Green Marketing

Articles about how American wedding band manufacturer Novell markets to consumers without waste.


Jewelry industry – meet Facebook! Facebook – meet the jewelry industry!

This article was originally posted on Novell’s wedding ring blog:

Facebook_logo JCK Magazine’s Mark Smelzer wrote about the jewelry industry beginning to embrace Facebook. Since I have a pretty strong opinion on this subject, I have a lot to say and posted a response to the online article. However, my comments formatted into one giant blob-of-a-paragraph. The message is there, but it’s not easy to follow.

So, in case anyone is interested, below are the relevant parts of Mark’s article, and my response – formatted so it’s easier to read.

The Facebook Era Arrives
By Mark Smelzer — JCK-Jewelers Circular Keystone, 3/1/2009
I’ve just returned from Tucson, Ariz., where I attended the Centurion show and the AGTA show. As always, the warmth of Tucson (figuratively and literally) was a terrific escape and the trip was a chance to see our friends in the industry. Topic No. 1, of course, was the economy and its continuing negative impact on the jewelry industry.

Amid the concerns, there were several fascinating topics of conversation, the most interesting being the rise of Facebook. Suddenly, everyone in the industry is talking about the hugely successful networking site and its impact on their personal and professional lives.
For an industry that once lagged behind the population as a whole with regard to the Internet, it seems we’re finally catching up. JCKonline.com’s traffic numbers continue to boom, with 162,000 unique visitors (individual persons) visiting our site in the month of January alone, our highest monthly traffic ever!

There is a particular sense of a watershed moment with regard to Facebook. It’s one thing for members of our industry to recognize the strategic importance of the Web. It’s quite another for them to incorporate the Internet into their daily personal lives. Through the use of this site and others, we’re finally realizing the role that the Internet plays for millions.

What does this mean to you, the retailer or manufacturer? It means that once again the paradigm has shifted (recall the shift from weekly magazines like Life to television), and once again you need to position yourselves where the traffic is.

Step 1 should be creating personal and business Facebook pages. Once you have a personal page, you can create a page for your business as well. As your network of friends grows on your personal page (you’ll be astonished at how quickly the numbers add up), you can invite them to become a “fan” of your business page as well. As your business fans grow, you’ll have a ready-made list of persons to e-mail on a continuing basis, to inform them of events, charity involvements, trunk shows, new product arrivals, etc.

None of this takes the place of your store or business’s actual Web site. In fact, you want to place as many links (and reasons to link) to your Web site as possible on your business Facebook page. Think of a Facebook page as plopping yourself in the middle of a busy freeway, in the hope of diverting traffic to your site. Go where the traffic is!

Read more at http://www.jckonline.com/article/CA6640742.html.

My response:
The Facebook era not only has begun, but it probably can be said that it started a while ago, and it’s pretty much just now starting to be talked about in the jewelry industry. This is a good thing. Maybe even a great thing!

In an age where people like me are asked to either greatly reduce, reserve or even eliminate budgets, tools like Facebook are very valuable. Yes – it’s where the traffic certainly is. However, it should be noted that connecting with the right audience may take quite a bit of work. One page alone may not attract customers to your door automatically.

Novell put up a Facebook page about three weeks ago (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Novell-Design-Studio/45691939078). Over the next few months, I anticipate that I will have to put in a decent amount of time to really get it noticed. In fact, I may even say that promoting Novell wedding rings through a variety of social media channels (blogs, message boards, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Flickr and many other news and linking websites) will be a big – if not the biggest – part of my job. If you wanna catch a lot of fish, then you definitely have to put your boat where the most fish are. And, of course, have the right bait. 

I am very happy to be hearing buzz within the jewelry industry about Facebook and social media in general. I look forward to the day when more manufacturers and retailers make an active presence known to existing and future customers alike. Personally, I want to be next to my competitors on many platforms. That way, consumers can easily compare and choose the manufacturer, product or even metal that’s right for them.

People like to use the term “branding,” but often I wonder if many of those who throw the term into conversations really truly know what “branding” is. At least with Facebook, your message needs to be clear and focused for it to have a chance to work. Even with my page, I know that I have a lot of tweaking to do as well. It looks to be a fun – and educating – journey to take.

“Good-bye” to relying on print ads and glossy brochures alone. “Hello” to more focused and multi-channeled messages.

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Wedding band company embraces alternative ways to “get the word out.”

Squidoo_wedding_band_lense Is your time limited? Need the facts, just the facts and nothing but the facts about wedding bands? If so, then Novell has built several easy to read Squidoo lenses for a variety of wedding band topics.

