Minding the Marketers
What Utility Marketing Professionals Are Thinking
August 1, 2007
Do you know how your marketing efforts measure up against those of your peers? We discuss experiences common among utility marketers including working with limited budgets and unsupportive management.
Content type: Core Report, Service Report | Document ID: MS-3 | Author: Matthew Joyce and Chad Garrett
ABCs and kWh's
Educating Future Customers Through K-12 Outreach
April 19, 2007
Many energy providers are using innovative methods for reaching the education sector. Within the K–12 segment, there are numerous opportunities to creatively and cost-effectively engage teachers, students, and parents—and through them, the broader community as well. In this report, we ...
Content type: Core Report, Service Report | Document ID: MS-2 | Author: Kelsie Bell, Gwen Farnsworth
Me and My Big Mouth: Harnessing the Power of Person-to-Person Marketing
February 1, 2007
Some utilities are bucking the trend toward greater automation in marketing and customer service in favor of a practice called person-to-person marketing. The age-old technique of direct conversation is finding new respect alongside modern-day communications via bill stuffers, direct mail, and advertising ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: MS-1 | Author: Matthew Joyce
Collaborating with Customers for Mutual Advantage: KCP&L Brings Stakeholders into Its Long-Term Energy Planning Process
November 1, 2006
With projects worth more than $200 billion planned for the next few years, the utility industry is in the midst of an historic capital construction phase. Rather than follow the industry’s traditional approach to capital projects—announce, build, litigate—Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) started ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-06-13 | Author: John Egan
Corporate Energy Managers Speak Their Minds: Report on the 2006 E Source Energy Manager Survey
July 1, 2006
Each year we survey a diverse mix of Fortune 500 companies, government entities, and educational institutions to learn their opinions regarding energy prices, risk management, benchmarking, their relationships with their energy service providers, and the energy-related products and services they most ...
Content type: Core Report, Research | Document ID: ER-06-11 | Author: Matthew Joyce, Arthur Venables
Operational Improvements That Boost Utility Customer Satisfaction
July 1, 2006
There's a perception that customer satisfaction is something that requires specific outlays and investments, but we've uncovered numerous utilities that have cut costs, streamlined processes, and energized employees, while increasing customer satisfaction. Good things happen to those who work hard ...
Content type: Best Practice, Core Report | Document ID: ER-06-09 | Author: John Egan
Capturing the Financial Benefits of Residential Customer Satisfaction
May 1, 2006
In this first of two reports on customer satisfaction, we show how improvements in mass-market customer satisfaction could shave millions of dollars off a utility’s annual interest costs, lead to more supportive regulatory treatment, and potentially result in higher shareholder returns. Drawing ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-06-06 | Author: John Egan
To Blog or Not to Blog: Is It Right for Your Business?
March 1, 2006
Your residential customers have them. So do your business customers. Blogs may be the hottest ticket since e-mail. Is blogging right for your utility? We'll examine the growing number of blogs in the energy sector, consider the business case for blogging, and help you decide if this new technology fits ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-06-04 | Author: Matthew Joyce, Michael Reid
Making Peace with an Angry Public: Defusing Customer Anger over Sharp Price Increases and Other Negative Events
January 1, 2006
Company image and customer satisfaction scores are falling or are poised for a fall as utilities implement sharp price increases for electricity, natural gas, or both. In more than a few cases the current “energy price crisis” comes after utilities’ credibility has been sapped by perceived operational ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-06-01 | Author: John Egan
Greenhouse Gas Regulations Around the World: Risks and Opportunities for Business
January 1, 2006
The electricity sector is the first industry in the United States to face mandatory rules aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). So far, all of those regulations have been put in place at the state and regional levels. Federal mandates on carbon emissions are at least five years off ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-06-03 | Author: Michael Shepard
Boomers, Bohemians, and Big City Blues: Increasing Residential Marketing Effectiveness with Geodemographic Segmentation
October 1, 2005
With catchy names like “Big City Blues” and “Beltway Boomers,” segments in the PRIZM NE geodemographic segmentation system are groups of households with common attributes and behaviors. Geodemographic segmentation is a cost-effective and underutilized tool in the energy industry. Using an E source ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-05-17 | Author: Barry Friedman
Fuel Wars Will Electricity Beat Out Natural Gas?
