Making Green Marketing Connect

As a consumer or an advertiser, you can't escape the growing trend toward green marketing. According to a new poll by MarketingCharts, approximately 71% of North Americans want to know about the socially responsible behavior of companies behind brands they buy — but most people cannot identify a list of major brands as being socially responsible or irresponsible.

According to the most recent poll from the Shift Report, many major national brands, such as Wal-Mart and GE, have spent significant marketing dollars to position themselves as environmentally friendly and to communicate their green initiatives to the public. However, most of these efforts are not connecting with customers. Bank of America, for example, spent millions of dollars promoting social responsibility throughout 2007-2009—yet only 6.5% of those polled indentified Bank of America as a socially responsible company.
 

Here are some tips from EGC on how to make a green marketing campaign connect with customers:

Be Genuine: It's not enough to stick green labels on products—you need to be sure to that your green marketing claims meet compliance standards. Today, most eco-friendly consumers are blogging about products that are really green and those that are not.

Use Marketing Partners to support Community-Driven Green Initiatives: For most, it's difficult to begin environmental initiatives that have real community impact. Luckily, many media partners have embraced the green initiative. Take GreenStreet LI, the recent initiative headed by Newsday's Community Affairs Department, for instance. GreenStreet LI is Newsday's effort to start a movement on Long Island for everyone to become greener by providing information, inspiration and helpful tips, while also creating a marketplace to connect green-conscious consumers with businesses that will help them live greener lives.

In addition to running special sections in the newspaper and hosting green community events, Newsday also commissioned The EGC Group to build GreenStreetLI.com, an online resource for Long Islanders interested in learning how to be green. GreenStreetLI.com also allows those who "make the move" to GreenStreet LI to share their experiences, tips and tricks with like-minded "neighbors" across the Island.
 

GreenStreet LI, most importantly, follows the first rule of making a green campaign connect with customers—they are genuine. An Advisory Board of Long Island's non-profit environmental leaders help shape the program, and program sponsors are all required to be green, providing products and services that help Long Islanders green their own lives. To get tips for how to be green and to make the move to a greener life, check out www.greenstreetli.com.

Make the Advertising Call to Action Green: Recently EGC ran an insert campaign for Vornado Realty/Green Acres Mall, where the call to action was to bring the insert back to the mall to receive a savings incentive—and even better, the mall would then recycle the insert. And of course, the insert was printed in line with environmentally friendly standards.

Ask Consumers to Participate: For a successful green marketing campaign, consumers need to get involved. And luckily, the environmentally conscious consumer is more likely to. By giving them a tree to plant, or giving them a way to get involved, you better integrate your brand into the customer's life. In addition, it's important to always have forums, blogs and online groups that fans of your brand can share their green practices with each other.