Green Product Innovation
How Companies Adopt Green Marketing
Leading brand companies are increasingly recognizing that environmental issues have the potential to impact brand value. Green works as a "third button" in marketing-first marketers focus on price and quality, and then grab the market with green. Consumers passionate about green will remain small, but green products are able to appeal to mainstream consumers by offering "non-green" consumer values (such as convenience and performance). Innovating the products, thus become a challenge to the marketers.
Eco-innovations
Eco-innovations, i.e. developing new products and processes that provide customer and business value but significantly decrease environmental impacts, have attracted increased attention. Consumers are buying green products - but not necessarily only for environmental reasons. The market for organic foods and energy-efficient appliances is growing because consumers desire their perceived safety and accrued money savings.
The increasingly wide varieties of products on the market that support sustainable development include products made from recycled goods; products that can be recycled or reused; efficient products, which save water, energy or gasoline, save money and reduce environmental impact; products with environmentally responsible packaging; organic products which offer promise of quality; a service that rents or loans products - such as toy libraries and certified products, which meet or exceed environmentally responsible criteria.
Green Marketing
It believes that there are five actions that define green brand leaders. These five actions need to be considered by companies looking to label their brands as green:
1. Companies should acknowledge that environmental issues need serious attention and they can be a part of the solution.
2. Leading brands should provide public disclosures of their environmental and social impact.
3. Companies should work hard to build credibility and earn consumer trust over time in relation to these green issues.
4. Companies should recognize that consumer expectations have changed. Consumers expect the products that they purchase would help reduce the environmental impact in their own lives too.
5. Companies should strive to be visionaries who are willing to make bold decisions that redefine their strategy or reshape industry dynamics. Wal-Mart is one of many emerging green visionaries. Wal-Mart has expanded its brand positioning to include not just its long time low cost promise, but also affordable, sustainable products that help customers live better every day. "Save Money. Live Better" is now the Wal-Mart tag line.
The Green Consumer
Environmentally conscious consumers will expect green products to function as effectively as non-green products and won't pay much extra or sacrifice quality for greener products. They will emphasize on personal benefits by using terms such as 'safe', 'non-toxic', 'cost effective' rather than more generalized green messages such as 'biodegradable' or 'ozone friendly'. They will also reinforce product benefits with evidence of corporate environmental performance and improvements.
There are at least five desirable benefits commonly associated with green products: efficiency and cost effectiveness; health and safety; performance; symbolism and status; and convenience. The implication is that marketers need to align green products' consumer value (such as money savings) to relevant consumer market segments (for example, cost-conscious consumers).
Research suggests those consumers most receptive to environmentally oriented marketing appeals are educated women, 30-44, with $30,000-plus household incomes. They are motivated by a desire to keep their loved ones free from harm and to make sure their children's future is secure. They also support local environmental clubs and social causes. Their buying power and their potential to influence their peers makes them a highly desirable marketing target.
Implications
Green marketing must satisfy two objectives: improved environmental quality and customer satisfaction. If there is an imbalance between the two, the situation would lead to "green marketing myopia."
Successful green products avoid green marketing myopia by following three important principles: consumer value positioning, calibration of consumer knowledge, and the credibility of product claims.
Value positioning focuses on a mainstream appeal by bundling consumer-desired value into environmental products in a better way than their "non-green" alternatives, thus targeting relevant market segments. Calibration of consumer knowledge means to educate consumers to connect environmental product attributes with desired consumer value and frame these attributes as "solutions" for consumer needs. Credibility of product claims is ensured when consumer benefit claims are specific, meaningful, unpretentious, and qualified by trustworthy third parties and consumer evangelism is encouraged.
The business community can play a critical role, not just by educating consumers but also by targeting its own employees. Wal-Mart's employees take a pledge to bike to work and set up recycling programs. The company is thus bringing people toward a greener lifestyle. Smart green initiatives can help a company reduce costs, improve efficiency, drive innovation, build employee morale, and enhance the brand image-all of which add tremendous value to the bottom line.
Thus the companies, if they really want to create a green image, should focus on the green innovation issue, not withstanding of course, the core values like quality, pricing and credibility.
Green Marketing
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Business & Finance
Latest Articles