Every once in a while, we do a shameless promotion at Mind Over Markets. Forgive us, this is one of them…

“It’s the economy, stupid.” That’s what most green business gurus are saying today. Some are even going so far to say that green is dead. That’s simply not true. What’s dead are the messages that marketers are putting out there like, “It’s easy being green,” or “We’re saving the planet one (fill in the blank) at a time.” People don’t buy products or services to save the planet, they buy them to save and help themselves.

If your core messaging is not motivating your customers to engage in your business, if you are not getting it out there through the mediums that matter, we can help.

Mind Over Markets (affectionately known at MOM) has been living, breathing, designing, writing and promoting green products and services for over 10 years. Let us help you bring your business to a new level in this leveled market.

Announcing our Green Business Booster

This in-depth, hands-on, highly interactive process is designed to electrify your communications and take it to a whole new level. Here’s how we do it:

Where You Are Now. We will review of your digital and printed marketing communications including website, company brochure, etc. to evaluate where you are now. This includes a deep dive into your social media marketing efforts and communications.

Where You Want To Go. After reviewing your current communications, we will facilitate a highly interactive and creative process with you we call our Green Brand Discovery Session. This process will clearly position and message your product or service in order to capture its unique promise of value in a way that is meaningful to your target audiences.

How to Get There. Our Green Business Booster will help identify potent strategies to effectively communicate your message to your target audiences.

Making It Happen. This is where the rubber meets the road. Your three 60 minute Green Marketing Coaching Sessions will help you implement the communication and marketing strategies outlined in your Discovery Session. Now you’re rolling.

For more info on our in-depth Green Business Booster, contact carolyn@mindovermarkets.com or call 505-989-4004.

Green is here to stay. Are you?

Bookmark to:

As the green world evolves, so does our thinking about it. For the last few years, we have departed from the conventional wisdom that said the green marketing message should be “saving the planet one ‘whatever’ at a time” but instead we’ve driven home the message that there needs to be a balance of personal gain and planetary benefit. In other words, bringing the green message down to earth is a necessity for a successful and motivational message.

It’s gratifying for us to see the other green marketing gurus whom we respect embrace that message even as we begin to refine it and shift our emphasis even more. We now see “green as a badge of honor” as a message worth exploring.

What makes that different is subtle but important. It recognizes that consumers, especially light and medium green consumers who are the vast majority of the market, may not believe that they can save the planet (or want to) with their purchases, but they can express their own personal goodness, care and concern by the products they choose. Purchases always say a lot about their purchasers.  

I don’t know about you but I am a shopping cart voyeur. I can’t help looking at the cart full of goods in front of me in line at the grocery store and matching them with the consumer. There is a big and visible difference between consumers of say – Fruit Loops and Gummy Bears – and those who buy organic milk, cheese and yogurt. At MOM, we believe people who buy better, healthier products generally feel better about themselves when buying them. Even if all they can afford is one carton at a time. This innate pride is a position that can be built on to create a positive and persuasive personality for your brand.  

Letting me know that I am contributing to the common good with my good purchase decisions allows me to feel better about me. One of the oldest rules in marketing is to build an association between a brand and those who support it. A Prius says one thing about you and a Hummer says another.

You may find more success with your marketing message if you make me feel good about myself when I purchase your products. For too long, the green message has been too esoteric and therefore too remote. Motivational messages tend to be more tangible and more immediate.  

Perhaps you can save the planet with your pizza, but it’s probably better to talk better taste and safer ingredients especially when half a billion eggs and millions of pounds of chopped meat have just been recalled. Check-out counter pride is something all of us should be checking out to help green keep on growing. Maybe when the cashier hands me my receipt, I should also get a green star or two for my lapel.

What’s in your cart that deserves a green star?

