Understanding The “Green” Movement in Your Marketing Efforts

November 18, 2010 by  
Filed under Going Green

Understanding The “Green” Movement in Your Marketing Efforts


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Home Page > Marketing > Understanding The “Green” Movement in Your Marketing Efforts

Understanding The “Green” Movement in Your Marketing Efforts

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Understanding The “Green” Movement in Your Marketing Efforts

By: Colette Chandler

About the Author

Colette Chandler can help your business market to the emerging green consumer. Learn more about her October seminar at http://www.howconsumertrendsdriveprofits.com

(ArticlesBase SC #50227)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/Understanding The “Green” Movement in Your Marketing Efforts





Companies, cities and individuals are getting involved in the green movement. They are doing there part to keep the environment healthier by reducing humans’ impact on the land, using recycled metals and nontoxic substances, organic gardening, adding more green space, building using environmentally friendly materials and more.

An increasing number of businesses are beginning to see it as a market advantage, especially when you consider organic foods is one of the fastest growing markets.

Here are some reasons that organizations and businesses have moved in that direction:

Employees care
o According to a recent survey by progressive community network Care2, 48 percent of employees say they would work for less pay, if they could work for a socially responsible company. And they would work hard; according to the survey 40 percent of employees would be willing to work longer hours for a job at a socially responsible company.
Research dictates they need to be concerned
o Turner Construction company conducted a study that revealed more than 70% of executives believe that green buildings enhance student performance.
Environmental groups are forcing companies to become more responsible
Due to pressure from environmental groups, now the top 30 banks have stopped funding environmentally and socially irresponsible corporations and have become more “green.”
Competition from other environmental activities pressures companies to change their marketing initiatives
Levi’s is introducing its 100% organic jeans this fall.
Nike is making organic sportswear and talking about becoming a responsible citizen.
A growing number of retailers are experimenting with more environmentally sensitive and energy efficient stores.
McDonald’s started serving Fair Trade Certified™ coffee in 658 of its restaurants in New England and Albany, NY. These locations switched 100 percent of their coffee products over to Fair Trade Certified™ organic coffee from Newman’s Own Organics, roasted by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. They started this as a regional launch and with a goal of expanding it across the country.

Even more so, companies are starting to recognize that they need to be concerned with the triple bottom line-how they make decisions based upon the economic, environmental and social impact.

Unfortunately, the majority of people believe that green marketing refers solely to the promotion or advertising of products with environmental characteristics. This is only part of the equation. Green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising.

Here are some of the things you can do to incorporate the green movement into your marketing efforts:

When manufacturing your products – consider using recycled materials for packaging and incorporating organic fibers or other materials. Once you have changed the way you manufacture, then make sure to make people aware that your product packaging or materials are made using natural materials that do not harm the environment.
When renovating or building new – consider choosing alternative, environmentally sound building materials and using more insulation to minimize energy use. Make people aware that you’re a company who practices socially responsibility.
Designate a place to recycle for both your internal and external employees as Staples does. They promote recycling programs at its stores for printer cartridges and consumer electronics.
Identify local and global causes where your company and employees can get involved and make a difference in the environment. o Consider the efforts of Clif Bar Co., which was aware of scientific predictions of global warming and how it would diminish the snowpack by up to 70 percent in western U.S. coastal mountains over the next 50 years. Last winter, it launched a campaign to help ski resorts, skiers and snowboarders combat global warming. Research dictate consumers care about the environment. Even in the Midwest, consumers feel the same-eight-four percent of general consumer population indicate they care about protecting the environment, according to the Ohio Health and Wellness Research Report©, a research report by The Marketing Insider found in its August 2005 survey of 1,100 consumers in Ohio. They want to know that companies care as well and the only way they can know is if you tell your story.

