Page 333 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

MARKETING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 311

■ Personality (celebrity, living, dead, doesn’t matter—could be George Washington,
could be Isaiah Washington)
■ Architecture (could be the Pentagon, could be the Sydney Opera House)
■ Chair or seat (could be a park bench, could be an Eames chair)
■ Social event (could be a wine tasting, could be a family reunion)
■ Desk object (something you might find on somebody’s desk—a picture, a paper-
weight—be specific)
■ Music (band, album, type—be specific)

Again, the point of the exercise is to help identify the feeling of your project’s brand.
A project that “feels” like an 18-year-old single malt Scotch is very different from one
that “feels” like hand-squeezed lemonade.

Blending Authenticity and Inspiration
What is the promise this project makes to the community in which it finds itself?
Answering this question helps identify an overarching message you can take to mar-
ket. If you partner with advertising agencies, design groups, or public relations firms,
having done this homework, you can expect better outcomes. The trick, particularly
when it comes to green marketing, is to balance the presence of outside professionals
with people within the company who feel a passion for what they do. Most (if not all)
of the time, sustainably oriented companies have deep ties to place and people, and
they see their specific products and services in the context of a zeitgeist having to do
with how their particular business is integrated into the overall fabric of the commu-
nity: creating fair, stable, local, and sustainable working conditions, helping reduce
waste, promoting education and the exchange of information. By the same token,
sharing excitement for one’s business or project and the promise it holds out for the
community has to be balanced by the capacity to deliver on those ideals. A well-
managed brandstorming process blends integrity with aspiration.

Getting Graphic
Once you’ve done the work to understand the attributes of your project’s brand and
what it represents to the community in which it finds itself, you will want to develop
a strong visual identity for the brand, one that frames all of your communication
regarding the project. Visual identity typically consists of a logo or logotype, a pri-
mary and secondary color palette, a corporate typeface to be used in correspondence,
and other complementary typefaces as needed.
Your branding toolbox should include a strong graphic identity that tells your story
and provides a consistent link between brand and project. The first things you will need
are: a strong logo design and a professional corporate suite consisting of stationery,
business cards, note cards and envelopes, shipping labels, and perhaps a press kit.
Implicit in the design of these things is a color palette appropriate to the brand you’ve
identified, a usable family of fonts, and a set of graphic devices and rules that will ulti-
mately inform all outward expression of the brand. Many an endeavor began with a logo
designed by “a friend of a friend who’s pretty good with a Mac.” Avoid the temptation.