For those who don’t know, a Squidoo lens is an easy-to-build, single web page that can feature a company’s products, point to blogs, feature favorite links, RSS feeds, Flickr photos, Twitter feeds, Amazon books or music, and so much more. That way, when someone is looking for recommended information fast, a lens can get them started and sent off in the right direction. Novell’s collection of Squidoo lenses include basic facts about precious metals, new products, popular styles, and other helpful links to aide a consumer’s purchasing decision.

Here’s a quick listing:

Choosing The Right Metal For Your Wedding Band
A New Wedding Song
Novell Wedding Bands Can Be Custom Made – Just For You!
Big and Bold Max Squared Wedding Bands


Wedding band company joins Facebook.

Novell-wedding-ring-logo Wedding band manufacturer Novell Design Studio recently launched its company profile on Facebook. Facebook users may conveniently view popular wedding band styles, quickly browse Novell wedding band news, and view over 150 individual wedding band video brochures. The company launched its profile as an easy way for Facebook users to compare Novell to other wedding band manufacturers.

Visit Novell’s Facebook company profile (must be registered).


Going green: How Novell is helping to reduce our environmental impact within the jewelry industry.

 

Green_marketing_article

 

This article was originally posted on Novell’s wedding ring blog:

The November 2008 edition of JCK Magazine features a quote from Novell marketing guy Rick Mulholland about the methods Novell employs to reduce environmental waste within the jewelry industry.

From JCKOnline.com:

Have you ever stopped to wonder about the fate of the various catalogs, flyers, and brochures you send out on a daily, monthly, or yearly basis? Ever wondered how much of that ends up in the hands of people who may not have one of those nice blue recycling buckets next to their desks? Rick Mulholland, marketing director for Novell Design Studio in Roselle, N.J., looked at the amount of money his company was spending on paper, and he knew—from both an economic and an ecological standpoint—that it had to be reduced. Over the last two years he has been actively promoting the availability of the company’s catalog and latest brochures as PDF downloads. Mulholland says that thousands of Novell customers have downloaded the online material over the last few years. In doing so, they’ve helped to reduce the expenses and environmental impact related to collateral production and mailing while simultaneously increasing the reach of the company’s message. “About a year ago, if 100 catalogs were downloaded in a month, that was a good month,” he says. “Now, for some months we see at least 1,000 downloads of fairly large files. And I rarely send out a physical catalog.” Mulholland says his downloads in a 30-day period peaked at 6,636 in November 2007. “Imagine the cost if I had to mail them all out!” he says. Not to mention the paper waste. “If more companies encouraged downloads or electronic distribution, then less paper would be used, and the jewelry industry would be a greener industry to work in.”

Read the entire articleGo Green – How Jewelry Makers Are Reducing Their Environmental Impact”


RSS Allows Easy Access to Wedding Band News.

Novell Syndicates Online News To Customers

In response to the vast amount of advertising clutter that is in the world and on the Internet today, Novell Design Studio allows retailers and consumers to keep up with their latest editorial and special advertising placements via the Novell News webpage. Hosted on the company’s website, interested parties can subscribe to the section’s RSS feed and have news delivered directly to their e-mail account, cell phone or personal webpage with just the click of a button. Over the past year, Novell (a leading wedding ring manufacturer which specializes in product customization) has been spreading the word about their bridal jewelry through a variety of online methods. Videos, brochure downloads, and RSS all combine to increase the reach of Novell’s unique message – your wedding ring can be made your way – and helps supplement their traditional advertising. With individual time constraints and concerns today about the impact of excess packaging on the environment, online news distribution greatly reduces the need for printed material. Customers also may quickly access additional information without further delay.

Why Use RSS to Keep Up with Novell Wedding Ring News?
RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as “feed” to whoever wants it. RSS is convenient for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from websites that are often visited or found helpful. Messages are delivered to a central location, and time is saved by not needing to visit additional websites individually. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News, Google News and many more. Visit
www.novelldesignstudio.com/news.php for more information and to subscribe.

Read more…


Marketing wedding bands without the waste.

This feature was originally posted on Novell’s wedding ring blog:

The June 2008 issue of MJSA Journal featured Novell’s marketing guy Rick Mulholland explaining the company’s success with offering catalogs and brochures as downloads to consumers.

Download the MJSA Journal feature.

Download a Novell catalog or brochure.

Read more about what Novell offers as a free download or video brochure.

Novell's Rick Mulhholand talks to MJSA about Novell's green marketing efforts.

Novell's Rick Mulhholand talks to MJSA about Novell's green marketing efforts.