It’s amazing to see what has taken hold across our country. Average people regularly vote against their own interests and now it seems they increasingly purchase against their own interests as well. Especially where the green world is concerned.

Stand in the checkout line of your average American supermarket and you’ll see what I mean. Judging by what consumers continue to buy and not buy, eatists far outnumber and outweigh supposed green elitists by record numbers. Green products continue to retreat according to recent studies reported by Carol Pierson Holding in a recent post.

She quotes an Ogilvy Earth study that shows that while Americans have good intentions, their purchasing patterns show where good intentions lead.

I can sight the economy as a cause, which is obvious, and the granola aura, which is obvious as well, but I think there is another factor which most have not thought about and that’s the general feeling of depression that has settled in. When people think their own lives are not going to get better, why would they bother pursuing products that are better? When they think their own lives are compromised, then needs of the planet pale in comparison.

Of course, as we have written countless times, many green marketers have blown it from the beginning. All the “saving the planet” and none of the saving yourself is certainly at the root of much of the reported failure. Poor labeling, and even worse, poor messaging is really the root cause.

Global warming gets scoffed at every time it snows, but imagine the traction it might have gotten had it been labeled climate change or ever better, weather disruption from the start. Imagine the power that label would have had during this year’s record flooding, tornadoes and forest fires.

Wouldn’t a focus on healthier, safer food, especially after the record numbers of e-coli incidents jogged people into purchasing more carefully, and caring about what their families were eating? Wouldn’t the physical evidence of increases in Diabetes and the astounding increases in obesity be proof that Americans better change their living and buying habits? I think its undeniable. Sadly, none of these important issues were the focus of green products.

The first thing I learned as a young copywriter was to examine the facts, lay out the advantages, and have a strategy that created a compelling case for what you were selling. The marketing pioneers I was so lucky to work for knew you could be educational and still be entertaining. They insisted that we say something relevant first and then say it in a clever way.

We could have had a lot of  fun with the Nissan Leaf and why you should love it and want it. Not why a polar bear should. That execution would have been labeled “borrowed interest” — a device you use when there’s nothing innately advantageous about the product you are promoting. In this age of gas pump sticker shock, I venture to say there’s plenty of fuel to launch a meaningful campaign.

When a client of ours who makes environmental paint products for children’s rooms wanted to promote their line, we told mothers that there “really was a monster in their kid’s room” and it wasn’t under the bed, or in the closet, but on the walls. We changed buying habits and made their paint a hit. We weren’t saving the planet one nursery at a time, we were appealing to motherly instincts that said protect your child from toxic pollution.

Suddenly the extra two dollars a gallon paled in comparison to the health of their family.  That”s what we call the “The RELEVANT in the room”.

The other point Ms. Holding made in her post was that green is perceived to be feminine, as though that were a problem. It’s not because women make 85% of all the purchases in America. My suggestion: Make your green communication appeal to women. They’re the ones whose DNA is programmed to protect the health and welfare of the family. They’re the ones who go shopping. They’re the ones who sign the majority of checks.

Personally, if the green world fails or slips back to where it began, it will be a sad day for all of us. Not just us greenies. And that will lead to further deregulation of safety standards and encourage polluters to keep on going because it will make them think no one really cares.

Is it too late? I don’t think so. Here at Mind Over Markets, we’ve seen the battle can be won but it ain’t gonna be “Kermit” or icecaps or polar bears who are going to win it. It’s going to be intelligence and appealing to consumers self-interest.

Most marketers are slow to get it. They still believe the only demographic worth pursuing are 18-24 year olds, even though the concentration of wealth and purchase power is much much older.

In that spirit, we say it’s not that green can’t sell, it’s just been sold from the wrong point of view. When you make green important to my life and my needs, then you are talking to me. When polar bears get their own credit cards and make their own purchase decisions, then we can talk about it again.

What do you think?

– Irv Weinberg

Bookmark to:

Joel Makower of GreenBiz.com just declared that green marking is dead, or in his words, “Green Marketing is Over.”  To quote Mark Twain, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”  I think the same can be said of green marketing.

Here at Mind Over Markets, we’ve been saying for years that green marketing messages have not been communicated correctly and effectively right from the start.

The first task of green marketing, like all other marketing, should be an analysis of benefits. First to the consumer, and then to the planet. Too many opted for the latter, save the planet, as though you could with your cleaners and your pizzas. That never made any sense to me and it never will.

