6 Green Marketing

Strategies for
Successful Sustainable
Brands
Notes from J. Ottman by P.
Dominguez

1. FOCUS ON PRIMARY
BENEFITS
Skip the babies, kill the
daisies, pulverize the planets.
Consumers are so tired of seeing
the same trite images in green
marketing. Its one reason why
consumers have green fatigue.
They also know that the products
cant 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 Peoples Priorities: Economy, I
raq, Gas Prices
, May 30, 2008), people consider
the environment a lower priority
than the issues of economy and
the availability/affordability of
health care.

 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
companys 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, WalMart, 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. Its significant that HSBC
didnt 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.

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.

Wal-Mart PSP

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.

GE Ecomagination Solar

4. PROMOTE RESPONSIBLE
CONSUMPTION
Think like a beer marketer on New Years
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 childrens toys be averted? Yes.
How? Conduct a baseline life cycle
assessment (LCA).
This helps you identify largest environmental
impacts, and manage them appropriately.

 EXAMPLE: Procter & Gamble found the

greatest environmental impact of doing
laundry came from the usage of a washing
machine (energy, water and detergent used in
washing e) rather than from the production,
transport, or disposal 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 ones 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 doesnt need water (to
address the coming water crisis)
Innovating new technologies is certainly a longrange strategy it requires that astute
companies start seizing these opportunities now.

CONCLUSION
1. Things are changing quickly. Last
years 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.