Presented by Larry Liss & Biff Bentley Nebraska Public Power District Fourth National Green Power Conference May 1999 A Targeted Marketing Program

NPPD A public power utility in Nebraska Serves most of Nebraska except Omaha and Lincoln (90 of 93 counties) 30% of customers served directly 70% of customers served through over 30 wholesale distributors

Why green products? People are willing to pay for Green Power

Why green products? Concern for the environment is one of four major drivers of customer satisfaction Competitive Positioning –Creates a value added service –Helps bundle our product to retain customers when they have choice

Critical success factors Market research to drive attributes of the program Cost effective promotion Pricing the product Develop distribution channels

Segments likely to participate Segments likely to participate Research identified 6 basic segments Three comprising 45% of customers are not likely to achieve a 5% share One segment, Granolas, is likely to achieve a 20% share Two other segments will achieve more than a 5% share

Challenges of varied distribution channels Must manage the brand but allow local utility to brand the product Must control the communications effort Must deal with multiple billing systems Must centralize fulfillment Must provide 7x24 customer support Permit cobranding Offer to provide materials at no cost to distributors Offer free billing service Outsource to a single source

Promotion Traditional –Newspaper –Radio –Television Targeted –Print to environmental segments –Direct mail –Telemarketing –Personal selling to businesses –Public appearances

Pricing Want to avoid a green rate due to billing notification issues and local tax issues Will utilize a “trust” approach funded by a contribution with no linkage to the electric service Since we are an agency of the State and nothing (kWh) is gained by the contributor the contribution is tax deductible

Lessons learned Customers do not understand green energy Newspaper advertising is not a cost effective way to sell Prairie Power Outsourcing is not a panacea Training customer contact staff is important, reinforcement is more important Placing news stories is more difficult than expected