Deja Vu?
Into the “Beyond Petroleum” branding void steps Shell Oil.
This multi-national major oil industry player now has an aggressive new ad campaign, in which Shell is claiming to “unlock” a future world powered by new and numerous energy sources and cleaner fossil fuels.
Now where have we heard that one before?
The campaign, which launched just about a month ago, includes television commercials, print ads, online advertising, outdoor executions and two web sites — www.energygalaxy.com and www.shell.us/letsgo.
In the campaign, Shell informs us that the wolrd will soon be on the road to sustainable mobility and that the good guys and gals at Shell are “ready to help tackle the challenges of the new energy future.”
Not one to kick a fellow petroleum dog when it’s down, Shell’s spokesperson told Advertising Age that the campaign had been in the pipeline for almost a year and that the company felt releasing it now was “the right thing to do.”
A new survey from Grail Research reveals that 85% of consumers are either unaware of, or cannot recall, the green messages and green programs from companies considered to be at the forefront of sustainability initiatives.
Importantly, the research study also showed that consumers rely on product labels (63%) and word of mouth (45%) as their primary sources of information about green companies and their products. Advertising (38%) and corporate web sites (18%) are well behind as sources of information regarding green credentials.
Released in late September, The Green Revolution report is based on a nationwide survey of U.S. consumers.
Key findings include:
· 84% of consumers currently purchase at least some green products.
· Price is the main reason cited (69%) by non-green consumers for not purchasing green products.
· Green consumption has penetratged all demographic segments, but the majority of green consumers are married women with no children under 18 in the home (57%).
· The vast majority (93%) of consumers feel that a company’s “greenness” is at least somewhat important to their purchase decision.
Most importantly, consumners expect green products to be on par or superior to their non-green counterparts with regards to safety (72%), healthiness (70%), quality (66%) and price (65%).
Significantly for marketers, across all product categories almost all consumers who buy green expect to remain green. Plus, those who don’t buy certain categories of green products intend to do so in the future.
It certainly looks like green is the “new black.” This is no passing fad.
What do you think? Add your comments below.
GreenBiz.com is hosting a free webinar on October 15th featuring a panel of experts covering the topic The Green Marketing Landscape: Ratings, Labels, and Certificates.
With the field of Green Marketing in constant flux, many marketers are confused on how their organizations’ “green” marketing messages need to comply with changing customer expectations and legal requirements.
Moderated by GreenBiz.com executive editor Joel Makower, this webinar is designed to address “how to navigate the ins and outs of green marketing effectively and legally in today’s world.”
Topics to be discussed include:
* How to avoid issues surrounding false or deceptive advertising allegations related to environmental or green messages.
* How to motivate mainstream consumers to make sustainable choices.
* The latest developments in green claims validation and product certification.
While this webinar will undoubtedly come from a U.S.-centric perspective, it should nevertheless be informative and useful to marketers around the globe.
For more details and to register for this free webinar, click here.
If you attend and want to share your thoughts, please add your comments below for all to read.
It seems like almost everyone these days wants a Green Brand Name as a way to connote their environmental credentials.
But you have to be careful. There are millions of skeptical consumers (and bloggers) out there!
For instance, guess what the following ten Green Brand Names have in common:
BabyGanics
Wheego Whip
TruGreen
CitraSolv
Motorola Renew
Sheep Poo Paper
Samsung Reclaim
Miessence
Barbie BCause
Pepsi Natural
You’d probably say “not much” at first glance. But all 10 have been named in the Top Ten Worst Green Brands in a blog posting at Fast Company.
Have a read on why these brands have made this “Top Ten” list. You can even add your own suggestions on green brands that are painful to say!
Walmart will soon start requiring manufacturers to compute the full environmental costs of making and distributing their products.
The world’s largest retailer wants to use this information to create a simple green-tag program so its customers will see green label ratings alongside prices on a wide range of goods and products.
“I envision the day that you look at a piece of apparel, you flip a tag over, and learn about how sustainable it really is,” said Walmart Chief Merchandising Officer in an article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. “It would be like the nutritional labeling is today. But there is some standarization that needs to take place.”
Walmart is reportedly making this move to get ahead of potential U.S. environmental-labeling regulations, something the company sees an inevitable and following similar requirements in Britian and Japan.
If Walmart is successful in implementing this system with its diverse supplier chain, it will certainly redefine how products are produced and sold, and add another criterion to the purchase decision process of millions of consumers.
It’s a great step by an organization that is clearly trying to reduce its environmental footprint while remaining the world’s largest retail operation.
Branding, Corporate Image, Green Marketing, Marketing | Steven Howard | 
June 25, 2010 3:09 am | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe
