Green is the new green

From my office in McKinney, Texas, where the city slogan is “Unique By Nature” and recent commercial developments include a LEEDS-certified Wal-Mart, an office building with their own rainwater cistern, and a Toyota dealership that used recycled materials in the construction of the building, I cannot help but recognize that the once nascent green movement trend is now a fully fledged market force.

Of course, you didn’t need me to tell you that. If you are like most Americans, you likely made a green-focused buying decision in just the past few days.

Time was when status was flaunted with clothing stitched with the right logo, cars sporting the correct nameplate, and even dogs of the proper pedigree. Today, status is increasingly conveyed not by the green spent but the green saved – both eco-logically and eco-nomically. This is a new culture of conspicuous non-consumption.

From tags on our emails imploring recipients to consider a tree before printing an email (whatever happened to the ‘paperless office’, anyway?) to organic household cleaners and hybrid vehicles, a product’s “environmental impact” has seen a spike as a key decision-making factor for consumers. But how committed are we to green products? After all, Americans tend to read diet books instead of dieting – do we also buy green products instead of truly living green?

A 2007 study by the New York Times indicated that only 36% of buyers of the Toyota Prius said that gas mileage was a factor in the decision. Moreover, fully 51% of Prius owners indicated that their purchase was fueled (no pun intended) by the fact that the Prius “makes a statement about me”. So, if we were to extrapolate this to all green-based purchase decisions, what does this mean for marketers? It means green claims are more at risk, not less, in the face of such (currently, anyway) superficial commitment. After all, if you’ve made a purchase as a personal statement, you don’t want to later find out that the product against which you leveraged your valuable personal image is in fact a fraud. Under these circumstances, the credibility of your product's 'green-ness' is additionally critical as it makes your environmental claims more subject to rumor, innuendo, and the whims of fashion. Marketers using ‘green’ claims to sell more product without credible evidence to support the messaging are subject to a backlash that could deleteriously impact the product, related products, the company and even the more established green movement.

Here then, from Environmental Leader, are five guidelines for effective environmental marketing:

1. 70% of Americans say quantifying the actual environmental impact of a product or service is influential in their purchasing decisions, so make specific claims about the quantitative impact of your green approach.
   
2. 74% of Americans indicate that a connection between the product/service and the environmental issue influences their purchasing decisions, so stay relevant regarding landfill waste, ozone, or emissions.
   
3. Make the claim and the support of it visible. Americans reach out to websites and product packaging for information.
   
4. Like all marketing messages, make it consistent across all language, images and branding activities.
   
5. Communications that include some sense of context, as well as a “work in progress” tone, will be more credible and less subject to criticism than claims suggesting that a product is the answer to all society’s ills. Even cereal companies claim that their product is only a part of a healthy breakfast!

Green is the new green. But tread carefully or it could become the new red. As in ink.