Remember General Motors’ EV-1 electric car? Philips’ Earthlight compact fluorescent lightbulbs? Hefty degradable trashbags? Exciting-sounding "eco-innovations," they unfortunately met with new product doom. Happily, however, for every product in the "green graveyard," there are many more examples of others that went on to claim a stake in the green consumer’s shopping cart. And there is much that green power marketers, whether they are selling green electrons or sophisticated photovoltaic systems, can learn from both.
The Rules of Green Marketing
The first rule of green marketing is the first rule of marketing in general: Focus on the customers. Meet the primary needs they seek to satisfy by buying your product in the first place. (Hint: It’s not to "save the planet.") Do this right and you’ll motivate consumers to switch brands, adopt new technologies, and even pay a premium in the process. Next, keep in mind that for green marketing efforts to work, consumers must:
Be aware of and concerned about the environmental issues your product addresses. Are your customers aware of the links between energy production and air pollution and global climate change? Not many consumers are.
Feel that by using your product they will make a difference ("empowerment").
Believe your claims — something that’s a bit challenging considering the backlash to environmental claims from days gone by.
Feel your product will work as well as the non-green alternatives they are used to. Remember the days when natural laundry detergents left clothes dingy and fluorescent lightbulbs sputtered? Unfortunately, all new green products and technologies carry the curse left from these early substandard products.
Be able to afford any premiums. Some can’t afford premiums for any kind of product, green or not. Of course, the more you offer, the more consumers may be willing to pay.
Following are some strategies to help you play by the rules.
Strategy #1: Know Your Target
Rid your mind of any perceptions of green consumers as stereotypical Birkenstock- wearing granola-eating consumers. Wake up to the fact that the green market has matured from a small niche into a large market composed of several distinct groups of consumers, each representing their own "shades" of greenness.
According to the Roper Organization, the mass consumer market can be divided into five segments, representing gradually increasing levels of commitment to green causes and behaviors. The most willing consumers, whom Roper calls the "True Blue Greens," may be willing to spring for a solar power system for their homes, while the less initiated, such as the "Sprouts," may be more comfortable simply buying an Energy Star-labeled television.
Individual consumers may also be influenced by just one or two of the many environmental issues that plague us, and they are most apt to be concerned and acting upon local neighborhood-centric, rather than global, issues. So, be careful if global warming isn’t on their radar screens, and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly.
Whirlpool learned this lesson the hard way. It introduced the first CFC-free refrigerator back in 1992—and won a $30 million "Golden Carrot" award in the process when it found that consumers wouldn’t pay a 10% premium because they weren’t really aware of or concerned about CFCs.
Strategy #2: Focus on Primary Benefits
When Maytag introduced its Neptune washer, a product initially developed in response to regulations aimed at saving water and energy, the company made sure to give its washer a sleek design to lure in high-end consumers. Also, Maytag’s advertising focused on the superior cleaning power of the front-loading technology. The estimated $100-a-year savings on energy and water costs was the icing on the cake that helped ensure a spot for Neptune as one of Maytag’s most successful new product introductions ever.
In stark contrast to marketing efforts behind GM’s EV-1 electric car, which focused on environmental benefits and a futuristic sensibility, ads for Toyota’s hybrid-technology Prius spotlighted the car’s quiet ride, with a secondary emphasis on fuel savings. This approach drew in upscale drivers who can afford superior performance and expanded the market beyond the "deep green" consumers who Toyota pursues via a special campaign directed just to them.
When it was first introduced, Philips underscored the environmental benefits of its Earthlight compact fluorescent light bulb. (I personally thought it was some type of plant light!) It has since been brilliantly restaged as Marathon, reflecting the key benefit that consumers appreciate about CFL technology: its longer life and the fact that the lightbulb doesn’t have to be changed so often. One package copy promises, "Saves up to $26 in energy costs."
Strategy #3: Educate and Empower
Consumers need to feel that the green products they are buying—and likely paying a premium for—will, in fact, help the environment. With awareness of environmental issues and how to solve them quite low, it is necessary to expand the market for green energy products beyond an aware niche, first by creating awareness for the basic issues, and then, importantly, to make the link between the issue and how a specific product or technology actually helps to solve it.
Check out Lowes’ website (www.lowes.com). See how it positions Energy Star-labeled products as "solutions." Tour the electronic house and see the various products one can buy to save energy in every room of the house.
Strategy #4: Be Credible
Credibility is critical to all marketing activity. Consumers simply trust that familiar brands like Tide or Coke will perform as promised, time after time. But thanks to specious green marketing claims that ran rampant through the airwaves in the early 1990s for such products as degradable trash bags and "ozone friendly" aerosols, lack of credibility rates high on the list of reasons that consumers cite for not doing more for the environment.
Project credibility through your own good name. Provide added reassurance through third-party endorsements from trusted environmental or consumer groups, or certification systems like "GreenE."
Jacquelyn A. Ottman is founder and president of J. Ottman Consulting in New York. She is internationally recognized as an authority on green marketing and eco-innovation.
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