Green is still making a difference even in a sagging economy. There are still many indicators of eco commitment and growth in companies all over the world. A growing consensus among analysts is that green jobs could rejuvenate world-wide economies by adding millions of jobs in less than two years.
As the green movement matures and begins to affect the environment and commerce in profound and profitable ways, marketers and public relations people need defined standards when letting the world know their company is green.
One school of thought is to make green “the third button to push.”
Green Marketing Starts with Traditional Selling
In the book, Green to Gold (John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2006, 2009) authors Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston suggest, “Marketing the green aspects of a product can be a tough proposition. Most successful green marketing starts with the traditional selling points – price, quality, or performance – and only then mentions environmental attributes. Almost always, green should not be the first button to push.”
According to their research, “The environment should be the third button pressed.”
One way to promote green in a third button manner is with eco certifications and labeling.
When a product bears an eco-label such as the European Eco-Label (EU) or the Energy Star (USA) it tells the consumer in an unobtrusive way that the product or the company is green and to have received the label, the product had to first be produced as eco-quality.
Marketing Green – Chance to Make a Difference
Greenbiz.com released its State of Green Business 2009 report in early February 2009 and the findings show that green marketing has fallen behind. Marketing efforts are not telling company stories of green initiatives well enough.
The report also shows an increase in greenwashing. When a company intentionally promotes that it is doing something green when in fact it is not, it's called greenwashing.
Andrew Winston, environmental strategist and co-author of Green to Gold said, “True greenwashing is not all that common. I think most advertising slightly stretches green or says something irrelevant such as adding the word natural to food products.”
The State of Green report also shows that consumers have become ambivalent about seeing certain products promoting eco-friendly as the primary selling point.
The report also found that about 60 percent of consumers would like to see more government regulation of green claims.
Effective Green Marketing Builds Trust
Those companies that are greenwashing when it comes to promotion should not provide reason for pause or prevent other companies from promoting their green initiatives. It just means that marketers and public relations have to get better at promoting and telling their company’s green stories.
Making it a rule or practice to put green marketing as the third button and moving quality, performance, price or the company’s reputation to the first and second buttons will go along way in building trust and confidence not only in the company but in the green movement.
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