When Nissan Leaf used a polar bear hugging a man in their commercial instead of laying out the many advantages of EV’s to me and my life, when they don’t position their vehicles as personal benefit producers, when they don’t tell me what’s in it for me, then yes, green marketing is over.

When organic food isn’t positioned as better for your health, better tasting, fresher, more local and ultimately more enjoyable, no wonder it’s hard to justify the higher costs. The success of Whole Foods is probably based more on their gourmetness than on their greenness. They have the recipe right and continue to succeed.

The last time I saw a green marketing obituary it was centered on the failure of Organic Ragu Sauce. As though any organicite or foodie was going to buy Organic Ragu or Organic Heinz Ketchup.  That wasn’t a failure of green, but a failure of logic. When the largest manufacturers of caustic and corrosive cleaning solutions suddenly turns green, its no wonder that consumers scratch their heads and wonder if it’s real or just a mask.

When Kimberly Clark tells us they they’ve done “green right” instead of telling us that recycled paper is a better, saner way to make napkins and toilet paper than destroying old growth forests, no wonder we yawn and walk away.

To my mind, it’s not the failure of green marketing, but the failure of green marketers to have thought it out long enough and strategically enough to hire true green marketers and visionaries who actually understand not just the heart of green consumers, but the minds of the greater population.

Instead they wheeled out Kermit the Frog and melting icebergs. They should have been selling their products to me instead of making my purchases seem like a cause, charity, public service or a sacrifice that I have to make. By the way, you can’t actually save the planet all by yourself.

Talk about naive. At a time when people aren’t sure they can save themselves, much less the planet, is it any wonder that kind of thinking or marketing is on the endangered species list?

What’s saddest of all is that all the so called “green experts” failed in their expertness when they didn’t alert marketers that they were on thin ice right from the beginning. When they didn’t understand the balance of message, the need for benefits, and the need to tell consumers that they were not only doing what was right, but what was smart.

It really is a shame that the lemmings will watch the green hearse go by and help drive green even further off the cliff. That others will continue to not only sell, but tell things wrong and then lament the passing of one of the most significant opportunities to actually make things better for all of us.

– Irv Weinberg

Read what Jacqui Ottman says in her post “Green is Alive and Kicking”.

Bookmark to:

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.

Bookmark to:

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.

Bookmark to:

Simran Sethi, an award winning journalist and an associate of Carolyn said on Women Of Green that organic food isn’t only an environmental issue but a public health one. She emphasized reframing green or environmental issues so that “everyone can understand it”. She’s right in many ways — from consumption to communications. If you’re eating organic tomatoes to save the planet, it’s time to chew on this. You’re not only saving the planet, you are also saving yourself from the tons of toxins that find their way to your table via conventional agriculture. If you’re buying a Prius to be part of the green revolution, that’s great but getting 40-50 miles per gallon is what’s going to move the needle toward green for most. If you’re opting for LED lighting because its easy being green, you’re also getting the benefits of 75% savings on your electric bill.

Bottom line, if the thrust and focus of your green message is purely planetary, you’re actually cheating the green movement of its ability to become the global movement it needs to become to affect the planet in the positive ways you’re intending. The Achilles heel of the green movement is its inability to move out of being a political causal movement to become a public benefit movement. If it falls along “liberal versus conservative” fault lines, therein lies its fault.

When it’s a derogative to be a tree hugger, when its too easy to put “wacko” at the end of environmentalist, then you know something isn’t being communicated well. When the rust belt can become the green belt and provide new industry, new jobs, boost the economy, take us off foreign oil, and clean up our waters and our skies, then it’s more than green. It’s progress.

Green is about starting things, not stopping them. It’s about growth, not stagnation. So, next time you’re in a conversation about green issues or green values, remember the real goal of the green movement is the health, welfare and prosperity of the citizens of the planet, not just the planet itself. A little self-servingness isn’t a bad thing as long as it serves the needs of all of us.

– Irv Weinberg

Bookmark to:

I am on Facebook and Twitter a lot these days and growing my audience on Women Of Green. What fun. We’ll be at 5000 “likes” in no time. Our goal is 10,000+ by the end of the year. I know we’ll be there. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of growing an audience. But remember, when you put your information out there, it’s out there. You may have written the post, or taken the photograph, but your content is now public, and as Mitch Joel of Twist Image says, it’s “shareable forever”. There is no such thing as privacy if you’re online. (I learned that the hard way).

