Green Marketing
An Old Company CAN Learn New Tricks
February 26th, 2009 by Bill Baren
Amazing customer experience every step of the process is becoming even more important in our current business environment. HEMA, a Dutch department store has taken this to the next level.
I’ve never seen anything like and have just emailed this out to all of my colleagues.
Take a look at HEMA’s product page. Make sure not to click on anything until the action begins on the page and turn up your computers speakers.
By the way, you don’t have to be a young company to be innovative. HEMA’s first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam. Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands.
How can you create an experience for your potential customers that will have people talking about you?
We Need Your Creative Eye!
January 8th, 2009 by Patrick Dominguez[UPDATE: the poll results have been announced]
I’d like to get your help in choosing the best cover design for our upcoming book “The Art of Green Business”, in which innovative entrepreneurs will have powerful insights and inspiration on how to build a successful green business.
Your vote will help decide a crucial part of this book - the cover.
Thanks for voting and participating! We will announce the winning design soon.
Cover Design 1
Cover Design 2
Cover Design 3
If you have any thoughts you want to share about a design, please leave a comment below.
Interview with Dan Gill, CEO and Co-Founder of Huddler
October 30th, 2008 by Amie Vaccaro“Giving passionate, knowledgeable people a platform and a voice”
Combine people, products, and passion… mix in user-generated content, product reviews and discussions… and you have an ambitious web site called Huddler, that aims to create a “social commerce” community.
In this interview, “chief Huddler” Dan Gill shares with us how he started the business and his vision for the growth of their Green Home Huddle, which focuses on products and content connected to sustainability. Hear the inside business scoop on lessons they’ve learned along the way, how their business is funded, and how they engage their community.
- Huddler’s unique efforts to build communities to provide a more informed and social shopping experience
- How Huddler develops partnerships to get new green products in consumers’ hands and boost site activity
- How Huddler monetizes traffic to its site
- Lesson learned: The “release early, release often” approach allows users to guide web site development
LISTEN NOW (press play below)
TRANSCRIPT
AMIE VACCARO, GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: This is Amie with Green Business Innovators and I am here with Dan Gill, CEO of Huddler.com. Do you want to introduce yourself quickly?
DAN GILL: Hi everyone out there in the green blogosphere world. This is Dan Gill. I’m the co-founder and CEO of a site called Huddler.com. I guess most specifically we’ll be talking about our site, GreenHome.Huddler.com, which you can find a link to directly from Huddler.com and we’ll talk all about it and tell you a little bit about what we’re up to.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Great. So do you want to tell us a little bit about Huddler.com and what you do here?
DAN GILL: Sure, sure. Huddler was actually, the concept that my brother… My oldest brother and I founded Huddler together. And the impetus for Huddler comes from “old school” discussion forums. Some people are really familiar with them, some people are not, but they’re pretty well unchanged from the mid-90s. So if you’ve ever seen the discussion forum at some point where someone can post a question and anyone can come back and respond and a conversation begins in a threaded fashion. There are some wildly popular sites out there that are great resources for people. And they’re always very topical.
The sites that we used the most, they are sites focused on cell phones and mobile technology, and they are sites focused on home theater equipment and really, really deep diving into those topics because they are specific to a given interest. The really knowledgeable, passionate people, they gravitate towards those sites. But from a technology perspective they’re very, very broken from a content creation perspective and from a content distribution perspective. So the original impetus for Huddler was, we wanted to build a platform that really empowers those knowledgeable, passionate people who have all this knowledge and they want to share and they want to interact with other like-minded people, but provide a much better interface, so that we can distribute that content and make it broadly available. Because if you have ever seen a discussion forum before, my mom couldn’t use it if her life depended on it, and that’s not to say there’s not information that would be really valuable to her in there, but the interface is just really hard to use.
Social Proof - Better than Green Marketing?
August 29th, 2008 by Bill Baren(This post is based on a case study in Robert Cialdini’s latest book, Yes!)
Imagine you’re in charge of persuading your hotel guests to reuse their towels.
Card # 1:
“Help save the environment by participating in the [towel reuse] program.”
Card #2:
“The majority of guests at the hotel recycled their towels at least once during their stay.”
The surprising (or perhaps not surprising) answer: Card #2! People were more persuaded by the actions of others than by the thought of “saving the environment.”
