Jacquie Ottman's
Green marketing Blog

Jacquie Ottman's Green Marketing Blog

20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 8.

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 …Read more...

 

20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 7.

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 …Read more...

 

20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 6.

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 …Read more...

 

20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 5

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 …Read more...

 

20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 4.

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 …Read more...

 

20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 3.

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 …Read more...

 

20 New Rules. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win: New Rule of Green Marketing Number 2.

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), …Read more...

 

“The New Rules of Green Marketing” Launches Today! Win a Free Copy. New Rule Number 1.

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 …Read more...

 

20 New Rules of Green Marketing. 20 Free Books. 20 Chances to Win

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 …Read more...

 

USDA BioPreferred Announces New Consumer Label

BioPreferredExciting 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.

Read more...

 

Blown Away by “Wind Uprising”

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 …Read more...

 

Outlook for Reforming Greenwashers in 2011: Expect Support from Private Sector Only

In response to a recent query from a European colleague, look for any impetus to reform U.S. greenwashers — inadvertent and intentional, during 2011 to come from the private, not government sector.

The revised FTC green guides are not expected before Spring 2012 (It will likely take that long for them to absorb comments gathered through 12/10/10.) Given the time and resources needed to review the comments and develop revised, final Green Guides, I don’t think FTC will take aim at any save the most flagrant greenwashers in …Read more...

 

Green Marketing 3.0 Can Re-ignite Interest in Green

Rumors of green’s demise are being greatly exaggerated.  In this year of fiery political passions, the word “revolt” is in the air.  However, I think Ad Age inhaled a whiff of the zeitgeist and incorrectly applied the term to consumers supposedly cooling in their ardor for green products.  “Has Green Stopped Giving? Seeds of Consumers Revolt Sprouting Against Some Environmentally Friendly Product Lines” trumpets the headline of a recent Ad Age article.  The author quotes Timothy Kenyon, director of GfK Roper’s Green Gauge study who more judiciously describes the …Read more...

 

A Better Approach to Tackling Greenwashing Than Pointing Fingers

I have been doing a lot of finger-pointing of late in response to Terrachoice’s latest 2010 Sins of Greenwashing “Home and Family Edition”. Two wrongs don’t make a right. So, let me clarify my position—and in keeping with my normal positive self, offer some concrete suggestions for moving the industry forward.

Rather than analyzing green marketing claims as they appear on the shelf and concluding there’s either something ill-intended about the marketers’ making them (however, clumsily tongue in cheek), or that greenwashing is nearly impossible to avoid, let’s start by …Read more...

 

Terrachoice’s Sins of Greenwashing Report—Time for Industry Self-Regulation?

dried green paint Most of you are familiar with      Terrachoice’s “Seven Sins of   Greenwashing” report.  On a webinar aired in late October, CEO Scott McDougall admitted that his firm never intended to be malicious in their use of the term, “sins”.  He believes that most of the “sins” of greenwashing being committed today are really not sins at all, but rather, inadvertent missteps. 

Call me literal, or not a fan of hyperbole, but I believe that calling, in effect, …Read more...

 

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