Knowledge is Power

I came across a fantastic document online this week: the Electrical Contracting Association’s (ECA) ‘A-Z guide to Carbon Jargon’. It’s a fantastically useful summary of all the buzz words that are floating around the renewables sector, starting with ‘air source heat pumps’ and running all the way through to ‘zero carbon building’.  I’d definitely recommend taking a look, as I’m a firm believer in the need to understand aspects of the built environment that affect your marketplace, as well as the stuff that’s core to your business; only that way can you truly gain the customer centric perspective you need to add value during the sales process. As interesting for me as the guide itself is the title – a guide to ‘carbon jargon’.  Catchy, certainly, but also indicative of a sector that has developed – and is still developing – so quickly that it can be difficult to keep pace.  And in addition to keeping pace with advances in technology, we must also keep pace with changes in UK and European Government policy, legislation, targets, tariffs and incentives……all of which leaves us with a vocabulary which is both unfamiliar and confusing.  What’s more, thanks to the number of quangos and catch phrases, the vocabulary is littered with acronyms, which are totally meaningless to the uninitiated.

There is no way I can think of to simplify matters……Government will continue to legislate, acronyms will continue to appear and the media loves a new buzz word. Already the ECA guide has gaps, with ‘Green Deal’, for example, failing to make it onto the carbon jargon list. While the elaborate vocabulary is here to stay, however, there is plenty to be done to demystify it…..and that’s where the opportunity lies.

In the marketplace there is confusion, there’s carbon jargon fatigue and there is, let’s face it, a level of cynicism born out of a constant evolution in policy and eco-incentives.  Against that backdrop it is companies that have a clearly defined, carbon jargon-busting proposition that will be able to engage most effectively with specifiers. If, through PR and marketing, you can demonstrate your understanding of the key trends in the low-to-no-carbon agenda and, most importantly, you help customers to navigate their way through the eco-specification maze too, you can stand out in a crowded and confusing marketplace.

You can download the ECA’s A-Z Guide to Carbon Jargon at www.eca.co.uk