Michael Grossman

JULY 6, 2022

Why Cleantech Marketing Can't Be Overlooked In Today's Market. We've already discussed the influx of investment dollars into the cleantech sector over the last couple of years. And though savvy cleantech investors understand the patience required for their dollars to yield dividends, that patience isn't unlimited. The green economy is still capitalist, and investors know your cleantech business is still a business.

Startups 174

Startups Sustainability Investment Waste 174

Michael Grossman

JUNE 21, 2022

Nascent cleantech companies can no longer rest on their altruistic intentions to build market share. They need savvy marketing strategies to attract some of the $56 billion in venture capital investment poured into the cleantech sector in 2021 if they hope to scale. "Because we care about the planet" is not a mission statement, a unique value proposition, or a point of differentiation.

Carbon-neutral 130

Carbon-neutral Startups Investment Carbon 130

Michael Grossman

JUNE 5, 2022

Companies spend massive amounts of money worldwide to increase brand recognition. But what if your brand isn’t recognizable, or worse, what if your brand name makes it difficult for end-users and customers to find you? I often see this problem in the cleantech/climate tech startup world where the lack of attention to the brand name detail holds great ideas back from their full potential.

Startups 244

Startups Patents Organic Technology 244

Michael Grossman

MAY 4, 2022

What’s Redefining A Category? The banjo wasn't a new instrument when comedian Steve Martin started playing it as a kid. It had been around for 100 years. Players in the genre became virtuosos, and you can hear it in everything from bluegrass and country to pop/rock. Likewise, Martin hardly invented the genre of stand-up comedy. But Martin was the first to use the banjo as a comedic prop.

Lithium 234

Lithium Batteries Hydrogen Energy 234

Michael Grossman

APRIL 26, 2022

Websites Demonstrate The Friction Between Climate Science and Marketing. The creativity manifested through science and engineering in the climate sector is truly remarkable. Yet, the creative inputs of these solutions often stifle the success of all of that work when placed online. Over the years, I've had a ringside view of the pursed expressions on the faces of PhD’s as they see the online results of synthesizing years of their work into what some derisively describe as a digital Happy Meal.

Climate change 46

Climate change Waste Waste Carbon 46

Michael Grossman

MARCH 8, 2022

Your Climate Tech Science Still Has To Sell. What's the most critical reason your climate tech company has a website? A. Brand Recognition. B. Credibility. C. Raise Money. D. Become The Acknowledged Lead In Your Sector. E. Sell Your Product Or Technology. The answer is the letter "E ," and here's why. The Purpose Of Your Climate Tech Business Is Profit.

Hydrogen 227

Hydrogen Sustainability Cooling Waste 227

Michael Grossman

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

Make Your Eco-Friendly Marketing Sprout By Taking These Four Steps. Perhaps the most transparently disingenuous and self-delusional lines I hear when I encounter startup CEOs in the climate tech space is, "We're in stealth mode.". News flash: your flight of fancy isn’t fooling anyone. Beyond the initial friends and family list, your climate tech startup is going to be applying for government grants, pitching for venture capital, and looking for subscribers for your early-stage funding.

Startups 184

Startups Government Technology Innovation 184

Michael Grossman

DECEMBER 12, 2021

The Science Alone Won't Close The Sale. Would you honestly try to win a competition in the running shoe market against Nike by comparing the amount of sustainable rubber? How about throwing your lower energy use smartphone against Apple? Climate tech companies face this dilemma every day because so many of them offer similar products and services that already exist in the market, with better energy efficiency, less waste, zero toxicity, or advanced materials.

HVAC 240

HVAC Energy Energy Batteries 240

Michael Grossman

NOVEMBER 21, 2021

New Survey Provides Guidance. Is Twitter for selling or shouting? It's a question I hear from mission-driven companies in the climate tech sector, especially from executives born before the first web browser. “We’re a science-based company,” says the typical climate tech CEO. “Why jump in a pool teeming with partisan sharks and lifestyle influencers on a platform with an oily sheen of misinformation floating across the top?”.

