Download DeVincenzi_Growth of green marketing

To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu
This article was printed from the Guides
section of the Reno News & Review, originally published
April 16, 2009.
This article may be read online at:
http://www.newsreview.com/reno/content?oid=948726
Copyright ©2009 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Printed on 2009-05-28.
The Growth Of Green Marketing
By Larry DeVincenzi
Special advertising supplement to the Reno News & Review.
Today’s consumers are increasingly socially conscious, with a growing concern to know if
companies honestly treat employees fairly while doing their part to protect and save the
environment. Brand values like social responsibility, benefit to the community, and “being
green” are at the top of more shopping lists than ever. Not unsurprisingly, enthusiasts of
technology are leading the way.
The recently published Forrester study (www.forrester.com) titled Making The Case For
Environmentally And Socially Responsible Consumer Products, a survey of over 5,400 U.S.
adults were asked about their purchasing habits between April and May of 2008.
Amazingly, 65% of those polled consumers confirmed they were “concerned about the
environment or global warming.” This trend is up nearly 23% from a November 2007 study,
which found that 53% percent of consumers were concerned about sustainability. In short
order, business has been quick to leverage this social trending with products and marketing
offers – some more successfully than others.
Today’s “green marketing” offers a unique set of challenges; the least of which is a
prevalent lack of standards for identifying what it actually means to be a “green” product or
company. In combination with the increase in consumer awareness, marketers are seeing a
growing demand for eco-labeling, “green” advertising and the overall importance of
reporting on sustainability and renewable energy oriented products and projects. This
obviously has created a glut of misguided opportunities to nearly everything to be
positioned as being “green”, from a minor packaging change to actual services and products
that truly reduce energy and waste.
As so many new and old companies jump on the “do good” bandwagon, factions of green
marketing have arisen — cause marketing, cause-related marketing, cause branding,
conscious marketing, social good marketing and many other new ways of positioning
brands within this growing market sector.
What binds this growing set of terms is simple: establishing your marketing efforts in a way
that’s truly responsible. Often this can be misunderstood to mean aligning tactics with a
cause, but it is certainly not limited to that description. It may also mean the responsible use
of funds, reducing unnecessary print marketing materials, or not deploying a controversial
ad that might benefit the company financially. Taking this effort a bit further might be
easiest to simply call it “Ethical Marketing”.
This trending presents a unique challenge to green marketers like ourselves as products and
messages become much more common, often resulting in great confusion in the
marketplace. “Consumers do not really understand a lot about these issues, and there’s a lot
of confusion out there,” says Jacquelyn Ottman (founder of J. Ottman Consulting and author
of Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation.) Advantageous marketers can take
advantage of this confusion by intentionally making false or exaggerated claims to being
“green” – what we now know as “green washing”.
Mintel Reports (http://reports.mintel.com) completed a recent study noting that
approximately 12% of consumers in the U.S. can be identified as “True Greens” –
individuals who seek-out and regularly purchase so-called “green products”. With them,
68% can be thought of as “Light Greens” – those who buy green on occasion. “What chief
marketing officers are always looking for is touch points with consumers, and this is just a
big, big, big touch point that’s not being served,” says Mintel Research Director David
Lockwood. “All the corporate executives that we talk to are extremely convinced that being
able to make some sort of strong case about the environment is going to work down to their
bottom line.
Given the obvious social and economic demand, how can companies honestly take
advantage of today’s consciousness toward sustainability, renewable energy and ecology? I
believe you have to do three things: Be Genuine, Educate Customers, and Offer
Participation.
Being genuine simply means that you are doing what you claim in your green marketing
campaign – and ensuring your business policies are consistent with your claim. Both of
these elements must be met to establish valid credentials that allow the green campaign to
succeed.
Educating customers is not simply letting the public know what you’re doing to protect the
environment, but more importantly, letting them know why it matters. If education is not
reason oriented for your target market, you’ll encounter a general “so what” response that
will dash bottom-line results from the campaign.
Providing your customers with the opportunity to participate enables you to personalize
your green initiatives — often by enabling the customer to take part in truly positive
environmental action.
The lesson here is obvious and simple: you have to “walk the talk” and actually implement
green policies and act in environmentally friendly ways for green marketing to work. If you
do, you’ll create a powerful selling point with those who are environmentally and socially
conscious and want to act to make the world a better place — a market that’s growing
exponentially today.
“Green marketing” isn’t merely a catchphrase; it’s a marketing strategy that can help you
get more customers and make more money. As in any marketing effort — the challenge is
doing it right the first time.
Larry DeVincenzi is a creative marketing professional focused on developing and
implementing unique brand strategies that deliver bottom-line results. His expertise
includes strategic marketing planning, brand development and management, creative
advertising services, fundraising development, media planning, production and
measurement.
He has created successful brand platforms and projects for Fortune 500 and internationally
recognized companies such as the Aladdin Hotel Casino Resort, Bally’s Resorts, Caesars
Palace, Discovery Channel, ESPN, NBC, Harrah’s, The Palms Las Vegas, MGM Grand
Hotel, Porsche Cars North America, Southwest Airlines and the Universities of Nevada in
both Reno and Las Vegas.
He has also provided consulting services for regional development organizations such as the
Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority and the Northern Nevada Development
Authority. His passion for giving back to the community through his work with the United
Way and numerous statewide arts organizations, such as the City of Reno Arts & Culture
Commission, Sierra Nevada Community Access Technology (SNCAT), and Sierra Arts
Foundation is a passion he continues to provide.
DeVincenzi has been recognized with over 75 national, regional and local awards for
excellence and effectiveness including numerous Addy’s, Telly’s and Communication Arts
design awards. He is a native of Reno, Nevada where he resides with his wife, Laurel and
their three children.
Special advertising supplement to the Reno News & Review.