If you're a traditional solar marketer, especially in the B to B chain, you're going to hate this video, below. You're going to say, "WTF does this crazy video have to do with selling solar panels or any solar widget?"

The answer is in the message at the end of the video, which is in French. Loosely translated, a title card reads, "By doing nothing, you become nobody." One might also translate it as "It's in doing something that's nonesense that we become anybody."

And that is one of my main messages to solar company marketers You cannot play it safe with marketing anymore. In short, Solar needs to stand out and educate. That's why I applaud Sungevity, Free Hot Water, KACO New Energy, and all of the other companies who are contributing their products and services to the White House initiative. It's exactly what they're doing... without the elevator and disco lights. Watch:

Ridiculous, I know, but please remember the real message: If you are to survive, you must not only have a good solar product or service, but you must also stand out and educate. Make that your new mantra. In fact, let me be more specific for every solar sector: ::continue::

Stand out and educate consumers. Stand out and educate installers. Stand out and educate utilities. Stand out and educate your legislators. These two strategies are the keys to survival as competition increases from world wide solar suppliers. Of course, how you stand out and how you educate will vary with your brand philosophy, target audience, and marketing department.

I suspect that you do have the creativity to stand out and educate. In fact, I know you do. I think the real problem is the possibility for failure. If that's the case, make a budget allocation for failure and do it anyway or if still intimidated, outsource the project to someone like me. In that way, you've already lost the money and accepted that loss. But if you execute something wonderful, and you get positive attention for your brand, how valuable is that?  

Now remember that this video is missing the education component. Nevertheless, watch it again, smile, show this post to your boss, and then ask yourselves how can our solar company delight, surprise, and educate our target audience?

As always, please UnThink Solar.

Tor Valenza aka “Solar Fred” advises solar companies on marketing, communications, and public relations. Contact him through Unthink Solar or follow him on Twitter @SolarFred.