Jacquie Ottman's
Green marketing Blog
20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 12.
Posted on February 23, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 12:
Consumers don’t necessarily need to own products; services can meet their needs, perhaps even better.Consumers historically met their needs by owning products, but concepts like Zipcar and ebooks are starting to prove that utility and service are what really matters.
Take textbooks, a product that students typically “own” for a semester or two. While us grownups are busy reading Steinbeck on our Kindles and Nooks, college students can rent textbooks from Cengage Learning, the textbook publisher. Alternatively, they can also download pdf …Read more...
20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 11.
Posted on February 22, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 11:
The greenest products represent new concepts (and likely, new business models) with significantly less impact.If we simply keep greening up the same old “brown” products we’ve been using forever, we’re never going to get to sustainability. With time running out, we’ve got to “leap” to service replacements for products, and adopt entirely new ways of doing business.
In the process, we just might discover that consumers’ needs are being met better and “eco”-innovative new businesses result. Representing the biking equivalent of car-sharing, …Read more...
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 10.
Posted on February 18, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 10:
Sustainability represents an important consumer need, and is now an integral aspect of product quality. Green is no longer simply a market position. Products need to be green. Brands need to be socially responsible. Period.
Gone are the days when consumers simply chose one brand over another on the basis of cost, convenience or cleaning power. Such new questions are being asked as: What’s in this product? Who makes it? Can I dispose of it safely?
—-Excerpted fromThe New Rules of …Read more...
20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 9.
Posted on February 17, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 9:
Businesses are their philosophies.It used to be that companies were what they made. International Business Machines. General Foods. General Motors. Now, businesses and brands are what they stand for. Method. Starbucks. Timberland.
Is your company among the 1000+ in over 50 industries that have been certified by the nonprofit B Lab to strict sustainable business standards, or benchmarked your performance to B Lab’s free B Impact Rating System?
—-Excerpted fromThe New Rules of Green Marketing, by Jacquie Ottman (Berrett-Koehler …Read more...
20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 8.
Posted on February 16, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 8:
Save me! Scrap the images of planets! Bag the daisies! Nix the babies! Even the greenest consumers no longer buy products just to “save the planet.” Today’s consumers buy sustainable brands to help protect their health, save money, or because they simply work better. That’s why products such as organics, natural personal care and pet care, and energy-efficient products are leading the way in sales.
A central message in the book, shine the spotlight on primary product benefits. That’s why AFM Safecoat …Read more...
20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 7.
Posted on February 15, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 7:
Manufacturer and retailer reputation count now more than ever.In addition to looking for trusted brand names on supermarket shelves, consumers are now flipping over packages, saying, “Who makes this brand? Did they produce this product with high environmental and social standards?”
In a 2008 survey, 57% of respondents said they were likely to trust a company after finding out it was environmentally considerate, and 60% said they were likely to purchase its products (“pro-cott”).
—-Excerpted fromThe New Rules of Green Marketing, …Read more...
20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 6.
Posted on February 14, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 6:
A life-cycle approach is necessary. Single attributes such as recyclable, organic, or energy-efficient matter greatly, but don’t mean a product is green overall. Recycled products still create waste, organic strawberries can travel thousands of miles, and CFLs contain mercury. So a more thorough, life-cycle or carbon-based approach to greening is necessary.
Sometimes a lifecycle approach pays off unexpected dividends. Because it is easy to disassemble, Herman Miller’s MIrra chair is also a cinch to repair.
—-Excerpted fromThe New Rules of Green …Read more...
20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 5
Posted on February 11, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 5:
Values guide consumer purchasing. Historically, consumers bought solely on price, performance, and convenience. But today, how products are sourced, manufactured, packaged, disposed of - and even such social aspects as how factory and farm workers are treated - all matter.
