SunbitsSass Peress – CEO of ICP Solar – Solar Blog

The new www.energizersolar.com website went live today. Its a view of good things to come in the renewables sector. Energizer(R) itself announced a range of solar powered lights last night at Digital Media Conference. Its looking like a sunny year to come…

The most efficient retail outlet for consumer goods selected a few of our Energizer(R) brand products for their stores next year, with more to come online. Its a great feeling that this move is the right one for ICP Solar and its consumers. The Energizer(R) brand brings credibility and confidence by consumers who are first time buyers of solar and want to be assured that the company behind the product is serious.

Costco Canada has been a long-time client, yet this program is different in that its also going to be better managed. I won’t give the details, yet ICP Solar hired the right team to make this happen and to manage moving forward, as witnessed by the fact that we got the business.

Its a big vote of confidence in ICP Solar’s ability to deliver and product portfolio, as well as the superior customer service we are known for. Rare is there a consumer that doesn’t feel treated like the best. That’s the only way forward if you want anyone’s hard earned dollars spent on you. They are trusting so, so you’d better deliver the goods.

More to come…

Sass

In all the huff about the economic crisis, people resort back to doing what is best for their wallets first, and secondly what is best for anything else. Its a normal reaction to the insecurity that such a situation can create. So the challenge in marketing products on the basis of “green” is greater in times when other things are primarily important, rather than in times of abundance where we “permit” ourselves to make investments we would otherwise refrain from.

I believe therefore that its our duty to show the consumer HOW buying “green” makes economic sense. Of course its hard to show them that the carbon savings resulting from their use of our sunsei(R) solar charger will results in a particular saving in cleaning up our environment (also at a later time) yet its important nevertheless to continue to market to forward thinkers, adjust your strategy and show savings of other kinds as well.

The convenience of solar can be promoted as saving time, and time is money. You’ll note that in such times, brands are important too, for their convey longevity. People will gravitate less to no-names or names they have never heard of, in favor of major brands they trust.

So it is not “bye bye” to buying green if you adjust your strategy to the reality of the people you are trying to attract. It will be if you don’t.

Sass

here we go…into yet another social network. I started to Tweet and you can find me at Sass’ Twitter if you care to. Will have tons to speak about soon…Q1 to report in about 12 days…can’t wait to show a few people what we’ve accomplished in Q1 !

How can failures affect your brand? Just ask Microsoft who is footing a $1billion bill to repair Xboxes which are defective.
Whether this was an operations or design failure, it exemplifies the difference between Microsoft and Apple in the battle of perception. We find increasing confidence in Apple products and increased questioning of Microsoft ones.
My kids are all Apple fans, I now notice more and more Apple laptops in airports than ever before. Yesterday I visited the Apple store in Manhattan. WOW! Three quarters of the store was dedicated to the iPhone!
Kudos to you Steve Jobs. You are definitely someone to emulate when it comes to taking the word “distinction” and making it real.
Sass

As some of you may have noticed, I omitted to post any blog entries for about 3 weeks now. Some may have thought I was too busy, yet the truth is that I have been wondering what effect the blog visits would suffer if i stopped blogging on as regular a basis as I had been.
The results show about a 30% drop in visits, which shows me that many people are actually signed up to receive notifications of my blog entries and that with reduced frequency, fewer other websites are likely to link to mine.
All part of an experiment to find out if you missed me or not (specially Dan, my favourite reader!). Well I guess you did, and so expect me to pick it up particularly as more great news continues to emerge about the execution of our strategies in this great industry.
Sass

Thoughts today from internet gurus who are debating whether or not blogs should have content warnings, just like porn or violence-laden websites, tv shows, etc…
There are two minds: one is the purist who sees the internet as the ultimate freedom of expression, say what you wish, when you wish and “buyer beware” mentality, and the other who feels that like any other “media”, the internet should be warning about content and now more particularly, bloggers about content on their site.
Why should a blogger’s site be different from a professional media/content site, and where do we now draw the distinction? How do you define the line between what should warn and what should not?
I believe that these lines have already been drawn for all kinds of sites and that blog sites should be no different. You’re simply being courteous in the most free of all communities. I’m not advocating legalizing this, however just as the advertising industry has its own self-regulating council, why should not the “blog” industry? And if you think that blogging has become anything less than an industry, let’s call a spade a spade…I and many other CEO’s would not likely be blogging were it not to help promote our own companies (how’s THAT for honesty?).
The key, as in everything else in life, is what you wish to be known for. Blog sites which have content where there is no line drawn, should warn their readers, and then its up to the reader to determine if this is for them. At least you would have done people navigating the internet the courtesy of warning them. What a word…courtesy…is it still in our vocabulary?
Sass

