With more daily involvement in the energy management industry, the sexy draw of solar still dominates the news. And this is before Solyndra.

The idea that the sun can power your home or building is alluring. But what good is creating energy you allow to escape?

That’s the big problem.

So many buildings and homes are still massively deficient in sealing in energy, keeping it from leaking out.

There are a number of measures that can be taken to address the issue. It all begins with a proper assessment and diagnosis.

To simply say a home needs energy efficient windows is no better. Yes, a big industry. But anyone involved in energy efficiency knows that windows are rarely the most important energy waster.

Aesthetics are one thing but saving energy and money monthly is another.

And it’s more than better insulation or sealing. It’s making sure it gets applied properly, and in every spot that needs it.

That’s where a Home Energy Health Performance Assessment (HEHPA) comes in play. More might look at simply an energy audit, but fortunately more and more people are also concerned about health and comfort in their homes and building.

A HEHPA as delivered by a company like Energy Savers America pinpoints not only energy wasting issues, but also safety issues such as radon gas and carbon monoxide. And then it’s about eliminating hot and cold spots so families and office employees can enjoy all of the available space without wasting energy to heat and cool.

So don’t ignore solar, but certainly allow it to take its place in a process towards energy independence. By getting a thorough, scientific assessment and shoring up the identified weak spots – less solar panels will be needed to reach energy independence.

But what I saw for the video ad prior to the beer pong video put a different kind of smile on my face. We’re talk Advertising Relevancy.

All too often in the relatively new world of video ads, they still have no relevancy to us. Let’s be real. Many of us watch some pretty random stuff – like Jimmy Fallon and John McEnroe playing beer pong.

But that doesn’t mean the ad played before the video we want to watch means diddly squat to us. In my case, it may seem like a good assumption that me being interested in watching two famous dudes play beer pong means I’m more likely to like Red Bull. Or the assumption might have been, since Jimmy Fallon is on late at night, I’m watching it even later on the web and I might need a caffeine-sugar rush to stay up even later.

In the tv world, those assumptions – that demographic profile – would be the best advertisers can really do.

But the good ole’ internet and smart folks are now asking at least one great question: “Is this ad relevant to you? Yes or No?”

They’re basically saying, “Hey man. We made an assumption you might like some Red Bull, but we could be wrong. If we are, let us know so we don’t bug you with another Red Bull ad.”

And from this question will hopefully come even more relevant ads. That means more targeted, meaningful ads for companies spending money.

For now, I’ll just click my Triple Video MySpeed slider until the ad is over.

Jimmy Fallon plays John McEnroe in beer pong

“The Health Care Fix The Government Doesn’t Want You To Know About.”

Okay, so maybe they do want you to know about it, and maybe it’s not a fix. But if they’re so concerned about rising costs – which will go higher because the government is concerned and involved now – then why can’t they INSIST on one simple thing.

I’m talking about one simple thing that will kill two birds with one stone.

In fact, it’s so damn simple. So damn obvious. I have to give it a little build up.

Ready?

The instant solution to lowering health care cost is stop mailing me a daggone invoice every month. I pay directly via the internet from my bank. Save the piece of paper. Save the envelope you mailed it in. Save the return envelope.

Since I can’t imagine I’m the only one my insurance company (BlueCross BlueShield) mails an invoice to every month, multiply that out. I’ll let someone smarter than me come up with some numbers.

Multiply out the ink wasted, the paper wasted, the postage cost, and the waste in time and money paying someone to oversee the whole process.

I looked on the form to see if they would bother to ask me, “If you would like to stop receiving paper invoices, please let us know.”

If it’s there, it ain’t obvious.

Add to the above wasting my time. If I get mail from my health insurance company, I’m going to open it. I feel like I have to.

So there you have it. Instant health care savings. And at the same time, I helped save millions of trees over time, and reduced green house gases and landfill waste.

And it doesn’t even need a Czar to oversee it.

So when my subscription renewal was up, I hadn’t planned on just canceling it. BUT for “research” purposes, I decided to go for a little ride. All told it was a five month ride of Reminders to Renew, Final Chance to Renew at a Special Rate, Last Chance to Renew at this Low Rate, and finally a RUSH Last Chance.

Whew! That’s a lot of finals and lasts huh?

You probably already know this, but it’s important to remind ourselves how the publishing business works – in this case magazines. More than ever, they are reliant on ad revenue. The money made (or lost) from subscriptions is less important to an extent.

What is important is being able to show a Demographic Profile to potential advertisers that’s appealing. Think about it. Which would you rather have as an advertiser of a high tech device or luxury item?

