They’re back! Our Green Marketing Masters Teleseminars with some of the most progressive, savvy, cool green marketers on the planet. This month, we’re super excited to have Linda Gilbert from EcoFocus as our featured guest. Here’s what’s up for April…

How Market Research Becomes Market Results: Turning Data into Dynamic Creative in Green Communications

When you have meaningful marketing research as the basis of your communication, your messaging will be stronger, highly strategic and more persuasive. In this teleseminar, our presenters will discuss:

Recent research findings in green and sustainability consumer trends

The emerging mainstream consumer targets for sustainability benefits and what is most important to their purchase decisions

How to take supporting data and consumer insights and turn them into a successful communications strategy

Why saving the planet is not longer a primary motivational trigger and where to go next

Special focus on marketing to EcoAware Moms and Dads: The new parenting archetype for the 21st Century

Teleseminar Sign-up

Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2011; Time: 9:00 am Pacific time; 12 noon Eastern time (1 hour)

Click Here to Register

Presenters

Linda Gilbert is the CEO of EcoFocus Worldwide. She has more than 25 years experience working tracking consumer trends and applying the learnings to brand and communication strategies. EcoFocus conducts ground-breaking consumer research and provides marketing consulting specializing in consumer perspectives on green and sustainable goods and services as well as insights into the health and wellness marketplace.

Their clients include businesses with products and services that touch consumers in their homes and daily lives: foods and beverages; personal care and cosmetics; household cleaning and home improvements; gardening and pest control; school and home office supplies; transportation; restaurants; packaging and recycling, and other consumer and B2B goods and services.

Irv Weinberg is a Co-founder and Principal at Mind Over Markets, a dedicated green marketing communications company, specializes in creating effective messaging in the maturing green market for over 10 years.

He brings with him more than 30 years of senior-level advertising and marketing experience. He has worked for some of the world’s top advertising agencies including Young & Rubicam; Wells, Rich and Greene; LINTAS and Grey Advertising in New York City. Irv has been responsible for heading up the advertising and marketing efforts of Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola, IBM, Club Med, Continental Airlines and General Foods, as well as non-profit organizations and small to medium-sized businesses nationwide.

Irv is also a well-published blogger on many green websites and social communities including his own Green Marketing Blog. He is a featured author in Reuters’ book for C-level executives called Inside the Minds: Greening your Business.

Join us and send in your questions. Inquiring minds want to know…

 

Dear Seventh Generation:

We love what you’re moving towards in terms of your new paper bottle packaging. Anything that replaces plastic with its long tail of environmental no-nos is a welcoming development. And it’s one that sure to set you apart on the shelf.

Word of caution: Be brave.

Don’t do what SunChips did and panic and retreat the first time a package compromises itself and falls apart on a consumer’s kitchen floor. Better, safer, more eco-friendly packaging is an important thing to do, and something our planet, now battling nuclear contamination, surely needs. But please remember your package is only part of the package. It’s what’s inside the package, not the package itself, that really counts.

We all know that green, by itself, is just a part of the story. That means you can’t just tell us what you’re not, you need to tell us what you are. A superior detergent that will get my clothes clean, and take out stains as well or better than conventional detergents.

Now that you’ve gone mainstream and sit on Wal-Mart’s shelves, you need to come clean and tell me why I should vote for you with my dollars? Products that go mainstream need a message that deals with mainstream values like economy and efficacy.

And that’s your next big challenge.

When you have a name like Seventh Generation which means thinking about life 140 years in the future and a focus on mainly green issues, I think you need to reassure us all about today. How you serve us right here and right now.

A recent consumer trend study by EcoFocus Worldwide reveals that younger consumers (18-35) believe that most of the efforts they take to be green or eco-friendly probably won’t have an effect in their lifetime. So why not assure them (and all of us as a matter of fact) that “We ARE the seventh generation” and what we do today matters today. The time is now and we CAN have an impact. Then the fact that you have all this cool new packaging will mean even more.

Jacqueline Ottman is a woman who has been immersed in green marketing way before green was the scene, before hybrids were hip, before Al Gore was well, inconvenient. Yes, she’s seen it all – and studied what works and what doesn’t.

Fast forward to 2011. According to Ottman, the rules have changed. “’Saving the planet’ is not nearly as effective as ‘saving you money’ or ‘saving your health’ in green marketing,” she says. We couldn’t agree with her more. Our mantra at Mind Over Markets has always been bringing the planetary down to the personal.

So to help you navigate this emerging, ever-changing market, Ottman just released her new book The New Rules of Green Marketing (Berrett-Koehler; February 2011; $21.95) where she provides insight into the changing needs of mainstream consumers, how companies large and small have responded with fresh green marketing strategies, what it takes to succeed, and what the future of marketing will look like.

This comprehensive dive into green marketing is a must if you’re serious about making it here. Ottman goes into depth on subjects such as:

Green consumer motives and buying strategies

Designing green products from life cycle approach

Strategies for eco innovation

Communicating sustainability with impact

Establishing credibility and avoiding greenwashing

Ottman’s new book is chockfull of practical checklists at the end of each chapter, an extensive 25-page green marketing resource guide, and dozens of inspiring case examples of the most successful greener products and companies today.

Whether you are a start-up or C-level executive, you will find Ottman’s book a reliable compass into this fast-growing, and sometimes green grab bag arena. “Meeting today’s consumer needs won’t be easy,” Ottman admits. “Many challenges are associated with sustainable branding and green marketing – and many notable attempts, inadvertent or deliberate, of ‘greenwashing’ abound. But consumers want worthy businesses to succeed.”

How worthy is your business? What are you really contributing?

Listen to “Me First, Planet Later” with Ottman on Women Of Green.