Bookmark to:

Now you can pick the brains of some of the top green marketing experts in the industry in our free Green Marketing Masters Teleseminar Series. Each month, we’ll present a specific topic that is highly relevant in the marketplace. With thousands of new green products and services entering the market each year, you need to know what works, what doesn’t and get real-life, tangible marketing solutions you can use in your business to be at the top of your game in the maturing green market. Each broadcast includes time for live Q&A brain picking.

September Topic: “Avoiding Meaningless Messaging in Your Green Marketing.” Your marketing budget is too precious to allow it to miss the mark with ineffective communications. That can happen when you understand the heart but not the mind of the green-leaning consumer. Effective messages understand the real motivations and speak to the real triggers that affect behavior and influence purchase decisions. This teleseminar will help you redirect your messages so they’re right on target. 

Presenters: Irv Weinberg and Carolyn Parrs, Principals of  Mind Over Markets

Moderator: David Wolf of Small Biz America

Date: Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Time: 10:00 am Pacific time; 1:00 pm Eastern time (1 hour)

Click Here to Register for September Teleseminar

If you have a burning question for our presenters, just post it in our comment box below. For more info, call 505-989-4004. See you in September!

Bookmark to:

Our colleagues at Earthsense, a leading green marketing research company, have confirmed what we have been postulating for a longtime now. That purchase decisions continue to be more personal than planetary. In their article, Wendy and Megan wisely point out that you don’t stand before the frozen foods case and make your purchase decision based on the ice cap. You do it based on value, appeal, price and when it comes to food — taste, taste, taste. In their recent study, no matter what shade of green respondents were, taste came first. 

Food marketers take note. The taste proposition makes even more sense for green and organic food products because such a strong case can be made for pure, natural ingredients equating to superior taste. When it comes to food we are all Pavlovian. The sight of luscious foods and the aroma of good cooking actually make our mouths water. That’s something that should never be forgotten when you set out to market your food brands — organic or otherwise. Remember to paint emotional and memorable associations between your products and my taste buds.

Tell me how luscious organic veggies can be, fresh from the vine and unadulterated by chemicals and pesticides. Tell me that your organic berries are bursting with flavor and picked with care. Tell me how delicious your bread is when it’s made from organic wheat flour and taken fresh from the oven. Let me know that eggs from cageless, free range chickens are richer in taste than eggs that are laid in the dark in some factory farm. Those are some of the whys before the buys. And if you’re wise, you’ll remember what starts your stomach grumbling and your appetite increasing — and you’ll know what you need to tell me if you want to sell me.

What’s the why that makes you buy?

Bookmark to:

It’s hard to wake up in the morning these days and watch the continuing gush of the Gulf oil spill and not think shudder about the consequences of not going green. It’s amazing that every alternative energy option is not being pursued the way weapons technology would be during a war. Make no mistake about it, we are at war and the enemy is coming ashore in the Gulf everyday. Would we allow even for a minute an invasion of American soil? Worse, this is only the most visible spill, there are many more that go unreported.  

It’s amazing that green energy companies are not seizing the moment to rally all of us to insist, demand and scream at the top of our lungs about the current and constant need to green up everything we do. It’s amazing that we are holding onto this dangerous, rapidly depleting, filthy 19th century form of energy that has us by the throat and budget.    

Yes, someday the leak will stop. And yes, someday the clean up will succeed but what about the other 5,000 deep water drilling operations? What about the sustained drumbeat to keep on drill baby drilling? What about the lives of generations of fisherman and millions of acres of precious shoreline? What about the natural gifts of the Gulf of Mexico that may never recover? What about the fish and wildlife? What about the natural treasures and the long range effects of everything that has been unleashed in the Gulf? No one knows.

If you are in the green world, if you are in alternative energy, if you make safe and healthy products, if you are part of the green revolution, stand up and shout. There has never been a more important issue, there has never been a more important moment than now. Seize it. Take your story and your reasons why to the people. Set the alarm for a giant wake up call. Use this moment to reach the ears and eyes of everyone. Raise you green flag and shout. This is your moment.