Retrieved from “http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/understanding-the-green-movement-in-your-marketing-efforts-50227.html

(ArticlesBase SC #50227)

Colette Chandler -
About the Author:

Colette Chandler can help your business market to the emerging green consumer. Learn more about her October seminar at http://www.howconsumertrendsdriveprofits.com

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Colette Chandler can help your business market to the emerging green consumer. Learn more about her October seminar at http://www.howconsumertrendsdriveprofits.com

A Fantastic Example Of Emotional Marketing

November 1, 2010 by  
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Start Realizing Your Dreams www.X1Concept.com Who needs a Lambo? Nobody :) But everybody want’s what comes with it :) at least the bulls under us human:) while most car commercials and videos focus on the features like engine size, torque, and miles-per-gallon, this video reminds us that it’s not about the features…It’s about the way the car makes you FEEL. Sorry ladies this one is a bit on the male side I know :)

Environmental Marketing Tips For Small Businesses

September 2, 2010 by  
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While marketing strategies has not seemed to change in the last fifty years, there is a new surge to give a green PR spin on companies now. This is a sudden trend that promotes the environmentally friendly aspects of businesses and industries, and obviously this is helping companies reach new markets by using green public relations strategies.


Environmental PR can be done for almost any company. Even if you are a business that solely works in an office providing a service to your customers. You can easily promote your green initiatives by letting people know how to you are switching to a paperless office to save waste, or how you have put in action donations or volunteer hours to environmental groups. For businesses that are deep into pollution issues may have a tougher time getting people to notice their green initiatives, but this is all the more reason that this type of company will need environmental PR services.


If a company is struggling to look good in the eyes of the public because of past danced with pollution or some aspect of contributing to global warming, the company will need to put into action many large green initiatives to get the public off their back about the pollution and onto their new plans for making the world better. Companies cannot just volunteer with an environmental group and say they are doing their part. Instead, they will need to point out the aspects of their company that is green. The company will also need to make plans in order change their current procedures so that they can being to incorporate green initiatives into all aspects of business.


Announcing your green initiatives is just the first step. You can tell the public exactly what they want to hear, but if you do not eventually follow through with it, they will catch on. So it is best to work out a plan where you can add these environmental changes slowly. This way you have time to work out all the logistics, but you can still announce your green plan to the public.


If you need an example of a company that has great green PR, you will want to look at something like Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. They are an environmentally friendly company all around, and they use this to their advantage when it comes to PR and advertising. It works because they have found the right green PR firm that will play up the best in their environmental works.


Even if you do not think you can play up anything green abut your company, you will find that environmental PR experts will always be able to find something that you can talk about when in comes to helping the environment. Everyone can make a difference, so companies should be at the front of the movement. Even if the company has to make changes in order for it happen, you will get more attention for your efforts than your ignorance about environmental issues.

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Go Green Marketing

August 28, 2010 by  
Filed under Going Green

The ecological issue and “global warming” widely interests the marketing and management practitioners to employ in the organization. The environmental or green marketing relates to the company’s competitiveness and is used as a spirited frame in the marketplace. The company should distinguish its products and processes by using environmental or green concern and can utilize the ecological marketing strategy as the global competitive edge. The green marketing approach should be considered as a major part of corporate strategic management and through company’s marketing gimix they can make the difference in customer’s view point. The proactive strategic management approach is essential for establishing the green marketing strategy through the environmental marketing strategic system.

The environment of the world is becoming very critical issue for not only people as consumers but also for the management in organizations. Although many dozens of the environmental protection regulations and laws had comprehensive consequences, the need for regulations and laws rancor acceptance because the lingering belief that environmental regulations erode competitiveness. As a matter of fact, growing the environmental regulations resulted from growing scientific evidence concerning environmental degradation, in conjunction with people quality of life movement that inevitably impacted on business strategy and performance.

The responsible businesses eventually contribute their resources to keep the livable and beautiful world by developing the appropriate environmental management with an earliest quite high investment burden. Some believe that the huge environmental investment enormously increases the firm’s costs and leads to higher prices and reduces competitiveness. However, businesses manage under the vibrant management situation that technology, product, process, competitive strategy, and customer needs were all changeable, they constantly discovers the innovative solutions to pressure of all sorts from competitors, customers, and regulators.

