Blog Action Day: The Environment & Marketing
October 15, 2007 by Susan Gunelius
Filed under Miscellaneous
Today is Blog Action Day where bloggers around the internet will be blogging about the same topic. This year that topic is the environment. In keeping with that theme, I read a disappointing article at GreenBiz.com this week that shows consumers are experiencing “Green Fatigue Due to Lack of Awareness and Economic Worries.”
The article cites the results of a study done by the Shelton Group called Energy Pulse 2007. The study has been conducted for three years in a row now and surveys people across the nation. This year’s findings are interesting to say the least with two things jumping out most significantly to me:
- The downturn in the economy may be directly affecting a downturn in consumers’ willingness to purchase green products. With a downturn in the economy comes a tighter grip on consumers’ wallets. Green products are typically priced higher than their non-green competitors. In a poor economy, consumers are less likely to care about the long term effects of their green purchase decisions as they are about the short term effects their purchases have on their current financial situations.
- The market is oversaturated with green products, and the marketing message of green branding has become diluted. With so many companies promoting their products as green and no way for consumers to verify the authenticity of those claims (and little regulation around them), consumers have become wary of green marketing messages finding it difficult to choose products that are actually green and help the environment versus those that are simply branded as green but do little or nothing to help the environment.
It appears that just branding a product as green or environmentally-friendly isn’t enough these days. Instead, the product’s “greenness” has to be substantiated and clearly communicated via targeted marketing messages which create a strong enough form of differentiation in consumers’ minds to convince them to not only choose a green product over a non-green product but also to possibly pay more for it.
What do you think about the green overload consumers are facing? How do you suggest that marketers of truly green products differentiate themselves from substandard competitor products?
Read more about Blog Action Day and Walmart’s Role in Helping the Environment.
Well, we need a push for clear regulations for one thing. Companies that honestly work in green ways and make sustainable products should push harder for that. People want to know what they’re getting. Personally I think there should be a local green focus over just green focus. Because that alone might make consumers think harder about what the buy. This is a seriously interesting study you posted though. I will have to look into it.
AND, long-time no see! I’ve been soooo busy. I miss visiting Brandcurve though
Also, Happy Blog Action day! I added your blog link to all my blogs
I’ve been watching the green movement for some time and think that there needs to be a combination of two things. First, the benefits of being “green” have to be available in the short run. Green as a concept yields very little reward to people in the present. It’s inherently a trade of: “makes me feel good now to know that I’m doing something good for the planet later.” Behavior is tough to modify when there’s no current benefit - you’re to some degree relying on altruistic-like behavior. So there’s very little benefit in the brand promise related to things “green.”
Compare this with “Organic” for a moment where you do get a perceived current benefit - less chemicals ingested, children’s health etc. So in the first step, a belief needs to be fostered to reward being green now. Like, let’s get a certification system for things that are green and put together a state sales tax rebate program for buying “certified green” products. This could give current value of the green concept.
Second, marketers need to shift their attention from “It’s green! Buy it!” to “It’s a fantastic shirt and its green.” That statement could likely cause much debate, but here’s my take on it:
In my opinion, most people don’t perceive “being green” as a need, anymore than they perceive being charitable as a need. In some, its a want, and true, there will be a small subset of customers where it’s a need, but it will be a small population. So ultimately, the rest need to be influenced to buy. I think its rare that someone thinks “I need to go shopping, I don’t have enough green products in my house.” I believe they think “I need some new Tshirts or clothes or papertowels and need to go to the store.” Once there, a portion will buy green products, but unless the products work and function at the same level as non green products, they are in danger of not being repeat customers. So I think the products need to be comparable to non-green products, and marketers need to prove that they are comparable, but then as the final throw the customer over the edge, stroke - “and its green.” I draw a comparison here with “Fat Free” or “Healthy for you!” type food tags. The aisles are littered with those type of lines, but at the end of the day, mainstream consumers don’t want the food unless it tastes like the craving they have at the moment. There are a growing number of offerings that emphasize what they are first, and as a secondary characteristic denote the health benefits.
I look forward to feedback on this, which turned out a little longer than I had expected.
You don’t really need or want that lifestyle, it might hurt y’all slowly more…….Just tell him you
don’t wanna repeat something your not too proud of z7uas.
hi, i sure it
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