That’s why green consumers like Starbucks Coffee and Farm Equity Practices (C.A.F.E.) developed with Conservation International. They also think it’s cool that Timberland’s employees take “service sabbaticals” to perform community service. And who couldn’t love Method staffers for transforming parking spaces into …Read more...
20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 4.
Posted on February 10, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 4:
Green inspires innovative products and services that can result in better consumer value, enhanced brands, and a stronger company.
Savvy managers no longer consider the environment to be a burden that represents added cost and overhead—but an investment that can pay back handsomely. That’s why Procter & Gamble is counting on $50 billion sales of “sustainable innovation products” by 2012 and why GE “Ecomagination” revenues grew six percent to $18 billion in 2009 despite tough times.
Two of my favorite more entreprenuerial …Read more...
20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 3.
Posted on February 09, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 3:
Greener products work equally well or better than conventional alternatives—and are often worth a premium price.
Thanks to advances in technology, we’ve come a long way since the days when greener products gathered dust on the bottom shelves of health food stores because they didn’t work as well and were not a good value. Organics, hybrid cars and safer cleaning products now command a price premium.
These are also the reasons why so many mainstream consumer products marketers are getting in the …Read more...
20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 2.
Posted on February 08, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 2:
Green is cool. One reason why green is mainstream (See Rule #1), is because it’s chic.
Thanks largely in part to numerous Hollywood celebrities, counting among them Bette Midler, Brad Pitt, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiiCaprio, and of course, Ed Begley, Jr. (and a bit of behind the scenes support from the Environmental Media Association responsible for planting all those mentions of Toyota’s Prius and recycling in popular TV shows), green has evolved over the past 20 years from a …Read more...
“The New Rules of Green Marketing” Launches Today! Win a Free Copy. New Rule Number 1.
Posted on February 07, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Jacquie Ottman’s New Rule of Green Marketing Number 1:
Green is mainstream. Not too long ago, just a small group of deep green consumers existed. Today, 83% of consumers—representing every generation from Baby Boomers and Gen Xers to Gen Ys (Millennials) and Gen Zs—are some shade of green. Moreover, there are now finely defined segments of green consumers.
There are the deep-green “LOHAS” consumers and status-conscious “Drifters” (Source: Natural Marketing Institute). And also, greens that can be targetted by personal interests. Are you by any chance, a “Resource Conserver” (that’s me), a …Read more...
20 New Rules of Green Marketing. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win
Posted on January 22, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Green Marketers, Start your EVs. My new book, The New Rules of Green Marketing (Berrett-Koehler - U.S., Greenleaf Publishing - U.K. February 2011, $21.95, 252 pp.) officially launched on February 7 and is now on real and virtual shelves in bookstores and online booksellers.
Win a Free Copy. To help celebrate, each business day from February 7 until March 7 I will blog one of the 20 new rules described in the book and will give away one FREE signed copy to a lucky winner. Everyone …Read more...
USDA BioPreferred Announces New Consumer Label
Posted on January 19, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Exciting News! The USDA officially announces a new product label designating certified biobased content. An initiative that we at J. Ottman Consulting are helping to launch, the label will help consumers identify products and packages made with ingredients from agricultural, forest, or marine environments. It will help promote the increased sale of such products, help create green jobs and, with it, new markets for farmers, manufacturers, and vendors. Regulations will appear in the Federal Register on January 20, 2011.
To celebrate the label initiative, the USDA will host an …Read more...
Blown Away by “Wind Uprising”
Posted on January 10, 2011 by Jacquelyn Ottman
Today at lunch, the whole office at J. Ottman Consulting, watched the film Wind Uprising produced by Cathy Hartman & Edwin Stafford, my co-authors of Avoiding Green Marketing Myopia. We loved the film!
Wind Uprising follows the development of a small wind farm in Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah. The film has already won the Silver Sierra Film Award at the Yosemite FIlm Festival and the Seven Summits Award at the Mountain Film Festival. Next week (Jan 19-20, 2011), it will be …Read more...
