Recently, the California Public Utilities Commission rejected a bid put forward from utilities Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison to buy $43 million in fuel cells from FuelCell Energy and Bloom Energy for 6 MW of electricity, citing customer cost as the main concern.

Administrative law judge Dorothy Duda writes: “It is unreasonable to spend three times the price paid to renewable generation for the proposed Fuel Cell Projects, which are nonrenewable and fueled by natural gas.”

In other news, a recent NOVA special about the cost of renewables, “The Big Energy Gamble” is sending ripples through the clean energy world for actually pointing out the fact that renewables are intermittent and cost more than coal.

Despite studies to the contrary, like the recent American Wind Energy Association poll that states voters overwhelmingly support increasing the use of wind power in the United States and adopting a strong Renewable Electricity Standard, the bottom line is the misconception of renewables.

As Bill Opalka pointed out in a recent blog post, public misconception about what the real cost of renewables is buttressing support.

As AWEA CEO Denise Bode pointed out, “the public sees wind is free.”

Even the most vocal renewable supporters know that clean technologies are not free. There are a host of complicated reasons that make that true, such as transmission build-out, intermittent supply and integration costs, for starters. The public education process is daunting, but it can be done.

When the public figure out that wind energy really isn’t cheaper, at least not now, then there’s the real possibility of a backlash.

If customers feel they’ve been swindled, the backlash could indeed be severe and AWEA could find itself quickly representing a no-growth industry.  The public is in no mood to be lied to by anyone, including organizations that cloak themselves in green.

I’m not saying it can’t be done, but rather than focusing on support that will get wind turbines in the ground, industries like AWEA would do better to focus on the long-term benefits. Rather, we need to talk about deployment as part of an innovative process and rationalize deployment around reducing the real costs of clean energy technologies in the future.

Much like mortgaging a house now builds equity in your future, we can make investments in clean technology today that will no longer be affordable to us in 10 years. This is not the message we’re hearing. What you typically hear is “Save Energy. Save Money,” or something along those lines. Helping people understand the difference between standing in the sunshine and converting sunshine to energy is going to be the difference between finding acceptance and finding advocates.

Plugging in your iPhone is soooo 2010

I’m often asked what the next “big” thing is in clean energy. While solar and wind steal a lot of the spotlight, those technologies were invented decades ago and won’t be the game-changing technology that I believe fuel cells will become.

If you’ve got money to invest (because I don’t), may I suggest Lilliputian Systems. Born out of the labs of the Michigan Institute of Technology, Lilliputian is getting ready to enter the market with a “USB mobile power system” that would use silicon cell cartridges to charge consumer electronics such as cell phones and MP3 players. A cartridge for the system is expected to cost $1.99 and would provide enough power to keep a cell phone charged for two weeks.

There’s no estimate on when the product will arrive to market, but a $5 million low-cost loan from MassDevelopment and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center gets them close to that goal.

1. Channel marketing will die. Here’s an inconvenient truth for Gen Xers: We may be running the show right now, but not for long. While we now sit in the coveted 35 to 50-year-old age demographic, we make up less than a third of the U.S. population. We like to be individuals. That leads to marketing messages that are all about YOU and what makes YOU special and how what we’re selling will help YOU become smarter/faster/wealthier/prettier. However, Millennials aren’t as concerned with themselves as they are with being team players. In the future, you’ll see a return to mass communications and mass marketing. Nothing says “I love being part of a group” more than a YouTube commercial with 2 million page views.
2. Mobile marketing will explode. Consider these facts:
    -  1 in 4 Millenials say they only own a cell phone. Land lines are for old people.
    -  More than half of 18-25 year olds said they use text messaging as a primary form of communication throughout the day
    -  Mobile viewing of video content on iPods and cell phones is up 70% in the past year according to Nielsen; That’s 15 million Americans.
    -  They watch more than 5 hours of television a month online and that number is steadily growing.
3. Snackers are phat. In a fragmented media landscape, they are finding more information and items to “snack” on. They are looking for more media content in shorter formats.
4. Content will still be king. More like emperor. Young people digest information how they want, when they want, and as much as they want. In order to stay competitive, the focus will have to move toward the content, not the venue. In short, expect to see more network television shows on Hulu and more brands with Facebook pages.
5. They will make you care. Overwhelmingly, Millennials have named their mother as their number one role model and their family as their most important thing to them. They are socially aware and feel that giving back to their community is important. If you want to get their attention, you align your brand with things you know they care about, whether it’s family, community, or their favorite charity.