It was just a matter of time before blogs became celebrated. Here is a link to an article on Blog Awards.
With 175,000 new blogs created each day, its no wonder the internet is credited with the democratization of media. Those that rise to the top will be the ones that stand out (as usual). As for mine, visits are increasing at a rate of about 20% per month and the mix of people who are commenting (either on the blog or emailing me) is very interesting. I’ve now got to add shareholders to the list of people who look for my blog to be informative, invigorating, thought-provoking and reflective of not only myself, but also ICP Solar.
CEO blogging has its risks and rewards, yet as this article’s title states its a fine balance between being careful and boring.
Sass

NASCAR’s Darryl Waltrip was caught cheating in a recent race through the addition of fuel additives to his system, clearly a violation of NASCAR rules. Yet is it so uncommon that cheaters try every trick in the book in a cat and mouse game? What I’ve found is that really depends on yourself, the brand you are creating, and the manner in which you look yourself in the mirror.
The fact is that such cheating occurs across all walks of life. We’ve seen it in solar power when several brands simply don’t output their real ratings to an unsuspecting public and across several other instances where manufacturers push the envelope (and often break it) in the name of showing higher capacities or ratings.
Does the radio maker tell you that the 200RMS per channel that is labelled is impossible to listen to due to the THD (total harmonic distortion)? Nope. Do you care? Nope. All you want is clean, loud music, and you use the wattage rating as a relative measure because you’ve never yourself measured it no matter what sound system you bought.
Same goes for solar power. Same goes for car racing. In the end however, it is those who stand out through a consistent, ethical approach to their business that will have long term brand value gains and long term loyalty from customers. At points of sale or viewership, we may not distinguish today. Yet one day, when we least expect it, someone will catch the thief..and that will be the day of the debt repayment.
Live it straight. Live it good. Your reward will come in ways you cannot predict today.
Sass

A few years ago, our ICP Solar marketing team came up with the “Flexgirl” concept to market a range of flexible panels. We had a beautiful young woman wrapped ONLY in a flexible panel with the slogan “I’m flexible”.
Needless to say it was a huge hit in Europe, where dealers were clamouring to get posters just like the one we would show at the trade fairs, yet in the USA, while men admired the poster at the fairs, they said it would simply not “work” in their neck of the woods. Just goes to show that when in Rome…
So now comes the term “Fergalicious” from the female lead singer out of the Black Eyed Peas band (if you don’t know who they are, ask a teenager who is available to you!) and suddenly, a couple of days ago, my guru director of marketing (We call him “Captain Lafite”!) comes up with “Solarlicious“, which is what reminded me of our famous flexgirl (Hmm… I wonder if Fergie would like to be wrapped in our new flex solar panels?)
Well, we certainly could have a good time with that phrase, yet I asked myself (being so fixated on solar)..”is there a product out there which I would describe as solarlicious?” I thought long and hard about many of the cool products that ICP Solar makes, yet I could not quite get that relation between this word and our great solar power products. I was thinking more of something which may not be quite functional yet looks just right. Whereas our panels look great and work great, I think the word is more appropriate for something really out of the box, and doesn’t really relate to performance.
Well, I’ve determined that none other than the SOLIO, made by my good buddy Chris Hornor, deserves that label. At this time, its eggshape is something clearly out of the box which has litle relation to practicality, and all to do with “lovemarks” as defined by Kevin Roberts, CEO of master branders Saatchi & Saatchi in the UK.
The Solio is the epitomy of a superbly crafted product which has that ’sex appeal’, even though I’m not convinced I’d use it for much more than a paperweight because for my own travels, I need to have as little “extra machinery” as possible, as I really like to travel “super light”. The product is at the other end of the solar spectrum where we have superbly made industrial panels that have the sex appeal of a…well you can imagine yourself what I mean.
So kudos to you Chris, you get the first official “Solarlicious” nomination from me. If I spot other such items in my travels through the solar power world, I’ll make sure to point them out as well…
Sass