– Irv

Bookmark to:

Jennifer Woofter and Tracy Hanford of Strategic Sustainability Consulting invited me to present our webinar, KERMIT IS DEAD: Effective Messaging in the Maturing Green Market. If you couldn’t make it to my live presentation, thanks to Jennifer and Tracy, here it is to listen to at your leisure. If you are in the green biz or planning on it, you’ll want to download it. Kermit is dying to come clean from “It’s easy being green.”

Here’s what this webinar is all about…

At the beginning of the green revolution, it was often enough just to be green or bring out Kermit the Frog singing “It’s easy being green” to achieve a measure of success. But the green market has matured and grown well past the initial 19% of the population who support green and socially responsible efforts and initiatives no matter what.

As this market broadens, green marketers across the globe have observed that now it’s “Me first, Planet later.” And that shift of emphasis has deep implications for marketers who need to rebalance and recalibrate their messages to include the wider market. The fundamental question now is: How do you create effective marketing messages that motivate, educate and communicate a true promise-of-value and values to the 81% of the population that are interested more and more in earth-friendly products and services? 

In this free webinar, Carolyn Parrs, Principal at Mind Over Markets, a dedicated strategic green marketing communications company, will share insights that will help you refine and target your message, create effective materials and balance your messages’ economic gain and ecological benefits. You’ll learn:

How to bring your marketing message from the planetary to the personal, from cause to because.

The importance of relevancy in your marketing message.

Why education is everything when promoting green products and services.

The relationship building power of social media.  

This presentation includes case studies and examples of successful and unsuccessful green marketing messages.

Bookmark to:

This post is part of our TAKE THE GREEN MARKETING CHALLENGE series. Here’s how it works: Send us your green message (logo, tag line, graphic, copy), and we’ll evaluate it. That means a green team of three (Art Director, Copywriter and Account Manager) will thoughtfully assess your brand and we’ll post the results here on our Green Marketing Blog. Then you can join in on the conversation too with your comments. Here’s ours…

Next up in our Green Marketing Challenge is Little Works a greeting card company. And with a little work, they could be doing a lot of good for their company.

We like the name because it is charming and a million miles away from Hallmark and American Greeting Cards — and that’s a good thing. One thing that you should think about is adding a descriptive line to your name so we know what you do. Little works could be anything. Miniature crafts, small collectible items, even baby clothes. You need to tell us right from the beginning that Little Works are beautiful handcrafted cards made by South African women. That can be the differentiator between you and all the other card companies around.

Here’s a tag line you can try on for size: Little Works Mean A Lot. We like this for a couple of reasons. It sounds like “little things mean a lot” which is part of the everyday jargon so it has a familiar and easily memorable quality to it. It also says that not only will your cards mean a lot to those who receive them — but also speaks of the “deep roots” embedded in each and every handcrafted card by the women who make them. It’s a line that has legs — meaning it works for you on a lot of levels.

IRV: Your line now, “Handcrafted cards so beautiful you won’t want to give them away,” actually is in contrast to what you want to achieve. You want people to give them away so why not speak in the positive? Reinforce that they are so beautiful you’ll want to share them and bring beauty to those you know and love.

Visually, please consider rescaling your cards on your product page. They are different sizes and some are hard to see. So much of your message is about beauty. We want you to show us cards that are beautifully presented, not just sitting there. Since they are handcrafted, also consider featuring a profile of the South African artists who make them. Who they are and what they are about is important to building a relationship between your cards, your artists and your purchasers.

NICOLE: Why not build in a bit of craft into your site? Consider the use of handmade paper and some of your images as a motif for the site. And most of all, remember that you are selling beautiful things so the site should reflect beauty in everything…colors, fonts, typefaces and the general layout of the pages.

CAROLYN: I like the simplicity and placement of your social media buttons. And your products are perfect for social media. Tell your purchasers to share the love and tell their friends about your company and your cards. Reward them for doing so. Send one of your cards by snail mail to say thank you. Your social media influencers, those that love your cards dearly and talk about it, can end up being your most successful media so use it well.

