Canadian Marketing Blog

Is Green Marketing Still Golden?

So, just when you thought you couldn’t handle seeing another pink marketing campaign without going crazy, along comes green.

Taking top spot among marketer’s colour palates recently, green has been utilized in branding and re-branding across a surfeit of sectors and channels. Although a few wayward companies have placed a green veneer on not so green operating practices, true green marketing means going much deeper and actually evolving your corporate culture, implementing sustainable business practices and giving back to the communities in which you work and live. Businesses should realize the economic and moral imperatives they face regarding green marketing in our current society; a society where green can lead to gold.

With the environment on the top of mind for consumers, boomers, industry captains, organizations and politicians, green looks like its got legs. One word of caution though, don’t talk the talk if your brand can’t also walk the walk.

So, the question is, does green have a viable future as a unique selling proposition for your brand?

Lina

As raised in an earlier blog post (July 19, Share of Life – A new era in marketing)
Green marketing/sustainability/social marketing– is an inevitable evolution brought about by a series of forces including the convergence of communication mobility, bandwidth and connectivity. It is also about a maturation that we have begun to expect of our country sized corporations (and local businesses) to adopt more than a ‘Share of Wallet’ focus.

To your question - Will brands gain an advantage by being green?
Yes – perhaps initially - until such time that the competition becomes socially mature as well. But as you note – a brand must truly “walk the walk” or risk being exposed as duplicitous at best and subject to litigation at worst. Statesmanship rather than bravado will be the tone. So to that end, it will become an undertow – rather than overt point of difference for all but a few specific categories/brands – where green is the primary benefit.

At the end of the day socially mature companies and their brands will compete for Share of Life – a new battleground that will be much deeper in complexity and extend beyond the old notions of what a brand was/stood for.

If a brand can be defined as a promise kept then we as consumers are beginning to demand new promises from our brands.

My $0.02

Miro

>>So, the question is, does green have a viable future as a unique selling proposition for your brand?

It might, but touting green in your marketing communications more often is perilous. Also, if every marketer is touting green, can it possibly be a "unique" selling proposition for your brand? Unique means unique, right?

I've written a recent blog entry that expands:
http://www.dolakblog.com/2007/10/is-green-marketing-smart-strategy.html

Our company makes eco-friendly sleep products out of Montreal, we've been marketing them as such and relatively successful using this approach.

However in recent months we've decided to approach it as " Our mattresses are luxuriously comfortable and just so happens to be eco-friendly."

Doing the right thing should not be your USP.

I agree totally with you.

People should do everything possible to promote Green and Sustainable activities and nothing better for that job than to use appropriate promotional materials.

Check this site for a great variety of Cool GREEN promo stuff: http://www.zazzle.com/livepaths*

Green is definitely all the rage these days in marketing initiatives. As the economy falters, it will be itneresting to see if companies maintain the same kind of focus on green marketing. Many businesses probably see "Green" as a luxury and in some cases they are right. If a business can't convey a value proposition to their customer concerning green, they should switch messages.