Outreach: The Best Form of Marketing & Branding for a Green Company

Austin, Texas: I was asked at a panel discussion recently what would be the one best way for a green marketer to increase sales.  I immediately responded with OUTREACH.

After some discussion and debate, I came to the conclusion that I had given the right answer.

Sure, everybody wants to increase sales, so they start planning creative strategies.

Focus groups.

Visits with ad agency and or marketing departments.

New product features–gotta have them.

New ad campaign–a must to justify this campaign.

Sleeker packaging–why not?

The list goes on–products, features, benefits, etc.

All these are fine.  But so what?

Why should customers care?

The base for green products is not growing at the same rapid pace it has for the past decade.  The greenies are all on board, as I had mentioned in a previous post.

But what about the rest of the population?

If you are not doing outreach programs to promote green causes and the benefits of going green, you will not expand your market share. In fact, if every company in your field promoted a green product to the same base, your market share will dry up quickly, as competition for that segment will increase.

Set aside a good amount of your green marketing and advertising budget–and spend it on creating awareness for environmental issues:

• recycling
• reuse of products
• carbon footprint
• cap and trade
• sustainability
• alternative energy
• pollution reduction

Your products and services should only be mentioned in passing — or as an afterthought.

Outreach should be done to create passion.

To build the base.

To inspire social change.

Can it be political?  Sure.  Will it create some negative impact among non-greenies? Possibly, so tread carefully.  But if you are truly a green company, the positive will surely outweigh the negative.  And, if you are truly green, those that are most offended are probably not going to be your ultimate target market any way.

At your next show, will you be touting product benefits–or building the base through outreach?

Outreach first.  Sales will follow.

That is the best way to increase green product sales over the next decade–and beyond.

Let’s Make Every Day Earth Day

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Robert Piller, President of Eco Marketing Solutions, has over 25 years of experience in running and implementing green marketing campaigns and is a leader in the recycled promotional products industry, including offering one of the largest selections of reusable and organic tote bags, recycled and biodegradable water bottles, recycled pens and pencils in the country.

His company’s website, EcoMarketingSolutions.com, features over 25,000 eco-friendly promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find biodegradable, organic and recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame.

You can also reach him by email (robert (at) ecomarketingsolutions.com) or comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com or below at his Twitter link.

Americans recycled a record 2.5 billion pounds of plastic bottles in 2009, up by 46 million pounds from the previous year, although rates for individual plastics have been slow to recover from the recession, according to an annual report by the American Chemistry Council and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers.

Americans have increased the amount of plastic bottles they have recycled every year the report was first issued in 1990, representing a compounded annual growth rate of 9.4 %

However this study also shows that Americans are still confused with what types of plastics they are able to recycle, especially when it comes to HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) and PET (Polyethylene terephthalate). Communities, recyclers and other enitites need to do a better job of education and outreach to let peope know just what can be recycled– and where to take things if need be.

Some communities use jar openers made from recycled tires at events where they list such information.  Others have done direct mail campaigns Read more…

Changing people’s recycling habits can take many years, since people have different “levels of greenness”. As I had discussed in my article, “Are all consumers ready to ‘go green’?”, people have different attitudes about both their desire and need to become more environmentally concerned and aware.
Many states and cities are launching recycling campaigns to help educate consumers about the importance of recycling – and to create awareness of the importance of recycling.
Some of the tools used for these go green campaigns are television commercials, billboard ad, radio commercials and eco-friendly promotional products –like recycled rulers, biodegradable pens and pencils and recycled refrigerator magnets –given out to school children during community outreach programs.
But not all campaigns are as effective as possible. How do individual states rank in respect to their recycling efforts? According to the report, “Do Mess With It“, by Steve Spacek, residents of the Northeastern states of Connecticut, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts do the best job of recycling, as they had the least amount of per capita waste disposal.

Here is the entire list, in order of the state with the least amount of waste to the most wasteful state. The number beside the state’s name represents the daily per capita waste thrown away in pounds, according to 2002 numbers.

