on the green movement by making small tweaks and throwing an eco-friendly label on their product. The public is getting much more savvy and is no longer buying it. If a company is not fully committed to the cause, and is just trying to jump on the bandwagon, it can backfire. If, for example, you are using organic cotton, but are also using toxic dyes, you might face scrutiny and a backlash from the media and the public.  Don’t claim to be eco-friendly unless you can really back it up.  And as with any brand, authenticity is key.

Do you have other tips for green brands? Which green brands do you think are doing a good job?

My advertising colleague Scott Curry and I attended the largest solar conference and expo in the U.S. to learn more about companies in the solar power industry. We share a passion for sustainability and want to use our talents to grow businesses that care as much about the environment as we do. We saw a few large companies that have dominated the international market for many years. Their booths were larger, their advertising was corporate and their teams were experienced. Neither of us are particularly drawn to them, as we love challenger brands.

As we walked the floor it became painfully obvious that the rest of the solar power industry is filled with many entrepreneurs and small businesses fighting to get their share. While the products and services offered may be different, the marketing was awash with technical lingo, poor messaging and generic forms. Rarely did a company express itself in a manner that helped differentiate it from its competitors.

As I was biking home last night, I found myself thinking of what Scott and I discussed could help these companies. Here are three that surfaced often. Feel free to add your own.

1) Treat marketing as an investment, not an expense.

Bring in a communication expert to do your marketing. The same precision for developing your brilliant and often highly technical product needs to be applied to marketing. It takes a lot of knowledge, creativity and service to develop a strategic marketing plan that will build your company. And it also takes smart people to execute the plan tactically. When done right, marketing will pay itself back, and then some.

2) Figure out who your target customer is.

And design your marketing messages for that group. You sell solar paneling differently to a builder than you do directly to a consumer and all your marketing materials should reflect that. If you market to both, that’s even better. But make sure your collateral, messaging and imagery reflect what motivates each of those groups.

3) Talk to the media.

The economy, the environment, the energy crisis. They are all big topics of conversation with media. When you see that your local paper or TV station has covered something that relates to your business, call, write or email them a response to their story. Not only that, but tell them another angle that happens to involves your business. Is it a story about the upcoming increase in electric bills due to winter months? Write them and tell them how one of your clients will see decreases in his/her electric bill because of solar power. Just maybe you’ll get your own story published.