The new SunriseGuide aims to promote socially-responsible businesses with an old-fashioned marketing tool: the coupon
Be thrifty and support a cause. Use a coupon for good. Can a piece of paper that promises a bit of savings help save the world?
That's the idea Heather Chandler has been working on since July, with her new SunriseGuide — a coupon book that steers consumers toward local businesses with a low impact on the environment. Racing before an early October deadline to get the book ready for print, Chandler and a small team of employees based at the business incubator at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland have been contacting hundreds of businesses in southern Maine that match a specific "green" criteria, such as selling environmentally-friendly products or promoting activities that don't use fossil fuels. They're trying to convince those business owners to buy coupons in a book that will reach like-minded consumers in York, Cumberland and Sagadahoc counties.
SunriseGuide, a bright yellow, seven-by-nine-inch book due out December 1, aims to promote sustainability with a traditional marketing tool, the coupon. She describes the guide as a one-stop resource for busy people. "I think a lot of people are really interested in living in a healthy and sustainable way, but it takes a lot of time to learn what resources are available and it takes a lot of time to learn about which choices are more sustainable," Chandler says. "What was appealing to me about this book is it pulls a lot of really great info together in one place."
According to some industry estimates, LOHAS, or lifestyles of health and sustainability, encompasses a $229 billion marketplace of goods and services, and some believe that number will grow to $1 trillion by 2010. The Natural Marketing Institute also claims that 30% of American adults, or roughly 63 million people, consider themselves to be LOHAS consumers.
Envisioned as an annual publication, SunriseGuide includes features that explain or enable sustainable living in Maine. Chapters list local farmer's markets, describe community-supported agriculture, explain tax rebates for home energy upgrades and name public transportation options. Then, there's the coupon section: For $125, a business can buy one coupon in SunriseGuide; two coupons in the book cost $200. Chandler also offers packages mixing coupons and advertisements, such as purchasing three coupons and a quarter-page ad for $650.
By early October, Chandler had sold coupons to about 90 businesses from Biddeford to Brunswick, offering everything from a discount bicycle tune-up to $10 off a purchase of $50 or more at a natural foods store. The appeal, say the business buying space in the guide, is both to lure new customers and promote sustainable business practices.
Kelly Fernald, co-owner of the Portland clothing store Nomads, says she bought a SunriseGuide coupon because the store spends its advertisement budget in a way that blends the owners' social outlook with their profit motive. "Obviously we always want to get new customers, but we're also trying to do that in a format where we think our customers might be," Fernald says. "The SunriseGuide was focusing on some of the kind of things we try to focus on here in our store, a healthy lifestyleÂ… that whole sustainability idea. It seemed like a nice cross-over."
But SunriseGuide itself also adheres to a "not-only-for-profit" business model that supports its community-focused mission. Chandler's plan is to have nonprofits and schools sell the book as a fundraising tool.
Borrowing fromthe other Portland
Chandler, 34, is a Raymond native whose roots are in the nonprofit sector. She worked for AmeriCorps for several years, both in Colorado and Maine, and also has worked for Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility and for Saco-based mental health organization Sweetser. She got the idea for SunriseGuide two years ago while vacationing in the Northwest.
There, she found the Chinook Book, which in theme, layout and business model is the inspiration for SunriseGuide. The Chinook Book was launched six years ago in Portland, Ore., and has grown from 180 coupons to 400 today. It now has a circulation of 30,000, according to its president, Nik Blosser. "It was at a time when I was thinking about my next step professionally and really wanting to align my work with my personal values," Chandler says of her encounter with the Chinook Book. "I picked up this book and thought, 'What a great way to do that.' It combines my background in marketing with my interests in sustainable living and socially responsible business."
At first she tried to convince the Chinook Book's creators to develop a similar product in Maine. They declined, but gave Chandler their blessing to publish a version of her own, borrowing the Chinook Book's criteria for what green businesses can be included in the book.