A magazine offering you space with:

1. 500,000 subscribers with an average income of $40,000 – $50,000

OR

2. 300,000 subscribers with an average income of $100,000 – $150,000

Surely you’d want some more details than that. For example, if you were selling a product like gourmet steaks, it really wouldn’t matter if you had a demographic with income levels over $100,000. Yes, chances are they have the disposable income to buy your gourmet steaks. But what if they’re vegans? Game over. You’ve wasted an ad.

But this whole game of getting the “right” demographic of advertisers is why you may get these insanely low offers (should have saved a few) from magazines like Fortune or Forbes for 83% off the subscription price. They want you for your demographic profile and buying habits.

But let’s just look at the last two offers I got from FAST COMPANY.

Here’s Last Chance offer #1 for $13.97 for one full year:

It’s got some good ole’ Urgency, but here’s maybe the big takeaway from this post: Experience and just paying attention will help you get better deals in life.

And, NOT having to do something is a much better position of strength. I don’t have to subscribe. I want to get the magazine, but I don’t HAVE to have the magazine. I don’t want it bad enough. If you feel like you HAVE to have something or want it so bad, you’re going to panic a bit more, and pull the trigger on offers faster. Heck, you may not even wait for a second offer. But if you want the best deal (price, terms, or both) you’d better at least act like you don’t have to have it.

Watching Rocky II again, I remember Rocky and Adrian looking at a house. The realtor gives him a price, and while Adrian wanted to make the realtor work a little more, Rocky REALLY wanted the house. So he says, (insert Rocky voice) “Hey, dat sounds like a good price. Yo Adrian, I know a good deal when I see one.”

Now, let’s go on to the RUSH Last Chance offer, which came about a month later:

Holy cow!

One full year for $10 plus a 2nd subscription for FREE.

Now, digging into this a bit: FAST COMPANY throws an irri-Zistable offer out there to not only keep me, but add another subscriber who fits their demographic profile. And guess what, it worked.

I mean come on. It’s a fast, free gift to send to someone.

Now I don’t believe for a minute this would be their last offer, but I did end the experiment as I do believe their offer won’t get any better. Everyone has a bottom point.

What would I do differently? I would have made this offer sooner seems like it would make sense. But that’s just a statement. They’re not stupid. I’m sure they’ve tested the results.

So yes, in my case they wasted postage, paper, and time sending out the previous offer. BUT….

If on average, they get enough people to up their subscription at the $13.97 price, they’ve more than made up for the extra mailers to knuckleheads like me who drag out the process on purpose. But hey, I did this for research purposes for your benefit.

Let me pose this question:

“How can you use this information with your business or in just buying stuff for yourself?”

Share your thoughts.

It’s the same way any celebrity – let’s say Michael Vick – has to change their image.

Showing measurable change. Consistently. Over time.

The country I’m focusing on is Nicaragua. Why? Because I feel like it.

No, actually because I have a financial interest in it, and I found the country and people to be special. A undiscovered gem. So I’m invested financially and emotionally in their image change.

Now for some, that image is still the pre-1990 Contra-Sandinista image. Ancient. The past. But guess what? It doesn’t matter that Nicaragua has been through multiple democratic elections since then….It doesn’t matter that it’s considered one of the safest countries in all the America’s….It also doesn’t matter that Daniel Ortega, that old Sandinista dinosaur was re-elected President through Democratic elections (mainly because of a Ross Perot-George H. Bush splitting votes deal)….And it doesn’t matter that Ortega has actually done a stand up job overall in moving the country forward with progress and generally pro-business moves (more so than, eh-hem….).

None of that matters if you don’t know that, and more so if you don’t feel that.

For a younger generation, they don’t even remember the old Nicaragua. So it’s really about presenting the new Nicaragua, or the new you, to them. Right? It would be akin to a convict being released from jail, moving to a new part of the country or world where no one new him. As long as he showed a new, positive face – and no one dug up the past on him – the present is all they would know and go by.

So this Extreme Country Makeover can’t happen the way the tv show does it.

It’s not over night. It’s over many nights.

But it is happening in Nicaragua. It has been happening. It appears it will continue.

Why?

Well, once enough money and influence, enough skin gets in the game – that money and influence will do everything it can to keep the momentum going.

Beyond the Pacific Coastal Highway development in motion, the increasing number of businesses setting up shop near the modernized airport, major dollars have been pumped into tourism. The Pellas Group gobbled up huge tracks of land on the gorgeous Brito area of the Pacific Coast, and just announced their Master Plan, which includes $250 million in investment.