So far, there are many appropriate ways for business to being responsible for the environment as conserving the natural resources without consuming any more, developing the sophisticate strategic environmental protection plan, and so on. Faced with the environmental standard measurement by the government, customer, employee, and the activism groups, businesses do respond to the environmental issue of the current and future by analyzing the three areas:- corporate, business and functional current strategies, adequacy of the current strategy for achieving the environmental goal, and the prescription for the future. Many companies have started realizing that they must behave in an environment friendly fashion. They believe both in achieving social & environmental objectives as well as financial objectives. The HSBC became the world’s first bank to go carbon-neutral last year. Other examples include Coca-Cola, which has invested in various recycling activities. Walt Disney World in Florida, US, has an extensive waste management program and infrastructure in place.

People need to be able to trust those who sell them items. Whether it is a television, a house, cars, lights, etc, we need fair and honest business practice. Most would agree that something less burdening on both your wallet and our environment would be the preferred way to go. This is exactly where it would snowball, without question. If our demand was for green markets, the supply would have no choice but to submit.

A clever marketer is one who not only convinces the consumer, but also involves the consumer in marketing his product. Green marketing should not be considered as just one more approach to marketing, but has to be pursued with much greater vitality, as it has an environmental and social dimension to it. With the threat of global warming alarming large, it is extremely important that green marketing becomes the norm rather than an exception or just a fad. Recycling of paper, metals, plastics, etc., in a safe and environmentally harmless manner should become much more systematized and universal.

Marketers also have the responsibility to make the consumers understand the need for and benefits of green products as compared to non-green ones. In green marketing, consumers are willing to pay more to maintain a cleaner and greener environment. Finally, consumers, industrial buyers and suppliers need to pressurize effects on minimize the negative effects on the environment-friendly. Green marketing assumes even more importance and relevance in developing countries like India & Pakistan.

Pervaiz Pyar Ali (MCS / MBA / MCP)

IT Specialist (Tivoli / System X)

IBM ? Pakistan

Pervaiz@pk.ibm.com

A New Era in Green Marketing

August 4, 2010 by  
Filed under Going Green

Recent years, intensive focus on climate change has lead to mounting pressure towards corporate environmental responsibility which in turn has resulted in many companies attempting to communicate various environmental claims in promotional activities. Green marketing´s difficult past which included wide-ranging false environmental claims and green-washing during the 1990´s seems to have completely revolutionised the current use of green marketing Many businesses now prefer to communicate precise and clear green messages often connected to specific results, benchmarks or awards. The internet and public relations is commonly used communication channels for green marketing. There are many companies that help businesses to monitor its carbon footprint and emission yet few external platforms to directly communicate with potential consumers regarding corporate environmental initiatives. However, there is one new strongly upcoming online platform, Green Conduct, which equips businesses with great user-friendly online tools to educate potential consumers about environmental initiatives.

There is a concise view that governments has and have had strong influence on green marketing in terms of shaping consumer behaviour and legislation. Green marketing could be seen as a means for introducing and normalising new innovations. Events such as natural disasters and the award winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” as well as other external incidents assist to create environmental awareness and demand. However, consumer demand as a motivator in green marketing has been highly debated amongst researchers. Green marketing has many positive aspects including the fact that it could help to cut production cost or even restructure entire organisations. It could also be used to increase employer and stakeholder morale, achieve organisational objectives and others believe it could provide competitive advantage.

Green Marketing Ads – Believing In The Business Of Sustainability

July 27, 2010 by  
Filed under Going Green

With global warming reaching to an alarming high and deteriorating environmental condition more and more companies are leaning towards green marketing.Fuel price hike also accentuated the process of environmental awareness through green marketing and advertising.Here we need to mention that the ads that actually focus on the green products or speak about the company’s future intention to launch environ friendly products are actually fall in the category of green advertising.

Despite increasing numberof green marketing ads and campaigns green marketing has not lived up to the hopes and demands of environmentalists.The hope that was initially generated with green marketing advertisements has been hurt by the notion that sustainable products do not really carry on their environmental promises.Green marketing still has a long way to go.But there is no denying that the situation is improving.

