John Grant argues that green marketing is not just the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do
Green issues and marketing can work against each other. One wants you to consume less, the other more. One rejects consumerism, the other fuels it. But they aren't always opposed. Marketing can help sell new lifestyle ideas. It's a much-needed function when we all need to act fast to mitigate the effects of climate change.
And with drastic changes to everyday life there is a big marketing challenge, one that's analogous to the work that's been done in IT to turn us from a population of technophobes to happy surfers. We need to make green alternatives seem normal and acceptable (as opposed to greenwash, the process of making normal stuff seem green.)
Green marketing is a creative opportunity, to innovate in ways that make a difference and at the same time achieve business success. Green marketing may only be the tip of the iceberg but our job is important because what we do is visible. We are where all of the developments behind the scenes in business and government meet people's lives. We are part of the reason why big corporates with responsibility built in, why product and service inventors, why cultural change campaigns and why new business models may thrive. We can fan the flames of public enthusiasm. Which is why more companies and politicians will rush into this space. Not just because it is the right thing to do. But because it is smart too.
Marketing is understood to be influential in shaping people's lifestyles and attitudes. Despite their reservations about our historical contribution to consumerism, where some of the darkest greens get interested is the potential for us to help in persuading people to shift lifestyles. That's tricky in the precise form they imagine it because most people don't want to live that way. We need to make it more attractive and normal. Achieve the same green outcomes but in a very different cultural guise.
Marketing's main potential role is to make more people willing and able to go green. We can do this in a number of ways:
. Education: the more people know about this stuff, the more they want to do
. Get green living out of the green lifestyle niche
. Extend green culture and lifestyles beyond the middle classes (to the 60% of the population who see themselves as working class)
. Acculturation: make outlandish green choices attractive in cultural terms and make damaging current practices (like excessive flying) unattractive, ostracised
Having looked at the magnitude of the task, it's clear that marketing can do much more than just help spread current good practice. It must help innovate; bring thousands of dramatically better substitutes = products, services and habits - that haven't even been thought of yet to mainstream acceptance. These step change innovations will seem outlandish at times, but marketing can help with that too; marketing is great at normalising things which are otherwise too new and different to be readily accepted. That's what marketing did for computers over the last 20 years. The challenge of the next 20 years is to be part of a green wave of innovation.
The Green Marketing Grid
Source: The Green Marketing Manifesto by John Grant
John Grant co-founded St Lukes' ad agency. Today, he is an independent consultant. His latest book is The Green Marketing Manifesto, published by Wiley