As a business owner, you know all about your prospective customer… their age, gender, economic and marital status, as well as something about their business (or lifestyle) and personality. Critical information to be sure. But you might not realize that your company marketing pieces must speak to these souls, while also working to overcome a potential buyer’s resistance to making a purchase. Whether you sell a product or service, the rules are the same.

No matter who they are, business person or consumer, everyone needs a reason to buy.

There’s a handy little publication that I make it a habit to check out whenever I have time. In its Aug. 2008 Trend Briefing, trendwatching.com (a consumer trends and insights site) focuses on what they term an innovation avalanche.

The examples come from across the globe and touch all manner of industries, so there are lots of ideas to get you started. Whether you copy what you find here exactly, or the stories inspire you to something that’s unique to your business, the list is a great way to get yourself thinking about innovation.

It’s a veritable vegetable patch out there with all the green offerings available. From trade shows to catalogs, you can’t escape this growing trend. But just how has it changed in the last year since it debuted on the promotional products scene?

It’s Getting Serious

For starters, it’s gotten much more serious — or at least, end users are taking their green initiatives much more seriously. It’s not enough for a product to be made of partly recycled materials. Consumers want to know that the products they buy — and the companies behind them — are environmentally friendly from start to finish.

In a recent BusinessWeek article, author Steve McKee discussed the ways business owners are using counter-programming principles to surprising effect. A counter-marketing (or what some might call counter-intuitive) approach to presenting your business can be an amazingly effective way to get attention and make yourself stand out.

Some of the suggestions you might consider…

• put MORE products in packages, not less
• make house calls/pickup and deliver
• offer a narrower (rather than wider) selection of products or services
• be intolerant/passionate/committed about an issue or cause
• take the road less traveled
• offer an unheard of guarantee or service policy

Counter-marketing is not a new idea, loads of businesses use it. In the article, McKee mentions radio stations and the major television networks, who have for years offered programming alternatives to the Super Bowl.

A more recent example of this principle