These little works to your message and site can bring about great works for all involved. With some tweaks and tweets, you can do it a little better. We wish you continued success with what you are doing.

Bookmark to:

Last week, we posted here “Get Personal %$#&*!” about how green needs to go from the planetary to the personal to have a real impact. Well, boy did it get personal. We had such a rich conversation on a Linkedin Group called “Women Growing Green Business” that we decided to post the whole conversation here. All of the commenters are women. And since women make two thirds of the green purchases and write 80% of the personal checks, you’re going to want to read every word. There are some real jewels here, green marketers.

Now let me introduce our illustrious commenter cast.

JACQUELYN OTTMAN: Green Marketing Consultant and Author, Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation

WENDY COBRDA: Data Diviner and President & Founder of Earthsense, Green Market Research

DIDI LEMAY: Children’s Book Author

HOLLY CAUGHRON: President of Green Rising, Marketing for the Eco-Minded

ANNE MICHELSEN: Green sales writer and co-owner of solar and energy efficiency company Performance Energy, Inc.

ME: Carolyn Parrs, Principal at Mind Over Markets, a dedicated green marketing communications company and host of Women Of Green Podcast

And the conversation begins here…

ME: Sorry to sound like a broken record but here we go again. If green is going to have any real impact, you got to make it about me. Bring your message down to earth. Make it personal. I don’t eat organic pizza to save the planet. I eat it because it tastes better. I don’t wear eco anything because of a melting iceberg. I wear it because it feels better and I look great in it. But don’t believe me. This week in Joel Makower’s blog post “Me First, Planet Later” he reported: http://tinyurl.com/y4fqgtk

DIDI LEMAY: You are sooooooo right!! I guess it is a human thing- we care about us and if along the way we can help the planet -well that’s great. It’s got to fit into the lifestyle.

ME: Thanks DiDi! More Prius’ were sold when gas hit $4 a gallon than ever before. And when gas prices went down, so did their sales. But price isn’t the only motivator but it’s a biggy. For us green marketers out there, our job is to create compelling messaging that brings it all down to earth. More personal. Less planetary. That will help move the needle on green more effectively across the board.

WENDY COBRDA: My colleagues & I have been talking about this for the past 3 years. We call it eco-hedonism, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. While the word hedonist has some bad connotations, anyone studying human behavior knows that we naturally are drawn to things that give us pleasure and pull away from things that cause us pain.

I’ve just finished penning an article about the concept of LOHOE — the equally important complement to LOHAS. Instead of Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability — the great majority of people are motivated by Lifestyles of Hedonics and Economics, doing things that bring them pleasure and those actions are shaped in many ways by their means or economics.

For example, for the longest time, I’ve been a fan of Muir Glen fire-roasted canned tomatoes. While I’m not a gourmand by any stretch, I do enjoy cooking, and even more so when what I cook brings smiles of pleasure. On a whim, I tried those tomatoes and for years now, that’s all I buy (unless I can’t get them!) Why? Because they taste good. I appreciate that they are organic, I like the mission of the company, but I come back time after time because I like how they taste. The fact that I’m motivated by taste shouldn’t mar my eco-friendly choice.

I bought a clean diesel (VW TDI SportsWagen) last year. Why did I choose that vehicle over the Prius? I love the VROOM I get when I drive. It feels good to shift, it feels great to fill up less than once a week, and it doesn’t hurt that I get to park in the Carousel Mall’s “green only” parking spots close to the entrances. And, yes, it’s better for the planet, and that makes me feel good, too.

I think the days of holier than thou preaching about green are over. It is the manufacturer’s job to make better products that people will want to own and use. We have to stop making it hard for consumers to do the right thing.

Does that make sense?

