BEST
PRACTICE
BEST P R A CT ICE
00
Marketing a green brand
Professor Lynette Ryals reviews what is known about the green consumer
and how marketing practices have to change to promote a green brand
When marketers look back
on the teen years of the 21st
century, the biggest change that
will characterise this era – the
zeitgeist of 21st century
marketing – will be the green
issue and marketing’s role as the
‘bad boy’, encouraging us to buy
and use more of our planet’s
precious resources. It is clear
that marketing practices need to
change. In this article I review
what is known about the green
consumer, and about brand
marketing, and use these
principles to suggest how to
market and promote a brand
with green values.
It is clear that marketing and
promoting a green brand are
increasingly important skills for
marketers. There is a growing
trend towards the ‘greening’ of
products and brands, improving
their environmental and
sustainable credentials. One
widely-cited example is the
greening of Frito-Lay’s SunChips.
Already positioned as a healthier
snack because of its whole grains
and lower salt content, the
greening of the brand that began
in 2007 also involved initiatives
around solar power at its
manufacturing facilities, plus the
first fully-compostable snack
packaging (although that was
later withdrawn). Interbrand has
inaugurated an annual listing of
Best Global Green Brands,
indicating the impact that the
green trend is having on brand
marketing; many of the
leading brands they list are
existing brands that have been
Persil Small & Mighty: the first super-concentrated laundry liquid
‘greened’, rather than new green
brands.
A green brand strives to have
the following attributes:
 Ecological – it minimises
negative impact upon the
environment.
 Equitable – the marketing
of the brand does not promote
inequitable social practices.
 Economic – the brand
encourages long-term economic
development.
A green brand’s position
on Interbrand’s Best Global
Green Brands list, for example,
is worked out depending on six
areas: Governance, Stakeholder
Engagement, Operations, Supply
Chain, Transportation and
Logistics, Products and Services.
The problem for marketers
is that consumers are often
reluctant to sacrifice style or
comfort for green reasons.
Unwary companies may launch
a new green brand, or ‘green’
an existing brand or product,
only to find that consumers are
apathetic or resistant. Therefore,
successful marketing of a green
brand must appeal to the heads,
the wallets and the hearts of
consumers.
To win heads, wallets and
hearts, research done at
Cranfield and elsewhere indicates
that successful marketing of a
green brand involves three steps:
gathering insight into consumer
practices; developing sustainable
brand propositions; and
delivering and communicating
green values.
1
Gathering insight into
consumer practices
Consumers need to be
persuaded that what they do
really does make a difference.
There are indications that many
consumers are, if not cynical, at
least dubious about green brands.
This is partly because they
believe they can’t really change
the world. It’s tough to persuade
a consumer that changing over
to low-energy light bulbs in their
house will have an effect, when
they know that there are
trillions of energy-wasting bulbs
in the world. This phenomenon
is known as ‘self-efficacy’ –
consumers lack self-efficacy and
don’t believe they can truly make
a difference. So, to market a
green brand effectively,
companies need to think of
ways to strengthen consumers’
perception of self-efficacy.
Some energy companies have
developed interesting techniques
that build perceived self-efficacy.
Power utility E.ON offers an
Energy Fit device that
demonstrates the energy
consumption of specific
household appliances; by
informing and engaging
individuals to take action on
their energy use, the Energy Fit
device typically reduces
household consumption by
5%. The clear link between the
actions of the consumer and
the reduction in energy usage
demonstrates to consumers that
their green actions actually do
make a difference.
Another aspect of insight
into why consumers buy green
brands is the idea of social norms
(socially expected standards of
behaviour). Social norms have a
significant impact on our
behaviour, so even a simple
indicator of ‘smiley faces’ and
A DMAP DEC EMBER 2012
B E S T P R AC T I C E
‘frowns’ on customer bills, which
tell households whether they
are using more than the average
power for their households can
‘nudge’ behaviours.
Consumer behaviours are
also affected by the choices
that are offered to them. For
example, talking bins are
currently being trialled in UK
cities London and Liverpool.
Some of the bins respond with a
message from a celebrity when
consumers drop litter into them;
other bins play music (the bin
at Covent Garden plays opera
and the bin near Lord’s cricket
ground plays sports sounds).
Similar trials have taken place in
the US, Canada and Europe.
