GREEN
Many people and most businesses confuse marketing and advertising, believing they are one and the same. In fact they are separate processes which, if understood and implemented properly, can be the determining factor in a business’ success or failure. GreenStar’s sustainable marketing tactics and strategies can assist any business in understanding and anticipating undeveloped customer needs that can provide a huge competitive advantage.
To help our clients and visitors achieve a better understanding of sustainable marketing and advertising and how these processes can help businesses build affinity, create loyalty, and differentiate themselves from their competition and increase revenues with brief definitions of each component. Businesses that believe marketing and advertising are the same thing limit themselves to only using the most expensive methods to present their products and services.
· SUSTAINABLE ADVERTISING: The free, bartered or paid public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message delivered in a sustainable manner by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a business of its products/services to existing and potential customers.
· SUSTAINABLE MARKETING: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of sustainable business activities and practices intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually beneficial exchange or transfer of products/services.
Sustainable advertising is a single component of the sustainable marketing process. Advertising is the part that involves getting the word out about your business, products or services. It involves developing strategies such as ad creation, frequency, placement and mediums (print, mail, billboards, radio, television, internet and social media). Advertising is typically the largest expense in most marketing plans.
A good way to distinguish between marketing and advertising is to think of marketing as a whole pie (any kind you want). Inside the pie you have several slices; advertising, public relations, market research, media planning, product/service pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategies and community involvement. Advertising is the largest, but only one slice of the pie. The tough part is that all of the elements must not only work independently but also work together toward the success of the business. Marketing is everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange, of economic value, between the business and consumer; it is the all encompassing bedrock of your business.
Sustainable advertising focuses on creating consumer awareness, willingness and expectation in environmentally preferred, value-based purchasing. This drives demand for individual and corporate responsibility, positioning products, programs and services for triple bottom line success with people, planet and profits. We analyze, create and evaluate sustainable messages and deliver them with sustainable media.
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Understanding and anticipating undeveloped customer needs can provide a huge competitive advantage. Consumers have awakened to sustainable practices. They transcend traditional demographic segmentation. They are any race, age, sex or religion. We live in a time when the internet and social media can destroy brands or help elect a president. Consumers spread the word about products and services they like and believe in and trash the ones they don’t.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or as it is often referred to, Corporate Social Opportunity (CSO) IS A $40 billion a year industry. Consumer awareness of sustainable initiatives and practices has reached mainstream status. Businesses who connect with the 76 million people in the 18-34 year old group AND the 30% of the older adult population who are LOHAS (Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability) will be the ones best situated for growth and future success.
MESSAGE AND METHOD
Sustainable advertising and marketing has two main components which may act separately or in concert with each other. The first is the message. This is the process of selling products/services based on their environmental benefits. A product may be environmentally friendly in its design contents, method of production, use, packaging and distribution, and component recyclability or ingredients.
The second sustainable marketing and advertising component is the method of delivering the message. Sustainable marketing and advertising methods:
1. Reduce costs
2. Save trees and paper
3. Reduces landfill waste
4. Reduces or eliminates harmful chemicals associated with printing
5. Reduces energy consumption at all stages of production and delivery
6. Reduces the burden your industry places on the environment and natural resources
7. Improves corporate responsibility to reduce, reuse and recycle
8. Creates triple bottom line thinking and decision making with consideration of all economic, environmental and social issues.
As an example, 50% of consumers consider mailers, flyers, and direct mail to be a waste and bad for the environment.
Additional Benefits of Sustainable Marketing and Advertising
1. Offsets greenhouse gas emissions.
2. Ethical, beneficial, safe and healthy for all concerned.
3. Meet standards for performance, cost and value.
4. Design to reduce use of materials and energy.
5. Maximum use of renewable or recycled materials.
6. Clean productions technologies.
7. Strive to eliminate product and non-product waste.
Adds should be about exchange of useful information on products/services. They should entertain or provide assistance.
Types of adds:
1. Maintenance.
2. Awareness.
3. Reactive.
4. Call to action.
5. Need creation.
6. Engagement.
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1. Be genuine – Meaning you are doing what you claim you do in your ad campaigns or promotions and that the rest of your business is consistent with what you are doing that is environmentally friendly.
2. Educating your consumers – This is more than letting people know you are doing whatever you are doing to protect the environment but also why it is important.
3. Giving customers an opportunity to participate – This means personalizing the benefits of your sustainable actions, usually through letting the customer take part in positive environmental action.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Sustainable creativity and vision:
· 73% of the internet population use social media.
· All advertising is marketing but not all marketing is advertising
· Advertising is a crucial and necessary tool to attract consumers with the goal of action to be carried out, usually to use or buy a product or service, but advertising alone is not enough.
There are lots of ways to market your business that are cheaper than advertising.
· Talk to three of your customers. Ask them what the most dissatisfying thing about your product/service is. Their response will tell you exactly what you need to improve.
Marketing is how customers perceive your business. It is about providing an excellent customer experience, which involves putting systems in place so that customers get a consistent, high-quality experience no matter which employee is working that day.
Rules for employers to follow to assure that every customer gets the same excellent service every single time costs nothing to write down and almost nothing to implement.
Businesses that believe marketing and advertising are the same thing limit themselves to only using the most expensive way to market their products and services.
We can help you increase your brand’s emotional, cognitive and financial connection with today’s sustainable consumer markets.
Consumers are embracing sustainable initiatives.
· Consumer perceptions of environmental, ethical, and social stewardship are the fastest growing contributors to consumer brand value.
· Over 66% of Americans believe “doing well by doing good” is a smart business strategy.
· In the past five years sales of organic and all natural products have increased 18%-25% each year.
· 30% of Americans are willing to pay up to a 20% premium for clean, green, environmentally friendly products/services over non-sustainable alternatives, a number which increases each year.
Women make 85% of all consumer purchases. 25% of all products in a woman’s shopping cart today are environmentally friendly.
Connection to women about green messaging is a huge opportunity: what can your brand do to give women more opportunity to help the planet. 50% want more green choices.
Women are paying attention to brands that are committed to environmental causes, but you must be genuine. 26% of women are not afraid to boycott and 37% will boycott businesses whose values they do not share. On the other hand they will go out of their way to buy from companies whose policies they support.
Women are a $8.5 trillion buying force and they are discovering how going green can cost less and mean more.
Women are:
1. Very opinionated.
2. Passionate about creating a better world for their children, benefits all of us.
3. Fond of telling others what they should do.
4. Eager to empower themselves.
5. Controllers of household finances.
6. Influencers of daily home based habits with far reaching effects:
· What to eat
· How to clean
· How to live efficiently
· How to save money
EMAIL AND INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES ARE GREEN
We are at the beginning of the next industrial revolution. The first one produced a stunning blast of creativity, ingenuity and inventiveness that allowed goods to be mass produced and services to be mass provided. The next industrial revolution will utilize those same assets and the latest technological advances to enable us to become better stewards of our energy, natural resources and the environment. Consumers are increasingly attuned to businesses that are doing something positive for the planet, because that is where their values are increasingly headed. How you place and how you target online advertising determines its success.
TACTICS FOR SUSTAINABLE MARKETING AND ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS
1. Be able to back up claims.
2. Be sure add claims are not deceptive.
3. Be wary of comparative advertising.
4. Avoid unfairness in your adds.
5. Use caution with the word “
6. Use clear concise advertising disclosures.
7. Use advertising and marketing on the internet.
8. Use endorsements and testimonials carefully.
9. Avoid telemarketing.
10. Avoid unsolicited commercial email.
