Green Walking vs. Green Talking

Before the product launches, make sure you have a long-term strategy to build your green credibility with female consumers

Marketers are jumping on the green bandwagon in numbers and theme reminiscent of the California gold rush. Green advertising has nearly tripled since 2006. Between 2007 and 2009, the in-store availability of so-called 'green' products has increased by as much as 176% (TerraChoice Environmental Marketing).

It might just be the golden age of the eco-opportunity, but at least superficially there are good reasons to be cautious about jumping aboard the green gravy train.

Pay no more

First, there’s the simple reality that consumers are unlikely to spend much more for green products. In a recent Mintel consumer study, over half of the respondents said they’d buy more green products, if they weren’t so expensive.

Greenwashing landmines

Second, consumers are increasingly skeptical of green product claims. An Icynene Ipsos Reid poll of more than 1,200 U.S. homeowners found more than two-thirds agree that when companies call a home building product green it’s usually just a marketing tactic.

This skepticism seems well founded. In a study by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing a total of 2,219 products making 4,996 green claims were recorded in the United States and Canada with 98% of the products surveyed committing an act of greenwashingWhat is greenwashing?
Green∙wash (gren’wosh’,-wôsh’) – verb: the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

Watching green

Third, the Canadian and U.S. governments are more closely regulating green marketing claims:

• Last June, the Canadian government announced new guidelines for green marketing claims (enforced as of June 2009).
• The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on greenwashers and recently charged Kmart with making "false and unsubstantiated claims" (Source: Media Post Marketing Daily “FTC Slaps Kmart With 'Fake Green' Charges” – June 10/09).

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Once you decide to invest in green products, here are three things to consider:

1. Simply put: your green products must work
   Harbinger’s InformHersThe InformHers is a group of women representing Six Major Lifestages. These women provide qualitative marketing insights on a variety of topics to Harbinger on a regular basis throughout the year. emphatically told us that green products must work as well as and be around the same price as conventional products. Their feedback is echoed by a Green AMPlified study of 3,000 consumers. Across a broad range of product categories 90% of respondents said green products must work as well as or better than traditional products before they’d switch.

   Green marketers must work hard to prove product performance, especially if they look, smell, feel or work differently than conventional products. See “Four ways to sow the seeds of green credibility with women” for more.

2. Green reputation matters more than green product attributes
   There’s little doubt that green is top of mind with consumers. Sustainable product characteristics add to the value proposition for many shoppers and can help tip the balance when other purchase drivers are on par (2009 GMA/Deloitte Green Shopper Study).

   Still, when evaluating green products, only 7% of consumers look at green qualities alone, while nearly 70 percent always consider buying from a green company first and would buy a competing product from a company that they believe is more green (Icynene Ipsos Public Affairs survey).

   How will your company’s actions and brands be judged for their collective environmental performance? How do your product development processes impact the environment from cradle to grave?

3. Women are more likely to go green, are more receptive to green messaging and are more likely to discuss green products than men
   Mounting research points to women making the environment a higher priorityWomen far more likely (74%) than men (53%) to consider the environment when making decisions about major household purchases (Agency Research Consultants Survey - April 2009) than men (Women in Green by Kira Gould and Lance Hosey) and making personal changes to help the environment (President’s Choice Ipsos Reid Go Green Survey).

   Women spend $0.85 of every dollar in the marketplace.

   For green marketers it’s heartening to note that women (47%) are more likely than men (35%) to agree that having ‘eco’ or ‘green’ in a product name would convince them that it is truly green (Icynene Ipsos Public Affairs Survey). Women are highly influenced by other women in making product choices and are deeply engaged in spreading word of mouth on products, especially through social media. See more in “Want to play in the lush ‘green’ fields of the blogosphere?”.

   Assuming you’ve taken care of considerations 1 and 2 above there are significant opportunities to build passionate advocates for your brands among women. Keep on top of where and how women are engaged in discussions about green products and develop careful strategies to engage them.