People are waking up to green.From organic food to hybrid cars to energy saving appliances to reclaimed furniture growing number of consumers are ready to buy sustainable products these days than ever before.

Sincere initiatives from the side of the government of a country help to spread green awareness among its people to a great extent.Since more and more advertisers are seeking to promote their eco-friendly credentials the responsibility lies on the government that they should set a standard for sustainable products in order to prevent deception and degradation of product quality.Take the example of Canadian Competition Bureau of the Canadian Standards Association.The bureau has released Green Marketing Guidelines to help green business communities.

The guideline speaks about deceptive environmental claims by companies.According to the guideline generalized environmental claims are vague and insufficient hence should be avoided.It further emphasizes that environmental claims need to be specific,accurate and clearly understandable.

Green marketing gets tougher with people being skeptical on quality of such products.It is also the responsibility of the company that they should keep in mind that customers are unlikely to compromise on product features such as quality,price, availability that come with traditionally manufactured products.Therefore it is good to for the companies to realize that there is no single marketing strategy for a company to sell green products.

As manufacturers tend to believe in the business of sustainability there is increasing number of organizations coming up with environmentally sustainable products.The pioneer in green-technology Hewlett-Packard company has recycled 1 billion pounds of electronics goods within six months and raised its target to 2 billion pounds and set a deadline of three years that is about to end by 2010.

Grocery chains also began patronizing sustainable eating with organic food that is actually recycled from the leftover food available in the hotels. Dozens of companies are finding values in practicing food conservation.Whole Food,with its commitment to sustainability is a leader in the arena of organic food production.

With soaring fuel prices car companies are turning towards green.While famous car brands like Lexus,Cadillac,GMC,Toyota, and Ford are designing fuel efficient hybrid cars Honda has already moved on to emission-free cars with FCX Clarity hydrogen-fuel-cell.Chevrolet is also going to unveil its Chevy Volt,a fully electric car in 2010.

However,one needs to understand that green marketing is not just green advertising that manifests environmental awarenessand concerns of a company while promoting its products.It is all about using the communication channels and media topersuade consumers to pick up more sustainable products and in turn,help companies realize the market need for theireco-friendly products.

Steve is a media professional and writes for different online publications on media and advertising industry.For more information on branding strategy and brand identity marketing,he recommends you to visit http://www.brandweek.com/.

EcoMates – Ethos – Marie Bennett – overview – network marketing

July 17, 2010 by  
Filed under Going Green


EcoMates, compensation, training, Marie Bennett, network, marketing, online, MLM, lead generation, Ethos, Anson MacLauchlan, home based, business, recession proof, environmentally friendly, new

Wizzard Marketing Ltd – Eco Products, Green Ideas

June 17, 2010 by  
Filed under Going Green


www.wizzmrk.com Wizzard Marketing Ltd. sells eco products, green ideas, natural cleaners, energy savers and eco friendly products. Order online, order securely. We offer a large variety of natural hand & body soaps, natural shampoos, natural laundry detergent. Produced by Visible.net

Environmentally Friendly Products Need Internet Marketing Strategies

June 15, 2010 by  
Filed under Going Green

As more money becomes available for the development of energy saving products, there will also be an enormous demand for marketing specialists that can help customers learn about these items. Today, a wide range of internet marketing strategies can help you build a website that will make it easy for you to begin selling these products as they become available. In most cases, you may even find that focusing on a diverse range of environmental issues will make it easier for you to increase search engine rank, as well as a following of viewers that will easily convert to customers.

If you are aware of one environmental issue, you are also aware of dozens of others. As an example, if you are concerned about global warming, you may also have an interest in an endangered species that is subject malicious slaughter by rogue nations, or those under their protection. Irregardless of whether you want to promote solar cells, or hybrid cars, you need to ensure that the nation of origin has moral standards that are compatible with those of watchful environmentally conscious consumers. When visitors see you promoting products from nations that they associate with environmental mayhem, they will shun your site and look for business owners that truly share their ideals.