And here’s another key to the image change. The investment is for world class boutique hotels, residences, spa, and golf course by David McLay Kidd. When one major group raises the bar, the level of play, everyone else has to raise their game.

Nicaragua also has an ambitious goal of 90% renewable energy by 2017. That’s not a typo. Through a combination of geothermal and wind primarily, the master plan to achieve this has been set. What happens if they only reach 50% by 2017? Still way ahead of even developing countries.

The Survivor tv show has also opened some eyes up to the country. Call this great free publicity. Trust me. Countries, not just for the revenue and jobs created, court Survivor to film their show.

A little bit here. A little bit there.

Throw in a few home runs, and the image starts to take shape for an entire country.

Much like Michael Vick must stay the course – not getting caught in the wrong places with the wrong people (along with being seen in the right places with the right people), so must Nicaragua stay the course. But momentum and leverage are on its side. Not the case at the very beginning of the image makeover. Heck, I don’t think they even thought of it that way.

But there you have it. The slow, methodical process of changing an entire country’s image.

It’s not complex. It just takes time. It takes patience. It takes money. It takes people.

Thankfully for Nicaragua, they have all the pieces in motion.

What was really entertaining in a very intense, but low key way though was The Undertaker hanging out ringside. He did a post fight interview, and when Lesnar walked past him, he was ready.

No, he didn’t smash him over the head with a chair, but he crushed him with three simple words, “You wanna go?” Lesnar didn’t look like he wanted to go with anyone at that point. The Undertaker towering over Lesnar added to the dominance.

So my question is, “Is this another brilliant WWE set up for something bigger?”

Remember how they used to plant people in the arena, at or near the front row, so they could conveniently get into a confrontation with a wrestler. I think that’s how they brought in Hillbilly Jim. Anyway, it would be interesting.

The Undertaker definitely appears to love MMA. He said it was a little late in the game (his career) to get into it, but if it were 20-years ago, “I’d be all over it.”

Watch the video. Watch the glare between The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar. What do you think?

I buy nearly all of my vitamins, supplements, and now raw honey and baby items online. It’s a beautiful thing to click a few buttons, and find diapers, baby wipes, laundry detergent, and vitamins at my door step a few days later.

Well, one day a few months ago, on 95 degree day – I open the front door to leave – and notice five boxes on the porch. We ordered a ton of stuff, from laundry detergent to honey to a green drink, and fabric softener. Only one jug of fabric softener sprung a massive leak, and was puddled on the porch.

I figured, “No worries. I’ll just call up the company – VitaCost, and tell them what happened. I noticed that one of the jars of honey had fabric softener all over it. Not wanting to take a chance, I took a picture of the honey and the porch, fired off an email, and waited for a response.

I got one within an hour I recall, apologizing for the inconvenience, and letting me know they’d send out replacements.

Well, a few days later, my porch has a ton of boxes outside. I drag them in, open them up, and find the same order I had a week ago. I’m talking about the whole daggone order, not just the bottle of fabric softener and the jar of honey.

Of course, I mumbled out loud, “They better not have sent me two of the same order and charged me.”

I look inside one of the boxes and see a piece of paper. It was an invoice, but it had $0.00 next to all the items. They sent me a replacement of everything. So we’re just loaded with Stage 4 diapers for a little son.

The next time I checked email, I saw the email asking me, “If there’s anything else we can do, just let us know.”

So let’s go behind the scenes here a bit.

Do you think VitaCost would just randomly send out a $300 order for free? No way. So why did they? I’m willing to bet they have a process set up that took a look at my order history. When they looked me up, they saw that I spend probably somewhere around $800 a year with them, and have done so for at least three four years now.

So was it worth it for them to “J-Wow” me with $300 of free stuff?

Yep.

It probably cost them $150 to do it. Roughly.

What would have happened had they brushed me off and said, “Too bad. Not our fault.” Real simple. Mark Fitzpatrick (had to throw in a 3rd person once) would have taken his business elsewhere. Plain and simple.

But the BIGGER point is….Did you miss it? They didn’t have to send me a complete replacement order. They could have sent me just the fabric softener and the jar of honey, and I would have been happy and satisfied. I would have stilled kept buying from them.

But they turned a mildly crappy situation into a golden one. And in doing so, they made me feel compelled to keep buying from them – even to think of more things I could buy from them next time that I may have been buying somewhere else. Seriously.

And you know what, I just remembered. They also sent me a massive box of about thirty Atkins product samples. You know the diet stuff. Don’t use it. Wouldn’t use it. Not the point. The gesture of over-the-top customer service to say, “Mark, we do not want you going anywhere,” was more than demonstrated.