Top Four List

Four ways to sow the seeds of green credibility with women

If you read “Are you Green Walking or Green Talking?” you know that building green credibility with women means proving your total green worth. Here are four points to factor into your eco master plan:

1. Come clean about your performance and products
   Green brands have a major hurdle to cross in earning consumer trust. Companies are the least trusted source of information about the environmental impacts of products and three quarters of consumers believe environmental claims are marketing ploys (Bensimon Byrne Consumerology Report).

   Even though 47% of shoppers surveyed looked for and found green products, only 22% actually purchased one, citing credibility and product performance concerns.
   

   Source: 2009 GMA/Deloitte Green Shopper Study

   Consumers are increasingly green savvy. Saying “our products are green” is meaningless. Provide as much detail as possible about a product’s cradle to grave enviro-impact and how it will help shoppers reduce their own footprint. Continuously show them how you weigh environmental concerns into your overarching decisions as a company/brand.

2. Want a woman to go green? Help ease her transition
   If you’re selling green, you’re also selling a way of life, which might include products or services that work differently than what a woman is used to.

   Help ease her green transition. Provide information about how your green products work or ways to maximize product performance. Show her how your products/services can contribute to a larger green plan at home.

3. Let her try your product – for free!
   Once someone has switched to a green product, they’re very likely to stick with it and buy it regularly (2009 GMA/Deloitte Green Shopper Study).

   Letting consumers, who are apprehensive about green products, try them risk-free by providing full size samples could pay off in long-term loyalty. If women are convinced going green doesn’t require a compromise on performance, they’re likely to include these products in their eco-friendly lifestyles and to discuss them with other women. See Want to play in the lush ‘green’ fields of the blogosphere? for more.

4. Don’t rely on eco-logos alone
   Respected 3rd party green accreditation programs and logos like EcoLogo^M and Green Seal carry weight with consumers, but they won’t create instant trust. When asked how they feel about green product claims only 9% of consumers say they just need to see a logo indicating the product is endorsed or approved by a non-profit environmental group or the government (Icynene Ipsos Reid survey).

   Eco logos are intended to reassure consumers that a product lives up to some green standard, but they won’t compensate for poor performance or a dodgy environmental track record. With growing consumer savviness and government scrutiny of vague or misleading green claims, products/services must prove their enviro-benefits. And they must work!

Dispatches from the “Blogosphere”

Want to play in the lush ‘green’ fields of the blogosphere? Watch where you’re stepping.

Women are increasingly turning to blogs as a source of information and expert opinion. In the U.S. alone 23 million women are active on blogs, eight million publish blogs and 12 million post to blogs. More relevant to marketers is that nearly half of women say they’ve decided to purchase an item after reading about it on a blog (Blogher, iVillage, Compass Study on Women & Social Media).

What’s happening in the blogosphere is highly relevant to green marketers. Women are actively discussing green products, taking companies to task on their environmental track records (see: www.womenandenvironment.org) and using their purchasing power to rally against perceived green washers (see: www.BigGreenPurse.com).

More women engaged in social media rely on blogs for green information (57%) than for information on parenting (49%), health/wellness (46%), food (44%) or fashion (44%).

Source: Compass Partners study

A blog strategy may be unavoidable

Whether or not you plan to engage women in the blogosphere about green initiatives, you can’t ignore what’s happening there. Clorox (owners of Britta) learned this when a successful blogger campaign (see: www.takebackthefilter.org) compelled the company to recycle its plastic water filters (marketed as an environmentally preferable alternative to plastic bottles).

The blogosphere is a dangerous place to play populated by potentially passionate advocates or adversaries. Approached wisely you can do much to build your green credibility in the blogosphere.

Inside a Woman’s Head

The XX Factor taps insights into the logic and emotion of selling green

You can equally argue that green purchases entail an emotional choice as much as a logical one (i.e. you can appeal to women either way). Emotionally, green purchases support a commitment to a healthier/safer environment. Logically, green products are less resource intensive and save money.

Insights from the Harbinger InformHersThe InformHers is a group of women representing Six Major Lifestages. These women provide qualitative marketing insights on a variety of topics to Harbinger on a regular basis throughout the year. panel reveal how logic and emotion are factoring into green purchases.