Green fatigue
Corporate America, take note: We’ve stopped listening in green.
A beer commercial sent me over the edge. When a beer company spends prime-time advertising dollars to tell me how “environmentally friendly” it is, something is wrong. It’s beer.
I know the research. In my business, I need to understand what consumers are thinking. When making purchasing decisions, consumers increasingly weigh factors that have nothing to do with brand attributes. They want to make a difference. They want to do what’s best for their family. They want to spend money with a company that does the right thing.
But when the green, or sustainability, messages have infiltrated every aspect of marketing, when every business — no matter how green — jumps on the bandwagon, consumers stop believing.
It’s too much.
A 2007 study conducted by TerraChoice found that all but one (one!) of more than a thousand products from six “category-leading big-box stores” with green claims were either false or misleading. (“Companies’ ‘Green’ Claims Often Misleading: Experts,” Kenneth Stier, CNBC.com April 22, 2008)
The complexity and enormity of our environmental issues are overwhelming to environmentalists and average consumers alike. In light of this, many consumers have lost hope — which leads to apathy. And apathy is extremely difficult to cut through, no matter how remarkable your marketing, advertising or public relations initiatives.
What’s worse than apathy is distrust. If customers don’t believe you, it takes twice as much effort to be effective. A growing number of consumers just don’t believe that many products, services or corporate green claims are real.
It’s not just greenwashing (a practice by companies using unproven or misleading green claims about products or services); it’s also the overuse of the term “green.” Consumers are tuning out any green message, no matter how authentic.
Why is this important to businesses? It affects purchasing decisions. Consumers surveyed in 2007 were 22–55 percent less likely to buy green products as they were in 2006 (energy pulse 2007 study, Shelton Group, Knoxville, TN).
In midst of this expanding complexity of issues, there is a growing need for simplicity of message. There is a growing need to quit claiming that you are green and instead just prove it.
At Jajo, we live by the adage that actions speak louder than words. We don’t ask for trust. We earn it. It’s a simple concept, but a powerful one.
Companies should look inward and ask some hard questions, because your customers already are.
Is what you’re doing sustainable? How does your organization impact the environment? Is your product or service as green as you say it is? If so, does it matter enough for a consumer to pay more for it?
I’m not any greener than the next person, and neither is our advertising agency. We don’t profess to be.
But if you are green and you aren’t communicating it properly, you risk losing credibility. You risk becoming irrelevant.
This is an important issue for companies that truly are working toward sustainable solutions. Jill Galatowitsch, director of retail insight and marketing at the Retail Integration Institute (RII) and a Jajo client, expressed her frustration.
“Our organization is built on developing innovative, sustainable new technologies that focus on efficiency,” said Galatowitsch. “How can we get our message out when the marketplace is already cluttered with talk of green? How does our message mean anything in the midst of all that noise?”
Should we continue to move toward sustainability? Absolutely. Should we continue to talk about it? Maybe not as much and definitely not in the same way.
If you want to be successful in reaching your target audiences — if you want to change opinion or secure action — you must be green without all the chest beating. It’s worse than bad form. It’s bad marketing.
###