1.Connecticut 0.4510
2.Vermont 0.5840
3. Maine 1.0348
4. Massachusetts 1.4575
5. New York 1.5250
6. New Jersey 2.4698
7 Minnesota 2.5871
8. Maryland 2.9465
9. Hawaii 3.6754
10. Idaho 4.4523
11. Missouri 4.6106
12. Washington 4.9711
13. Florida 5.2001
14. South Dakota 5.3127
15. Montana 5.3165
16. Alaska 5.4872
17. Alabama 6.1666
18. Louisiana 6.2151
19. Delaware 6.2535
20. W. Virginia 6.3716
21. Iowa 6.4104
22. Rhode Island 6.6646
23. Georgia 6.6713
24. California 6.7999
25. Nebraska 6.8072
26. Oklahoma 6.9690
27. Wyoming 7.2168
28. Texas 7.2457
29. New Hampshire 7.3430
30. North Carolina 7.4116
31. Arkansas 7.5971
32. Mississippi 7.8556
33. Colorado 7.9048
34. Tennessee 8.2213
35. Illinois 8.4773
36. Ohio 8.7336
37. Utah 8.8063
38. Kansas 8.9314
39. Arizona 8.9871
40. Virginia 9.0122
41. Oregon 9.0161
42. Wisconsin 9.4417
43. North Dakota 9.4650
44. Indiana 9.7873
45. Kentucky 9.9515
46.South Carolina 10.2101
47. Michigan 10.4388
48. Pennsylvania 12.9517
49.New Mexico 15.6367
50. Nevada 16.9415

Let’s hope that the education campaigns continue and both consumers and businesses can work toward a 10% reduction in waste per year—which is very attainable.

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Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and environmentally-friendly promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive eco-friendly advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for anyone interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

As people are becoming more environmentally-conscious, what you give and how you wrap your presents can have a major impact on the planet’s eco-systems. By reducing waste and encouraging recycling efforts, you can do your part to help reduce you carbon footprint, while aiming for a cleaner planet.

GreenSpotBlog.com has put together their Top 10 list of simple ways to help make this a greener holiday season.

1. Instead of wasteful wrapping paper, use a re-usable gift bag or tote bag.
2. Choose products that already come in an attractive gift box and just add a silk ribbon to it. Silk ribbons can be re-used many times – and they are natural.
3. Use raffia or hemp ribbon instead of synthetic ribbon. These decorative accessories now come in many colors and shades.
4. Use recycled wrapping paper – or use newspaper to wrap your gifts.That’s right, wrapping a gift in newspaper is back in style and will connote an eco-friendly message to the recipient. You can even use plantable gift tags embedded with flower seeds (www.bloomsforacause.com), and let people know that you are going green.
5. Place a gift inside a flower pot and tie a raffia ribbon around it.This unique packaging will truly stand out. For an added touch, drop in a seed packet as well-two gifts in one.
6. When sending gifts, make sure they are not fragile. Otherwise you will have to add a great deal of bubble wrap or packaging peanuts to prevent damage.
7. Keep in mind the shape and size of gifts when mailing out gifts. Odd-shaped gifts need larger boxes and wasteful packaging, which will not only cost you more money, but it will likely end up in a landfill.
8. Give a gift that grows or blooms. Companies such as www.lovestogarden.com offer a variety of indoor garden gifts that will grow, including a Christmas tree-in-a-can kit that will grow into a giant Christmas tree in about 20 years.
9. Choose eco-friendly gifts, such as those made from recycled or organic material. Vote with your pocketbook by supporting companies that are helping to reduce waste and improve the environment.
10. Recycle your wrapping paper, boxes and other material and encourage your neighbors to recycle, as well.

By becoming a good steward of the planet’s natural resources and discouraging needless waste, we can all help to make this a green holiday season.

©GreenSpotBlog.com

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Robert Piller is President of EcoMarketing Solutions LLC, a company that helps businesses promote themselves to their customers and prospects using environmentally-friendly promotional products that won’t end up in a landfill. He can be reached at robert@ecomarketingsolutions.com.

Companies of all sizes and across the entire business spectrum are trying to “go green” at an amazing speed. Some do it for personal reasons, some do it out of corporate social responsibility and others are doing it for good old fashioned bottom-line financial reasons.

