Clean Energy Future by Arno Harris

Clean Messaging for Mainstream Markets

Messaging is a critical part of the marketing strategy for any startup, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how messaging can be uniquely challenging for clean-tech businesses.

All startups have to wrestle with the inherent tension between the messages that drive early adoption and those that are effective in driving mainstream adoption. Early adopters want to hear that a product is “on the cutting edge”, while early majority buyers need to hear the soothing message that a product is “proven, reliable technology that delivers measurable results,” and late majority buyers only make a move once “everybody’s doing it.” The key to a robust strategy that can “cross the chasm” is a messaging hierarchy that allows sub-themes to change as the market develops without requiring a fundamental change in the positioning of the company’s core identity or values.

It seems to me that clean businesses face an additional layer of messaging complexity. That’s because early adopters of clean products—whether “dark greens” or “light greens”—respond to green messages that may have myriad semantic/historical connections to broader fringe themes that are anti-corporate, anti-global, anti-capitalist, and eco-activist. It is therefore tempting for early stage clean-tech startups to wrap themselves in the “green flag”, selling the company and the product simultaneously as a part of the green lifestyle, in order to maximize early adoption rates.

Of course the problem with this approach is that those same messages are a turn-off to early majority customers and are thus a barrier to mainstream market entry. Startups that make the “green flag” mistake will face the eventual prospect of re-branding the entire company—a process that can be unpleasant, expensive, and risky. Conversely, clean-tech startups that try to be too mainstream during early market stages may alienate green-oriented early adopters and hinder early market acceptance. Heather Rae at Cleantechblog has a nice post that touches on these issues about BP’s marketing efforts (and further shows that this is not just a startup marketing challenge).

I think the answer to this challenge is a carefully structured messaging hierarchy that integrates a set of distinct company, product, and segment marketing messages into a robust and flexible platform for communication. The key is to establish core company and product messages that will be effective with both early and late stage market customers. Product messages can be adjusted over time to address classic tech market message shifts from “cutting edge” to “reliable performance” to “standard issue.” Segment messages can be tailored over time to address the values shifts that accompany market development from “dark green” to “light green” to “practical green” and beyond.

I’m looking for good (and bad) examples of clean-tech messaging that help to explore these ideas. Anyone have an example to share?

One Chapter Ends, Another Begins

As some of you already know, I’ve decided to depart Energy Innovations towards the middle of this year. I remain bullish about the solar concentrator market opportunity and about Energy Innovations' business in particular. The company is headed in a very exciting direction, under great leadership, and with strong investor support. The reason for my decision is straightforward: I want to get back on the CEO track, my family is not ready to move to Pasadena, and I think the timing is right to start something really big.

I joined Energy innovations a little over a year ago following the acquisition of my company, Prevalent Power.  I’m generally pleased with the accomplishments I had a hand in: integrating Prevalent Power’s business into Energy Innovations, launching a highly effective pre-commercial sales effort, closing Energy Innovations’ first outside round of financing, and continuing the rapid growth of our flat panel PV business.

In addition to being a productive year, it was also a great opportunity to learn. As a leader and entrepreneur, I’m fascinated with organizational development, personal/professional development, management, strategic planning, capital raising, etc.—each of which is a topic that has endless depth and nuance. I had the fortune to work with a strong team at Energy Innovations, Idealab, and Mohr Davidow Ventures, including people like Bill Gross, Andrew Beebe, Erik Straser, Geoff Moore, Chris Tilley, Bruce Falck, Ken Sowards, Bill Bottenberg, Asif Ansari, and many others. Engaging with other talented people to solve problems, run projects, and manage people often reveals new dimensions, techniques, tools, or ideas that lead me to change my own approach—or it may simply serve to confirm that I like my own approach better. In either case, I’m better for having had the experience.

So what’s next? While I’m keeping an eye on solar opportunities, I’m focusing most of my free time developing the early stages of a new business idea. The focus is on cracking a very tough environmental problem, household greenhouse gas emissions. I’m spending the weekend in Moab with my good friend Rick Moss, who has a brilliant business mind and is skilled at developing an idea through conversation. In between tackling the slick rock bike trails, we’ve been brainstorming and defining the core business idea. I have a long way to go and a lot of people to talk to before I can confidently say I’ve nailed the model and strategy. But that process of developing an idea is one of the things I love most and I’m looking forward to it.

I’m planning to post more as I move forward with the plan, perhaps even soliciting input from readers as my friend Chris Anderson has for his forthcoming book The Long Tail. There’s something intriguing about harnessing the power of many minds to solve a tough problem.