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Is Green The New Black?
Robert Craven explains why going green will not just benefit the environment
Three out of four businesses have no green marketing plans and, as a result, they are missing out. Going green has tangible, bottom-line business benefits including improving your brand, sales turnover, your bond with your customer and your profits.
In March ‘07 The Directors’ Centre ran a straw poll, asking owners of smaller businesses, ‘What do you think are the typical questions that a small business owner would want the answers to on the subject of green credentials, carbon footprints and running their business?’
And the answers came back as:
- Isn’t green expensive?
- Do you only sell to greens if you’re green?
- Isn’t it all eco-warrior nonsense?
- Is it just a marketing con?
- It’s a distraction
- How do you go green without damaging your own business?
- Can it make you more competitive?
- What are the grants, funding help available, and tax advantages?
The Bottom Line Benefits – how can you not want these?
Running a green business creates a more motivated, happier staff – they feel that they belong to something worthwhile and most people prefer to belong to a caring business. A green business also creates a more committed group of customers – happier to be buying environmentally friendlier products and services and deal with a caring organisation – you create a better emotional bond.
Your brand image benefits from an environmentally friendly business - you can create a new, friendlier, brand personality - and, what's more, a green business improves sales, as most people prefer to buy green, if they can. Running a green business also means better overheads – saving energy means lower bills - and taking advantage of tax savings, eg enhanced capital allowances, climate change agreements and company car legislation all act in your favour.
Running a green business, in effect, improves your bottom line, but it is not as straightforward as simply getting a bit greener. There are a couple of things you really do need to reflect on.
Green Consumers – factors affecting their buying decisions
At its simplest, green consumers are not the same as ordinary consumers - often well-educated and young-minded they are even more discerning (the ‘Waitrose Greenie’?) and may pay for the better quality – but the product must be as good as, or better quality than, the standard; these people will only tolerate minimal inconvenience, will be cynical of the big companies, and will only buy products for the product’s attributes rather than because it is green.
Greener Pricing/Product opportunities
Green pricing is open for abuse – certain coffee shops have been taken to court for charging disproportionately high prices for so-called organic or fair trade products (ie ‘passing on premium costs’ – charging extortionate mark-ups for ‘organic’ raw materials yet claiming/inferring the increase in price was sent direct to the supplier). But yes, you can charge (reasonable) premium prices for green products!
Yes but…
Global warming has been portrayed recently as the greatest crisis in the history of civilisation; meanwhile some argue that it is a huge con (see The Great Global Warming Scandal TV programme www.bright-marketing.com/green (Editor's Note: the site this links through to from this link is not currently working).
The Green Movement's supporters and opponents have created what can only be described as 'fundamentalists' on both sides (they live according to a large body of superstitions - they are right and everyone else is wrong).
In his highly controversial book, Cool It, Bjorn Lomborg claims 'environmentalism is little more than scaremongering' - he exposes a wide range of disinformation.
So Some Crunch Issues
- If you are ‘jumping on a bandwagon’ then you might be spotted for doing just that!
- Not all stand to gain – some will lose
- The Turning/Tipping Point - is it here and now? (We now have dolphin-friendly tuna, unleaded petrol, organics in every supermarket, and Fairtrade coffee in McDonalds…)
- Is it a political con? Just like the dodgy dossier for Iraq, is it scaremongerning?
- Is it an economic con? Could it be a licence for more stealth taxes or a licence for exploitative pricing?
- Is it a global con? The UK's plc only accounts for two per cent (and declining) of the world’s emissions, while China and India are doubling their emissions every decade.
In some sense the whole green thing is just ‘more of the same'.
‘Why should people bother to buy from you?’, ‘What makes you different from the rest?’, ‘Who are your target customers, what are their hurts? How can you reach them? But people want to be green, all other things being equal; people want to do the right thing, so make it easy for them. Political, economic, social, technological, legislative and environmental pressures have created a head of steam, like it or not. In this world going green equals better business.
The marketing of a green business offers bottom line incentives and top line growth possibilities – it is as simple as that! But remember, the key to successful green marketing is credibility.
About the author
Robert Craven is the keynote speaker and author. His new book is 'Bright Marketing - why should people bother to buy from you?' - he is currently touring the UK with his award-winning Barclays Bright Marketing workshops www.bright-marketing.com
©2007 Robert Craven
publication details
Start Your Business , November 2007