PHOENIX, AZ--(Marketwire - March 12, 2010) - The Arizona Solar Power Society (http://www.arizonasolarsociety.com) reports that the residential solar market in Arizona is creating a gold mine of solar revenue. In the past 18 months, more than 275 residential solar installation companies have opened shop, hired thousands of employees and created one of the most promising industries seen in a decade in Arizona, a state with more sunshine to harvest than anywhere in North America.
As a result, the Arizona Solar Power Society's membership has grown significantly and the association now has more than 800 members. The group has worked diligently to grow its membership through aggressive business development practices for its members, including large scale solar industry community outreach programs, solar installation training programs, solar business planning seminars, and most recently, their http://www.GoSolarinArizona.com initiative and a roaming series of Arizona Solar Town Hall Meetings that are being hosted with local cities and towns that want their residents to create more solar jobs in their local communities.
"When we began our marketing programs back in January 2009, we heard the same story over and over: Arizona should be the solar capital of the world. But no one in the solar industry was really doing much to market solar to residential and commercial customers," said Robert Hoskins, the Arizona Solar Power Society's Executive Director. "Most solar installation companies were small, the industry was fragmented and there was no real marketing leadership in the solar industry. We decided to change that by launching a new solar association, the Arizona Solar Power Society, whose primary focus would be marketing the solar industry using the same advertising, marketing and public relations strategies employed by major Fortune 500 companies in other industries."
"We organized a series of very successful solar industry seminars, industry solar co-operative advertising programs, mini-solar tradeshows, social networking, and community outreach programs and used strategic public relations campaigns to raise awareness for these solar events among residential and commercial customers," Hoskins continued. "These were new concepts for the existing solar organizations in town, but it did not take them long to recognize that this type of marketing was very successful. New solar installation companies quickly recognized that writing business plans with goals and objectives to aggressively drive profit margins was a very profitable business model to follow."
One of the keys to the group's success was a social networking platform, which allowed the new solar association to grow by using free viral marketing tools that recruited new members and made it easy to communicate with its members. Not only do social networking groups achieve rapid growth, but they also make it easy to plan, market and conduct community solar events, which were critical in raising the awareness for solar.
Marketing programs, especially community outreach events, served as a solar magnet. Not only did they draw solar industry organizations together and organize them into a joint marketing effort, but they also gave solar companies and executives a forum to communicate and to discuss what business strategies are working and which ones were not.
As more and more companies joined the Arizona Solar Power Society, it became much easier to see the growing solar supply chain and distribution channels that were now open and ready to move solar products and services through the sales channel. These distribution channels made it much easier to source services from other industry professionals.
In the last audit performed, the Arizona Solar Power Society discovered that there are more than 350 companies in their membership that are installing solar electric, solar thermal water heaters and energy efficiency product and services.
In addition, there are another 250 members that work in ancillary solar support companies that work for businesses that derive growing revenue streams by supporting the booming solar industry via financing, architectural, engineering, manufacturing, legal, real estate, land development, construction, electrical contracting, builders, auto shops, insurance, hardware stores, and other types of support services.
And more growth is coming. Another 200 members stated that they are in the process of taking solar installation training classes, writing business plans and planning to launch even more solar businesses, which means Arizona's economy will continue growing, creating jobs and stimulating economic development.
The association recently received a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a nationwide solar contract to install 10 megawatts of solar power on each on more than 72 shopping malls across the United States. These are the type of deals and business opportunities that the group generates for its members.
Many say there is strength in numbers. The Arizona Solar Power Society is proof of that. If the solar association's social networking group was not in place, there is a very good chance that Arizona State Legislature would have unknowingly destroyed our entire industry by passing HB2381 and HB2701.
Instead, the group was able to communicate an instant message to over 800 members, which allowed the group to plan an effective communication strategy, hold a press conference and share important messages with the Arizona State Legislature regarding the detrimental effects these bills would have had on the companies and their employees in the Arizona solar industry. Both bills were withdrawn and the Legislature pledged its support to the growing solar industry.
We strongly urge solar advocates to join the Arizona Solar Power Society! Unlike other solar associations that charge you a fee and give you little in return, our membership is free and we will provide many different business development and marketing opportunities to help you grow your business. Please visit http://www.arizonasolarsociety.com or http://www.GoSolarinArizona.com to become a solar advocate in your community today!
Contact Information:
Contact:
Robert Hoskins
Executive Director
Phone: (602) 326-0940
Email: