If greenies want to make a difference, they need marketers

I think Rory Sutherland made this point in a much more succinct way at TED more than a year ago as I shared here http://wp.me/p1XYS-dz

Tiphereth Gloria wrote a great article on the success Greenpeace had with an online campaign to convince Nestlé to stop buying unsustainable palm oil from Sinar Mas.
http://www.digitaltip.com.au/i.....influence/

Its interesting that where Greenpeace took a progressive approach in their marketing, Nestle took the old-school PR tact of ignore, deny then squash, when they should have simply addressed the issue. With all the marketing and PR resources at their disposal, Nestle failed to crises manage the bad buzz.

I agree that your argument is solid and the Green movement could find benefit by implementing some marketing fundamentals. That aside I think you have failed to address the hurdles that stand in the way of this goal which are not at all trivial.

– Before you invest real dollars in advertising and marketing you need to make sure the company business model can support the campaigns success. The green movement needs entrepreneurs before it needs marketers.

– The tools that measure marketing effectiveness promote values that stand in conflict with many green objectives. The green movement needs better forms of measurement before it needs marketers

– Marketing already helps the Green Movement be competitive in the luxury or high end of the market. The next step is the retail or value market which first needs a more competitive price point. The Green Movement needs market regulation before it needs marketers.

– The sustainability movement is still complex and full of nuance. The green movement needs simplification and agreement before it needs marketers

Tick these four boxes and marketers will start selling Green all on their own

I haven’t seen the TED presentation referred to in the previous comment, but as a sustainability practitioner, I think this point can’t be made enough, especially to audiences that might not be TED watchers. Defferent channels for different audiences?

The problem is that when marketing gets involved in “sustainability” it is all too often for the purpose of greenwashing. The marketing industry lacks credibility while it continues to engage in the practice. How about a code of practice to eliminate greenwashing?

Seems nothing has changed in a year franksting.

Good article this one.

Reminds me of one of my favourite Seth Godin blogs – http://sethgodin.typepad.com/s.....ramid.html

Watch the video – it’s good. If you figure your product is good enough to make a difference to the world, then there’s no shame in profiting from it, indeed the profit makes you accountable, and encourages growth – good example being the cheap Indian (private) maternity hospital on the video, and of course the D.Light.

Are you fishing for work or just being snarky?

Marketing is the problem, not the solution to environmental concerns.

You, personally, may be known to your friends and colleagues as the nicest guy in the world, but when I see stuff like this I think: Bill Hicks.

“Greenies”.

What is it, 1970?

Marketing isn’t the problem – its the minds of the people behind the marketing strategy. Also, speaking from within the climate change movement, we desperately need the help of clever marketeers like Chris to help us navigate our current huge challenge – talking about climate change is now so politically incorrect. The climate sceptic movement over the past years have successfully pigeon holed the Aus population into “I believe in climate change and I am worried and want to act (largely Green and ALP voters – 51%)” V “Its all lies and I don’t want to think about it any more (largely Liberal voters – 49%)”. Us greenies need help from clever marketeers to get us past this awful polarised reality that only 50% of the population now give a damn!

I believe this comes from the best of intentions, and my posting a reply here will not change anything, but the “green” issues we face are in the context of us all being citizens and not customers. Trying to bring in the best techniques of promotion and message dissemination we can find from the marketing world I strongly feel will alienate citizens, which if we’re serious about this is the last thing we want.

In short I would advocate that we leave the hipsterism at the door when we approach these topics and issues.

Great article, you touch on some very valid points.

I see the sustainability area as a huge opportunity. Whilst you have large agencies with pedigrees of 80’s excess still content to showboat and wine and dine clients in expensive restaurants to curry favour this leaves the door wide open for young or nimble agencies. These savvy agencies realise that if things don’t change (all of us) we’re all in a spot of bother so have smartened up their act to go after some of the low hanging fruit that’s out there.

Brands are slowly waking up to what their overseas offices have been dealing with for some time -conscious consumerism. People are starting to think about the consequences of their buying habits. Why? Because Greenpeace and co are making life pretty unpleasant for brands that are getting it wrong and that’s affecting share prices.

As you mention, there’s a lot for a company to gain by greening up, not only are consumers looking for more transparency (can’t wait for Wikileaks to release the private sector documents), there are advantages to avoiding costs of using toxic/rare/unethical materials that slower companies that don’t take into account and when legislation kicks in, they have to play serious catchup.