Whatever the motivation, this is a positive trend.

But I’m often asked if going green makes good economic sense for a company or institution – and I cannot always say “yes”. At least, not with a straight face.

The truth is that, at this time, going green makes economic sense for business that cater to the more educated, more affluent and more socially responsible consumers, according to the 1996 Roper-Starch Worldwide Report.

Because this Roper-Starch Report is one of the best studies of its type, I have used it as a basis for this article. While the fundamentals of this study are still sound, remember these numbers are twelve years old. With the constant streaming of green information by the media over the past decade, I would guess that the number of consumers that would consider themselves “environmentally friendly” has gone up significantly.

According to the Roper-Starch Worldwide Report, there are five types of consumers.

1) True-Blues

This hard-core group holds the strongest environmental beliefs and actually live the eco lifestyle. They talk the talk and walk the walk, in laymen’s words.

True-Blues are usually ardent environmentalists, attempt to influence others, and are politically and socially active. This audience is one of the most educated groups and is most likely to be a white woman holding down an executive or professional job.

2) Greenbacks

This group is more willing to pay a premium price for green products – up to 22% more. Although not very politically active and not nearly as pro-active as the True-Blues, Greenbacks are most willing to show their support for the environment with their wallet. This demographic audience is primarily a young, married white male holding down a white collar job.

3) Sprouts

Probably the largest market segment, this group is willing to engage in environmental activities from time to time, as long as it doesn’t require much effort. Recycling is the most eco-oriented activity they participate I, as they will not pay a premium for green products. This is a swing group, if there ever was, and the most likely target and audience for the advancement of the green movement over the next several years.

4) Grousers

This group does not believe that individuals play a significant role in protecting the environment; instead they feel it is the responsibility of the government and large corporations to make a change. Grousers are mostly uninformed about environmental problems, and would rather complain that they are too busy, rather than to get involved. The members of this group may participate in a recycling program, but only if their local laws require it.

5) Basic Browns

Basic Browns do not make any attempt to sugarcoat the fact that they do get involved in any environmental activities; they are simply indifferent. As can be expected, this group is the least educated among the five and, according to the research, they live primarily in the South.They think the green movement is much ado about nothing and think they are being brainwashed by the “leftist elitists”. They think green washing is happening to them.

So, knowing about these five groups of consumers, does going green make economic sense for all companies?

I would conclude that any business which is targeting anyone, other than what can be perceived as “Bubba”, can gain immediate benefits from promoting green products to their audience. Just as rising tides raise all ships, I would suggest that if your product or service reaches all market segments, promoting green is still a no-brainer. Basic Browns may eventually “get it”, but it will take time—possibly as long as 5-10-20 years – or longer.

It seems that this demographic also was the last to understand the importance of Civil Rights and Women’s Equality issues. However, over time, their indifference, or even hostility to the cause, will become less meaningful to the rest of the population. As this particular audience eventually gets older and older, they will be replaced with a much more open-minded audience.

However harsh this analysis may appear, it is actually very positive. The green movement only will get stronger as people notice the Earth’s rising temperature, see more visual news clips of melting glaciers, read about more starvation and droughts across the globe, learn more about carbon neutrality and the meaning of carbon footprint, etc.

As the green movement continues in a positive fashion, every business will gain by becoming green and promoting this benefit to their consumers.

Until then, if the Basic Brown is your only customer base, putting money into green marketing, at this time, will probably not yield the best return on your investment. My hope would be that you would upgrade your product offerings to appeal to a greener market segment in the near future – until Basic Brown no longer exists as a demographic audience worthy of consideration.

Thank goodness consumers are more eco-conscious — and this trend is moving greener each day. With the 2008 elections casting even more interest on the environmental movement to the apathetic, it is only a matter of time when a new survey will show only degrees of “green-ness” — and being green will be the cost of entry for any business.

Here’s to a greener planet.

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Robert Piller is President of EcoMarketing Solutions LLC, which helps businesses promote themselves to their customers and prospects using environmentally-friendly imprinted promotional products that won’t end up in a landfill. He is a frequent guest speaker and writer on issues pertaining to green marketing. He can be reached at robert@ecomarketingsolutions.com.

