In the past decade, there has been an upsurge of the world-wide discussion concerned with “going green” or becoming “eco-friendly.” As with all things that become mass communicated, as people continue to discuss options about what they can do to make themselves and their homes more “green,” you may wonder if the individuals discussing the matter even understand what the term means or represents within the world at large.
The Past
Although most individuals today are trying to follow the “reuse, reduce, and recycle” guidelines established during the Vietnam War in America in the 1970s, many are failing. During that era, individuals began demanding a more investigative approach to the pollution of the environment and water by big corporations, cities, and countries. Although the movement stalled somewhat in the 1980s, it picked up steam again in the mid-1990s and has been pressuring individuals and businesses alike to take a “greener” approach to living on planet earth.
The Consumer
For many years “going green” was touted as a trend that would fade away as it had in the early era of environmental awareness, but as with all things consumer-driven, the movement took an unexpected turn to find strength and a wave of awareness struck the globe in an overwhelmingly surprising movement.
With the demand of consumers, even businesses have jumped on board to try and become more eco-aware; and over the past two decades, businesses have become much more environmentally conscious. From using more efficient light bulbs to lowering heat and cooling temperatures to providing recyclable tote bags, businesses have joined the trend toward an eco-friendlier environmental practice.
The Approach
As consumers become more interested in how businesses approach the environment, the bar has been raised several times. This, in turn, has led businesses to increase their green practices, but it has also increased the number of green products and how products are constructed in a more earth-friendly way.
The Label
To help you better understand what consumers are demanding from business owners, you should become familiar with a term called “green marketing” which is a method of advertising that improves the economy and ecology. In other words, the practice stresses going paperless, using social media instead of paper advertising, and producing products, goods, and services that leave a small footprint, and require a small mark in the creation process as well.
To clarify, consumers are demanding an all-in approach from businesses that claim they are going “green.” Consumers have become savvy enough to check production methods, location of construction, and how the business practices of each “green” business alter the earth or if the production practice is sustainable. To be “green” in the new world means your business needs to be more than just a word on a label; it needs to qualify as “eco-friendly” as a whole unit.
The Lies
For companies that began marketing themselves as a “green” option in the growing and expanding market of environmentalists, the problem became rampantly visible. While a product may be purchased and once purchased handled environmentally responsibly, the consumer demands that products are created in a safe environment, that children or danger are not part of the production, and that the creation of the product does not harm the environment in any way.
Since so many companies jumped on the eco-friendly advertising campaign with little thought of how clever and tech-savvy the consumer had become, the resultant problem is that many companies created an environment of disbelief for most consumers.
That is, consumers no longer trust advertising campaigns that claim the products are “green” because so many companies fabricated test results or lied about their products in the past. Recent studies show that only 5 percent of the companies claiming to have “green” products were telling the truth – no wonder activists are up in arms!
The Truth
For your company to go “green,” you not only have to be completely upfront and honest about where your products are created, how they are created, and how you got them to your doorstep, consumers must also learn to trust that you are telling the truth. If you use a foreign market to produce your product or do your banking with a GBTI Bank, let the consumer know. The truth will never fail you when it comes to the consumers that are determined to purchase only “green” products because they use social media to promote products much more aptly than any company can advertise their own goods.
The Future
As a business owner, your biggest challenge is to be true to yourself in a world that increasingly demands you also be true to the earth you live on. Whether you choose to produce and market eco-friendly goods, or you prefer to market without is entirely up to your discretion. However, if you do choose the “green” route, remember to keep your company and goods as transparent as possible. If you do, you will win green consumers that stay faithful far into the future because they will trust you.