Yes, I know, Facebook has its privacy settings but they can change at any time — and they have. The bottom line is if you are online, you’re public. And if you are public, you’re not private. That’s the truth of the matter. For more truths (brace yourself), here’s an excellent post by Mitch that is straight forward and sums it up nicely. Here are his highlights:

What you need to always remember about the Internet.

• It’s a business. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. are not social organizations created to help the better good. They are businesses and they are corporations. Their main focus is all the same: they are here to make money.
• Terms of service. Before signing up to any service, you have to sign and agree to their terms of services. Simply put, this is a legal document created so that the company can’t be sued… for anything. It’s a document to protect the company (and in doing so, it does not provide that much protection to the consumer – that’s you and the brands you represent).
• Your content is (probably) yours. While you retain the rights to the text, images, audio and video that you post online, always consider that the content is now public and shareable forever.
• Money. Money. Money. While there are many tactics to how online social networks can make money, there are really only two overall strategies. Strategy number one: they sell the value of the network (the size and reach) along with the personalized data (geographic, psychographic, etc…) to advertisers who can then send those users more targeted messages. Strategy number two: they are looking to grow the company to the point where it becomes a valuable acquisition property, and then sell the company (and all of the data that comes with it) to another company.
• It’s out of your hands. There are countless groups of people trying to fight everything I’ve Blogged about above. These people feel like they have rights to the data and information and should have choices in terms of what their data is being used for. In a perfect world, I’d love to agree, but if you go back to point number one above, this is about business.
• There are no “copies”. Thinking about your pictures and videos in terms of someone else having a “copy” is a mistake. This is the same mistake that many traditional organizations have when looking at WikiLeaks. There are no copies.
• You can’t have privacy. If you want privacy in any digital channels (and this includes your own email!), don’t be in a online social network. It’s just that simple.

See how “shareable” that was. Is there something you would like to share about this subject? We’re listening.

Bookmark to:

Whether or not you believe in global warming, no one can debate that the green movement has taken the planet by storm. What started out as a cause has become a because. Because, in every way from the ecologic to the economic, green is not just a good conscience move, it’s a good business move with direct correlation to the bottom line. It’s the domino effect played backward.

By that we mean if you increase your energy efficiencies, you use less power. If you use less power, not only does your energy bill decrease but your need for power decreases so less energy has to be generated. If less energy is generated, less fuel is burned to create more power, less money is spent building plants, and less land is cleared to build energy producing plants, and so on and so on. In the end, even one energy-efficient LED bulb is one bright idea because it can produce a lot more savings than just on your energy bill.

But where do you begin? For many companies, greening their business might start with purchasing recycled paper or using soy inks. This is a good beginning. However, greening your business needs to begin with defining what green is in the first place. So it’s not merely a checklist but a “checking out” of your company’s social, environmental and economic beliefs and aligning them with your goals in order to meet the needs of the present without comprising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.

This internal exploration helped our team at Mind Over Markets define what is at the very core of green. We developed several ideas described below.

Green is about first what you believe and second what you buy.

Green is about making decisions, taking the time to decide what you really need, not just what you want. Green people buy from their intellect as well as their values.

Green is about long-term thinking not short-term. It is living as part of something, not apart from everything. It concerns believing in a future for everyone, our kids and their kids.

Green is not about stopping industry or progress. It’s about creating more efficient industry and progress.  It’s about new opportunities and new jobs, new careers and new technology.

Green is education. It is information, making decisions, and knowing that your choices make a difference.  It is about being transparent. Green is not just about the talk, it’s about the walk.

Green is not necessarily about moving off the grid or changing your life. It’s not even about hugging a tree although that would be nice. It’s about trying to walk more softly. It is understanding that we are a species among other species.

It’s about thinking about what you do before you do it. It’s about reusing, recycling, and picking up after yourself, or even after someone else.  It’s about all of us caring about all of us.

Ways to Change

This internal exploration led to an exploration of how we, as a marketing company, can change the way we look at everything in the marketing business and beyond.

Can we host a presentation using Webcams instead of driving to the airport and flying to a meeting?

Can we contribute to the reduction in greenhouse gasses by phone conferencing instead of driving?

Can we send PDF files over the Internet instead of printing brochures?

Can we place our marketing materials and our client’s materials on a flash drive and hand them out at a trade show instead of leaving a paper trail?

Can we allow our employees to telecommute a portion of their workweek?

Can we send our company holiday cards via the Internet instead of using paper and post?

