Green Marketing

[p_j_g]

I was watching television earlier and saw an advert by a window blind manufacturer promoting their new 'enviro blinds'.

To me, they look like any other blinds, which they seemingly are, however, they've played on the 'enviro' product attributes.

Very interesting to see that the product has been effectively renamed to attract a different segment.

[eequals]

Green marketing is fine as long as your business is totally dedicated to that market. This is OK as far as it goes but in the hard world of business one must always bear in mind that there is a large part of any market who still regard the words green or organic being used to describe key benefits as an expensive turn off. It may not be right but it is still a fact of business life today.

Joe

[LeelaCosgrove]

I'm not sure that's necessarily true, Joe.

What I'm seeing at the moment is a whole lot of people who are willing to spend money on anything that is 'green' ... the environment is very hot right now ... and it's not just because of global warming ...

[eequals]

I take your point Leela. Why I posted as I did however was to make the point that there is a great deal of mistrust of products labelled green by a significant part of the overall market and not without justification. This is because such products are invariably more expensive than the alternative. The greed of supermarkets and others who have jumped onto the bandwagon has had a lot to do with this view.

Therefore any business which is going to promote green products is well advised to dedicate its sales and marketing efforts in that direction, as opposed to those who add a range, label it green and, as is so often the case jack up the profit margin and therefore the prices, which all to often is what is happening today.

Joe

[simonr]

I'm toying wth 'green' as an add-on..... by which I mean we've got policies that are as green as we can be at the moment (for example all our paper is used on both sides before being re-cycled). It's not something we do for marketing purposes (it's something we do because we believe it's the right thing to do) but I was wondering if there's a way of using it (given that we do it anyway).

I'm thinking perhaps of a simple policy statement - or perhaps something along the lines of the Co-op Bank where it's part of their image but it only works 'cos they're a good bank as well. (It's not something "instead".)

S