Will Consumers Pay a Premium for Eco-labeled Apparel?

Let's face it; very few manufacturers will put good intentions ahead of a solid bottom line. The appearance of eco-friendly labels in recent decades has raised the awareness among consumers of the methods that many clothing manufacturers use. There is money to be made in organic clothing lines. Manufacturers would not go to the effort of having a third-party verify the organic nature of their clothing if there were no monetary benefit for their company. Will consumers pay a premium for eco-labeled apparel? Yes they will.

An eco-label is displayed on products that have met the quality assurance environmental standards of a third party. This label shows consumers that the product that they are buying was made with as small of an environmental footprint as possible. It also shows that there are no chemicals or other toxic residues on the fabric. Because of these guarantees, an eco-label is worth a higher price for many concerned buyers.

Consumers today are motivated to live healthy lives. If a product offers better health, then a consumer is more willing to pay a higher price. After all, good health is priceless. With cancer causes being linked to environmental toxins and chemicals, buyers are looking for products that are free of these destructive materials. Clothing is a major concern because it touches a person's skin, and any chemicals on clothing can be absorbed through the pores of the body. Consumers are willing to pay a premium for clothing that has not been treated with chemicals or grown with pesticides. The health of the consumer is linked with the health of the environment. Because polluted waterways and carbon emissions directly affect the health of the human race, these issues are a grave concern for those who want to live a healthy lifestyle.

Taking care of the environment is a big issue for modern day consumers. They want to know that the products they buy were made with the least possible amount of carbon emissions and pollution. Textile factories are culprits when it comes to polluted waterways. The process of creating fabric for clothing is fraught with carbon emissions, harsh chemicals, and pollution. This is concerning for those who are worried about the long-term effects that current manufacturing methods may have on the environment.

Even more disturbing to tender-hearted consumers are the appalling stories of working conditions in sweat shops around the world. Children being beaten and forced to work hours at a time for mere pennies a day is cause enough for many consumers to pay more for their clothing. Pictures of exhausted workers who are forced to work overtime without extra compensation makes consumers indignant. If this is the price of cheap clothing, consumers would rather pay more for their clothes.

The same is true of animals. Consumers would rather know that the animals who furnished their wool and silk clothing were treated humanely. The practice of raising silkworms and killing them before they break out of their cocoons is objectionable to many consumers. These consumers will pay more to see an eco-label certifying that no animals were harmed in the production of their clothing.

Peace of mind is worth every penny. Knowing that clothing is free of chemicals and was produced in an environmentally responsible way is worth the premium. Consumers have learned to look for popular eco-labels such as AIAB Bio Fibre, Certified Humane Raised and Handled, and GreenSafe Mark. You can find out more information about eco-labels at greensafemark.com.

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The LG Lotus

Most of you will probably wonder why I’ve written this piece of news, considering the handset in question - The LG Lotus - which is a CDMA device launched with Sprint with a contract plan. The reason is that it’s a flip phone like no other I’ve seen before. This clamshell handset opens up to a full QWERTY keypad with a rather unique fashion sense.

Image Source - Gizmodo

The LG Lotus is available in two color options - textured purple or satin black. It features stereo Bluetooth, a 2MP camera/camcorder and Wireless Backup for safekeeping your contact list in the event that the device is lost, stolen or damaged. Other features include integrated GPS, an external display with music control keys and a 176 x 220 pixel resolution and a large internal display with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution and 262k colors.

The Lotus also uses microSD cards in case users need to expand memory. For media purposes it has a full fledged media player and an FM radio.

Image Source - Gizmodo

Of course it’s quite unlikely that the handset will make it to this side of the Atlantic, but one can hope.

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Latest Mobiles

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Nokia N95 8GB

 

GoldStriker offers the Diamond Edition of the Nokia N95 8GB mobile phone. There are only 10 Diamond Edition of the phone and each phone has ‘18 carat solid white gold with 325 diamonds, with a total diamond weight of 3.30 carats, Grade VS, Colour E-F’.

Nokia N95 has a 2.8-inch LCD display, a 5 Megpixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Tessar lens, built-in GPS with A-GPS support and an integrated music player.It supports WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth with A2DP, USB 2.0, and a microSD card slot.

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Nokia N96

 

Nokia's upcoming N96 monsterphone might justbe coming out on July 31st with the wha-wha-whaaaa inducing pricetag of $1,200 if Play.com is to be believed. At least that's what the pre-release price is on that site — Nokia's estimated retail price is $800. That's still a bonkers price to pay for a phone, but it's significantly less bonkers than $1,200. In any case, 7/31 seems as good a date as any for the N96 to drop. We'll see if that actually happens. [Play.com via Symbian Guru]

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Know More About "World Live Web"

This article appeared as my column for Connect Magazine in April 2004.

