Timberland created the “Green Index,” which lists such information as the amount of energy consumed to manufacture a particular shoe, and shares the database with competitors to set a transparency standard for the shoe industry.

Companies should establish a company blog to help maintain dialog, rather than jump online only to respond to negative information, recommends Steven Solvers, principal at strategic consultancy GBSM Inc. and publisher of the blog Scatterbox.

Wal-Mart introduced a packaging scorecard for its more than 150,000 products to determine whether the company and its suppliers can conserve natural resources by reducing packaging and sourcing more sustainable materials.

Sixteen percent of Volvo Rents’ customers account for 89 percent of the company’s business. As a result, 89 percent of the marketing budget is devoted to that 16 percent.

Kodak began offering a high-quality printer that saves up to 50 percent on ink cartridge costs not long after it discovered that the cost of ink was the No. 1 consumer dissatisfaction with home printing.

One of the most common mistakes marketers make when trying to figure out how to reach Spanish-speaking newcomers is the assumption that there is a single Latino community, according to Veronica Torralba of insurer AIG American General.