What IS Green Marketing after all?

In a recent conversation with some colleagues, we were discussing the differences in marketing strategy between traditional marketing activities and green marketing activities.

There are a lot of differences, actually. The whole approach is different. In this installment, we'll focus on a few manageable aspects to the topic.

To start, what you'll find are highly targeted communications and educational workshops...

Two big pieces to green marketing include (1) segmenting your audience into the main drivers that motivate their decision to purchase a green product or service, and (2) educating your audience. In a world where there is no consolidated location for information, and a seemingly insurmountable number of factors to consider for each purchase, consumers are hungry for direction. That translates to an opportunity for companies willing and able to provide educational services to their customers.

The last piece I'll touch on here is 'less is more'. Unless you have a highly educated (or highly curious) consumer on the various technical aspects to how sustainable your product is vs. the competition, don't inundate the audience with too many choices. Have you ever stood in the cereal aisle trying to decide which cereal you want to try based on multiple health factors? There must be 20 types of cereal to choose from that must each be indexed and ranked by the consumer before deciding (unless, of course, you ALWAYS get the same kind - how boring is that?!).

Making a decision about purchasing a sustainable product or service is difficult enough. Do yourself and your customers a favor and make the decision making process as simple as possible:

1. understand the motivating drivers
2. educate the consumer
3. simplify the decision making process by limiting the range of options (but always have the information ready for those interested in the technical minutiae)

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I think a good start to understanding the fundamentals of green marketing. If you are looking for information on research into the motivating drivers, drop me a line