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Recent Posts by David Wigder
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Marketing green can be a challenge for even the most seasoned professional. There are many reasons for this of course: consumer beliefs are still evolving; demand is not well established; and even where it is, purchase behavior tends to be inconsistent (e.g., the same consumer buys the hybrid and the SUV). For green marketers to be successful, they must effectively and efficiently target their audience when and where consumers are most receptive to green messaging. For marketers, this is no easy task. While green content sites or periodicals may seem like a natural fit, advertisers must remember that consumers come in all shades of green. As such, focused periodicals may only reach “deep greens” which today represent only a fraction of the total population
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While creating and sharing user-generated content is an effective way to facilitate consumer engagement and viral marketing, it is not the only approach that marketers can take. Professionally produced original content is another proven way. Increasingly, agencies or production studios create and seed content on behalf of their clients for consumers to view and share online. One such shop is Free Range Studios which has produced several original videos that have generated significant buzz and viral impact in the green space. Calling its approach “socially conscious viral entertainment”, Free Range tries to “distill a complicated message into a fun or moving short story” while engaging its viewers by allowing them “to write the end of that story by taking action or
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Recently, the Canadian Standards Association updated its guide for making environmental claims. While not legally binding, such standards provide guidelines for industry and advertisers when it comes to making environmental claims. The intent is to protect consumers from false advertising claims regarding the environment. In many ways, this document foreshadows likely changes from a similar review of US guidelines underway by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Arguably, the current FTC guidelines are long overdue for a refresh given the dramatic evolution in the green space that has occurred since they were last reviewed a decade ago. As such, it is widely expected that the FTC will expand its jurisdiction to include terms that have only recently been added to the vernacular
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A recent survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit identified both the top influencers of – and benefits derived from - corporate environmental risk management (CERM) programs. Two things are curious about these survey results. First, customers and investors rank relatively low in influence (fourth and seventh, respectively) despite the fact that “better corporate reputation” among these groups ranks as the primary benefit for launching CERM in the first place.
Second, “regulators” and “government” exert significant influence – second only to “executive management” – on companies to initiate CERM programs; in terms of benefits, however, “improved relations with regulators” ranks only eighth.
Risk Manager Responses from Recent Survey by
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Eco-labels influence consumer behavior in two ways. First, they introduce green as a considered attribute at the point of sale. Second, they enable consumers to comparison shop based on green. Over the past few years, there have been many new eco-labels launched by governments, manufacturers and retailers. Many of these labels are listed on Consumer Reports’ Greener Choices site.
Interestingly, the Natural Marketing Institute’s 2007 LOHAS Consumer Trends Database report determined that not all eco-labels have the same impact. In fact, consumers indicate that they are more likely to make eco-friendly purchase decisions if the eco-labels are also widely recognized and trusted brands in of themselves. Familiar labels for programs like the
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Driving Engagement and Viral Marketing Impact in Green: Part I - User-Generated Content
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Today, more and more marketers are trying to launch campaigns that have the twin goals of increasing consumer engagement and viral marketing impact. For many marketers, it often appears that achieving these goals is more a matter of art. Yet, platforms such as Brickfish are emerging that are rapidly turning such an approach into a science.
Brickfish is an online marketing platform that rewards participants for engaging with brands. The idea is quite simple: participants come to the Brickfish site and choose which campaign they would like to participate in. They have an opportunity not only to create content but to review and vote on existing content as well as to share with others through email and IM and across multitudes of social media sites. Behaviors are rewarded directly or through a chance to win prizes for “most popular” or “most viral” entries.
Several eco-friendly brands have launched campaigns using the Brickfish platform including Origins, North Face and Honest Foods.
What is interesting is the transparency by which Brickfish reports campaign results. While most agencies are beholden to their clients for their results that they generate, it is rare that such results are shared openly outside of corporate marketing circles. In the case of Brickfish, visitors can track total activities conducted on the site including user-generated content entries, reviews, votes and views. Moreover, visitors can rank content by user preference as well as viral reach.
Impressively, Brickfish provides users with a visualization of each viral campaign enabling marketers to understand how content is shared between users from one application to another.
Green marketers should consider such a platform. Not only is this a efficient way to engage consumers (clients pay on a cost-per-engagement basis), but the results provided by Brickfish are impressive, as the company claims that their “viral marketing approach…has proven to be 5 to 10 times more effective than traditional online marketing methods such as display ads or search optimization.”
Moreover, campaigns for green products should naturally align with this type of marketing as it empowers users to engage with and share brands that also represent a cause. As such, aconsumers’ association with a product is actually an expression of themselves in terms of what they believe and how they live their lives (or at least how they like to be perceived). As a result, green products are ripe for viral marketing campaigns.
Marketers seeking an edge should seek out new ways to reach and engage consumers. Brickfish provides a compelling approach for green marketers and the results to back it up.
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