As companies expand their digital platforms, the need for both intelligent and beautiful design grows. Their sites need to do more. Multidimensional is paramount. As sales tools, they need to provide reliable, consistent information. And in order to draw people in they need to be well designed, well thought-out…in a word, beautiful.

Everyone knows your website must be a global window to your brand. A good website leads your customer to the point of sale quickly and easily, yet a great website does not stop there. Visually inspiring and contextually interactive, a great website gives the customer more than they expected. It engages them with relevant information so they remain on the site longer, make more transactions, and keep coming back more often.

Take tcg’s campaign for the luxury laptop the Tulip Ego. The Tulip Ego is a beautiful product that actually performs. tcg created a website which introduced the product to the US market and celebrated the dichotomy of its form and function. We won the 2007 Hermes Creative Awards for Design/Website Overall (Platinum), the 2007 Davey Awards for best Consumer Products & Services Website (Silver), and the 2008 Fashion PC CES award for these efforts.

The borders of the Internet’s virtual wild west are constantly expanding. Now, social media is the new frontier. Successfully utilizing social media tools to gain exposure and increase sales is the new goal of many savvy websites. Yet it’s unappealing to visit a website where social media tools are crowded on thoughtlessly, generating more clutter than content. tcg believes that social media tools should be seamlessly woven into your site. SocMe™, our next generation platform, integrates content management, learning management, and social media elements, which enable a complete and streamlined brand experience.

The SocMe™ social media platform can help you create an online brand identity from the ground up or take your existing website to the next level. Whether you’re using a content management system, a social media platform or want to get your site onto a mobile web device, the SocMe™ social media package allows all elements of the website to be linked seamlessly and exist simultaneously.

Understanding users’ different learning style is first and foremost. Intelligent information plus beautiful design equals relevant power. And social media can add value to your website, and provide an interactive user experience for your visitors. Imagine a site with the beauty of Tulip Ego’s combined with the drive and purpose of relevant social media applications. A site like that gives the consumer what they’re looking for—and it takes them there farther, faster, and more stylishly than they ever expected.

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We make sure our story and character matches whom we hire, otherwise both sides will end up unhappy.

Everyone in our agency loves to make a difference. We love to distill the important from the trivial. We simplify the complicated and design with respect for all learning styles. We are all passionate about hobbies other than the agency, too. We have trapeze artists, singers, authors, painters, jewelry makers, activists, boxers, and rowers on staff. We are proud to be different and just as proud of our connection through these differences. Our own brand story includes:

• Commitment to transparency – no tolerance for gossip. Apart from job reviews, everything else in the offices is an open book for employees.
• Commitment to sustainability – 92% of office is refurbished. Everything we do is based around the 3 principles of sustainable development: Economic growth, ecological balance and social progress.
• Commitment to individual motivation and growth – every single person in the agency makes decisions and is part of a project at some particular point. Every single person can join a strategic meeting, call a client, come to a pitch and throw out ideas.
• Commitment to innovation – every single person follows our zero through 10 principles and can improve upon any single process/methodology we have.
• Commitment to diversity – we don’t take on projects if they don’t match our global make up. For example a staunch religious organization with significant financial backing called us for a social media site. We told them that we weren’t the right fit. We will not take on projects if they go against our core values.
• Commitment to different learning styles: We know that we all learn, share, retain and are engaged by communication differently. We learn about the targets before creating anything and/or we always incorporate multi media so that everyone can have a chance to learn in the way they wish too. We also all know we are ALL busy – no matter what the social or economic status of an individual. In 2008, we’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t multi-task or have ’10 things’ to do daily.
• Commitment to our client: All of us know to listen first. To have empathy or at least sympathy. We all know our clients are very intelligent and they just haven’t had a moment to stand back and look in with an objective point of view. Together, the client and tcg can figure out the best solution.

What are your own brand stories?

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I’ve implemented a lot of green practices into both my life and my business. tcg: The Communication Group is one of San Francisco’s first 50 certified Green Businesses, and we got that way by making a number of simple choices that have transformed our workplace. Here are some of the ways we’ve created a culture of sustainability and chosen to green our business.

1. We’ve become more cost efficient. I’ll use our hiring practice as an example. We only hire someone after we’ve worked for them for 90 days on a project and determined that their chemistry and skill set match our needs and expectations. After all, how much can you really tell about a person after a few rounds of interviews? This is not to say that we’re a homogeneous crew over at tcg. It’s quite the opposite—we’re an innovative, eclectic bunch, with origins spanning 7 countries. Though we’re as diverse as they come, we share some very common philosophies. But that’s another story.

