Do the terms eco-efficiency or sustainability mean anything to you? Is your brand embracing the “green movement?” Do you even recycle?
If these questions don’t seem to have much relevancy to you, they soon will. That was the message of the Green Marketing Conference, “Good and Green” I attended here in
If you’re a marketing, advertising or PR professional in today’s “what does it mean to me” world, you’ve probably experienced how much harder it is to get someone to do something for the sake of helping the planet versus helping with a personal need. Consumers are being hit from every angle today with green marketing, and as they become more educated and concerned about the fate of their planet, they are demanding more responsibility from brands.
The inspiring words of Conference Chair Nan McCann are still echoing in my head as I recall the green marketing wisdom she shared. In addressing the “what does it mean to me” world, she said if we make the green incentives small and accessible, consumers will respond. “Green fatigue is real,” but we have the opportunity to move people into the modern green marketplace. McCann recognized the conference sponsor Discovery Planet Green, a new “24-hour television network exclusively for the environmentally conscious lifestyle,” as an emerging strong catalyst for moving people into this green marketplace.
Planet Green wants to get people talking by providing relevant content they can relate to, and to present it in an entertaining way that is engaging. McCann said their demographic is psychographic rather than demographic. The target audience consists of “bright greens,” people aware of the situation our world faces and who recognize that we need to address climate change, sustainability and other environmental issues. The bright greens are people in a life stage: the idealistic college graduate, a new parent aware of what she is feeding her baby, a baby boomer questioning the meaning of his life.
With programs like Planet Green, we’re seeing the beginning of a new era. One thing the conference harped on was how much education we have to do today. Green is the face of our future. It’s the “new black.” The implications of green marketing will soon be added to every marketing professional’s consciousness.
Our current perspective is unique in that we realize we are “in it together.” This green consciousness has created potentially the largest consumer interest group if we get it right. Bringing corporations, media groups and NGOs together to take small steps and do practical projects is the best chance we have to make steady, noticeable changes. It may be fashionable to go green, and many of doing it, but it takes courage to ask/demand that corporations change their environmental footprints, and to encourage those we do business with to do the same. (Take a page out of Walmart’s commitment to sustainability book).
As mission-driven marketers, I’ve always prided our firm on our ability to teach, not just sell. At the end of the day, it is not about who is perfect. It’s about collaboration toward the healing of our planet. Spread the word. Green is the new black.