I wasn’t expecting them to do all that they did, and that’s probably what made it all the more impressive.

To me, it’s the funniest thing about the whole picture. Look now and tell me if you agree.

I already have Verizon wireless, fios internet, and home-office phone service. So the missing link was tv service. Comcast had that, and I just didn’t feel like switching.

So I get this call from both Comcast and Verizon one day – same day – and I decide I’ll pick up the call to essentially run an offer by them, and then tell them not to call anymore. Comcast obviously wants to add internet and phone service. Verizon wants to lock me up completely with tv.

I told Comcast, after Verizon tossed in enough to give me more for less (and who doesn’t love more for less), to make an offer now. I was doing this more for the fun of it. You should try it sometime. It will test your willingness to ask for something. I told the Comcast rep, “You guys will be calling me left and right AFTER you lose me completely, and then I’m going to cut off your calls.”

“So make your best offer now dude,” I said.

He had to go from his script, and so that was that….Sure enough, the calls flooded in a week later asking me, “What can we do to get you back as a customer?”

Nothing.

When the difference in the price is as small as it was, I didn’t want the hassle of changing. Most people are the same way.

The gap of what’s being offered must be significant enough to make someone want to get out of their seat. Right? If you’re at a football game, and you have the best seat in the house – say the owner’s suite – or maybe better, on the field passes – and someone says, “Hey, I’ll give you $50 if you give me your field pass.” You’d laugh at him.

You might want a minimum of $5,000 to give up what might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience (depending on your financial situation). You might want $10,000.

If on the other hand, you just had an average stadium seat, with an average view, you might change seats for $5. But here’s the key: IF, IF, IF it’s easy and essentially hassle free. If it’s not, you’re going to have to raise the benefit to get someone to move.

So back to “The Art Of Buying Back The Customers You Let Go.”

The secret is to not let them go in the first place.

It’s too difficult and time consuming in most cases to recapture people. I’m not saying don’t do it, but make it more of a priority to have the mindset that never lets good customers (clients) go to begin with. Easier said than done, but also easier than fighting to get a customer back.

But if you do want to go after winning a customer back, then you’d better make an over-the-top, no brainer offer….and make it hassle free. How could Comcast do that?

Realistically, it’s not worth the time to go through what they’d have to do. You can probably think of some of what would be needed, but making it so I’d not have to wait for a tech, not have to call Verizon and wait for their tech, and so on would be impossible. They can’t make is easy and hassle free for me. So game over. Verizon will have to screw up royally on their service to get me to consider changing.

OR another company would need to present a Game Changer – something new, something compelling, something so much better on price and service that makes you go “Wow!” Apple has done a great job of “Wow!” over the last 5-years.

But maybe you have a product or service that’s very easy to switch someone back over to. You just need to get them to try it again. If that’s the case, and it’s something someone would use over and over again – you may be able to afford to give them a month or two free, or just a free sample.

If it’s a digital information product that’s pretty easy.

Maybe you had a problem with your service – say a financial advisory service – but now you’ve made some changes and made it better. You could send an offer to soured customers saying, “Hey, we screwed up before and let you down. But we’re going to make it up to you and then some. Here’s how. Simply use our new service for free for the next three months. We don’t want a credit card. Just use the enclosed access codes, follow the recommendations, profit, and you decide if it’s worth joining the service again. And after three months, if you need another month to decide, send me a personal message, and I’ll get you that extra month.”

If you have a consumable product, it’s a little tougher, but you can still pull it off. Especially if it’s a product someone would use every day.

The moral is it cost a lot more money and time to fix something than to maintain it.

When you have multiple processes in delivering the end product or service it’s exceedingly more difficult to keep the customer (client is better) overjoyed, as more things can go wrong. Just ask someone in the home improvement business. So making sure everyone is on page in how you treat the customer must be a priority. Don’t assume everyone in the company knows what to do. Don’t assume something is a given.

There are so many sidebars to this post, my ADD is bouncing me off the wall. But I think there’s one marketing point worth circling back to.

With Verizon and Comcast….What if, instead of mailing slick marketing mailers, letters, and telemarketing calls they took those dollars two years ago, banked them and came it me one time, maybe twice, with a killer offer that considered how much they won’t have to spend on marketing to me?

Well, they would have about $150 a month in revenue from a lot more people possibly….and many month sooner.

Just my two cents from the trenches.

This all in an ADD kind of way reminded me of a GREAT experience I had with an online company. You’ll be blown away by what they did. I’ll tell you about soon.