In my last blog post, we talked about Shell being put on trial for in New York accused of playing a role in the killing of Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. If you missed our discussion, see my two prior posts below this one.
In the past month, since we’ve rolled out some new green marketing assessment tools, I’ve been asked what makes companies and corporations successful in marketing green products, services or green initiatives.
The reason my company originally developed green marketing assessment tools was to help organizations, corporations and companies determine if their roll outs would be successful in the green arena. I realized quickly that everyone needed more education and then rolled out my Creating Authentic Green Value Webinar series, http://www.marketing-insider.com/secrets_of_green_brands_webinar/
There is so much to learn in this ever changing green and sustainability marketplace. One thing is for sure, though, certain rules still apply.
• Education is paramount to make customers aware of what you mean when you indicate a product, service or brand is green/sustainable. The more education, the better in my opinion.
• Knowing your customer and that not all green consumers and business think and act the same
• Knowing how to effectively position your message, when to say what, what to say in general
• Determining where you can position your company in the over-crowded green marketplace to allow it to rise above the clutter and not be one of the “me too” generations
• Knowing what else you need to work on internally to be successful in launching a green campaign and how your message should follow your greening process
• Knowing what the trends are in the marketplace, which are here to stay
What doesn’t work:
• Just rolling out a green initiative or campaign to a specific demographic and expecting it will reach core green consumers. Green consumers have to be targeted through psychographic information, not be demographics alone.
• Ignoring past human rights issues, environmental violations, etc., and rolling out a green campaign pretending no one will find out. We talked about this earlier in this post.
• Determine what your competition is doing in the green arena and just following suit figuring it’s safer to be a follower. You just never know if they did their homework or they are guessing their way through this marketplace like many.
• Rolling out one message to all your audiences at once. We know in marketing that messages have to be targeted to various audiences, yet in the green arena, I see more and more companies rolling out one message to every audience. Greener consumers and businesses will require a higher level green message showing you understand them and their needs and values, without this, you’ll never secure them as customers.
Helping You Understand and Profit from Consumer Health and Green Trends
Colette Chandler