September 1, 2005
Annually, about $77 billion in natural gas retail sales are under competitive threat in the United States. These dollars correspond to annual spending on natural gas for water and space heating—end uses that could be provided by electricity instead. Two factors are driving the market toward ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-05-15
Corporate Energy Managers Speak Their Minds: Report on the 2005 E Source Energy Manager Survey
August 1, 2005
Each year we survey a diverse mix of Fortune 500 companies, government entities, and educational institutions to learn their opinions regarding market restructuring, energy prices, risk management, benchmarking and the energy-related products and services they most want to purchase. The opinions of these ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-05-14 | Author: Matthew Joyce, Arthur Venables
Utility Customers as Innovators for New Products, Services, and Programs
July 1, 2005
Product developers and marketers use customer research to gauge interest in a wide variety of topics, issues, services, and products. But by bringing customers in earlier and engaging them more deeply throughout the development process, companies are finding that they can reduce development time, create ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-05-12 | Author: William LeBlanc
Eliminating Guesswork and Improving Results with Direct Response Marketing
May 1, 2005
Marketers at utilities must increasingly justify not only the return on investment for their overall campaigns, but also the effectiveness of individual campaign elements. Many are turning to direct response marketing, which solicits a specific, measurable customer response. Direct marketing techniques ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-05-10 | Author: Matthew Joyce
Ten Key Lessons from Successful Energy-Efficiency Programs
March 1, 2005
Over the past few years we have seen a number of energy-efficiency programs that have resulted in cost-effective energy savings, pleased customers, and satisfied stakeholders all around. How are they doing it? Our interviews with managers of leading programs revealed a handful of best practices common ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-05-4 | Author: Paul Komor
BPL Business Planning: An E Source Roundtable
March 1, 2005
Broadband over power line (BPL) technologies have been proved and validated in numerous technology tests and pilot programs. Utility regulators have signaled their support for broad deployment of BPL technologies. The next strategic challenge facing utilities will be deciding whether, when, where, why, ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-05-7 | Author: John Egan
Broadband over Power Lines: What Regulators Think
January 1, 2005
Electric utilities are investigating a new technology that can deliver fast Internet service to customers while enabling a variety of programs and processes that could help utilities cut costs and deliver better-quality customer care. Known as broadband over power lines (BPL), the technology was tested ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-05-1 | Author: John Egan
Technologies for Guerrilla Marketers: Creative Tactics to Maximize Marketing Effectiveness
November 1, 2004
In our recent Guerrilla Marketing report (ER-04-6), we focused on low-cost marketing tactics. In this follow-up report, we consider technologies that can be used to increase marketing effectiveness, enhance customer take rates, cut marketing costs, and improve returns on investment. We review innovative ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-04-16 | Author: Matthew Joyce
Escaping Enron's Shadow How ESPs Can Improve Their Businesses by Restoring Stakeholder Trust
October 1, 2004
Fundamental misgivings about Big Business in general and energy service providers (ESPs) in particular persist among consumers throughout North America. Many consumers believe that ESPs have abandoned their traditional commitments to important stakeholder groups such as employees, customers, and communities. ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-04-14 | Author: John Egan
Hedging Energy Price Risk with Renewables and Energy Efficiency
September 1, 2004
Recent studies suggest that renewables and energy efficiency can reduce exposure to electricity and natural gas price volatility. In particular, North America’s heavy reliance on gas-fired peaking capacity over the last 10 years means that even a small reduction in electricity demand could significantly ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-04-12 | Author: Paul Komor
Corporate Energy Managers Speak Their Minds: Report on the 2004 E Source Energy Manager Survey
July 1, 2004
Energy managers at large commercial and industrial companies are important leading indicators on a host of energy issues, including value creation, pricing programs, energy efficiency, future energy prices, ESP key account management practices, and their dynamic—and often unmet—energy services needs. ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-04-09 | Author: Matthew Joyce, Arthur Venables
Enhancing Business Strategy with Market Research
July 1, 2004
As retail electric and gas markets continue to evolve, utilities and competitive ESPs are changing both the type of market research they do and the amount of research they conduct. In this report, we explore these recent shifts and assess the benefits and risks of investing—or not investing—in primary ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-04-10 | Author: William LeBlanc
Guerrilla Marketing: Low-Cost Tactics Maximize Marketing ROI
May 1, 2004
In today’s strenuous economic environment, many ESPs are feeling the pressure of smaller marketing budgets and reduced staffing, while coping with customers and prospects that are less likely to spend money on products and services. What can a marketer do when traditional approaches are proving less ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-04-06 | Author: Matthew Joyce
Creating Compelling Customer Connections: A Fresh Look at ESP Branding
March 1, 2004
Utility companies embraced branding in the late 1990s as part of their transition to a more competitive business environment. But with utility restructuring stuck in neutral in the U.S., is branding relevant anymore? We’ve interviewed officials at energy service providers in the U.S. and the UK to ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-04-04 | Author: John Egan, Jon Slowe, Mary O'Driscoll
Time Bomb or Time Frame? Rate Freezes, Standard-Offer Service, and the Next Phase of Electricity Restructuring
January 1, 2004
