It's Too Easy Being Green

The jury is in on green marketing: it doesn't work. 

Although unpleasantly glib, the 2008 BrandJunkie Survey of consumer opinion revealed that nobody really believes the environmentally-friendly branding claims of most companies.  This is after such traditionally "green" businesses -- you know, like oil and car companies -- have spent many millions to brand themselves accordingly.

Many more businesses have at made passing, sometimes half-hearted attempts at green marketing, from adding glossy green logos to programming (Universal will likely fell more trees and burn more coal propagating its consciously 'green' programming), to Whole Foods recently announcing that it will no longer offer plastic shopping bags (begging the question of whether producing and maintaining cloth bags is, over time, any more environmentally responsible). 

For that matter, some consumers have decided to green their own personal brands, especially those who trade "carbon credits," (as if a market-based transaction actually lowers the aggregate emission of harmful pollutants). 

Clearly, there's a lot of desire on the part of consumers to do whatever they can to painlessly (and without any additional expenditure) improve the lot of the planet.  It's also legitimately important...no, it's vital...to earth's future.  So it's not surprising that companies want to jump on this bandwagon, and give them what they want.

But consumers have spoken: marketing probably isn't the way to do it. 

Few purchase decisions are made on the intangibles of creative marketing on the subject, no matter how brilliant or heart-tugging it might be.  No poster-child LEV, token investment in a greenspace, or banning of paper cups in the employee cafeteria will change the fact that people know better.

I am so struck by this disconnect -- between the faux answers of green branding, and the real challenge of sustainable business practice -- that I'm moved...to express myself in song...

It's Too Easy Being Green
(with apologies to a certain felt frog)

It's too easy being green,
Spending each day hyping something untrue,
Claiming colors like brown, or grey, or at least puke or pus green
Would be a fairer, and more honest thing to do.

Company functions look happier if left unseen,
Storefronts and labels traditionally hide processes quite mean,
So people tended to pass you over
Until the web made every burp, poorly-crossed "t," and toxic byproduct
A visible star in the sky.

But green's the color folks wanna buy,
It's politically-correct and friendly-like.
And green can be a big selling op, like being funny,
Or important, like citizenship,
Or tall, like the rest of your brand promise.

When green is what you claim to be,
It makes your consumers wonder why:
"But why pollute?"
"Why exploit?"
If your brand is green,
Maybe it's something your business should be, too?

Comments

[BIG Kahuna]

Hey Jonathan,

If I had a nickel for everytime a new client called and asked if we could help them get on the "whole green thing" I'd be rich.

Here's the problem with the green movement. Almost everyone on it is a hypocrite. If you really were green you'd take your horse and buggy to work (that's really "being" green). But wait, don't horses ruin the environment when they crap (gases and such)? Too many horses, too much crap = not green.

Sorry folks to be truly green you must walk to work. But then you would go through many more shoes right? Well if we have to make more shoes....bad for the environment. So you must walk shoeless and naked to work to really be green.

Then you'll have to whittle your own seat from wood. Because you can't sit in a plastic type chair (that's not being green). Wait, if you whittle your own chair we'd be using too much wood and that would add extra carbon dioxide. Very bad. Sorry the only answer is standing shoeless and naked for 8 hours at your job.

Then there's the whole kid thing. If you were really, truly green you wouldn't have children. Extra people consuming all this stuff is the WORST thing for the green movement.

So you'd have to be shoeless, naked, standing at work with no kids to really be green.

I really could go on and on...Green is something that one can't really obtain in our society. But saying and doing a few things to make yourself feel better is pretty easy.

I own 3 cars, a big gas guzzling FJ Cruiser, a big gas guzzling Infiniti QX4 and a non gas guzzling Mini. Some may say I'm a real jerk for buying a car that gets 13 miles to the gallon. I say take off because I work from home (see how I justify it). I'm totally green!

[Bert]

While I agree that marketing _alone_ can't be the way to go about this, I think that green business without green marketing won't make a social change as quickly or as broadly.

The problems you've noted arise when there's no _real_ green business behind the green marketing. Consumers are aware that this category, being an ethical concern, can't be taken at face-value when they see an ad that claims to be green. When claims are made about teeth being whiter or headaches getting better, they tend to swallow these claims with relative ease. But as we see with green marketing, people do their homework (or at least apply some critical thinking) when ethical concerns are at stake.

The solution for businesses is to quit trying to fool people with their marketing. Step 1: practice environmentally friendly business. Step 2: tell people about it.

Most of the businesses you've made example of have just skipped step 1.

[Shane]

Jonathan -

I just found your blog via Linked In - will subscribe.

I can't agree more with the whole 'green' marketing push that seemed to begin - at least visibly to me - towards the middle of last summer. Ater deciding to slow Tivo down to watch a commercial for a green cleaning product that still contained a slew of non-green chemicals distributed and mass produced and distributed in oh-so-non-green polyethylene containers, I thought to myself - could the average consumer really be that naive? As you've pointed out, clearly not.