Last month, Amazon announced that they would start delivering RSS for selected categories, subcategories and even search results in Amazon.com stores. The same week, the State of Utah started offering RFP information in RSS format. RSS is gaining traction and reaching a tipping point. Everyday, I read another story about RSS and its uses.
If you haven't been paying attention, RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is an XML format for describing events. Why is RSS important? Because it says "here's what's changed on the Web." When I started building Web sites in 1993, we taught our clients that people visit sites that get updated frequently. That's still true. Now, however, there is a new tool, RSS, that tells us what's changed.

RSS is about "new" instead of "news." Consequently, I no longer have to limit my reading to sites I know get updated frequently like Yahoo! or CNN.com. Instead, when I find a site that I enjoy, even one that gets updated infrequently, I sign up for its RSS feed and whenever the site is updated, I'll be notified. That's a fundamental shift in what the Web is. In fact, it's something brand new. Allen Searls calls it the World Live Web. The Live Web is current. I like that.Don't get the idea that this is some clunky newsletter system that spams you with email.

Chris Prillo runs the popular LockerGnome web site that supports dozens of email newsletters on a variety of subjects. Because of the large number of newsletters he supports, Chris fights with bounced email, spam filters and other technical problems all the time. In order to simplify his life, Chris has recently started a campaign to push his readers to RSS instead of the traditional email newsletter. There are significant differences between email mailing lists and RSS:

• RSS is much simpler to maintain for the publisher (sometimes called a syndicator). My weblog software creates the RSS format automatically each time I update by weblog.
• RSS is explicitly opt-in. I can't send you my RSS, you have to enter the URL of my RSS feed into whatever program you use to view it.
• Unsubscribing from an RSS feed is simple and foolproof. You simply tell your software to stop downloading it. No more hassles with trying to unsubscribe to an unwanted email newsletter.
• RSS processing can be easily automated. This is a consequence of RSS being based on XML. There are plenty of software toolkits for RSS in every language you can imagine.
• RSS is largely anonymous because there's no need to give out an email address.

The biggest barrier to the growth of RSS is simply a lack of knowledge about RSS and how it can be used. In a lot of ways, it feels like the early days of the World Wide Web. I remember trying to explain to people what a web browser was. In the end, I found that best way was to just show them. That's probably the case with RSS as well.

So why do you care? Because using RSS to read your favorite Web sites will change how you use the Web. No more clicking from site to site. No more missing something interesting because you forgot to click to a particular site one day. No spam. RSS delivered Web content is easy to scan. Robert Scoble of Microsoft reads over 1350 RSS feeds a day. RSS is like Tivo for the Web.

So, how do you get started? The easiest thing to do is to simply subscribe to some RSS feeds for sites that you find interesting. To do that, you need a piece of software called an aggregator. I know, it's a stupid name. "Aggregator" doesn't have the same ring to it that "browser" does. People think of "browsing" as a pleasant experience. I'm not sure many people have positive feelings about "aggregating." At any rate there are a number of options and many are free.

If you use MyYahoo!, there's a new RSS service built into your Yahoo! homepage that works well for reading a few RSS feeds. If you use Windows, NewsGator, NewZCrawler, and SharpReader all seem to be quite popular. NewsGator even integrates with Outlook. Being a Mac user, I can't say enough about NetNewsWire. If you'd like to user a browser-based tool, BlogLines has a number of good features. Once you've got an aggregator, I've put together a page that lists some of my favorite RSS feeds to get you started.

If you have a Web site or otherwise publish information on the Web, you may want to consider publishing an RSS feed of your own. The software you use may already support it. If not, you may need to get someone to so some programming for you. In either case, publishing RSS is relatively straightforward and your readers will be grateful for the improved experience.

RSS is much more than just a faster way to read Web sites. In the same way that the Web was about more than just browsing static data, RSS offers some very interesting possibilities in the area of dynamic events. I'll cover that more in a later column.

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Defination: - "World Live Web"

Welcome To The World Live Web where content truly lives!

What is the World Live Web?
According to Technorati it is:

The World Live Web is the syndicated subset of the World Wide Web. Sites in this subset update often, sending out "live" notifications, by RSS and similar means, every time new content is posted or updated. While weblogs constitute the majority of these sites, many non-blog sources also syndicate their content. Technorati currently indexes over three million sources on the World Live Web. Each one of these sources can be updated at any time, generating "active content" (such as new blog entries) within a 24-hour period.

So in essence the World Live Web is that part of the web that is LIVE and operates in real-time. Blogs allow for the real-time publishing of information and the ability to reference and link to that information instantly. Blogs magnificently and ingeniously send notification to the World Live Web about new information as it becomes available.



What results is the symphony of activity where real-time indexing and spidering is take place. Other bloggers are reading and linking and ideas and information are shared and exchanged with lightning quick speed and efficiency as blogs cross reference each other and the searches who love blog content, drive this frequently updated content to the top of the search engine result for freshness and relevancy.

Like The Universe...
The world live web is like the universe which is comprised of galaxies, solar systems and stars. Each element has it's own orbital track, ecosystem, gravitation pull and that influence other celestial objects nearby. Each planet lives in it's own solar system among other solar systems in the same galaxy that is among other galaxies that go on to make up the entire universe.

In the case of the World Live Web each citizen blog lives within it own social system and network.

[UPDATE: My universe metaphor was used to paint a picture of "influences" among social networks. It as been brought to my attention that John Udell's metaphor of a neural network perhaps expands the idea better overall. I agree. Check it out: John Udell: The Network Is A Blog]

These social networks tend to grow over time and expand (the universe is said the be expanding, right?) over time. What occurs is the natural a natural influence of ideas and opinion upon one another as like minded individuals reference and link to each other as authoritative sources.

The building blocks of these social networks are the real-time conversations of citizens as expressed through instant publishing of topically relevant micro-content and commenting. These social networks grow based on how well trusted each citizen becomes in his or her own expressions.

Each citizen normally garners a readership that can range from one person to thousands. This readership is a basic building block of an individual social network. As that citizen engages the readership in two-way communications that involves the publishing of content and the feedback on that content a common "trust" begins to build. The citizen begins to establish an authoritative voice for his or her topic and begins to build influence.

This new way of communicating can be characterized as conversational in nature and real-time in execution.

Readerships are comprised of two types of individuals.

Content Consumers vs. Content Creators
Content Consumers and Content Creators. Content Consumers are people that are apart of the growing trend in consumer controlled marketing where consumer feedback and discussion are a major influence in driving how businesses conduct their communications online. Content consumers participate regularly within markets that are directly related to or similar to their interests. These citizens know that their markets are influenced by providing valuable feedback and they look for opportunities to help shape their market.

Content consumers know the value of consumer opinion and they know the power of choice they have. This type of citizen may not have a blog or even a web site of their own yet they are avid readers, rely heavily on information in qualifying their consumer decisions online and they do have a clear voice and strong opinion plus they know how to exercise it.

Content consumers will be the online business and marketers greatest asset or greatest liability. Consumers can become evangelists and good ones at that for any enterprise if they are cultivated properly else they can use their influence collectively for greater influence overall which may not be so favorable for a particular enterprise should something go awry.

Businesses must decide how to invest and participate in conversations with these citizen content consumers because these "new" conversations are very informal yet highly sensitive to marketing speak, PR fluff and corporate lingo. Content Consumers are looking for market participation and they are the backbone of these new "market conversations" that are driving changes in online business communications.

Content Creators are citizen journalist or news masters who specialize in filtering and presenting information to a target audience based on focus, topic or theme. Content Creators are bloggers and while they are not news makers specifically their ability as news masters has had news making results.

Content Creators are Content Consumers on steroids as it were. They can spread ideas faster and farther than anyone else because of the power, reach and efficiency of the blog and the World Live Web. Content Creators evangelize at a higher level than Content Consumers because of the tools they use. Content Consumers pull information for decision making and feedback. Content Creators push information for the purpose of influence, reputation and authority.

At first sound it may sound a ambitiously selfish but it is not. You see, Content Creators know that they too are in the public trust and they know that the Content Consumers and other Content Creators have a controlling influence as well. To obtain "winning" influence, reputation and authority a Content Creator must do justice and service to their audience. They must help them by providing information that is deemed valuable within their niche topic or theme. They must participate and communicate frequently and they must be authentic and personable.

Content Creators use blogs to link consistently to internal and external sources creating a rich network of links that spread ideas and messages faster than any other online publishing tool at the moment. They are more powerful, personal and far reaching than forums, instant messages and e-mail.

Enter the World Live Web for Businesses and Marketers
If you wish, you can still participate in the World Wide Web where information is static, stale and infrequently updated. It's your choice. But you should understand the price should you do so.

The World Live Web is a living mechanism. It never sleeps. Everything happens in the "now". Where is used to take web site content weeks and months to get in the major search engines and spread, blog content takes seconds, minutes or hours and it spreads exponentially. Nearly instant in a lot of cases. Web Live Web content is viral and spreads easily and effectively with little effort on your part by comparison to the World Wide Web.Business content in the World Live Web out performs the World Wide Web. Hands down it is the only way to publish.

As a business or entrepreneur you now have to become a market thinker instead of a product pusher. Pushing brochure type content or direct marketing messages will not only fall flat it could mean a reversal of fortune if done obnoxiously enough. In this new era of consumer controlled consumption, consumers are using technologies like RSS to customize their content consumption and they are using blog commenting systems to make their presence known and felt.