To research potential advertisers, Chandler turned to resources such as the Maine members of the U.S. Green Building Council and members of Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility. Her first customer was Royal River Natural Foods in Freeport, a store she had stopped into last spring while investigating the feasibility of the book. After asking for an opinion of the guidebook and whether the ad rates sounded reasonable, Chandler was buoyed by the store manager's enthusiastic response.
Chandler initially hoped to sell 125 coupons for the book's first edition. By early October, she had sold nearly 110, with some businesses buying more than one coupon. Deirdre Nice, executive director of St. Lawrence Arts & Community Center in Portland, bought a coupon that offers two tickets to a musical performance for the price of one. She says she liked that the guide supported local businesses, because the center depends on similar community support. "The objective was to find new customers that we wouldn't have found through other marketing," Nice says.
Moreover, not having much in the way of a marketing budget, Nice says the guidebook provided a relatively affordable advertising option that can be easily assessed for return value. "If people come in with the coupon, you know if it's working or not," Nice says.
Gary Small, owner of Aikido of Maine, says he also was drawn to the potential overlap between people who might be interested in his martial art practice and those who would buy a coupon book that includes a chapter on healthy living. He is offering half-off a $200, month-long introductory session to Aikido. "We're always looking to find ways to let people know who we are, but to do that within an environment that fits with the character of our practice," he says.
The appeal of targeting that select demographic, however, also is one of the drawbacks to a vehicle like SunriseGuide. Coupon books are problematic, says Peter Sealey, a former chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola who teaches at the University of California at Berkeley, because they aren't likely to convert many mainstream shoppers. "You are going to get those people whose green lifestyle is a way of life," Sealey says. "The mainstream, while they have an interest, are not going to change their habits."
The business owners who've placed coupons in SunriseGuide acknowledge that potential drawback. Chandler argues, though, that the book can convince people who are on the edge. "Some of the research we've found out about why people make or don't make decisions for more environmentally friendly options is first, they don't know if the quality is as good, or they don't think it is," she says. "We try to give info about the options and give a coupon so you can try it to test the quality."
Convincing an unusual sales force
SunriseGuide also may be a test of whether such affinity coupon books can work in a small market. The cities where similar books exist — Portland, Ore., Seattle and Minneapolis/ St. Paul — are considerably larger than the Portland area. And Blosser, publisher of the Chinook Book, says part of the reason he agreed to help Chandler is to see how well her coupon book fares here. "I'm curious to see if she can make it work in a smaller market," Blosser said. "The metropolitan region in Portland, Maine, is half the size of the markets we're in."
Chandler says she's optimistic the market here, which encompasses a fairly large geographic area, can support her business. "This is a different approach — this is a regional approach," Chandler says.
So far, the business community's reaction to the book's concept has been varied. Some business owners needed very little persuasion to buy coupons, while others said they would wait and watch the fate of the book next year, Chandler says. For that test, the key is getting the books printed and in the hands of consumers.
Chandler is printing 7,500 copies of SunriseGuide this year, some of which also will be sold in venues like bookstores and food stores and on her website, www.thesunriseguide.com. But she expects to have school groups, churches and nonprofits peddle more than half of the books next year as a way to raise money. Groups selling SunriseGuide will make between $8 and $10 for every $20 coupon book sold, and Chandler predicts schools and charities will generate at least $25,000 from those sales next year. Chandler recently hired a part-time employee to persuade school groups to use the book as a fundraiser and by early October, one school group had signed up.
Of course, elementary school students may be a questionable sales force for a product that requires an explanation of the sometimes-fuzzy notion of sustainable living, but Chandler has printed informational brochures students can pass out to people as they go door to door. And in fact, she says handing off the books to charities and school groups could help the coupons reach consumers beyond the true believers in the green cause. "It is a nice way to expand the distribution," Chandler says.
With the first phase of the book's creation — selling the coupons and ads and writing its chapters — now complete, Chandler plans to focus on pitching the book to those groups that will help generate sales. Along the way, she says, she'll be looking for new ways to expand SunriseGuide. "There are a lot of opportunities to continue to enhance the guide, or to develop an online component with a searchable database of the businesses," she says. "My primary goal is to get the book out this year and look at how we can do it better next year."
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