For the most part, you will find that internet marketing strategies related to green products will focus on creating peace of mind. You may find it necessary to carry disclaimers on your site about the origin of your products, as well as why you feel it is important to refrain from purchasing products from companies that you will not promote. Without a question, if you hit on a popular subject, some buyers will spend more money at your site, as opposed to buying from a competitor that is less aware of certain environmental issues.

Typically, you will find that basic internet marketing strategies can be adapted to suit almost any product. As an example, an email campaign can be as easily used to to promote solar cells from Japan as it can solar cells from Europe or the United States. Unfortunately, if your email reaches a potential consumer that is disgusted with the nation where your products originate, they will most likely shun your site. Therefore, when you seek to promote green products, it is very important to be aware of how your customers view what initially appear to be unrelated environmental and humanitarian issues. You may even find that clearly stating your feelings and actions related to these issues will help you create compelling, and powerful internet marketing strategies.

Tarron Acuff is a professional internet entrepreneur and President of Ambitious Wealth Team, a company focused on teaching people how to leverage the power of the internet to create a steady stream of income and cash flow systems from home.


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GREEN MARKETING ? OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES

May 5, 2010 by  
Filed under Going Green

GREEN MARKETING – OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES

 

BY

Miss. P. PIRAKATHEESWARI, Lecturer in Commerce,

Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem – 16.

“Progress is possible, No one can stop it, but obstacle is there, we have to face it.”

 

- Amartya Sen

Introduction

Yes, green marketing is a golden goose. As per Mr. J. Polonsky, green marketing can be defined as, “All activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchange intended to satisfy human needs or wants such that satisfying of these needs and wants occur with minimal detrimental input on the national environment.”

Green marketing involves developing and promoting products and services that satisfy customers want and need for Quality, Performance, Affordable Pricing and Convenience without having a detrimental input on the environment.

Meaning

Green marketing refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in it or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way.

The obvious assumption of green marketing is that potential consumers will view a product or service’s “greenness” as a benefit and base their buying decision accordingly. The not-so-obvious assumption of green marketing is that consumers will be willing to pay more for green products than they would for a less-green comparable alternative product – an assumption that, in my opinion, has not been proven conclusively.

While green marketing is growing greatly as increasing numbers of consumers are willing to back their environmental consciousnesses with their dollars, it can be dangerous. The public tends to be skeptical of green claims to begin with and companies can seriously damage their brands and their sales if a green claim is discovered to be false or contradicted by a company’s other products or practices. Presenting a product or service as green when it’s not is called green washing.

Definition

According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Yet defining green marketing is not a simple task where several meanings intersect and contradict each other; an example of this will be the existence of varying social, environmental and retail definitions attached to this term. Other similar terms used are Environmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing.

The legal implications of marketing claims call for caution. Misleading or overstated claims can lead to regulatory or civil challenges. In the USA, the Federal Trade Commission provides some guidance on environmental marketing claims.

Three keys to successful green marketing

Show potential customers that you follow green business practices and you could reap more green on your bottom line. Green Marketing isn’t just a catchphrase; it’s a marketing strategy that can help you get more customers and make more money. But only if you do it right.

For green marketing to be effective, you have to do three things; be genuine, educate your customers, and give them the opportunity to participate.

1) Being genuine means that a) that you are actually doing what you claim to be doing in your green marketing campaign and b) that the rest of your business policies are consistent with whatever you are doing that’s environmentally friendly. Both these conditions have to be met for your business to establish the kind of environmental credentials that will allow a green marketing campaign to succeed.

2) Educating your customers isn’t just a matter of letting people know you’re doing whatever you’re doing to protect the environment, but also a matter of letting them know why it matters. Otherwise, for a significant portion of your target market, it’s a case of “So what?” and your green marketing campaign goes nowhere.

3) Giving your customers an opportunity to participate means personalizing the benefits of your environmentally friendly actions, normally through letting the customer take part in positive environmental action.