Following Social Proof
Most people would like to believe that they are not influenced by the “herd.” Yet what they say and what they do often tell a different story.
When people aren’t sure what course of action to take, they often unconsciously rely on what Cialdini calls “social proof” in order to make a decision. The best social proof is the knowledge of what other people do in a similar situation.
Could you improve the results of the “towel experiment” even more - using Social Proof?
Yes! This was done by using a card saying “the majority of the people who stayed in the same room participated in the towel recycling program.” In this case, guest participation increased by 33% over the standard environmentally-driven message of Card #1. The closer the social proof to your personal immediate situation the greater the influence of social proof.
Thoughts on how to utilize Social Proof
So the first thing that comes to my mind is for my coaching business to use more testimonials not of big companies but of companies that are similar to my ideal clients. Also, I am thinking that green businesses reading this blog could let their prospective customers know more about the actions their current customers are taking.
How can you use the influence of social proof to help your business today?
Video Interview with Michael Dwork, CEO, VerTerra
July 24th, 2008 by Patrick DominguezCompostable Dinnerware - Made from Fallen Leaves
In this interview, VerTerra CEO Michael Dwork shares how he came up with the idea for VerTerra’s compostable dinnerware while traveling in Asia, and behind-the-scenes details of how they produce sustainable products.
VerTerra produces compostable dinnerware (such as plates and bowls) made from just fallen leaves and water pressure. No chemicals are used (such as coatings, glues, plastics) and no trees are cut down. And no recycling is needed, since the products are made of leaves - they are biodegradable and the material used naturally returns to the earth within 2 months.
In addition to reducing waste and energy use, they offer fair-wage jobs to the many people they employ in developing countries in Asia where the leaves are sourced.
Last but not least - VerTerra’s products are very attractive and stylish! These amazing products are a great way to help “green” your next event.
Interview with Clare Harris, Editor, New Consumer Magazine
July 7th, 2008 by Patrick Dominguez
New Consumer, a UK-based magazine and web site, helps people around the world channel their purchasing power choices and actions to make a difference through ethical living and support of fair trade. Top-notch content (passionate, irreverent, positive and fun) and a strong commitment to their values are two linchpins of New Consumer’s success.
New Consumer’s Editor Clare Harris takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the business and editorial strategies that guide New Consumer’s successful growth.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
- Note how clear New Consumer is about what strategies they are using to attract and grow their audience. (Do you have a clear plan for growing your business?)
- The power of partnerships to spread word-of-mouth
- What New Consumer does to provide an antidote to “green fatigue”
- Where to find out about vegetarian and fair trade condoms!
LISTEN NOW (press play below)
TRANSCRIPT
Patrick Dominguez: This is Patrick Dominguez with Green Business Innovators and I am interviewing the editor of New Consumer, Clare Harris. Thank you, Clare for agreeing to do this interview.
Clare Harris: Thank You.
Patrick Dominguez: Clare, to get started why don’t you tell us about New Consumer.
Clare Harris: Well, New Consumer started out about 5 years ago and it was originally set up as a publication that reflected the growth of the fair trade movement in the UK. And we covered a whole range of fair trade issues, what new products were out there, what the effect on producers was, and since then we have grown with the sector to cover all areas of ethical living, whether that’s organics, eco-electricity, whether it’s fair trade products. So, we have widened partly in response to the fact that the more people are aware of shopping ethically and want to shop ethically. There is an appetite for knowledge out there.
6 Green Marketing Strategies for Successful Sustainable Brands
June 7th, 2008 by Patrick DominguezNotes 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
4 Challenges of Building Sustainable Brands
June 6th, 2008 by Patrick Dominguez
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.
Interview with Ben Todd, Executive Director, Arcola Theatre
May 10th, 2008 by Patrick Dominguez
The Arcola Theatre in London is making bold strides toward being the world’s first carbon neutral theater, through innovations such as energy efficient LED lighting systems - and the world’s first fuel cell powered performance. In addition, Arcola Energy is a pioneering new venture that will bring cutting-edge sustainability practices to other arts organizations. Ben Todd, Executive Director of Arcola Theatre, shares insights that could help any type of organization or business get started in being more sustainable.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
- The most important first step an organization should take for a successful sustainability project
- Why “artists and scientists are quite often very much the same” when working with them on sustainability projects
- Whether “going green” helps to sell more theater tickets
LISTEN NOW (press play below)
TRANSCRIPT
Patrick Dominguez, Green Business Innovators: Hello, this is Patrick Dominguez here with Ben Todd, the executive director of Arcola Theatre. Welcome, Ben.
