Thursday, 01 January 2004
FSC Working Hard to Help you Sell
When I joined the FSC staff a year ago, it was clear that we had an opportunity to improve the marketing of FSC and FSC products. One important lesson for me early on was that FSC certificate holders (companies) are the best-equipped entities for selling FSC-certified products. Therefore FSC-US, and our non-profit partners, should be focused on marketing the FSC message, or, in marketing parlance, the �FSC brand.� For a year now we have been doing exactly that, and it is becoming ever clearer that FSC certification offers marketing advantages for those companies that utilize it.
Our primary focus has been to help create messages about FSC that can support specific product marketing activities. These include, for example, upgrading our web site to clarify what FSC is and how it works, and publishing a new brochure that highlights how FSC is working to reduce the negative social and environmental impacts that can often accompany timber harvesting. We have had an excellent response to this work from certificate holders, and from our key audiences. For example, at the US Green Building Council annual conference, our booth was visited by hundreds of architects, builders, and specifiers. Many remarked on how they value FSC as part of their work on green building. Our certificate holders who attended the trade fair had similar responses, and found the venue a valuable opportunity to market their products. We are seeing a similar trend in the paper market with many institutional buyers requesting and using FSC. Norm Thompson Outfitters, for example, just published their most recent catalog on FSC-certified paper. This adds to the commitment of companies like Kinko�s (who now carries FSC papers in their stores) and others. Furniture manufacturers, residential builders, university buyers, and others are talking about FSC, and we are working hard to create a space for you to market and sell your certified products.
For maximum market understanding of FSC, companies need to be able to talk about the full range of the benefits that FSC certification can provide. Here is a set of questions for companies to consider when examining whether they have fully utilized the FSC brand:
1. Does my product marketing approach include messages about FSC?
2. Does my sales staff understand what is special about our company as a consequence of our commitment to FSC?
3. Does my marketing staff understand the commitment?
4. Are my sales and marketing people talking about how to utilize these benefits in their messaging and client relations?
5. Have I been in touch with FSC for help?
On this last point, we hope the answer will be yes for everyone. We have worked hard to revamp our website (www.fscus.org), and we have developed new brochures and other materials that can help you message to customers. We are developing resources for staff training to help your staff effectively use FSC as part of how you define your own brand. We would enjoy hearing from you on whether such a program would be useful to your company. We hope you will contact us for help on these issues if you feel we can be of service.