Evolution of Green Marketing

The green marketing has evolved over a period of time. According to Peattie (2001), the evolution of green marketing has three phases. First phase was termed as “Ecological” green marketing, and during this period all marketing activities were concerned to help environment problems and provide remedies for environmental problems. Second phase was “Environmental” green marketing and the focus shifted on clean technology that involved designing of innovative new products, which take care of pollution and waste issues. Third phase was “Sustainable” green marketing. It came into prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000.

Why Green Marketing?

As resources are limited and human wants are unlimited, it is important for the marketers to utilize the resources efficiently without waste as well as to achieve the organization’s objective. So green marketing is inevitable.

There is growing interest among the consumers all over the world regarding protection of environment. Worldwide evidence indicates people are concerned about the environment and are changing their behavior. As a result of this, green marketing has emerged which speaks for growing market for sustainable and socially responsible products and services.

Benefits of Green Marketing

Companies that develop new and improved products and services with environment inputs in mind give themselves access to new markets, increase their profit sustainability, and enjoy a competitive advantage over the companies which are not concerned for the environment.

Adoption of Green Marketing

There are basically five reasons for which a marketer should go for the adoption of green marketing. They are -

Opportunities or competitive advantage Corporate social responsibilities (CSR) Government pressure Competitive pressure Cost or profit issues

Green Marketing Mix

Every company has its own favorite marketing mix. Some have 4 P’s and some have 7 P’s of marketing mix. The 4 P’s of green marketing are that of a conventional marketing but the challenge before marketers is to use 4 P’s in an innovative manner.

 Product

The ecological objectives in planning products are to reduce resource consumption and pollution and to increase conservation of scarce resources (Keller man, 1978).

Price

Price is a critical and important factor of green marketing mix. Most consumers will only be prepared to pay additional value if there is a perception of extra product value. This value may be improved performance, function, design, visual appeal, or taste. Green marketing should take all these facts into consideration while charging a premium price.

Promotion

There are three types of green advertising: -

ü      Ads that address a relationship between a product/service and the biophysical environment

ü      Those that promote a green lifestyle by highlighting a product or service

ü      Ads that present a corporate image of environmental responsibility

Place

The choice of where and when to make a product available will have significant impact on the customers. Very few customers will go out of their way to buy green products.

Strategies

The marketing strategies for green marketing include: -

Marketing Audit (including internal and external situation analysis) Develop a marketing plan outlining strategies with regard to 4 P’s Implement marketing strategies Plan results evaluation

Challenges Ahead

ü      Green products require renewable and recyclable material, which is costly

ü      Requires a technology, which requires huge investment in R & D

ü      Water treatment technology, which is too costly

ü      Majority of the people are not aware of green products and their uses

ü      Majority of the consumers are not willing to pay a premium for green products

Some Cases

ü      McDonald’s restaurant’s napkins, bags are made of recycled paper.

ü      Coca-Cola pumped syrup directly from tank instead of plastic which saved 68 million pound/year.

ü      Badarpur Thermal Power station of NTPC in Delhi is devising ways to utilize coal-ash that has been a major source of air and water pollution.

ü      Barauni refinery of IOC is taken steps for restricting air and water pollutants.

Conclusion

Green marketing should not neglect the economic aspect of marketing. Marketers need to understand the implications of green marketing. If you think customers are not concerned about environmental issues or will not pay a premium for products that are more eco-responsible, think again. You must find an opportunity to enhance you product’s performance and strengthen your customer’s loyalty and command a higher price.  Green marketing is still in its infancy and a lot of research is to be done on green marketing to fully explore its potential.

References:

Chopra, S. Lakshmi (2007), “Turning Over a New Leaf”, Indian Management, Vol-64, April-2007 Ottman, J.A. et al, “Avoiding Green Marketing Myopia”, Environment, Vol-48, June-2006 www.greenmarketing.net/stratergic.html www.epa.qld.gov.au/sustainable_ industries

 

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