2. Our office materials are created from salvaged and refurbished products. Desktops? Made out of old doors. The legs of our desks? Unused scaffolding. We purchase warranted refurbished Macs instead of buying brand-new ones. We do the same with telephones and white boards. In fact we estimate at least 90% of our infrastructure is refurbished, and the place still looks funky and fabulous. Just like any cool agency should. There are so many products that are on their way to being discarded and yet are perfectly useful. It’s saved tcg plenty of money, not to mention avoiding the waste generated by disposing these items and manufacturing new ones. They look great in the office, too. Salvaging and sustainability can be incredibly stylish.

3. We’ve created a culture of sustainability at tcg to the point where no one thinks twice about turning off lights, printing double-sided, recycling their paper coffee cups, or fixing things versus throwing them out and buying new ones. It’s all about changing old habits and thinking twice about how our actions affect things on a larger scale.

4. We encourage social progress, helping our clients and partners to become more ‘green’ aware. Our printing company, Streamline, has gone through our Green Prepare program and has made a lot of progress in the realms of conservation and waste production.

Here are some other ways you can make your workplace more eco-friendly and cost-effective:

• Use biodegradable cleaning products such as Borax, sea salt, baking soda & vinegar.
• Purchase energy star monitors and appliances.
• Use recycled paper towels, toilet paper, office paper, trash bin liners, etc.
• Set your printer to print double sided – re-set it to print single-sided only when necessary.
• Use energy efficient light bulbs such as CFLs and LEDs.
• Establish clearly labeled recycle bins for paper, glass, plastic, cardboard & metal.
• Recycle used ink cartridges & batteries.
• Ensure your used technology is handled by legitimate recyclers and not just shipped off to another country and dumped.
• Eliminate junk mail by contacting the sources and having them remove your name.
• Place reminder notices near light switches, water faucets, etc., encouraging employees to “turn off.”
• Promote internal green awareness through emails, newsletters, commuter incentive programs, etc.

Sustainability is not just about changing light bulbs, separating your trash, and measuring energy conservation. All of those things make a difference, but it’s just as important to encourage ecological balance and social progress. There are countless ways to green your life and your business practice, and I’d be interested to hear some of yours.

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tcg: Green Prepare is a preliminary 12-step system towards green certification, introducing simple changes that businesses can implement immediately. It introduces motivated businesses and agencies to the program, walking them through the initial steps towards becoming green by providing advice and resources that can be incorporated seamlessly into business practices.

Since tcg collaborates with companies on a national and global scale, many customers do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Northern California green business programs. Even if this is the case, companies that adhere to the fundamental principles of the Bay Area Green Business Program (the leading green local authority program in the U.S.) will garner positive results. Implementing environmentally friendly practices demonstrates a company’s awareness of the global situation and prepares its business for future legislation. With this in mind, I’ve created a 12-step program which rewards businesses taking the first steps towards becoming green-friendly.

As a matter of fact, the tcg: Blue Step program was inspired by a two-tiered environmental certification system (top level: Green, aspiring level: Blue) that I created in Zimbabwe over 15 years ago. It provides a list of easily attainable, eco-friendly goals, rewarding businesses that implement six of the twelve steps within 60 days of signing our Blue Step Promise with a certificate of recognition. I created this program as a way of encouraging large businesses or those not within the jurisdiction of the Green Business Program to take progressive steps towards eco-friendly conduct.

Companies who have gone through the tcg: Blue Step Program include: McKesson, Organic, Dwell, Sage, GSCOS, etc.

For the full story on tcg: Green Prepare, download the white paper here.

Once an organization understands the first steps they might take, tcg can help create the Green Story and Strategy. This is all done for a fee.

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That’s ok, too. Every business wants to succeed, and the process of going green improve your bottom line tremendously.

tcg helps businesses of all sizes green their practices with our pro bono tcg: Green Prepare program. Just talking about it with clients or potential clients helps them realize there is such a system available and that the process does not have to be cumbersome. I feel really strongly that tcg: Green Prepare is something that tcg is ethically bound to do as a green communication agency. We’re well-equipped to demonstrate how easily and efficiently the certification process can be implemented and the tcg: Green Prepare program encourages them to green their business practices and hopefully receive green certification in the long run.

I actually created a version of this program in Zimbabwe in 1990 and it did incredibly well. We helped motivate major global organizations including Johnson & Johnson, BP and Sheraton Hotels. We did this by showing how we could motivate consumers to support their brands if the companies showed they were trying to do the best they could with their own sustainability practices. I recreated this same program here in the US after our agency went through the Green Certification process. I realized we needed to help simplify the benefits of becoming Green Certified. tcg: Green Prepare program is provided to generate awareness that any company can be more efficient, and to show them how to do so by offering our tcg: Blue Step program that works for any size office, in any state, in any country (depending on their access to green products, of course). We promise to recognize anyone if they sign a promise they have implemented 3 of the 12 steps listed by sending them a tcg: Blue Step recognition certificate. And of course, tcg: Green Prepare educates and informs on how and what one would need to know in order to become Green Certified.

Download the tcg: Green Prepare white paper here to find out more.

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