DIDI LEMAY: Wendy, you talk about pulling away from things that causes us pain. For that reason, we clean the buildings we manage with chemical free cleaners. I have a condition called Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. I’m actually the “canary in the mine” because if there are any chemicals around, I get an attack where my throat swells up and I can’t breathe. (I’ve been to the hospital many times because of cleaners, perfumes and cigarette smoke)

Here we are keeping more chemicals out of the environment and keeping me healthy. Talk about doing things for the environment with me in mind!

WENDY COBRDA: DiDi, you are so right. It makes total sense that you would seek out products that don’t cause you pain — and that avoidance of pain is the first thing that you are thinking of. You make me think of my DH who has a severe mold allergy. When we went house hunting he would know within a few minutes of stepping inside the home whether or not we could nest there. The nose, knows!

Speaking more about pain, my sister’s son was allergic (as in epi-pen carrying!) to milk and soy. He drank Rice Dream and Almond Breeze. Both are eco-friendly choices made to avoid the pain of death by milk proteins.

that she loved her milk so much that she decided to start drinking it again. Some people just can’t be helped.

ME: I love all the comments here. This is a juicy topic. One that deserves the light of day. Thank you women for speaking up! 

JACQUELYN OTTMAN: Carolyn, as you may know I have been saying this very same thing since my first book, Green Marketing, came out in 1993. It is so fundamental — and needs so much reinforcing, that I continue to publish on this topic; my latest on this just came out in Triple Pundit last week and more will be included in my latest book, due out this Fall.

I disagree that Joel Makower is talking about this same thing in the blog you quoted. He is saying, in essence, that consumers are out for themselves and don’t care about the planet or they would be buying more. What I believe is that people do care about the planet — that is evident– but when they go into supermarkets and put on their “shopper hats” they have to make sure that the products they buy satisfy their primary reasons for buying the products in the first place —getting clothes clean, buying nutritious and tasty food, etc. This is even more important in a recession when consumers need to ensure they are getting value for their money.

This doesn’t mean that they don’t care about the planet. For the entire 20 years that I have been tracking green marketing, environmental, and increasingly social, benefits have played an important secondary role in influencing purchases. (One of my colleagues coined the phrase, “The tie goes to the dolphin”.) Green then is the added source of value that can break a tie at the shelf. But, when truly integrated into the value proposition, green can enhance primary benefits —the organic produce that tastes better. That is true green marketing heaven!

Delighted to be part of this fruitful dialogue you started. Love to hear what others think about this. 

HOLLY CAUGHRON: Know your customer…ALWAYS! There is a spectrum of the green buyer from Dark Green … to anything BUT green! Some people feel threatened by the environmental message and you have to reach them through the value points. Because in the end, who wants to buy a product that’s inferior, even if it does help a good cause. Environmental businesses need to step up, keep improving and realize they have to actually provide a good/better product…luckily, I think they’re doing this beautifully.

…now all they have to do is market it properly!

ANNE MICHELSEN: What a great discussion! Jacquie, I think you’re right that people do have some concern about the environment. But I think the average person just doesn’t truly understand – doesn’t really grok in their gut -

a) just how messed up the planet is right now,

b) how incredibly intricate, complex and sensitive environmental systems (or human biology, for that matter) really are, and thus

c) how their own actions as individuals as well as the actions of governments and corporations really do make a difference, and

d) how what happens on a planetary, regional or local environmental level really does impact them personally.

To truly understand all this stuff (and I’m not pretending I do, either) requires some incredibly in-depth and abstract thought, and/or a high level of intuition. I think a lot of people either can’t or don’t want to go there. Maybe it’s too abstract or complicated. Or for some people it’s too disturbing. I see this a lot because my husband is very environmentally outspoken. Once he’s gotten someone to realize exactly how serious and complicated a particular environmental issue is, they typically get this look of comprehension and fear on their face and then back away and change the subject. Don’t want to go there. Easier to just keep taking out the recycling and feel good about doing one’s green deed for the day.

