[Mannes on Marketing]

Creating a marketing campaign and building a movement that is integrated into the culture of a company are two very different things. At Arrow Exterminators in Atlanta, we wanted both — a brand-spanking new marketing campaign that included a sustainability movement. We knew it wasn’t just a one-year initiative and we would need a companywide commitment that goes beyond pest and termite control. It had to become a part of our employees’ everyday tasks and a part of each and every customer communication.

First a discussion on sustainability and what it means: sustainability simply put is the economic, social and environmental impact of your business. I was speaking to a group on this topic at the recent Northwest Conference in Hood River, Ore., and I asked the several hundred pest control owners if their company was running a sustainable business model. No hands went up. When I explained that much of sustainability is running an efficient company, giving back to the communities in which we serve and providing environmentally responsible pest control services and then asked again — "Are your companies running a sustainable business model?" — virtually everyone at the conference agreed that their company was in fact, to some degree, incorporating sustainability into their company. However, just as important as running a sustainable company is effectively communicating it to your customers and employees.

It’s also important to understand why sustainability is different than simply "green." Long term, I do believe that a sustainable business model and marketing that sustainability will be here long after the consumer has been overcome with "eco-fatigue" and "green-washing."

As you may know, at Arrow Exterminators we launched our STEPS Total Protection System initiative last year — right about this time. I thought I’d share with you some of the insights of implementing a total companywide culture change and integration — what worked and what is still evolving. So here goes:

Communicating to Our Customers. Taking an integrated marketing approach, we relied heavily on digital media (as well as traditional media in some markets), but we firmly believed our core messaging to our customers and potential customers had to come from each of the 1,000 employees. We developed an "elevator speech" about 30 seconds in length that gave all of our team members a consistent message that they could put in their own words.

We redesigned our Web site and every piece of customer collateral to reflect our new movement. Every single communication to the customer or every "touch" point reflected that messaging.

Was it perfect and did our employees embrace it 100 percent on day one? No, but over the course of the last 12 months we have seen a significant increase in focus from our employees on delivering the message to our customers, and that focus has resulted in increased sales in some of our core businesses.

Sustainability in Our Culture. Employee engagement and ownership are the keys to any successful marketing initiative. We wanted to ensure that the programs Arrow Exterminators developed were implemented at the field level so we appointed "sustainability captains" in each service center. We hold regular conference calls with this team to generate new ideas, identify areas that are challenging the field and basically keep the momentum going.

Beyond the Launch. As we began planning our marketing initiatives for 2010, we wanted to stay focused on our message, yet keep it fresh for our customers and potential customers. We honed the message based on feedback from customers and employees, making it even stronger. The result was a new creative way to communicate the environmentally friendly way we do business — from a company committed to sustainability. We feature billboards around the area with the following taglines (see below left):

Five out of Five Babies Recommend Arrow Exterminators

Family-Friendly. Sustainable. Effective.

Five out of Five Dogs Recommend Arrow Exterminators

Pet-Friendly. Sustainable. Effective.

Additionally, we polled our company’s sustainability captains to decide what to do for Earth Day this year. How could Arrow Exterminators give back and provide a message to our customers that we are serious about sustainability? On Earth Day, each customer was given a flower stake embedded with "forget-me-not" flower seeds to plant. There was a message on each stake reminding customers that flowers put oxygen into the air. We also reminded all of our employees to talk with customers about sustainability.

Every company, small or large, if you choose, can embrace sustainability. Google it, network, talk to your friends and colleagues, seek out conferences and learn how to market it. If in some small way you are giving back to your community and providing environmentally responsible pest control services, you are making this world a better place for generations to come. And that is the end game.

The author is chief marketing and strategy officer for Arrow Exterminators, Atlanta, and can be contacted at cmannes@giemedia.com.