The word “sustainability” is used a great deal these days, without any clear or complete definition. In fact, the meaning is rather ambiguous, at best.

Probably the most recognized definition of sustainability comes from the 1987 report Our Common Future—better known as the Brundtland Report—which states that development is sustainable when it “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Steve Johnson, Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, stated that ” We have a responsibility to sustain – if not enhance – our natural environment and our nation’s economy for future generations.”

It is interesting to note that neither statement favors environmental protectionism over commerce or vice versa. Rather it states that the two must work together for the common good. It recognizes the needs of the current population must be met in a way that does not adversely affect the environment.

Though there is no clear method to measure sustainability, climate neutrality is considered the highest of sustainability goals by many governments, NGOs, businesses and other institutions. Most charters that deal with sustainability encourage the integration of environmental, economic and social goals in policies and in activities—both on a global and local level.

The EPA’s Sustainability Research Strategy examined several interrelated and complex factors—such as growing human populations, increases in waste production, growing energy demands, and land development—in the hopes of better understanding their effects on the earth’s natural systems.

How does sustainability take into account the growing human overpopulation combined with current lifestyle patterns? It should be no surprise that there are studies that support both sides of the equation—both that the current world population is too large to support sustainability, and others that argue that it is sustainable. What can be agreed upon is that the “ecological footprint” of some countries is greater than others. For example, the ecological pressure of a US resident is believed to be approximately 12 times that of a resident of India and 24 times that of a Somali resident. Even in the Unites States, certain states have a stronger “ecological footprint” than others. For example, nearly one-third of the U.S. population resides in the 17 Western states, which include seven of the nation’s 10 fastest growing states. As these states continue to see a continued growth expansion it will continue to affect the allocation and use of resources.

As the population grows and shifts, it is interesting to note that natural resources have an interrelated effect on one another. According to the EPA’s Sustainability Research Strategy report, “since 1971 each 1 percent increase in worldwide GDP has resulted in a 0.64 percent increase in energy use. Most of the energy has been produced from fossil fuels, so the increased energy use has led to greater emissions of air pollutants from the combustion of these fuels. Nearly half of U.S. water withdrawals are used for cooling power plants and water is also used to scrub air pollutants from flue gas; so rising energy use increases both demand for and pollution of water. Extraction of fossil fuels from the earth requires use of more materials, changes the surrounding land, and produces more wastes (i.e. unwanted materials). Finally, increased energy use impacts ecosystems through such factors as silt runoff from energy extraction activities and the decline in water quality caused by runoff from mining facilities. Interactions like these demonstrate forcefully that a systems approach offers the best strategy for understanding environmental impacts and for designing cost-effective and sustainable policy responses.

In regards to land development, the Sustainability Research Strategy report notes the correlation to impervious surfaces , such as roads and rooftops, and the degradation of water quality due to increased” runoff volume, stream sedimentation and water acidity”. According to the report, a single “one-acre parking lot produces a runoff volume almost 16 times as great as would an undeveloped meadow of the same size.” Therefore, the importance of green building and green design is crucial as the population expands, both for new development and replacement construction.

For generations, the importance and seriousness of sustainability have been understood, so why has there been so much resistance to it? The precautionary principle states that “if there is a risk that an action could cause harm, and there is a lack of scientific consensus on the matter, the burden of proof is on those who would support taking the action.”

Therefore, as long as there are pundits on both sides of the sustainability equation, change will continue to be gradual. However, as global warming continues to heat up the planet, many developing nations are beginning to implement policies in support of sustainable development. Coupled with corporate social responsibility, greater public awareness and a better understanding of carbon footprints, the goal of sustainability can become a reality.

Here’s hoping for a clear and legitimate definition for sustainability, so we can help work towards a solution.

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Robert Piller is President of Eco Marketing Solutions LLC, a company that helps businesses promote themselves to their customers and prospects using environmentally-friendly promotional products that won’t end up in a landfill. He can be reached at robert@ecomarketingsolutions.com.