Making Tough Decisions

Just as escalating costs continue placing great strains on your cotton growing operation, Cotton Incorporated is also forced to make tough decisions to maximize the money used to implement research and promotion efforts on your behalf.

For example, this year we closed our Los Angeles office and we will not renew the lease on our office in Osaka, Japan, although we will maintain a presence in Osaka in a much smaller and less costly office location with fewer staff.

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Travel is another area where we are looking to reduce costs. While travel is an essential part of our day-to-day business, we are looking to trim these costs whenever possible, and one way to do this is through technology. Cotton Incorporated offices have recently been upgraded with video-conferencing capabilities, and we hold a number of meetings this way to reduce airfare and overnight accommodation expenses.

Our goal is to maximize funds available for our key programs like Agricultural Research, which is essential for improving producer profitability.

In 2009, we will be launching a new U.S. consumer promotion campaign. We are currently in the creative concept stage, and we need to find funds wherever possible to maximize the impact for consumers next year.

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Cotton Companion: Adjusting to New EPA Adjustments
Do You Know Green?
Cotton was a natural fiber long before everyone started jumping on the “green” bandwagon, so Cotton Incorporated has always been proactive in their efforts to show cotton’s natural attributes to consumers.
Cotton Incorporated also strives to be a knowledgeable resource for facts on how we can help keep our environment a bit greener.
The latest effort to showcase environmentally friendly cotton fashion is a new and innovative “Do you know Green?” online quiz/game show. “This entertaining quiz is every bit game show, environmental handbook and fashion show rolled into one” says Ric Hendee, Vice President of Marketing Services, Cotton Incorporated.
The questions are formatted in a true/false game show style and the stakes are a virtual wardrobe and finding out where you stand in the “green” knowledge spectrum. If you think you know green, log on to one of the following Web sites and take the quiz:
www.thefabricofourlives.com/cotton-green-quiz or www.mysteryfabric.com

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