• The first bipartisan bill to comprehensively address climate change is on life support because the bill was moved from the top of the docket to the bottom so that Congress could take up immigration reform.
• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the only Republican to sponsor both bills, and is risking his political future to do something that he believes in, had a three-year-old-style meltdown because his clean energy bill didn’t get to go first.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is losing in the polls in his home state of Nevada and moved the immigration reform bill to the #1 spot to apparently give him a boost in the polls.
• After Graham’s meltdown, and pressure from the White House, Reid has back-peddled a bit and is looking for a way to get Graham back on-board with the climate change bill.

And like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of Congress. Despite Reid’s insistence that this is not “As the World Turns,” it sure looks that way. More concerned with their own reelection than they are with the American people, we continue to see filibusters, temper tantrums on the House floor, and other shenanigans that end up getting us nowhere. This may be fun to watch, except America has real problems to deal with. 

Seriously, if my children acted like this, they would get a stern lecture on the importance of treating people with respect and then sent to their rooms for time out.

In the meantime, the Gulf oil spill grows worse by the day.

What They Should Be Saying

• The time is now. The recent Gulf Coast oil spill and the West Virginia mine explosion should be a rallying cry to limit our dependence on fossil fuels. We are the most innovative country on the planet. Certainly we can think up of new ways to create energy without killing people and destroying the environment.
• It’s an investment in our economy. Double-digit unemployment numbers is an American problem, not a Republican or Democrat problem. Clean energy creates middle class jobs - something our country has been sorely lacking for the past 20 or so years.
• It’s an investment in our future. Climate change is an issue we know we’re going to have to face. We can face it now and invest in the higher education institutions that are critical to research and development of new technology, ushering in a new American economy with a stronger middle class. Think of what federal investments in the space race did for the computer industry.
• The time is now if we are to remain competitive on a global scale (or “USA! USA!”) China has surpassed the United States as the biggest investor in renewable energy for the first time in at least five years, according to Bloomberg’s industry analyst group New Energy Finance. Without legislation and significant federal funding, they will continue to dominate this market and we will end up buying Chinese technology at a premium. They’ve done such a good job with toothpaste and children’s toys, what could be the problem, right?

China is spending billions on renewable energy infrastructure and research. They produce more than three times the scientists that we produce each year. Once more, those scientists don’t graduate with $70,000 in student loan dept to pay off and end up working on Wall Street instead.

As U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu pointed out in a recent conference call with reporters, “The leadership in China has made it very clear that they see incredible opportunity for them,” Chu said. “The United States should sit up and take notice because we do have the best innovation to guide the investment and the thinking. That’s why it’s so important we get comprehensive energy and climate legislation.”

Without comprehensive legislation, we will just be trading Saudi oil for Chinese technology. It’s time for Congress to stop playing politics and stand up for America. We need leadership, not politics

But what about after the campaign launches?

Online is the only marketing medium that you can make up and change as you go along. Are you taking full advantage of that?

By giving yourself some time to walk away from your campaign, you can look at it again in a week or two with a fresh set of eyes. Look at it as if you are one of your customers and you’re seeing the page (or pages) for the first time.

Maybe your call to action can be a little stronger. Maybe the breadcrumb trail your audience is supposed follow doesn’t seem so intuitive now that you can’t remember exactly how to behave. Maybe the lead form asks too many questions after all.

The thing is, you never know until you look. As marketers, we often move on to the next project and never stop to take a look back at where we came from. If you know you’re going to let the campaign run for some period of time, it’s worth the few minutes it takes to check up on your investment. You might be surprised what you learn.

Time went by and you noticed your blog wasn’t getting as much traffic as you hoped. Your sales haven’t been effected. Your other projects were piling up. Maybe you’ve had layoffs, so you’re working even harder just to keep up. Now it’s been a month since your last blog post and that one wasn’t even very good. Time to admit your blog is on life support. What do you do now?