And what about work space health?  Is our flooring off-gassing harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) into our workspace air?

Do we use as much natural light as we can?

Do we use nontoxic cleaning products?   All of these things contribute to healthier workspaces, which contribute to greater worker productivity and a better bottom line.

Can we source bleach-free recycled paper and print on both sides?

Can we print on our outgoing e-mails, “Please do not print this e-mail unless you really must?”

Can we encourage our printers to switch to toxic free soy-based inks and recycled paper?

Can we help green industry events by offering organic foods, less paper products, and an acoustic band instead of an electrically powered one?

The answers to these questions for us are yes, and more. Once you start thinking green, green grows all around you. Actually greening our business is an ongoing, highly creative process. It takes a little adjustment to your reflexes to ask yourself questions like, “Do I have to print that e-mail?” What would that little act save when multiplied by 200 e-mails a day, five days a week for a year? A lot of trees and money.

Here’s another good example of green thinking. Simply reducing the margins of our documents to .75” on all sides, results in a total reduction of paper use by 4.75 percent, according to a study by Penn State Green Destiny Conservatree. For one ton of paper, the savings would be 19 reams, which then saves 1.4 trees. Multiplying that by 5.4 million tons of office paper, which is the amount the United States consumed in 2003, saves 6,158,000 trees. Not to mention the energy costs and waste products generated:

1,459,535,366 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to CO2 emissions from 132,528 cars.

584,398,539 pounds of solid waste, equaling 20,871 fully loaded garbage trucks.

4.8 billion gallons of waste water, enough to fill 7,408 Olympic-sized pools.

You see, one margin can go a long way.

Once we recalibrate the decision-making process by thinking of all the ways we can be more efficient and less wasteful, making other adjustments gets easier and easier. Even simple changes like printing our presentation boards on both sides cut our usage in half. It is the domino effect once again. Use less paper, need less paper, need less trees, and less paper manufacturing plants and less energy to run them. By now you get the picture.

How are you greening your business or office? Share it here.

Bookmark to:

One of our clients is Dream Designs, a chain of organic lifestyle stores in Vancouver that manufactures and sells organic bedding, sheets, towels, mattresses. fashion and more. They are a perfect example of how knowing your customer informs and molds the advertising messages.

By definition, the Dream Designs customer is educated, affluent, hip, adventurous and interesting.That tells you that the best way to communicate to them is to make the communications as interesting and adventurous as they are. The other challenge is to do all of that in a small media space. No small task.

We created a series of six ads that could be repeated and run on a regular, weekly basis to build momentum around the stores and the products Dream Designs sells. “Are you good in bed? featured their 100% organic sheets was how we began. After all, 100% organic sheets with no chemicals or pesticides in the cotton growing cycle is good to be in bed with. We followed that with “Sleep like an ecolog” featuring their 100% organic mattresses.

Next came ads for their organic pillows, “A case for our pillows” and “Are your pillows a sham?” And then ”Make a blanket statement” featured their organic designer blankets. For their 100% organic cotton towels, we asked a serious question: “Does the “t” in your towels mean toxic?” We even did a fun, 50% off sale ad with the headline “Beddy buy.”

Why did we have so much fun with their ads? We knew that their customers would appreciate the humor and intellectual exercise of getting the meaning and personality of Dream Designs advertising.That way we implied quality without having to say it. We said the stores would be fun to shop in without having to tout it.

When your product is really good, you can show your style and imply all your positive attributes without spelling them out. When your customers can join in on the fun of your communications, you have created a relationship that makes them want you to succeed. Best of all, having your customers actually look forward to your ads and what you are going to say next is the best of all possible worlds.

Be brave, have fun, entertain as you inform and even your small space ads will make a big splash — and a big impact. We can’t wait to do more.

How are you being brave, having fun?

To view more of our work, check out Mind Over Markets.

Bookmark to:

We had a lively conversation with Sandy Skees from Communications 4 Good and Irv Weinberg from Mind Over Markets on integrating PR into your marketing mix in today’s sustainability communications world. If you missed it or want to review the many nuggets of PR wisdom that were shared, here’s the link to this information-rich presentation.

PR Strategy in Today’s Sustainability Communications World

The Presenters

Sandy Skees, CEO and founder of Communications 4 Good, a public relations/communications agency, provides businesses, early stage companies and organizations with sustainability communications consulting and program implementation.

Irv Weinberg, 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.

Do you have any PR nuggets or success stories you would like to share?

Bookmark to: