Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Over this weekend I have been doing some marketing research for a project I`m working on, and I have run into a repeating pattern that I think all green businesses need to be aware of: green marketing campaigns are ineffective because consumers see them as being inauthentic.

This is probably something that most people already know intuitively... `EcoMagination` from one of the world`s biggest arms dealers? `Beyond Petroleum` from one of the leading companies agitating to drill ANWR? ...it`s as if they think we are nothing more than meat with eyes, as Lewis Black says.

Turns out, "Only 19% of people identify both Wal-mart and GE a ssocially responsible companies. Only 6.5% of people identify Bank of America as a socially responsible brand, while these companies have lead the way with green and CSR (corporate social responsibility) marketing communications in 2007." Meanwhile, the top things consumers look for in sustainable products are social, and related only indirectly to global warming, ozone holes and the like: "...connecting with friends, family and community (90%), fair trade (73%), employee treatment (85%)."

An interesting case study in all this is Electrolux, which evidently never set out to brand itself as a "green" company. Instead it played up its products` efficiency as a means of reducing energy bills and getting work done faster. But efficiency is also green to the core, and now Electrolux is one of those brands that is permanently lodged in peoples` minds as being "green." But wait, there`s more... as an added bonus, Electrolux does not have to worry about greenwashing the way Wal-Mart and GE do, because its green credentials were inadvertently built into its original marketing strategy.

For me the big takeaway in my readings this weekend is that a company doesn`t necessarily have to choose between branding itself as green, or not; the key to being embraced by green consumers is having an authentic vision of the company`s connectedness to the rest of the world, and conducting itself in accord with that vision. I think Kyocera qualifies: "Respect the divine and love people." And Google: "Don`t be evil."

Most of my green marketing reading came from these sites:

• natural marketing institute
• lohas journal
• conscientious innovation — don`t miss this blog post: avoiding knee-jerk green

—p

Side note: Kazuo Inamori, founder of Kyocera, has a blog-like sub-site that is worth reading, though it is still pretty empty.

I have actually been wondering if marketing yourself as "green" really works.  It seems that your conclusion is that "actions speak louder than words".  Is this right?  A company`s actions will send the right marketing message more than its advertising will.

Is the green consumer market big enough that word about a green product or service will spread regardless of how the product or service is marketed?



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Thanks!

drm7

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Check out my blog at www.GreenCPA.blogspot.com

I have to ditto CPAandMBA. 

The majority of people respond to environmental solutions that save them money.  Fortunately today the issue of money saving and saving the environment are more frequently going hand in hand. 

People have crazy complaints about `going green`.  For example, people say that windmills are `ugly` or that composting toilets are `gross`.  Obviously these people would rather have a coal fire plant in their backyard and human waste in their rivers.  In my opinion green people are always smarter people and smarter business owners.


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