Y’all are so right, of course. Approaching people with what’s-in-it-for-them messaging not only hits them in their sweet spot, it simplifies the message and cuts out the confusion and uneasiness. When “the planet” is tacked on as an added bonus it becomes a simple – and excellent – justification for a decision already made. 

WENDY COBRDA: The problem, I think, is that for those who take environmentalism very seriously, it seems almost blasphemous to concede that doing something for the wrong reason isn’t as virtuous as doing it for the “right” reason. Does intent have to match behavior for it to count? That is the heart of the question!

ANNE MICHELSEN: Guess it depends how cool you think you have to be! Seriously, the cool thing is when even people who don’t have a clue how incredibly hip it is to be eco-aware start walking the walk just because it’s THE THING TO DO!

WENDY COBRDA: Ah…. making green colorless…that should be our ultimate goal. To make sustainable practices part of how we live. Not something just for the enlightened, educated and elite. To build everything from the ground up with the end in mind. That IS cool.

In a practical sense, I should not have to think about where the coffee is grown or by whom and what the cup is made of when I stop in Starbucks. I shouldn’t have to wonder if I’m buying a green version or not. (Of course, I could live on a mountain and grow my own coffee and drink it out of a reusable hand-carved coconut shell…. but this is real life, not fantasy.) But I digress.

Ultimately, I agree with you Anne, that it is very cool when it becomes part of our culture to do the right thing and for a new standard to emerge. As much as we need the eco-terrorists to jolt us out of our complacency, we need the eco-enthusiasts to celebrate our successes and to help make the message of sustainability part of how we simply do business.

Unfortunately, we’re not there yet. My interpretation of Joel’s post is that he sees what we do: most people (not the enlightened green) are simply trying to get through the everyday challenges of life and that is their main focus. You don’t need a fancy study or a high-priced consultant to tell you what you should know from observation. When people are worried about the basics, food, shelter, clothing, education, health — things that are not immediate threats hold less power over their actions. Getting through the financial crisis is first and foremost — the planet is surviving pretty well on its own thank you very much.

That sounds so cynical, but it is how people really feel.

Personally, the more educated I become about the issues, the more I want to actively seek out solutions that help me live my life — better. (And yeah, I did drink the green Kool-Aid — I believe that ultimately green is better.) But I understand how people who do not have the luxury of time to research or means to swap out to greener choices can be focused on alternative goals (eg. daily life survival!)

Jacqui’s work has always focused on benefits first, planet second. It is a message that needs to be repeated over and over…until we people can’t imagine why anyone would need to comment on it again.

Carolyn, great discussion! Thanks for starting it. What do you think?

JACQUELYN OTTMAN: Green is too complex? Purchase for this reason or that reason? The right reason or the wrong reason? People are just trying to make it through the day? Great points! Address them all by integrating green into all products so consumers don’t have to think about it. I always thought the ultimate “green marketing” simply snuck (sneaked?) green right past the consumer. Begs the question whether the markets—or the government should be the ultimate arbiters.

ME: I am delighted to see so many comments. Did we hit a nerve or what? Personally I think the word “green” will be obsolete in a few years. It will just be the way it is. It started with “cause” and went to “because” and we’re heading to just “be”. Get what I mean?

JACQUELYN OTTMAN: Carolyn, if not “green” then what? Needs to be simple, memorable — and easily replaceable.  What a fruitful discussion. Wonderful speaking with you all, some for the first time. So how do we get from “because” to just “be”? Will it just happen that way? Remember in the past there were entire ad agencies just focused on marketing to women!

ME: So the question on the table is: How do we get from “because” to just “be”? Personally I think it will happen all by itself. It already is. Green will just be the way it is. State and Federal mandates. Regulations. LEED certified will just “be” the way buildings are built. Then we won’t be calling it green anymore. OK, marketers and biz owners, Jacqui asked: If not “green” then what? We’re making history here.

Please join in our conversation! What do you think?

Bookmark to: