Page 349 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

MARKETING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 327

4 Follow through. Even difficult news, including accepting fault for an accident or
admitting to a lawsuit that has been filed, is better managed when you use the same
authentic, transparent voice you use for your other communications.

Making Your Shade of Green
Work for You

Marketing may seem like the most intimidating part of what you do. Don’t be intimi-
dated. More importantly, don’t ignore it. Pursue your marketing with the same delib-
eration you use in planning your projects. Focus your thinking. It always boils down
to the same set of criteria—target, message, means. So here’s the breakdown:

1 Know who you are and what your project is really about.
2 Know to whom you are talking and what they are like.
3 Use public relations to gain community support.
4 Do your homework.
5 Believe in what you’re doing. Deeply. Don’t try to be something you’re not.
6 Keep doing what you’re doing. The world needs more of you.

Putting Some Dollar Figures

on All This Marketing Sense

So how much does all of this cost? As a rule of thumb, a company should allocate
roughly 1 percent of its overall project budget for marketing expenditures. This is not
too far afield from Melaver, Inc.’s actual marketing expenses over an extended period
of time (five years), although accounting for this is a bit unwieldy since in the past the
company has lumped project-specific marketing expenditures in with general market-
ing expenses.
Let’s consider once again the fictionalized company we have been drawing upon
throughout this book, Green, Inc., and take a look at the breakdown of its marketing
expenses (which are based upon those of Melaver, Inc.). As you may recall, Green,
Inc. has 20 staff members, an asset base of $100 million, and gross revenues of $12
million. Out of that $12 million in gross revenues, the company is targeting an expen-
diture of around 1 percent in standing annual marketing expenses, amounting to
$120,000, plus a certain amount earmarked for marketing specific development proj-
ects each year. Since those project-specific marketing costs are accounted for in the
pro formas of each development, we will leave those out of our analysis and simply
focus on ongoing marketing costs for the company as a whole.