It seems everywhere I look “Going Green” is more than a popular trend, it’s taken on a life of its own.
When selecting a marketing position in your marketing plan for a product or company, I’ve always found that looking at popular trends helps to go with the tide. You’ve heard the saying, “a rising tide raises all boats.”
I do caution if you’re going to position your business, product or service as a “green” one, you better be careful to look at all elements of your distribution channel as well as just the obvious benefits of your product.
 Here is an interesting 20 minute video that is sure to become a discussion starter. It’s a sustainability green soapbox that makes sense in so many ways: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ It sure makes me think twice about so many products that I use or used to use regularly.
I’ve always considered packaging to be a very important part of marketing, both consumer and business-to-business — although consumer packaging usually carries the product and business to business marketing usually contains the sales materials (pocket folder, sell sheets, business cards, article reprints, sales presentation and so on.)
I have a question for you, as consumers, how much stuff do we need? How many of each of these do you have in your household?
- computers
- TVs
- phones
- refridgerators
- cars
As a business professional, how much trash do you generate? How do you dispose of:
- old computers
- outdated sales materials
- worn office furniture
- machinery that’s obsolete
I agree that “going green” is a trend. I wonder, however, if green is a trend more with marketers and CEO’s than it is with consumers.
Marketers like to hop on shiny, new bandwagons to prove they are hip on the latest trend. This, I believe, has resulted in a tidal wave of green marketing. In the process, many businesses have not paid attention to the validity you caution about in your blog.
Jay - I know that marketers like the latest and greatest fad — remember when everything was “smart” or “user friendly”. Just picking a positioning because the positioning is hot is a bad idea — the product and the entire mindset of the company has to pay it off. “Going green” is a positioning that can really backfire if your company/product/service isn’t 100% in that camp.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Chris
Oh, I really hope Green isn’t a trend. Wouldn’t it be great if it was a lifestyle change that only grew larger from this moment? Is that the granola Oregonian in me talking? ;)
One of our current success stories (Cafe Yumm!) is a company who has embraced “green” in their business. I was really impressed by how they look at each choice they make, not only in daily office business but in building materials for their restaurants and ongoing business practices, how best to impact (or not impact) the environment.
This has also jazzed me up to go home and re-evaluate all those boxes of “stuff” I’m hanging onto for a rainy day.