2
Developing
sustainable brand
propositions
Although there is a segment of
consumers who will pay more
for green products than for the
standard equivalent, they are
the minority. Therefore, when
marketers are promoting green
brands, it is important that the
value proposition appeals to a
wider audience. We know that
consumers are attracted to
green brands that also benefit
them, so the successful
sustainable value proposition
needs to include a consumer
benefit, such as better health or
saving money.
One such proposition is
Unilever’s Persil Small & Mighty.
Small & Mighty was the first
super-concentrated laundry
liquid on the market. Small &
Mighty’s bottle is about one-third
the size of conventional laundry
liquids. This reduces the amount
of water used in manufacturing,
the amount of plastic used in
packaging, and the transportation
miles to deliver it. All of this has
benefits for the environment.
Soon after launch, Unilever was
reporting annual savings that
included 33 million litres of
water and 665 tonnes of CO2
(www.unilever.com). However,
there are also financial benefits
to the consumer if they switch to
Small & Mighty; consumers are 3
cents (11%) per wash better off
if they chose it over the similar
wash-capacity washing powder
(calculations based on company
data and prices taken from price
comparison site MySupermarket.
co.uk).
3
Delivering and
communicating green
values is about
winning the hearts and
minds of consumers
To be successful, a green brand
needs to demonstrate that it has
(believable) green credentials.
Green values can either be used
to reposition existing brands,
or attached to new brands.
An example of greening an
existing brand is the Starbucks
‘Make your Mark’ programme.
Starbucks was founded in 1971
in Seattle and is now the world’s
largest coffee house chain with
almost 20,000 stores worldwide.
It has always espoused
ethical sourcing although, over
the years, it has introduced
additional greening initiatives
such as reduced water usage,
Fair Trade coffee, and recycled
packaging.
More recently, it has added
community-based initiatives such
as ‘Make your Mark’, launched in
2001. The aim of this programme
is to encourage employees,
friends, families and customers
to volunteer for community
projects in their neighbourhoods.
Starbucks donates approximately
$10 for every hour baristas or
customers volunteer with local
not-for-profit organisations.
Alongside the greening of
existing brands, there are also
new brands emerging that are
specifically positioned in the
A DMAP DECEMBER 2012
43
FURTHER READING ON WARC.COM
Green Brands, Global Insight (Landor Perspectives 2011), Mindy
Romero, WPP Atticus Awards 2011
Electrolux Green Range Vacuum Cleaners: Vac From The Sea,
Cannes Creative Lions, Creative Effectiveness Awards, 2012
Five Reasons Not To Have A Green Brand (And Why Those
Reasons Are Wrong) (Landor Perspectives 2010), Russ Meyer,
WPP Atticus Awards 2010
SunChips: Building A Pre-eminent Green Brand, Warc Prize
Winner 2010
Green Brand Fatigue, Anne Sharp and Kate Newland, Admap, April
2010
OTHER RECOMMENDED READING
Best Global Green Brands, Interbrand Report 2012
Cranfield On Corporate Sustainability, David Grayson and Nadine
Exter 2012
green space. Examples include
American retail chain Whole
Foods Market, selling healthy
products based on sustainable
agriculture while striving to
recycle, reuse and reduce waste
whenever possible; and Vivavi,
which produces and designs
furniture and furnishings that use
environmentally-sound
materials, including recycled
materials and organic cotton.
In the UK, Innocent Drinks has
reached a turnover of more than
£100 million in just 12 years
from launch, based on a strong
value proposition relating to pure
ingredients, green values
(packaging, tree-planting, support
for African fruit growers and
their villages), and quirky
advertising and promotion
(including the ‘superheroes’
advertising campaign and the
company’s own YouTube channel
featuring company and customer
videos).
These steps – understanding
customer practices, developing
green value propositions that
deliver benefit to consumers, and
delivering and communicating
green values and activities – are
the key stages to successfully
marketing a green brand. But,
competition is hotting up.
Examples like Innocent Drinks
show that there is money to
be made from green brands, so
brand managers need to act now
to gain first mover advantage.
What is more, companies
cannot just rest on their laurels,
but need to launch frequent
green initiatives, as Starbucks
has done, to keep their value
proposition refreshed. So,
marketing a green brand
successfully is not just a one-time
shift; instead, it is about a cycle
of change, communicated and
updated on a regular basis.
more best
practices at
www.warc.com