Next up for our “TAKE THE GREEN MARKETING CHALLENGE” is Organic Bug. Thanks for stepping up, Peggy. You’re doing some great things but you need a little help.

Organic and healthy product websites are no longer unique. There are many of them —  including those endorsed by well known green organizations like the Sierra Club. There’s competition so you need to be competitive. Not in a negative way, but in a “having a unique position” way. Something you do, accomplish or offer – or even the way you do it, that will communicate to your customer why they should choose you. When we Googled “sustainable products”, there were over 14,000,000 hits. You have got to be unique. Don’t worry, we can help. 

BRANDING LINE

Let’s begin with your tag line, “Sustainable Products Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle”. Yes, it describes what you offer but that’s where it ends. Tag lines are not mission statements. They’re compelling statements that position your company, give it personality and a reason to be. It’s saying why you and not someone else.

Irv: Think about what your end benefit is. Are you bringing the green world down to earth for your customer? Are you making it more affordable, more accessible?  Have you sourced through all the green products and found those that offer ecology, efficacy and economy? What is your niche within this niche?  The answers to those questions will lead you to a tag line that says your unique position in a clever, compelling way. 

Let us give you an example. For a client of ours that manufactures zero VOC, non-toxic paints, we created the tag line “Beauty Without the Beast”.  That line acknowledged that people paint their homes first to to beautify them. So we had to tell them we were going to give them the beauty they wanted, without the toxins they didn’t want. See what we mean?

COMPANY NAME AND LOGO

You have a homespun name and logo so why not capitalize on it? But it does have a downside. There are a lot of green lawncare and pest control companies out there now. Organic Bug could be confused with one of them. All the more reason to make your name stand for something. Maybe it’s playing with the “bug” a little and being the site for people who are bugged by green products that cost too much, work too little, etc.?

Carolyn: Maybe there’s a cute “bug” visual that can become the personality of your company? Is the bug smart? Funny? Clever? A wisecracker? You can deliver your message through its “voice” and personality. Now you are starting to create a reason to be.     

WEBSITE

Your web copy is a very important part of your communications. You have to make sure its working as hard as it can. Web visitors move fast. You only have a few seconds to grab their interest. Your products display nicely but they don’t reach out to us. Feature some and tell me their story. Some of your suppliers might want to be part of this.  Remember the web is an experience. Check out what Patagonia is doing with their Footprint Chronicles.  In short, in their mini interactive website, they investigate the footprint of several of their garmets. They put right out there what they are doing right and wrong — and how they are working to make it better. They put their mission where their mouth is by telling on themselves. This builds trust and a deep brand message that people know and love. What is yours?     

Nicole: Regarding the visual look of your homepage, the fonts are clean and legitable. Your white background opens up the space. But your menu drop downs are too long and overwhelming. Create sub menus. There is little  visual hierarchy on your homepage. Other than the big green box that jumps out, where do you want my eyes to go? Back to Patagonia, check out their homepage heirarchy and you’ll see what I mean.   

Bringing the green world to everyone is a great thing to do. The better you do it, the better it gets done.

Thanks Peggy!

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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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