Logging 225

Logging Sustainability Batteries Education 225

Michael Grossman

NOVEMBER 7, 2021

Lessons From Facebook’s Meta Announcement. Meta means both transcendent and transcendently self-aware. In that sense, Facebook has come up with the perfect new name. >Why they did it, and the timing of the announcement has stirred up a great deal of cynicism due to the company’s litany of problems. It does, though, help distinguish among the 50 shades of grey when it comes to rebranding.

Government 130

Government Health 130

Michael Grossman

OCTOBER 1, 2021

> Sabermetrics didn’t see this coming even though the story is thousands of years old. The underdog. David vs. Goliath. The 1980 U.S. hockey team vs. the U.S.S.R. Erin Brockovich vs. Pacific Gas & Electric. Our brains are wired for this archetypal story, and the reward is a massive dopamine hit. Even though science can't explain the outcome, neuroscience explains the reaction.

Electricity 238

Electricity 238

Michael Grossman

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

On the FX television show "What We Do In The Shadows," the audience meets a familiar character: the energy vampire. His name is Colin Robinson, an unassuming, spectacled man whose incessant droning small talk slowly sap those around him of their life force. Colin is a vampire who doesn't have to bite anyone; he just has to explain mundane details of existence in a stifling monotone until his victims drop.

Soil 130

Soil Climate change Carbon Energy 130

Michael Grossman

DECEMBER 16, 2020

If It Walks Like A Duck And Quacks Like A Duck, It's Bad Branding. Whether you call them Stories, Reels, or Fleets, all represent the same idea: short-form video. In the grand tradition of success and repetition that defines the internet landscape, every social platform has now come up with its own version to grab just a few more seconds of user attention.

Cooling 179

Cooling Organic 179

Michael Grossman

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

The Battle for Cleantech Funding. A recent spate of stories in green media suggests a second climate funding boom is in the offing for startups in the cleantech sector. It’s a nice change of pace after funding dried up for almost a decade after the first wave of cleantech investment in the aughts. Although the curve for cleantech companies might not be as steep in the coming decade for reasons that run the spectrum from public opinion shifting on man-made climate change to maturing technologies,

Startups 132

Startups Incubators Incubators Climate change 132

Michael Grossman

NOVEMBER 14, 2020

“The public is the only critic whose opinion means anything at all.”--Mark Twain. Reality Bites…Hard. One of life's ultimate paradoxes is the nearly impossible task of changing a person’s mind while at the same time public opinion is never static. When it comes to climate change, we exist somewhere in the middle, painfully awaiting large swaths of the general public to accept proven facts.

Climate change 137

Climate change Carbon-neutral Global warming Carbon 137

Michael Grossman

OCTOBER 28, 2020

Greetings fellow two-dimensional creatures: With all of our interactions flattened into a rectangle, you may find yourself, like me, missing the human interaction that accompanies marketing and networking. “Adapt or die,” said Oakland A’s General Manager, Billy Beane, in one of my favorite sports movies, “Moneyball.” And, whether you like it or not, you’ve had six months to build a bridge and get over your trepidation about online marketing to replace your three-dimensional routine.

Climate change 189

Climate change Organic 189

Michael Grossman

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Does Every Size Company Need A Brand? Recently, the CEO of a growth-stage cleantech company told me branding and marketing wasn't something his company needed to do because their niche was so small that they already had relationships with most of the companies in their industry. "Decisions get made on price and engineering," he said. "Nothing else matters.".

Politics 130

Politics Startups Law 130

Michael Grossman

JUNE 24, 2020

Does your green brand meet its mission if it doesn't appeal to all races? . Dear Michael's Marc: I've always considered myself an ally for equality, regardless of a person's color, religion, gender, etc. All human beings deserve respect, regardless of the color of their skin. But as I've been taking stock after the murder of yet another black man by a white police officer, I'm feeling like a guilty, over-educated, white liberal more than ever.

Climate change 130

Climate change Sustainability Resilience Organic 130

Michael Grossman

JUNE 10, 2020

"It takes two years to learn how to speak and sixty to learn how to keep quiet." --Ernest Hemmingway. As the COVID-19 crisis has played out, I've been watching with increasing unease how some in the climate action community are uncomfortably close to cheerleading for the pandemic because of the unintended consequences of reduced global carbon emissions.

Climate change 130

Climate change Carbon-neutral Carbon Pollution 130

Michael Grossman

MAY 11, 2020

In times of crisis, people show their true colors. At the outset of my state's coronavirus shutdown, I headed to my local Target to do what most Americans did--stock up on supplies. In the household cleaning aisles, I got a focus group worth of information about how we view green brands and why mass adoption continues to be slow. The Word 'Clean' Doesn't Necessarily Mean 'Green.'.

Sustainability 132

Sustainability Packaging Transportation Carbon 132

Michael Grossman

APRIL 27, 2020

And What Happens When Everyone Shows Up To The Party Wearing The Same Outfit? A month ago, I was scrambling to produce an ad for a client before Washington shut down due to the coronavirus. The client knew COVID-19 was going to cause a dramatic downturn in sales (especially on higher-end products) based on their experience during the 2008 banking meltdown.

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Health Logistics Packaging Government 130

Michael Grossman

FEBRUARY 15, 2020

The Cleantech Brand Is A Failure If No One Knows What It Means. Invariably, it happens. I'm out at an event with professionals. Maybe it's a business awards dinner like last week or at a convention. Someone will ask me what I do for a living, and I explain, "I'm a branding and marketing strategist with a focus in the cleantech sector.". Wait for it.the blank stare and nod.

Climate change 130

Climate change Pollution Energy Energy 130

Michael Grossman

JANUARY 10, 2020

Two words no CEO of a seven or eight-figure company ever likes hearing from me are "market research," as in, "I feel it would be helpful to clarify our value proposition, our strategic advantage, and our audience if we conducted some market research.". It's so toxic; I keep those two words in my back pocket at all meetings like an emergency fire alarm in case I want to cut the session short.

Technology 100

Technology Sustainability Retail Education 100

Michael Grossman

DECEMBER 30, 2019

Marketing Management Needs More Than One. The post Can Your In-House Marketing Manager Do This? appeared first on Michael's Marc.

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Michael Grossman

DECEMBER 14, 2019

Is anyone reading your email during the holiday season? And if they are reading or listening to your message, does it pass the threshold of caring? I've written before about how only about one-third of email recipients read beyond the fourth paragraph. What do you do if you have news to share with your community but can't compete with offers from Amazon and every other retailer on the planet?

Waste 132

Waste Waste Retail 132

Michael Grossman

OCTOBER 19, 2019

Part 1--Research. This column is the first of a five-part series on the critical elements necessary for a cleantech company to successfully market itself, regardless of the budget. Do I Have To Pay For Marketing? One of the most frequent questions I hear from companies in the cleantech world, whether a pre-revenue startup, growth stage, or in competitive niches like solar, battery storage, or water treatment is, "What are the essential things we should be doing to market our company?".

Startups 103

Startups Batteries Energy Energy 103

Michael Grossman

OCTOBER 13, 2019

We got trouble! Right here in River City! With a capital T that rhymes with B, and that stands for brand positioning. Working with cleantech companies means I'm often in meetings with scientists and engineers. By nature, they are very analytical people, which is why they are excellent problem solvers. And in advanced mathematics, there is always a right answer and a wrong answer: Black and white.

Lithium 103

Lithium Batteries Hydropower Electric vehicle 103

Michael Grossman

OCTOBER 9, 2019

A Noble Story Fit For A Nobel Prize. When the Nobel Peace Prize is announced on Friday, there is better than a decent chance the name inside the envelope will be that of a precocious, 16-year-old Swedish girl, the youngest person to ever receive this prestigious award. If the prognosticators are right, Gretta's (she needs no last name anymore) unlikely ascension to this lofty height is a testament to the power of the story.

Climate change 101

Climate change Global warming Carbon Government 101

Michael Grossman

OCTOBER 5, 2019

"If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump off it too?"--my mother. In today's business world, it's a given your company needs a social media strategy. My favorite question in the last year or so is to ask why. Here are the three most typical ways in which that conversation starts. Scenario #1 --Start up--a company using online professional services portal sends out a request for social media help to sell more of their product or service, OR to advertise on Facebook, OR to gain

Investment 103

Investment Politics 103

Michael Grossman

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

Circular-firing squads have a lousy success rate. Don’t worry. I haven’t gone off the deep end and gone into denial about the scale and urgency of reducing carbon emissions. I do, however, have a bone to pick about how we communicate the threat of the climate crisis and inspire action among 7.5 billion people. I’m hardly the first person to point out that for all of the brainpower that exists behind tackling the climate crisis, we sure are maladroit when it comes to advocacy.

Climate change 103

Climate change Carbon-neutral Fossil fuels Pollution 103

Michael Grossman

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

Like millions of parents around the country, I took my daughter to college last week. It’s a bittersweet ritual that started when I let her hand go on her first day of kindergarten and is now complete. She has chosen a path, and it forevermore will diverge from mine. I mention this not to remind you to offer me a Kleenex when you see me, but rather to share the connection and the emotional impact of a story that’s as old as homo sapiens have walked the planet.

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Michael Grossman

AUGUST 30, 2019

Facebook got gamed again this week by people trying to influence an election, and it’s a great case study in why you need flexibility in your social media ad budget. The Illuminati Isn’t Alive. No, this time it wasn’t Vladimir Putin sitting behind his desk at the Kremlin scheming a sequel to 2016. Facebook ad prices skyrocketed this past week because of a decision made months ago by the Democratic National Committee to set thresholds for which candidates qualify for televised p

Politics 103

Politics Demand 103

Michael Grossman

JUNE 1, 2019

Your website is the online portal for your audience, and your website’s homepage is the cyber front door. How you welcome your viewers will be the first impression of your brand and is critical to move them through the sales funnel to become your brand advocates. As the old saying goes, “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression,” so no matter how important your invention or novel your product, you better write a homepage that entices them to learn more.

Biotech 105

Biotech Carbon Innovation Education 105

Michael Grossman

JUNE 9, 2019

Every business owner thinks his/her brand should be in the spotlight, and why not? The long hours, the novel ideas, the enthusiasm, the purposeful value proposition: isn’t it evident the media should take note? And from the days of Gutenberg to the 1970s, the process of generating exposure for your brand was pretty straightforward: write some copy–or hire a publicist to do it for you–and take it to the local newspaper (and maybe buy an ad while you were there.).

HVAC 105

HVAC Pollution Law Health 105

Michael Grossman

JUNE 14, 2019

What does honey have to do with saving elephants in Botswana, and why would I want to buy another pair of shoes made in Asia? These business propositions were just a couple of the conscious companies crafting their pitch at Fledge’s Demo Day. Not familiar with Fledge? They brand themselves as the conscious company accelerator and bring in entrepreneurs from all over the world, much like a traditional accelerator, but with a focus on companies that solve real problems in the world.

Asia 100

Asia Incubators Incubators Medicine 100

Michael Grossman

JUNE 19, 2019

The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” has been around so long because it’s true. But when I look at the brand strategy behind the websites, social media and content marketing of companies In the B2B space, I often wonder if I missed out on the instructions from a parallel school of thought which taught its graduates, “You should use a thousand words to describe your picture.” Powerful Branding Images Require Scant Explanation.

Carbon 114

Carbon Cooling Startups Technology 114

Michael Grossman

JUNE 26, 2019

If you’ve founded a cleantech company, there’s a better than even chance your background is in science or engineering. There’s also a high probability you could write an encyclopedia about your invention. Neither of these factors is likely to help you make a successful pitch for investment in your cleantech startup. In the academic world, people are praised for their brilliance and encouraged to achieve breakthroughs in their fields and publish technical papers which are only u

Carbon-neutral 103

Carbon-neutral Startups Waste Waste 103