We are champions of local economies. Local economies that are innovative, strong and capable of networking with other local economies around the world. 

Our “preferred clients” are locally-owned businesses that create good jobs, healthy neighborhoods and keep dollars in their own communities. They are innovative companies that solve the problems facing the planet in the 21st century. They are startups and existing companies that are aware of the importance of creating local wealth instead of focusing only on its extraction from the communities in which they operate. Some examples of the businesses we root for:

locally-owned businesses, union shops, small businesses, cooperatives,  start ups, city/regional anchor institutions and professional services.

Whether we work for these kinds of companies or not, we are rooting for them to succeed through fair competition within the marketplace (such as it is). The best of these brands are what we call “Lower True Cost” businesses.

A process to discover if your brand possesses Lower True Cost traits (attributes), if they are important to your customers, and then how best to communicate this “marketable difference” to them!

A Lower True Cost movement has formed in which citizens are considering not just PRICE, but also the true costs of their purchases to themselves, their families and the rest of the world. If you’ve observed how Millennials have followed the Sanders campaign, then you shouldn’t be surprised that for Millennials shopping Lower True Cost parallels that political revolution. However, it’s not just 75 million Millennials, there are also a lot of GenXers and Boomers who are joining the “Shopulist“ movement.

That’s why we’ve developed Lower True Cost Positioning. It’s a process to discover if your brand possesses Lower True Cost traits (attributes), if they are important to your customers, and then how best to communicate this “marketable difference” to them!

It’s pretty simple, We’re not here to sell activist causes. We’re here to help clients sell their products and services — and we’ve got the tools to do it. At the same time, we’re interested in working for businesses who are part of building communities with the power to choose their own path. Businesses that are part of resilient and sustainable local economies that create opportunity for all.  We don’t care what our clients’ politics are, but we do care about the health of our local communities, the health of our region, the health of our nation and the health of our planet.

The way we choose to do business and the way we choose to buy and sell make a difference.