The 12 Steps:

1. Admit that you are powerless to your sense of urgency and your blog has become unmanageable.
2. There is a power greater than your own task list and you are the only one that can restore your sanity.
3. Make a decision to turn around the power you hold and make your blog work as you intended it to.
4. Make an inventory of everything you need to do to make your corporate blog successful. Understand what you want out of your blog and what it will take to get there.
5. Admit to your boss the exact reasons why you’ve let the blogging slide and what you are ready to do about it.
6. Be ready for your boss to shift priorities or responsibilities away from you so you can either a) focus more on writing the blog, or b) find someone who can.
7. Humbly ask your boss to help you remove obstacles that are keeping you from blogging.
8. Make a list of all the social media sites you want to be on and what you’re willing to do on those sites. What is the purpose of a Facebook page? What can you get out of Twitter? What other social media tools can you use to get closer to your customers? How much time do you need to spend on each?
9. Make a direct effort to use those social media sites to support and build your blog following. Make it a priority to get it done just like everything else you have scheduled.
10. Continue to write down ideas for blog topics. Take 10 minutes a day to think of a few and keep good notes whenever possible.
11. Seek input from others in your company – especially those who have impact on customer experience but don’t work directly with customers (like engineers or developers, for example). You can also get other great ideas by reading other blogs.
12. Measure ROI as a result of these steps and carry this message of open dialogue with your customers to other executives in your company. Practice listening to those that matter to you in all of your affairs.

An old rule in marketing is to divide your target audience into demographic groups and speak to them based on their demographic profile. You might even want to create a fictitious name for your demographic group just to make it more personal. If you’re marketing to women between the ages of 26-55 who have more than $75,000 annual household income, it might look something like this:

“Jennifer is 35 years old. She’s a full-time working mom with two small children. She takes care of the kids, excels at her job, and is a dedicated wife and mother. She often puts everyone else’s needs before her own, leaving her no time for herself and she often ends the day feeling exhausted. Jennifer shops at Target, but she also shops at Nordstrom. She appreciates value but she also appreciates quality. She’s looking for products that are affordable and high quality that makes her life easier and make her feel special.”

Sounds about right? OK, then replace “Jennifer” with “Pablo Garcia” and does that sound about right too? Who doesn’t feel this way?

The idea of demographic profiling is that African Americans only speak jive, Mexicans only like spicy food, and women only care about abortion and hand bags. It makes it easier to market to audiences when you can put them in buckets. The only problem is, they’re too generic and often over-simplified to the point of insulting. The message gets lost.

John McCain picking Sarah Palin as his running mate for the GOP ticket has turned the political world on its collective ear. And frankly, as a woman, and a registered Democrat, I’m insulted that the Dems didn’t see this coming. The Democrats quickly dismissed Palin as unqualified and inexperienced, saying that women would never support another woman who was pro-life. In their demographic bucket, they believe that all women care about are abortions and payscales.

As Palin’s popularity surges, they’re scrambling to find out women are, in fact, complex creatures. Not all women are pro-choice. Not all women work. In short, we are not defined by our vaginas.

We care about the economy. We care about the status of the education system in this country. Some of us think we’re not doing enough in Iraq. Some of us think we should just get the hell out.

I find it particularly insulting that politicos and marketers understand complex human behavior when marketing to men, but seem to bucket the rest of us into two camps: “women” and “minorities.”

The best way to understand your customers is to not bucket them into groups and talk to them like school children. You have to start with listening and continually working to meet their needs. Google figured this out a long time ago when they created a search algorithm based on behaviors, not popular assumptions. The Democrats need to spend more time talking to women, rather than at them, or risk another eight years sitting on the sidelines.

I’ve been distracted. I’ve started writing a book. I’m taking care of a toddler and preschooler full-time and I’m looking for a job. I know. I know. We’re all busy. But it’s my excuse and I’m sticking too it.

I’ll also admit to doing a fair amount of pouting. Pouting that the economy stinks and I had to get laid off and no one wants to hire even though they have plenty of work they need to hire someone to complete. Pouting when people jerk my chain by offering me a job then telling me they don’t actually have a job for me and thinking it’s still professional to tell me to have a nice life. Pouting when the only people I have to talk to all day are both in time out at the same time because they can’t get along. Pouting when people tell me annoying things like, “Don’t worry! Your dream job is just around the corner!” Greaaat. Can you tell me what corner so I can go there, turn it, and all this will be over?

So, I’m not going to pout anymore. No one likes a Debbie Downer and it doesn’t really help improve my situation anyway. I promise to be nice to people when they try to cheer me up, even if I want to ring their necks to being so unrealistically optimistic. I promise to enjoy the time I have with my children now because they’re little, they’ll never be this age again, and they love being with me as much as I love them. I promise to keep networking and working toward what I really want to be when I grow up. And most of all, I promise to keep blogging.

So that brings me to my Creative Friday message. Many of you know that I’m very passionate about writing. What some of you may not know is I am also very passionate about music. I even sing in a choir. So I’ve been drawing some inspiration from music lately. Songs about self reliance and overcoming fear – because isn’t that what job seeking is all about?

