We always love to see our clients getting attention for the good stuff they do, so it was particularly satisfying to be wading the New York Times this Sunday and come across this piece in the Money section on wind power and the potential financial upsides inherent with this renewable clean technology. Inside, the author talks about various residential wind power products and mentions the Skystream 3.7, the first reasonably affordable residential power appliance (RPA) from Southwest Windpower in Flagstaff.

Best of all was that it appeared in the Money section, rather than one of the au courant “green sections” or green issues appearing in just about every one of our favorite magazines of late, including the NYTimes itself. The message here is pretty direct: hey, concerned about energy prices and control of your electricity costs? Check this out. Take control back into your own hands, and save money in the process. In the long run, you will be the one with the power, literally and figuratively.

Our consumer research on the Skystream 3.7 confirmed our beliefs: for the average person, this was going to be primarily all about ROI and saving money, with the secondary drivers being green power, global warming and energy security. It’s a good example of enlightened self-interest in green branding, where people make purchase decisions based around a weighted balance of altruism and self-interest, depending on where they land in the green consumer landscape—on the one extreme, Advocates and Early Adaptors are closer to the “core” green consumer and weight more heavily towards altruism, while at the other end, we have the Moderates, or mainstream America, that is motivated by the “what’s in it for me?” In the case of Skystream 3.7, we have a product that delivers on both, so it has a broad aperture for both the core and the mainstream consumer. Good for green. Good for us all.