Want to connect to the green consumer? Help them stand out.

I recently listened to the Freakonomics podcast “Hey Baby, Is That a Prius You’re Driving?” and it got me thinking about consumption, specifically conspicuous nonconsumption, or conspicuous conservation. Call it what you want, the green consumer wants you to know they’re a good person–and that’s an insight that businesses can leverage to help change consumer behavior for the better.

Sustainable brands often try to blend ...

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...with Donnie Clapp, Community Manager for Montana Office of Tourism

Talking to your friends is easy. Talking to a stranger is harder. Where do you start? How much do you talk about yourself? How many questions do you ask? What do you do with your hands?

Jumping into social media on behalf of your sustainability- or tourism-focused business is similar. You're on Facebook and Twitter, and you feel comfortable there with your friends and family. It should be just ...

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Here at the 16^th best place to work, ever*, we recycle. We built a custom recycling bin system so we can more efficiently sort our stuff before an awesome local company comes to pick it up, we have a dishwasher instead of paper coffee cups, and we even have a colony of worms chewing up our organic waste and turning it into compost for our flower beds.

But we still had garbage cans. Lots of them. One under every ...

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During a recent trip down to LA to visit an old friend, I went for a stroll along the boardwalk in Venice. Amid the array of sights, sounds, street performers and expected characters, something made me stop. That something was the juxtaposition of the Medical Marijuana Evaluation Center and Botox on the Beach.

Thinking back to Marketing 101, and the 5 P’s of Marketing: People, Product, Price, Place and Promotion, I wonder how Place is working for these businesses ...

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Last week a few of us attended the Montana Economic Development Summit in Butte, Montana. Winding down the first night with a drink at the Cavalier Lounge, we asked the bartender where we should go for breakfast the next morning. He couldn’t say Bob & Sandy’s (B&S) Café fast enough.

Always a group to take a local’s suggestion, we made the trek to the breakfast joint the next morning, and not only did we enjoy a very ...

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Heading home from Outdoor Retailer a month or so ago, I was raving about electronic boarding passes. I had heard about this concept, but I had not been privy to it, until this trip. These electronic boarding passes are only available from some airlines, in some airports. News articles predict that by 2014, as many as 15 billion people will be using electronic boarding passes. And now I was getting to try ‘em out. Feeling very technologically savvy, I headed ...

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The epic journey began with a simple quest. We needed a shuttlecock. After a few quick giggles over the term shuttlecock the mission began. The first stop was the hardware store, the guy in the Hooters shirt, sweating profusely, suggested the local market. "Two blocks on the right. Veer left…" Sounded simple enough. "Then you'll hit the sunny stretch." He wasn't lying. Molly sweated her way through her dress a quarter of the way there, only to find ...

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After ranting (while also raving, in a positive manner) about the Montana ads that have taken over the Chicago CTA buses and the "L" in the Windy City, Barbara Brotman and The Chicago Tribune have decided to take on Montana. Montana's campaign showcasing Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park is "thrusting its mountainous finger right in our Midwest faces, taunting us with its magnificent scenery and world-class outdoor recreation," according to Brotman. So she and The Tribune are ...

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Interesting how social sites can be a magnifier of traditional advertising.  Or at least a little window into people’s conversations that we were never able to have just a few years ago.  Transit ads just started going up for Montana in cities around the U.S.  Twitter postings go up almost immediately after.

Here’s hoping this is an indicator it gets some more viral play like last year’s Seattle transit did.

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Great time at CSD’s Geotourism Summit in DC.

Montana was an early adopter of Geotourism and remains a leader having 2 of only 6 U.S. map projects located here in Big Sky Country.  However, the successes here are built primarily on the idea that Geotourism is the best economic choice for our state, not because of its social and environmental benefits.  Of course, those attributes are extremely important and the very essence of what Geotourism is.  But destinations ...

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The 5 Keys to Communicating with Geotravelers was the subject of a talk by MercuryCSC’s Jeff Welch at the ABETA Summit in Sao Paulo, Brazil, September 10-13, 2009.

ABETA is Brazil’s Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Trade Association serving hundreds of tour operators and destination marketing officials throughout South America’s largest nation. Welch, who is the CEO of MercuryCSC, was invited due to his company’s understanding of the geotravel market and their success in reaching this market ...

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Jeff Welch, Chief Executive Officer of MercuryCSC, was a featured speaker on a climate change panel that was hosted by the National Parks Conservation Association and the Big Sky Institute in February 2009. Citing research on the geotraveler and the importance of tourism to Rocky Mountain States’ economies, Welch suggested that extreme climate change could have a large and negative economic impact in Montana and throughout the Rocky Mountain West. "If the wildlife, natural wonders and recreational opportunities that geotravelers ...

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Two recent studies conducted by MercuryCSC indicate that travel spending among geotravelers will not decline as much as other groups. "Travel is not something they do," said Lex Sanford the lead researcher for the qualitative study. "It’s part of who they are." Quantitative data conducted in February 2009 by Leisure Trends Group, on behalf of MercuryCSC and the Montana Office of Tourism, supported Sanford’s findings. From a sample of 980+ people nationwide who were identified as geotravelers, nearly ...

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MercuryCSC has partnered with Alexis Sanford Consulting, an account planning?research firm whose clients include VISA, Toyota and Starbucks, to perform the first intensive qualitative research regarding an emerging travel demographic – the geotraveler. MercuryCSC and Sanford’s firm created a proprietary online focus group of nationwide participants facilitating a blog–type conversation over several days. Through the dialogue, Sanford was able to better pinpoint geotraveler values and emerging trends that have impact for travel–related brands including outdoor retail and ...

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