Business Watercooler Stories

AP

Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2007 | 6:25 a.m.

GOING GREEN: Consumers are ready to hold corporations liable for bad eco-faith. American consumers are increasingly interested in save-the-planet products, said a recent survey, and they want to see companies live up to "green" promises.

Americans surveyed overwhelmingly want to buy energy-efficient and eco-friendly products and support fair labor and trade, so long as price remains low and quality high.

While 66 percent of respondents cited quality as the most important factor when deciding when to buy, followed by price with 58 percent, attributes such as a product's country of origin, how energy efficiency it is and its health benefits were all more important to consumers than convenience.

Favorite socially-responsible companies included Whole Foods Market and Newman's Own.

"It's not about slapping a green label on a product," said Raphael Bemporad, founding partner of marketing agency BBMG, which conceived the survey. "It's about matching your eco-friendly promises with socially-responsible actions. How (companies) treat employees, organize (the) supply chain and manufacturing."

BBMG partnered with research firm Global Strategy Group to conduct an unscientific online survey of more than 2,000 American adults in September.

FOLDING CLOTHES, UNDERCOVER: Business journalist Alex Frankel chronicled his adventures working the customer-service front lines at five different retail chains over two years in his new book, "Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee."

From a stultifying stint folding sweaters and manning the fitting room at a 37,000-sq.-ft. Gap store in San Francisco to riding shotgun for UPS during the rush of pre-Christmas delivery season, Frankel mined his entry-level retailing months for clues to corporate brand identity and its influence on employee performance.

"Each of these places has a different kind of person that matches the culture and what (the chain) is doing," said Frankel. "In each place, even though I might not have prospered or loved it, I always found at least one person who was doing great and fit in perfectly."

He found, for example, Starbucks' efforts to be a community's public space undermined by constant employee turnover and a lack of thorough training - but his supervisor thrived and he said her dedication inspired him.

In Frankel's experience, Apple seemed to seek out store employees who were already lovers of the brand and whose enthusiasm, bolstered by on-the-job training, drove their ability to sell - whereas Gap's stagnant product line failed to excite most employees, and, apparently, customers. At the time Frankel worked for the apparel retailer, in 2005, the company's brand was foundering and profits diving.

OPTING OUT: While the Federal Trade Commission is busy punishing companies who called people listed on the national "Do Not Call" registry, consumers can still rely on the list to get rid of telemarketers' interruptions. The World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit privacy research group, offers tips on how to get off marketers' lists and other privacy hedges:

- "Do Not Call" registry: 888-382-1222 or http://www.donotcall.gov to get on the list and out of telemarketers' clutches for five years.

- Direct Marketing Association Mail Preference Service opt out: http://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing gets consumers off catalog and marketing mailing lists.

- Keep out preapproved credit-card or insurance offers: 888-567-8688 or https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rft to ensure credit bureaus do not give out personal information.

- Network Advertising Initiative opt out: Stop companies from tracking online activities by going to http://networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt-out.asp.

World Privacy Forum's Web site, http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/toptenoptout.html, also offers advice on how to protect one's private information and inbox from banks and data brokers.

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