In Today’s Economic Climate, Real Marketing for Environmentally Beneficial Products is More Important Than Ever

by Mark Bellissimo

April 21st, 2009

As a consumer and as a business professional, you can’t escape the economic news today. And for environmental marketing, it’s clear this has been impacted. First, the subject matter of the environment itself has taken a backseat to global economic news.  Second, with a drop in consumer confidence, many purchasing decisions in general have been curtailed, environmental products or not. Third, low prices and coupons have taken center stage in shopping and purchasing of goods and services, not exactly good news for many environmentally friendly products which tend to include a cost premium.  On the surface, these factors would seem to favor a wait and see perspective, looking for economic improvements before resuming any major environmentally based initiatives. Yet, possibly the most opportune time to test the robustness of your environmentally based messages is now—if you do it in a disciplined manner that emphasizes real value-based benefits. The reason is, sustained marketplace success for environmentally sensitive products isn’t any different than that of products or services in general: those that deliver best on their relevant brand promises will reap the rewards. Like the housing boom, getting caught up in the recent hype of the environment has led some marketers to simply slap “green” labels on products without truly exploring both the real impact on the environment and that of the consumer expectation in purchasing them. So, consider today’s economic environment as a weeding out period of weak environmental promises.  Become one of the strong propositions. Start by ensuring yours has real environmental benefit. Then, make sure this benefit meets real customer needs your brand can address. If you have to rationalize this, you are fooling yourself. Lastly, be careful to discern whether there is real value in the proposition for your customer. Consider using the opportunity of today’s marketplace to do this, as consumers need to see your environmentally-based proposition not as a luxury, but as a value based benefit they are willing to pay for—there is no better backdrop than today’s economic conditions to experiment within.