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4 Challenges of Building Sustainable Brands
1. Awareness of green issues and product environmental impact is growing in the US - creating risk for certain products
Why is this a challenge? This growing awareness has implications for brands that begin to be perceived in a negative light due to sustainability issues.
One indicator of this increasing awareness: there has been a 50% increase in buzz around sustainability on blogs (according to a Nielsen study) since last year.
EXAMPLE: Bottled water and plastic bags are coming under attack for their environmental impact.
EXAMPLE: Disposable diapers the next product to come under fire may be - because of G-diapers.
EXAMPLE: the American car market has been affected by high gas prices, and continues to shift to more fuel efficient cars.
- The number of drivers on the road has declined to the 1940 levels when gas was scarce during the war
- Prius sales are up 54% since last year
- GM has recognized that it must “Live Green or Die”, according to the Business Week cover story (May 2008) (while cutting 19,000 jobs last week)
EXAMPLE: Clorox launched GreenWorks, a product which sits on the shelf next to products from Seventh Generation and Method, to address consumers’ concerns about toxics.
- Related links: a Green Works analysis, Sierra Club explains its unusual partnership with Green Works, and a contrarian blogger’s view
Major ad agencies and PR agencies are ramping up to support green products - and some have started green divisions such as Saatchi and Saatchi S.
- However, not all of their clients being well served - fuzzy terms are being used in marketing that consumers don’t understand well, such as “sustainability” and “renewable”
2. Greenwashing is a big issue
Green marketing claims are being made that can’t be substantiated.
- Carbon offsets - a $54 mil industry that’s unregulated and drawing fire for lack of accountability
- More marketing campaigns than not are considered to be greenwashing. In The Six Sins of Greenwashing study, TerraChoice found that of 1,018 common consumer products, 99% were guilty of some form of greenwashing.
- Green marketing being compared to the Wild West
- FTC has moved up its review of the Green Guides by a full year
Related link:
3. Green Fatigue - a new term has entered green marketing lexicon
Consumers are so inundated, they can’t figure out what’s authentically “green” and what’s a gimmick. Related links:
- Have you got green fatigue? (The Independent - UK newspaper)
- One Energy Pulse study claims that “What consumers are often fatigued about in 2007 is the price differential - or at least the perceived price differential”
4. How many of you are confused about how to market your products in a legitimate way?
How many of you are worried about being labeled greenwashing? Or being sued for false claims?
How can we keep the green marketing revolution going? And the hope for conducting business in a better way?
If we don’t fix the issues associated with greenwashing and green fatigue (with activists bashing our companies for not doing homework and not being walking the talk) then the green marketing revolution will screech to a halt.
Jacquelyn Ottman offered key strategies you can use to market your green initiatives in a credible and effective way.
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