2011 Planning and a Good Bourbon
Most of us are deep in the weeds of the projects we are working on.  There are fewer and fewer people to support us. And the demands for success are ever greater. We know that we are in the New Normal, but we don’t know what that means. And come January 1, when the past year's slate is wiped clean , we start all over again. Is it a beginning? It certainly is a very large blank slate, creating a huge hole in my stomach as I look out at 2011, and yet as marketers, it is our job to carry a great deal of the weight to make 2011 successful.

The consumer backlash toward California’s Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PG&E) smart meters is apparently unwarranted, according to a new independent study.
When PG&E installed smart meters, many consumers complained that their energy bills were inaccurate and that they were not properly informed about smart meter installation.

We’re wrapping up our look at “Understanding Consumer Preferences in Energy Efficiency” (http://bit.ly/9zMTSh), an essential survey of responses to smart metering programs.
A new, more active energy consumer is emerging – one with the potential to fundamentally reshape the relationship we’ve traditionally had with utilities and electricity providers.

General Electric is teaming with utilities for a $5 million program to evaluate whether energy savings in homes is possible using smart appliances and renewable resources to make homes 30% more efficient.
The program, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), will be deployed at houses in the western U.S. that will incude a combination of retrofit and new construction.

Creatively inspired. Digitally grounded. Network connected.  Those are three key ingredients to marketing success as we navigate the new normal.  A brand that does that brilliantly is Gatorade.  They understand their "network" market and how to connect with them, digitally and traditionally, with seamless brilliant creative.
Ideas are the heart and soul of our business.  And the bar for ideas has been dramatically raised as effective marketing has become more and more viral.  We do not control that viral, that buzz.  That happens directly in relationship to the ability of the idea to connect with our network markets.

Just like the age-old question, which came first the chicken or the egg, the same can be asked of opportunity or optimism. The difference is that the second question can be answered simply. Opportunity is the external possibility, and Optimism is the internal drive for good to triumph over evil, success to prevail over failure, breakdowns to lead to breakthroughs.
I find myself challenged by this today, as last night saw the candidates that I wanted to lead this state lose in the primaries. I saw opportunity for change diminish for our state. This outcome has challenged my optimistic self. Thus my question, Opportunity or Optimism? At times they are very connected in their meaning. And at times they are opposites of one another. One does not have to be optimistic to bump into opportunity or take advantage of opportunity.

We’ve arrived at the last key finding in Accenture’s survey (http://bit.ly/9zMTSh) of consumers’ responses to smart metering programs. We’ve looked at the first four findings in recent weeks (http://bit.ly/am8rmy, http://bit.ly/dub9wE, http://bit.ly/b7UpOK, http://bit.ly/bLOjsC).
Key Finding #5:

This is the time of the year when we start the age-old planning cycle for the quickly approaching new year.  This has become so automatic that the planning process runs us, versus us running the planning process.  Planning was invented to develop a road map for organizations — how else can we align the interests and actions of customers, our employees, our stakeholders and our bottom lines. And the new economic normal in which we are now living demands that we rethink our planning process.
Planning comes in as many flavors as Ben & Jerry’s has ice cream.  And then of course there are all the light versions of those ice creams.  Whatever flavor you pick is fine, as long as you are planning for the future.   As long as you are taking control of the planning process and looking for breakthroughs into the future.    Whatever process you used in the past for planning should be trashed.  The new economy demands a new planning model.

In a new study from Columbia University, Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University, 505 Craigslist participants were asked to estimate the most effective measures to improve energy efficiency.

We're all feeling the results of the recession, but intended relief was on the way when it came to energy efficiency.
Last year Congress implemented a $3.2 billion economic stimulus package to provide jobs and improve the nation's efficiency standard.