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6 Green Marketing Strategies for Successful Sustainable Brands
Notes from Jacquelyn Ottman’s keynote presentation at Sustainable Brands 2008 conference on marketing your green business initiatives in a credible and effective way.
Jacquelyn noted in her talk that the first 3 green marketing strategies given below are great examples of what’s working now. The final 3 strategies will be necessary for building a sustainable brand in the future - but some of these may be challenging, some may even hurt.
“Skip the babies, kill the daisies, pulverize the planets.”
Consumers are so tired of seeing the same trite images in green marketing. It’s one reason why consumers have green fatigue.
They also know that the products can’t be as green as they are depicted to be when surrounded by these images.
Focus on consumer concerns
According to Gallup polls (such as The People’s Priorities: Economy, Iraq, Gas Prices, May 30, 2008), people consider the environment a lower priority than the issues of economy and the availability/affordability of health care.
[Related link: Deflating a Myth - Consumers aren't as devoted to the planet as you wish they were (AdWeek)]
EXAMPLE: Successfully avoiding daisies and babies: Toyota Prius
The Prius may have been inspired by green considerations, but Toyota has focused on benefits such as fuel economy and a quiet ride - more meaningful and relevant to consumers than saving the planet.
Key takeaway
You can make your marketing messaging more relevant to consumers by linking environmental product characteristics (or your company’s corporate social responsibility efforts) to priorities such as monetary savings or health benefits. For example, highlight product benefits such as organic certification (good for health) or Energy Star rating (saves energy and money).
2. BE TRANSPARENT
Success example: Timberland unveiled this year a label with detailed environmental metrics - energy use, community impact, resources used.
Coming soon - labels that link consumption to carbon footprint. The issues with bottled water show what happens when consumers link carbon footprint with consumption.
Imagine the pandemonium that will break out when someone figures how to compare the carbon footprint of other products to yours!
3. START FROM THE INSIDE OUT
Greening a business from the inside out will help ensure the credibility of a campaign.
Success examples: the advertising industry has created in 2008 the first Green Effie award to recognize eco-marketing efforts that are effective and making a difference. The strong campaigns from the 3 semifinalists (HSBC, Wal-Mart, GE) are all campaigns we can learn from.
EXAMPLE 1: HSBC - “no small change” campaign
Based on a simple idea - empowering consumers to take small steps to reduce their carbon footprint. It’s significant that HSBC didn’t offer their customers carbon offsets.
Instead, they advocated strategies the bank itself is using to reduce carbon - energy efficiency, followed by renewable energy.
The brochure they handed out to customers focused on a number of carbon-reducing tips.
On the back is a discussion of what HSBC bank is doing internally.
More insight:
EXAMPLE 2: Wal-Mart PSP (”Personal Sustainability Project”)
Walmart choose to start from the inside by leveraging the potential sustainability impact of over 1 million associates.
More insight:
EXAMPLE 3: GE Ecomagination
By highlighting its innovative technology in concrete ways, it shows key stakeholders (employees, investors, customers) that they are taking real internal steps to help both the environment and the bottom line.
More insight:
- Interview with GE’s vice president of Ecomagination, Lorraine Bolsinger (CNET)
- Ecomagination: Inside GE’s Power Play (Joel Makower @ WorldChanging)
4. PROMOTE RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION
“Think like a beer marketer on New Year’s Eve.”
One approach is to promote the conservation of resources associated with using products:
- Not just promoting compact fluorescent lights - encourage consumers turn them off when not in use
- Front loading washers - promote consumers to use only when fully loaded
Responsible consumption can be encouraged by design and technology.
EXAMPLE: The Prius dashboard display that monitors fuel consumption minute by minute - encourages the reduction of gas consumption.
EXAMPLE: The Wattson is a gadget that sits on coffee table, shows you how much electricity your home is using moment by moment. Turn off the light, your number goes down. Turn on the washer, and your number shoots up. In contrast, your current electricity meter is not designed for you, but for someone else to track you consumption.
Ultimately, responsible conservation = buying less stuff.
Encouraging consumers to not buy more of your products than they need.
Many companies trying to green their products or communications draw a line on this point. Their shortsightedness prevents them from seeing opportunities to provide products that last longer and have more value.
This prevents them from creating new business models that result in long-term relationships with customers.
5. BECOME AN ENVIRONMENTAL BRAND STEWARD
We all need to incorporate product stewardship into our jobs. By being responsible for brands at every phase of their life cycle. From materials to manufacture to use to disposal.
Could the bottled water controversies and lead in children’s toys be averted? Yes.
How? Conduct a baseline life cycle assessment (LCA).
This helps you identify largest environmental impacts, and manage them appropriately.
EXAMPLE: Proctor & Gamble found the greatest environmental impact of doing laundry came from the usage of a washing machine (energy, water and detergent used in washing clothes) rather than from the production, transport, or disposal of a washing machine. (See this life cycle analysis of a washing machine.)
This was the inspiration for Tide Cold Water.
Being a brand steward may involve working with suppliers, or working with competitors to make sure markets for one’s products stay open. It requires working in teams, because managing lifecycle impacts requires multidisciplinary skills.
6. ECO-INNOVATE
This last strategy might put your company out of business…
Inventing new products, materials, and technologies. Rather than just making incremental changes to existing ones.
EXAMPLES:
- iPod replacing CDs
- Video conferencing replacing trips to conferences that rack up carbon emissions
- A laundry detergent that doesn’t need water (to address the coming water crisis)
Innovating new technologies is certainly a long-range strategy — it requires that astute companies start seizing these opportunities now.
IN CONCLUSION
Final points of Jacquelyn Ottman’s talk:
1. Things are changing quickly. Last year’s green marketing topics are replaced by new ones, representing even greater challenges.
2. Same tried and true strategies that apply to marketing in general apply to green marketing in particular.
- Build great products
- Highlight underlying value
- And consumers will come
3. We pioneers have an opportunity - and an obligation - to incorporate product stewardship into our job responsibilities. With our homework done, we will be able to develop legitimate products and credible messages that we can be proud of.
4. Finally, the companies that will reap the greatest rewards are the ones that innovate with new products, materials, and technologies that address the challenges that await us in the future.
More green marketing resources: Additional insights and articles from Jacquelyn Ottman
June 8th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
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