How to Choose the Right Eco-label for Your Brand

Ad Age Good Works Blog, October 11, 2011

Eco-labels are an excellent way to enhance credibility for green marketing claims, but they are not without risk. While 28% of consumers look to green certification seals or labels to confirm that a product adheres to claims, these labels can also confuse. Happily there's enough method within the madness for marketers to pave a way forward.

Focus on Consumer Self-Interest to Win Today’s Green Customer

Guardian Sustainable Business Blog - September 23, 2011

Today’s consumers want to know the back-story about products and packages, so focus on primary benefits in the context of a full story that incorporates the environment as a desirable extra benefit.

Green Paper: Moving Sustainability Forward

J. Ottman Consulting - June 2011

In this “green paper” Jacquelyn Ottman, founder and principal, J. Ottman Consulting, Inc., proffers that greenwash is a symptom of a larger problem that is preventing consumers from getting more involved in sustainability efforts.

Diagnosing the problem as an immature “eco-system” surrounding the fast growing green marketing industry, she suggests steps the industry can take to build the holistic support it needs from retailers, government, and especially consumers in moving sustainability forward.

Earth to Eco-Labels: Be Consumer Useful or Wither From Lack of Relevance

Sustainable Life Media, August 5, 2011

Why eco-labels, like advertising messages, need to link environmental benefits with primary consumer benefits. (it's the babies, planets and daisies thing all over again.)

Responsible Consumption: The Next Frontier in Green Marketing

MarketingProfs - March 30, 2011

It is not enough to simply buy green products. Consumers must extend their conscious behavior into the home. In this article Jacquelyn A. Ottman explains that manufacturers and marketers should not only design products that use resources efficiently, but—representing an important new frontier for green marketing—they should encourage consumers to use them efficiently during the all-important "use", "after-use" and "disposal" stages of the product's life cycle.

We Are All Green Consumers, Now and for the Future

Environmental Leader - February 17, 2011

Jacquie Ottman discusses how "green has [become] mainstream" in past, present, and future generations.

Eight Myths About Green Products and a Secret about the Hispanic Market

Hispanic MPR - Feb 18, 2011

Eight myths about green products and insights into how the Hispanic market may be just as green as the mainstream in general.

Focus on Values Drives Growth in Green Consumerism

Green Economy Post - February 23, 2011

Jacquie Ottman discusses the consumer revolution that is driving the phenomena of sustainability marketing outlining six new rules being written by consumers for manufacturers and marketers. While in the past consumers bought solely on price, performance, and convenience, today they are increasingly making their purchasing decisions based on additional criteria such as how products are sourced, manufactured, packaged, disposed of - and even such social aspects as how factory and farm workers are treated -- now all of these other factors also matter.

Why “Save The Planet” Pitches Don’t Work With Mainstream Green Consumers

MENG Blog - February 18, 2011

Green Marketing has gone mainstream. Strategies from Jacquie Ottman on representing green brands in the new market to emphasize added value and quality.

The New Green Marketing Paradigm

Marketing:Green Blog from MediaPost

Marketing has changed. Seven important strategies for dealing with today's increasingly savvy consumers, and their demands for green products and services. Avoid "greenwash" and use these tips to represent your brand in the powerful new green market.