Mean what you say and say what you mean.

Green consumers can smell a marketing message from a meaningful message a mile away. And many marketers learned this the hard way, including poor Kermit. It might have been easy to spin a green story on Madison Avenue, but if it’s greenwashing, it ain’t so easy to shake — thanks to the internet. So if you are even thinking of introducing a green product into this wildly vocal marketplace, you might as well be straight up about it or you might find yourself with a frog in your throat.

Instead, communicate your green message with honesty and sincerity. It builds trust and faith in what you have to say. You don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to be willing to explain where you need improvement and what you’re going to do about it.

Take Patagonia, the California-based outdoor equipment and clothing maker. Their mission, published on their web site for all to see is “to make the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” One of the ways Patagonia puts its mission where its mouth is by implementing a self-imposed “earth tax,” a sum founder, Yvon Chouinard, feels is owed to the earth for being a polluter and user of the planet’s nonrenewable resources. They even created the Patagonia Footprint Chronicles, an interactive mini-site that allows you to track the impact of Patagonia products from design through delivery – the good, the bad, and the ugly. That is transparency in action.

Just remember what your mother always told you. Honesty is the best policy. You can be excused for making a mistake, but you’ll be punished if you lie about it. Toyota may soon learn that a sticky accelerator is not their worse problem, it was waiting too long to tell their loyal customers. And that can take years to repair.

What green marketing wins the sincerity vote from you? We want to know!   

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