Green Marketing & Targeting

Is green marketing to the environmentally-conscious markets here to stay, or is it just a temporary fad? Should your business go green, and if so, how can you avoid "greenwashing", keep green marketing ethical and in line with your business values? 

The following sources provide some useful information in this area.



Green Marketing

Bright Green Marketing Practices This an online journal entry challenging businesses to set aside the standard approach of marketing and consider framing their approaches around what kind of world they would like to create. While it represents the musings of just one individual, the value lies in posing the question of responsibility in marketing.

Getting Smart about Green Marketing Marketing green can be a challenge because consumer beliefs are still evolving; demand is not well established; and even where it is, purchase behavior tends to be inconsistent. To be successful, green marketers must effectively and efficiently target their audience when and where consumers are most receptive to green messaging. Companies like earthsense, a marketing research company focused on green consumers can help. This article includes an interview with Amy Hebard, Chief Research Officer and Founder of the company.

Green Marketing on Social Networks For green marketers, social networks provide a compelling channel to communicate with consumers that have an affinity for green or are at least open-minded enough to listen. Today, those users can be found across a wide variety of social networks, including both general interest and vertically focused networks that connect those interested in social responsibility or, more specifically, in the environment. Marketing Green has identified six different types of social networks that appeal to those with a green affinity. Each network type provides the opportunity for users to connect, share and/or collaborate with others online. And because many view green as a social cause, participation in such networks can generate both personal as well as societal benefits.

Green Marketing through Behavioral Targeting Marketing Green's mission is to provide industry professionals with practical strategic marketing advice on how to build green brands and motivate mass market adoption of more sustainable products. This is an interview with Dave Morgan, Founder, Former CEO and now Chairman of Tacoda, a market leader in behavioral targeting. Behavioral targeting enables advertisers to serve relevant ads to consumers based on past-demonstrated behavior online (eg, frequent or recent visits to relevant content). Interview topics range from the emerging green consumer, Tacoda's advantages in the market, and how behavioral targeting is an effective way to identify and influence green consumers.

Targeting Green Kids - Marketing To The Eco Generation Maryanne Conlin offers practical advice for marketing to a generation immersed in the social movement of environmentalism. According to Packaged Facts, a market research firm, environmental awareness, even at the youngest ages, is acute. More than half of kids age 6-8 encourage their parents to buy green products, nearly three-quarters believe people should recycle, and 40 percent think they should buy recycled-content paper products. The article recommends the following when marketing to the Eco Generation: 1. Don't talk down. Kids are more sophisticated than you think. 2. Make it relevant. One common error is developing graphics that aren't hip or are too hip. Kids want products to reflect their own taste so error on the side of conservative rather than hip or cutesy. 3. Explain the benefit in real terms. Eco friendly means little-saves our trees or protects specific wildlife is better and is something to which kids can relate.

Zoom advertising helps turn tourism green As the first advertising agency in South Africa to become carbon neutral when it planted hundreds of trees to offset its own carbon impact, Zoom Advertising has now embarked on a campaign that will turn the local tourism industry green. The initiative is called ‘My tree in Africa' and gives travelers the opportunity to make a valid contribution to help the environment.

Greenwashing: Who's Winning-and Losing the Green Race Online? Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, offers a webinar presentation that takes an in-depth look at which companies are "winning the green race" and what influential sustainability bloggers are saying about them. They review how the growing sustainability movement has spurred changes in consumers and corporations alike, and how the Internet itself has pushed the issue to the forefront.

The Greenwash Guide Greenwash is an environmental claim which is unsubstantiated (a fib) or irrelevant (a distraction) found in advertising, PR or on packaging, and made about people, organizations and products. Greenwash is an old concept, wrapped in a very modern incarnation, and its prevalence is growing. Consumers often rely on advertising and other corporate messaging to inform their purchasing choices, and greenwashing is undermining confidence in that advertising. That confidence is now at an all time low, with only 10 percent of consumers trusting green information from business and government. Without confidence in the claims, consumers are reluctant to exercise the power of their green purchasing, as they no longer know who or what to believe. This puts the whole green market in danger and might damage the virtuous circle of companies promoting their green products, consumers choosing them over non-green products thereby encouraging business towards greater greenness. The Guide offers some simple steps that can be taken by companies, agencies and the public to stamp out greenwashing.

Beyond ecolabels: what green marketing can learn from conventional marketing

Ecotourism: Ethics or Eco-Sell?

The link between "green" and economic success: environmental management as the crucial trigger between environmental and economic performance

Tourism marketing ethics: an introduction

Understanding the LOHAS Market: A Focus on Corporate Social Responsibility