Making your company -- and your brand -- more environmentally friendly can add market share, cut costs and make your CFO very happy. Here's how.
The business world is awash in green. Companies big and small, private and public, that sell products to all markets and audiences are considering how to make their brands, companies and marketing messages appeal to a public increasingly interested in protecting our environment and reducing its collective carbon footprint.
Consumer awareness about sustainability is at an all-time high, based on research by, well, almost everybody. A cadre of sources and personalities, including Al Gore, can be credited for that. But despite an incredibly high awareness level about the problem, few consumers know how to successfully do something about it.
Sure, we're recycling more. And weekly studies tell us that consumers are more likely to buy "green" products and are willing to pay more for them. But consumers and businesses alike still struggle with the idea of both making their day-to-day practices more sustainable, and doing so in a profitable or money-saving way.
Corporate America, in its quest to attract more customers and increase market share, has jumped on the green bandwagon in a big way. Logos have been changed to all-green hues. Green themes have been woven into television storylines. Chief sustainability officer positions have been created, and new corner offices filled.
But despite good intentions, relatively little sustainability work has actually been done. Many highly visible green initiatives are in fact quite time and cost intensive -- such as changing windows, replacing vehicle fleets and making wholesale changes to packaging and product manufacturing practices.
But regardless of the challenges with early attempts to go green, significant market share, cost savings and brand value await companies and brands that increasingly get it right.
The benefits (and pitfalls) of a green brand
For brand marketers, the benefits of "being green" are high on many fronts, inside and outside of the company.
Aligning your green brand's positioning with current and prospective customers can have significant benefits, but it also comes with a slippery slope. If your brand naturally lends itself to a strong green message, and/or you can back up your green message with tangible, measurable results and impact to the environment, you can successfully tap into the social consciousness and demand for green among your customers -- consumer or corporate.
Soap marketers, for example, can tout environmentally friendly ingredients and byproducts. Done right, these messages aren't just trendy positioning statements, but can be core differentiators that tie directly to your brand values.
But this opportunity has a downside as well, particularly for marketers who attempt to leverage green and sustainable messages without credible backup for such messages.
Already, consumer backlash on products and marketers that they think are merely "greenwashing" their stories has been harsh. And consumer and corporate buyers are becoming skeptical of company claims of being green, thereby increasing the stakes for companies to validate, back-up and truly live their pledge to be a more sustainable brand.