The impending expiration of long-frozen standard-offer service rates in more than a dozen U.S. state and Canadian provincial markets signals an important new phase for electric industry restructuring. In this report, we look at what can utilities and public officials learn from the breakdowns that occurred ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-04-01 | Author: Paul Mahler, John Egan
Profitable Product and Service Marketing: Insights from Successful Product Managers
November 1, 2003
Selling products and services to the residential sector retains a perpetual allure of profitability. But what does it take to be successful? In this report, we consider three common revenue-generating offerings that are closely aligned with utility core competencies and that offer a number of market-entry ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-03-19 | Author: Chad Salvadore
Key Account Management: Creating Value Through Collaboration
September 1, 2003
Key account management (KAM) programs are about more than customer retention: they’re also about revenue creation, customer loyalty, and process improvements. By committing to long-term relationships with their customers, some firms are finding ways to help their customers save money while simultaneously ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-03-15 | Author: Jon Starr
Corporate Energy Managers Speak Their Minds: Report on the 2003 E Source Energy Manager Survey
July 1, 2003
Our 2003 survey of corporate energy managers reveals mixed reviews of electric restructuring, widespread pessimism about future energy prices, and clear market opportunities for specific products and services. It reflects the opinions of some the most sophisticated large commercial, industrial, and institutional ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-03-13 | Author: Matthew Joyce, Arthur Venables
Building Value with Distributed Generation: Changing Customer Needs Create New Business Opportunities for Nimble ESPs
July 1, 2003
A growing number of energy service providers (ESPs) have recently entered the distributed generation (DG) business. With several business models to choose from, many are finding significant success in DG initiatives. But the financial potential should not overshadow the more compelling strategic reason ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-03-14 | Author: Christine Hurley, Jon Slowe, John Egan
Wind Power: Opportunity or Albatross?
May 1, 2003
Although many ESPs continue to view wind power with skepticism, at best, a select few are boldly moving forward with serious investments. Why wind, and why now? For ESPs willing to set aside outdated beliefs, our interviews and market analyses show that wind power can be a smart move, especially for ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-03-08 | Author: Paul Komor
Just Say No: Energy Managers Go It Alone
March 1, 2003
A small but growing number of corporate energy managers are dictating the terms of their relationships with their energy service company (ESCO), forgoing outside assistance and meeting their own needs, or taking their newly developed expertise directly to the market and competing with the ESCOs that ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-03-04 | Author: Matthew Joyce
Reviving ESP Marketing Strategy with Experiential Marketing
March 1, 2003
Category leaders like Coca Cola, MasterCard, and Apple are using marketing strategies that are very different from traditional methods, and that fresh approach has generated significant amounts of revenue, profit, and loyalty. These leaders are using “experiential marketing” to design and deliver ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-03-05 | Author: John Egan, Anne Peters
Breaking the Advanced Metering Barrier: Technology and Economics Are <i>Not</i> Enough
January 1, 2003
Demand-responsive pricing for electricity, enabled by advanced metering and communications technology, could protect retail energy customers from wholesale energy price spikes and transform the utility business. Many agree that advanced metering could have reduced or altogether eliminated California’s ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-03-02 | Author: Dick Montague, John Egan
PUHCA's Progeny: Corporate Scandals Will Result in Tough New Business Restrictions on ESPs
January 1, 2003
Corporate scandals rocked the U.S. throughout 2002. In the energy industry, Enron, Dynegy, Reliant, and El Paso, among others, drew prominent media coverage for their alleged and acknowledged misdeeds. In response to the upheaval, Congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, designed to crack down on financial ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-03-03 | Author: John Egan
The Strategic Value of Intelligence: Industry Turmoil Makes Intelligence Even More Vital
November 1, 2002
ESPs today are cutting their investment in competitive intelligence (CI) as rapidly as they were increasing spending on CI back in the late 1990s. We think the current cutbacks are ill advised and even potentially dangerous. Industry turmoil and events outside the industry have scrambled many ESPs’ ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-02-17 | Author: John Egan
Building Resilient Strategies Through Scenario Planning
October 1, 2002
External forces, such as technological advances, global economic disruptions, social shifts, or political upheavals, can convulse any industry overnight. Leading-edge companies like Shell Oil and Duke Energy have long used scenario planning to better prepare their businesses to survive and thrive during ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: SIP-XV | Author: Matthew Joyce, John Egan, Michael Shepard, James Newcomb
Buying Power: Marketing Energy Services to an Ethnically Diverse Customer Base
September 1, 2002
Data from the U.S. Census released in 2000 show a rapidly diversifying population. Ethnic groups now wield increased buying power, and they want businesses to be culturally sensitive when marketing to them. Energy service providers (ESPs) that want to be successful in a more heterogeneous society must ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-02-14 | Author: Matthew Joyce
Corporate Energy Managers Speak Their Minds: Report on the 7th Annual E Source Energy Manager Survey
July 1, 2002
Corporate energy managers gathered in March, 2002, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the annual E source Energy Managers’ Roundtable. Top areas of discussion included energy-procurement strategies, controlling costs with energy information, and the latest energy-efficiency innovations, trends, and technologies. ...