You have to think about your markets conversations, understand the influences and needs in real-time and formulate a communication strategy to get connected in. If you think you will join the World Live Web with a hit and run marketing piece yourl message will be dead in the water before it will ever make a sale. You must be thoughtful and committed to building relationships.

You have to understand that you don't control the message entirely you control influences and consumers have ultimate choice. Deliver value and people will choose your content and your wares. You have to prove you are trustworthy. This is a good thing. It forces the quality up to the top because the greedy and opportunities seekers won't stand in long enough to build a relationship. They won't have the passion, the patience or the person to give it the full on commitment.

Fakers and opportunist beware.

The Broad Reach of the World Live Web
The brochure web site is dead. The homepage is dying a slow death. You can thank RSS for that. RSS allows world live web content to spread broadly and widely across citizen boundaries. You message can be published to multiple locations instantly creating greater visibility for your words and more opportunities for your content to be discovered. And the best thing of it all is that RSS drives all attention back to your live content.

RSS is fast, viral and its speed of influence is unmatched and not to be understated. RSS is practical for distributing plain content or media rich content. As a distribution tool it allows you to broadcast and deliver content remotely. As a syndication or subscription tools it allows consumers to "pull" your information and visit you at a time of their choosing which will lead to the sun setting on the homepage.

It is not as important to have a landing page or homepage that people like. It's more important to have content that people find useful and to have that content connected to someone people can trust.

There are live search directories that patrol the World Live Web for all the live content updates and they index them. These live search directories patrol your blog feeds and links and ping aggregator servers for constant indexing. This indexing is so fast, so efficient, and so viral that mainstream search engines like Google and Yahoo vigorously crawl the World Live Web for content.

The cup runneth over...the World Wide Web is being overrun by live content found through blogs and RSS feeds. I have another blog or two and if my competitors ask me how I caught them so fast in the top ten search rankings I'd just say..."World Live Web...baby!"

An yet it's all natural and without pretense. The World Live Web is organic in its transfer of information. This information is micro content whose constructs are words that are naturally written as if you are saying them or thinking them. This natural language writing is without all kinds of literary rule and is a boon to natural organic search.

Do you see where I'm going here? It may sound like it's all too good to be true but it's not. You cannot lose with the World Live Web. Everything is designed to proliferate information quickly. Organic search causes traffic to pour into your blog as others find you in the search engines and the social networks you create themselves are part of other social networks that reference and cross reference good information and *boom*...your content is off and running.

Finally...

With so much more to write but not willing to bring you to tears with all this writing I'll close out by saying this.

Blogs as participatory-journalism tools or citizen media tools (blogs are called by several cool buzz phrases that captures the essence of what they do) has out flanked and out ranked mainstream media. Businesses must now speak to bloggers along with regular media if they are to be effective.

Marketers must be conversational in their messaging and must be interested in building relationships in order to recognize new revenues. Communication is in real time, two-way, peer-to-peer, instantly flowing. Information no longer flows from the top down but multilaterally through informal and viral web-based discussions.

Welcome To The World Live Web!

Markets are now experiencing the affects of the niche influencers. These influencers produce micro content that is econsidered authoritative within niche markets. These niche influencers are Content Creators that have passionately published on their topic for a time and have gained the public trust for their subject matter expertise. They are sometimes referred to as A-listers.

Their blogs have many incoming links, tons of traffic, they are often quoted and are great sources of quality thought and content. That's what helped them build reputation to begin with.

A-listers are important to the World Live Web ecosystem as they help others measure market attitudes, they are great sources for thought leadership, they can be tipping points for the others (one link from an A-lister can sling-shot you from obscurity to popularity in mere moments as they can send a flood of people and spiders your way with a single link) who happen to get their attention.

A-listers are examples of how the Web is organizing itself around living, viral content that works around traditional means of delivering messages. There are lots of Content Consumers out their looking for authoritative content that they can interact with. More so the person behind the content. It's participation all around for everyone. Some want participatory consumption where they influence the persons, business and products they like and some want participatory creation where they want to influence, report and dialogue with others. It's a win-win for any business that will do the work required to make the World Live Web their home.

Whether A-list or common Content Creator or Consumer, blogs cannot be ignored. It is imperative that every online business and entrepreneur determine their strategy. The World Live Web is really still in infancy. It's still defining itself but it is no less powerful in it reach and influence of ideas.

But the real truth is that it is work. If you are passionate about your message and your market you'll do well here over time. If you are not, then the World Live Web may not be for you. Businesses must be creators of content and that takes a considerably larger commitment than being a consumer of content.

As we come to the end of the year I just wanted to throw my thought about this down. I'm really full of ideas and they are coming fast, furiously and not so logically in order at this point. This was a rather stream of conscious moment and I feel my train of thoughts here at the end are more disconnected than connected. Time to rest the head and hands I guess.

Ref: - How To Blog For Fun & Profit!

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