Ben Todd, Arcola Theatre: Thank you, Patrick.
Patrick Dominguez: Ben, tell us a little bit about the Arcola Theatre and the type of theater that you do here.
Ben Todd: Arcola Theatre, it is an off West End theater in East London. It started about 8 years ago in the classic tradition of the London fringe. No money, a lot of artistic vision. It was founded by artists, and its strength essentially was that of Mehmet Ergen, artistic director and Leyla Nazli who is now the executive producer, who essentially founded the theater on personal loans, on credit cards and incredible vision and an ability to really inspire people and bring people together to deliver the art that they wanted to deliver. Since then, over the past 8 years it has gone from strength to strength artistically. And increasingly as an organization is this maturity you have to develop in terms of stability, fund-raising and management systems. So particularly, I suppose over the last 3 or 4 years, I have done a lot of work on that with a view to creating an organization initially on which I could almost perch on the back of and do sustainability projects, which is my background. And I know over the last 2 years I realized that it is actually far better to actually directly integrate them - except that I never will finish trying to set up the theater and actually developing the two of them in parallel is far more sensible.
Patrick Dominguez: One thing that I will add to what Ben is saying is that this theater has gotten rave reviews. They consistently get fantastic reviews with the theater productions that they do here.
Ben Todd: Definitely true and actually crucial. If I was to go off and do sustainability projects in a theater that was not considered an artistic leader, it would be seen as almost fringe in the kind of disparaging sense.
Patrick Dominguez: Like a distraction.
Ben Todd: Yeah, or just people who cannot really function in the mainstream, going and playing on the fringe. There is this snobbery. There is this great passion for brilliant things coming from the fringe, but there is always that sense of, it is the people that cannot make it in the mainstream. So, the idea of running a place that has a fringe feel and anything is possible and anybody can do anything, but definitive international caliber work is pretty crucial.
Patrick Dominguez: Could you explain step-by-step the sustainability work that you have done for the theater, and try to frame it in a way that if other theater people were listening right now, what sort of model or formula would they be able to follow?
Ben Todd: The key, I think particularly across all sectors, but particularly in the arts sector is to lead with vision.
New Study: What Americans Think about Green Marketing
April 18th, 2008 by Patrick DominguezThe 2008 Green Gap Survey, released by branding firm Cone and the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, provides some key insights into how Americans view green marketing and products. It takes a look at the “green gap” between what companies say about green products and what consumers understand. The survey was conducted online in February 2008 with 1,080 adults.
Some interesting nuggets from the 2008 Green Gap Survey:-
A key misunderstanding:
Almost half (48%) of respondents believe that a product advertised as “green” or “environmentally friendly” has a positive (beneficial) impact on the environment.
Only 22% indicated that these phrases describe products with less negative environmental impact than similar products or prior products.
Less than half of Americans believe the environmental information they receive from companies:
• 47% trust companies to tell them the truth
• 45% believe companies are accurately communicating information about their impact on the environment
On the other hand, about half do believe information received from companies.
Americans believe third-party oversight is important to ensure environmental messaging by companies is accurate:
• 80% certification by third-party organizations
• 78% review and reporting by watchdog groups, news media, bloggers, etc.
• 76% regulation by the government
“The gap creates significant risk of embarrassment for companies and disillusionment for consumers,” according to Mike Lawrence, executive vice president of corporate responsibility at Cone. “Activists are closely monitoring green claims and can quickly share information online about the actual environmental impact of a product. The result can be accusations that a company is engaging in greenwashing and is misleading the public.”
Five Guidelines for Effective Environmental Marketing
Cone and The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship suggest several strategies companies can use to effectively and credibly communicate information about how their products or services impact the environment, summarized below:
- Be precise. Make specific claims that provide quantitative impacts.
- Be relevant. Demonstrate a clear connection between the product or service and the environment.
- Be a resource. Provide additional information for consumers in a place where they want it.
- Be consistent. Don’t let marketing images send a signal that contradicts the carefully chosen words and facts you use.
- Be realistic. There are always more environmental improvements that can be made to a product or service. Communications that include some sense of context and a “work in progress” tone will be more credible and less subject to criticism.