By Annette Cunningham President, ASC International
In real estate it always boils down to “location, location and location.” For independent floor covering retailers, designers and distributors looking to make green consciousness profitable, it is “positioning, positioning and positioning.” The key is to establish and communicate a competitive edge that defines your business in terms of values that matter to your customers.

Price is a prime consideration, especially in this current economy. But for a long-term investment like floor covering, knowledge, experience and accessibility are worth money to the consumer. To start turning green consciousness into profit, position your business as an indispensable source of support systems that add value to the products you sell. Focus on some things to know about yourself, your customer and your suppliers.



In a sentence about you or your business, what comes between the noun and the verb? Does it identify you as unique? Are you “the expert in green design”—the one bringing green to both planet and profitability? Be sure you’re the one taking charge of what’s said about you. Express your understanding of and commitment to green marketing in simple, compelling terms. Establish that you as a business and they as consumers can do well by doing right by the environment. Nothing can turn back what we’re all learning about the vulnerability of our planet and our shared accountability for the future. So take that as a given and make environmental responsibility the added value of whatever you sell, whether it’s the carpet made from recycled water bottles, cradle-to-cradle recycling or hardwood from a company that plants more long-growth trees than it harvests.

Supply more than just inventory

While your customers shop online they will be drawn to buy in person if you position that choice as one that delivers long-term benefits of value for money. Your expertise, guidance, market savvy and understanding of their psychology will make the people who come to look stay to buy.

Know your suppliers’ stories

Make sure you and your employees are knowledgeable about what your suppliers are saying about environmental issues. Every company has a story to tell and those stories become factors in the buying decision. One committed sporting clothes manufacturer installed computer terminals in its stores so people could learn the stories behind the garments. It mounted a computer terminal in a decorative unit so customers could learn the environmental stories behind the clothing. This “Learning Tree” unit became a star salesperson.

Think globally but act locally

Take a leaf from the Wal-Mart playbook. Remember, unless commitment to a green strategy runs from top to bottom through the organization, it won’t work. The mega retailer got its sales associates on board by having each select a “PSP” or Personal Sustainability Project: riding a bike to work once a week, buying locally grown produce, etc. That translated the company’s requirements that its suppliers adhere to sustainability standards into sales associates motivated to think green on the selling floor.

Annette Cunningham is the president of ASC International, whose “parenthetical” is “Experts in Eco-elegance” (ascintpr.com). The company has partnered in the positioning of numerous world class brands, including the 2008 global branding of HYmini, the world’s first and only handheld hybrid universal generator powered by both wind and sun.