Content type: Core Report, Research | Document ID: ER-02-12 | Author: Arthur Venables, John Egan
Closing the Trust Gap
July 1, 2002
A “trust gap” has opened up between some energy service providers and their customers. Events that have rocked the energy industry—such as Enron’s collapse, soaring prices, power emergencies, and breakdowns in basic service—have eroded the foundations of trust between corporations and consumers. ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-02-13 | Author: John Egan
Pursuing Energy Services Excellence
May 1, 2002
E source identified a number of well-positioned energy services companies, conducted extensive interviews throughout those organizations, interviewed customers, and identified distinct competitive strengths and business processes of leading firms. Written in the spirit of In Search of Excellence and ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-02-09 | Author: Matthew Joyce, John Egan, Bill LeBlanc
Making Diversification Work: Insights from Successful CEOs
March 1, 2002
U.S.-based ESPs have an estimated $19 billion of cash sitting on their collective balance sheets, and corporate leaders are trying to decide where to deploy it. Many will deploy most of the cash in the core utilities business. But the E source Strategy & Marketing Service sees significant investment ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-02-03 | Author: John Egan
Two-Way Thermostats Creating New Markets for Residential Load Control Programs
March 1, 2002
The latest generation of thermostats can communicate with the Internet, respond to price signals, and be incorporated into gateways. How effective are “smart thermostats” at flattening loads while preserving occupant comfort in an unobtrusive manner? More utilities are conducting pilot programs to ...
Content type: Core Report, Research | Document ID: ER-02-04 | Author: Rachel Reiss
Energy Managers Devise Post-Enron Strategies
March 1, 2002
E source spoke with more than a dozen of Enron’s larger customers for this report. All had at least made plans for covering their exposure, and some had begun to implement changes. Most were reluctant to jump into another long-term, comprehensive energy management or commodity agreement, but their ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-02-05 | Author: Matthew Joyce
Extending the Enterprise: How to Revolutionize the Retail Energy Business with Supply Chain Management
January 1, 2002
Highly competitive firms like Wal-Mart, Honda, John Deere, and Blockbuster have used the principles and practices of supply chain management (SCM) to capture superior profitability and market dominance during the past 10 to 15 years. E Source research has uncovered a few utilities and energy service ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: SIP-XIV | Author: John Egan, Jasbir Arora, M. Johnny Rungtusanatham
Winds of Change: Technology Advances and Supportive Policies Driving Wind Power's Dramatic Growth
November 1, 2001
The number and size of wind power installations grew dramatically in 2001. In the U.S., installed wind capacity nearly doubled in 2001, rising to 4,500 megawatts. Developers abroad added over 3,500 megawatts of new wind capacity bringing the total installed capacity outside the U.S. to 17,000 MW. This ...
Content type: Core Report, Research | Document ID: ER-01-19 | Author: Robert Hall, Adam Capage, and John Egan
Restoring Customer Trust: Report on the 9th Annual E Source Strategic Retreat
September 1, 2001
In the wake of California’s restructuring debacle, electricity customers nationwide have become anxious, skeptical, and hypersensitive to the performance of their energy providers. This crisis in customer trust was an important topic of discussion at the May 2000 E Source Strategic Issues Retreat, ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-01-14 | Author: Matthew Joyce
Special Core Report: DSM Outlays Continue as Restructuring Falters
September 1, 2001
In early 2001, California’s agony over high electric prices and short supply raised anew the debate about the role demand-side management (DSM) initiatives play in addressing the nation’s growing energy demands. This debate prompted E Source to conduct a survey of DSM programs in the Golden State ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-01-SP | Author: E Source Staff
Green Money: Compensating Efficiency and Renewable Energy for Their Environmental Benefits
July 1, 2001
Innovative mechanisms for placing monetary value on the environmental attributes of energy efficiency and renewable energy are creating new opportunities for these clean energy options. Tens of millions of dollars per year could be collected from firms that negotiate to fund environmentally beneficial ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-01-10 | Author: Michael Shepard
Corporate Energy Managers Speak Their Minds:Report on the 6th Annual E SourceEnergy Manager Survey
July 1, 2001
Disappointment with restructuring is rising among corporate energy managers, according to an annual survey conducted at the E Source Energy Managers’ Roundtable. Nearly 30 percent of energy managers reported dissatisfaction with open access, whereas not one was dissatisfied last year. The breakdown ...
Content type: Core Report | Document ID: ER-01-12 | Author: Matthew Joyce