Greening also (as you also mention) translates to efficiency. A few months back I went to my boss at the agency I work and asked him if I could do an environmental audit on the agency as I felt the environment was back on the agenda and something we needed to be on top of – and an audit would be a good start. He was reluctant until I told him it wasn’t about costing extra, it was about achieving efficiencies and being ready for the green market and the next client that comes in asking what we are doing about our environmental impacts. (We’re an agency mainly dealing with FMCG brands). Funny thing was, we had an approach from a medium sized FMCG company which asked exactly those questions a few months later!
(BTW I’ve been blogging about the journey we as an agency are on if you’re interested.) And yes, we’ve added thousands of $ to the bottom line 🙂

I would say one of the reasons previous generations of ‘greenies’ failed was due to inferior products that were priced at the wrong end that didn’t deliver. Today’s green products have to be priced the same as no green products and perform equally in order for consumers to make the switch.

Getting to franksting’s TED link (Rory Sutherland’s followup TED talk is also great and in similar vein http://bit.ly/bWz7tR)

I agree we also need to make green fun – not doom and gloom. Doing good feels good.

And that is where you’re right, the greenies need our help but we have to meet them on their terms because we all have to play our part – if we don’t, the message lacks authenticity.

@sammy says “Marketing isn’t the problem – its the minds of the people behind the marketing strategy.”

Guns don’t kill people either

Great article Chris. The green movement needs to get real and learn to use the same techniques that are trashing the planet to their advantage. That means using market savy people who are not open to greenwashing and who can use their skill sets in a positive way. We need to break through the barriers and say it is ok to make money but not at the expense of the environment – companies who do the right thing need to be applauded and encouraged. Aggressive green marketers are needed and urgently – they know how to speak the language of the “other side”. It is time to fundamentally shift from idealistic positioning on the environment to ruthless pragmatism as we are running out of time. Whatever is being done by the environment movement is simply not working at the pace that is needed. Too much emphasis is being placed on politics and not enough on business – they hold the key. If they can be moved governments will follow. Green marketeers have a vital role to play in this.

“Green marketeers have a vital role to play in this.”…..no, ALL marketers have a role to play, we all bear some responsibility. And we should all encourage our clients to understand their own responsibility. Instead of simply looking the other way, working on unsustainable or damaging products as so may do for the money, for career advancement etc. I agree, this is where the fight needs to be fought, at individual responsibility level, leaving it to government isn’t ever going to get us there.

Based on these comments it seems some people, even those on a marketing blog, think all marketing to be the enemy.. I agree with Chris, but that’s when you consider that marketing shouldn’t just the colouring in department, but a function with a real say in the strategic direction of the organisation.

Tenuously sticking a “green” label on a non-green product is obviously a problem and doesn’t help the cause. But changing strategic direction to focus a business on practices and products that don’t just accelerate us towards a carbon-reduced world, but also deliver stakeholder value, is a good solution. To summarise Chris, if it ain’t commercially viable, it doesn’t matter how green it is.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I’ve tried to address some of them below.

Firstly, @ Ben Ralph – you make several points which I’ve responded to below:

1. Entirely agree about business model and strategy. Understanding market opportunities, crafting propositions appropriately, and determining how internal capabilities will be harnessed to deliver them is what is needed. However, this is an area in which true marketing (ie not just campaigns / advertising) can make a huge contribution. I think @Alec (16) makes this point clearly.

2. The “tools that measure marketing effectiveness” vary from one instance to another. But they typically include penetration (ie number of units sold), brand associations, brand awareness and customer satisfaction. I’d argue that these are precisely the measures which help us make a link between marketing and green.

3. With this one I disagree. If the Green Movement waits for market regulation before it moves, it will be waiting a long time! Regulation is a critical component in addressing externalities that are not adequately priced in economic markets, but leaders don’t wait for regulators. There are enormous opportunities to be had by moving in advance of (or beyond) the current regulatory framework.

4. Absolutely – the green movement does need simplification. Much of this is about messaging, purpose and mission. This is the stuff of marketing. See comments from @Sammy (10), @Wilhaus (12) and @Tim (14).

I’d also not wish to suggest that the free market alone will fix the problems of living on a finite planet. However, one of the tools of the free market – marketing – can help a great deal.

@ David Reid. I don’t like greenwashing either. I can’t see how greenwashing could be outlawed but I guess I hope that informed consumers will see through it. (There are plenty of examples of that.) Maybe I’m biased, but I think we are seeing less greenwashing than in previous years – my hunch is that (a) companies sense there is a bigger opportunity to be had by actually changing how they do business, and (b) greenwash is increasingly less effective. I don’t have evidence for these views, so any information would be useful.

@ Megan. I take issue with “marketing is the problem”. The “problem” is that humanity is particularly bad at recognising and accepting that its activities adversely impact the planet. Perhaps “the problem” is humanity itself – but it isn’t marketing.

Finally, to those purists who believe that commercial forces can’t help us, take a look at this article: http://www.climatespectator.co.....rbon-curve.

Nice wrap-up Chris. I’ve blogged some additional thoughts here
http://wp.me/pHdCH-4P