I hope you find as much joy from this song as I have lately. Listen to your inner voice. It is never wrong.

I went to school during the last recession. As the economy started picking up again, applications started dropping. Not surprisingly, colleges are seeing a rise in continuing education enrollment as the economy is cooling off again.

Sometimes you can learn what you need to know just from additional training. For example, next week I’ll attend the Online Marketing Summit in Denver. I don’t want a degree in it because by the time I finish school, everything I learned about online marketing will change.

Here are some questions to consider when thinking about continuing education:

1. Is your field emerging? As with online marketing, certain in-demand fields are changing almost daily. The problem with grad school is that courses and class content are established months, even up to a year, in advance. If you need flexibility then you probably don’t need grad school. Consider taking an online course or obtaining a certification if you need it.
2. Do you work for a big company? If so, and you’re planning to stay there, you might want to consider an MBA. As the economy gets tighter and tighter, I’ve met a lot of people lately (myself included) that are starting to think that working for a corporate machine wouldn’t be so bad. At least you won’t have to worry about VC funding not coming through. Of course, there’s no guarantee that you’ll never be laid off, but at least you know you’ll get a decent severance package. With all that appeal, an MBA can put your resume at the top of the pile, and it can help you get promoted faster.
3. Does your boss have an MBA? This speaks to the culture of the organization. If no one above you, including your CEO, has an MBA, then chances are they won’t appreciate you having one. This is another time you might want to consider just taking a course or two to get what you need to know to either get promoted or find a new job.
4. Where do you live? Certain parts of the country, where the job market is more competitive, means that you’re almost expected to have an MBA or some form of higher education to get ahead. Look at statistics for your area. If you live in a part of the country that’s saturated with MBAs, then you need to consider getting one yourself in order to stay competitive.
5. Are you scared? Don’t go to grad school just because you lost your job and you’re looking for a place to hide to ride out the recession. Take it from someone who’s been there: graduate school is a lot of work. It completely eats up every second of free time you have and pushes you past limits you thought you couldn’t reach. If you do it, it should be because you love what you’re studying and you want to know more about it. Don’t do it because your scared. It’s a lousy waste of money.

In any case, you need to carefully consider what you really want from continuing education. You may be able to find the skills you need with a few courses in additional training, or from hiring a coach. There’s a great personal and emotional payoff to finishing graduate school, but it takes a lot of investment to get there. Choose wisely.

My favorite story was a woman who once called the reservations desk and asked for a home in Tuscany. The company didn’t have a home in Tuscany, nor any short-term plans to open one. This did not deter her. “I just watched Under the Tuscan Sun. I AM Diane Lane and I AM going to Tuscany. So you just find me a house there.”

The problem with trying to serve people like this is that they’re paying a small fortune to belong to these clubs so they naturally expect more than the average consumer. The bigger problem though was what one unhappy customer could do to our bottom line. More than 80 percent of our new members came from referrals. People trust their friends a lot more than they trust marketing messages, and our business was based on keeping customers happy. Bad experiences meant bad referrals, which meant no revenue.

The Customer Is Not Always Right

I found the best way to deal with demanding clients is to treat them a bit like toddlers. It doesn’t mean to talk down to them. It just means you need to understand where they are coming from and state your position firmly. The second step to this is to set expectations. If the stated bed time is at 8, then by God, work to deliver bed time by 7:55. You need to know what their expectations are and set your own up front.

We set expectations through numerous conversations with individual members. We solicited feedback at every step of the process – when they were making reservations, when they were staying in the home, and when they got back. We also allowed for questions to be emailed “directly” to the President of the organization (OK, most of them went to me) and they would be considered and answered in the email member newsletter. Serious complaints would be follow-up with a phone call – sometimes from their member representative and sometimes from the President of the company.

All this attention to member feedback taught me to never be dismissive anything anyone has to say. Since we were getting so many calls about Tuscany, we eventually added a house there. When someone complained that they couldn’t host a 300-person event at the Napa home, we quoted the city ordinances on events and found them a suitable second location.

What your customers want is not for you to bend over backwards for them, or to be condescending. They don’t want to be ignored either. They just want to know if they make a point, then their point is heard. You may not always agree with them, but if you tell them why and are willing to work with them to find a compromise, they are usually more than happy.

Like toddlers, sometimes they just don’t know what they want. Sometimes they know exactly what they want and refuse to settle for anything else. By setting clear expectations on both sides, you can avoid a lot of tantrum throwing.