Riding the Green Wave in April

Ann Curry's special on NBC - "Our Year of Extremes: Did #ClimateChange Just Hit Home" - was well done and provided a necessary reminder - in simple a+b=c terms that there is little doubt it is people that are impacting our planet's dramatic weather changes. And watching the report as both an ad sales marketer and someone passionate about sustainability, something was clearly missing. Something as glaring as those glacier images. Not one advertiser in that show grabbed the opportunity to align their brand with corporate social responsibility. And not one advertised product was anything endemic to the area of sustainability. There were half a dozen ads for QSRs and fast food restaurants, a couple of department stores and (ironically) insurance companies, many cleaning products, and even those land-filling coffee pods. I'm from the "it'll never be perfect but at least we can try" camp. So, where was Starbucks and its sustainability effort? Where were CSX or Amtrak touting fuel-saving transportation modes? How about even a fuel-efficient or hybrid car? Even Microsoft - which PRNews just applauded as the most socially responsible company of 2013. Instead, we saw ads for (ironically) air fresheners and burgers.

A few years back #NBC launched its fairly wide-reaching "Green in Universal" effort. Where's the beef now? Around then, #CBS bought a smart little company EcoMedia, which while today still allows ads for mainstream brands to feature a leaf in the corner of your screen, indicating a portion of the ad buy is being donated to environmental causes, I haven't seen a leaf in a long time. Now, just as when waves of consciousness were spurred by things like long fuel lines then diminished when the lines went down, it seems it has grown less ...convenient?... to wave a green flag. Yet media media gives a nod to extra eco-content in April -- Earth Day month  

But as every marketer today will tell you, ads are most effective when more "native" to the content and appropriately aligned. So, some cynics might cry "greenwashing" if the Climate Change special had ad loads of more environmentally conscious products, but even they would have to agree that the AD environment was better suited to sponsors who at least tried to grab the opportunity to shine their sustainability spotlight a little bit brighter.

It had to happen...Less Green for More Green

Yesterday I got a solicitation in email to purchase the new study from Natural Marketing Institute on the Mainstreaming of Sustainability.

 It has been nine years since NMI conducted the first... research study on the Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability (LOHAS) marketplace. In 2002, only a few companies were talking about sustainability. [Now] most Fortune 100 companies have C-level sustainability staff and have infused sustainability throughout the organization so that it is everyone's responsibility to consider the environmental and social impacts of their products and operations.

Today I received an solicitation in email to purchase a Green Deal of the day.  Now, I'm a big fan of Groupon, LivingSocial, ideeli, you name it.  I know, I know: higher consumption... but less gas when buying daily deals online vs at brick and mortars! But check out the Green Deal rationale, which makes sense to ME:

You want that big coupon for that local restaurant or that online retailer that makes you call all your friends because you can't believe what an amazing deal you just got.  But you don't want to get great savings at the expense of your commitment to taking care of people and the planet.

Now you can get a great deal AND support the companies who share your values.

  So, I love that now, instead of all our early cries about mainstream companies jumping on the green bandwagon, now the green guys are going mainstream.  At this point, I'm all for things moving both ways, and finding a good, green middle ground. 

Don't Push Mainstream off the Green Bandwagon

I read a tweet ( RT rocknrod The dirty tricks behind local-washing: How national corporations are co-opting the idea of "local"... ) that led me to Indyweek.com for that post on Localism. I think this is an article worth reading. With a caveat. Read the reader comments, and this post, too. And tell me what you think.

I agree with most of the comments: very good in-depth reporting and awareness raising. I am, however, sensitive to the fact that there are a LOT of buzzwords -- greenwashing, astroturfing -- and labels incorporated into the article...and a proposal that we create yet ANOTHER label ("independently owned.")

I'm not opposed to creating clear and transparent descriptions, but I also know -- as evidenced by one of the earliest reader comments -- there is already massive consumer confusion. It's bad enough that we don't have consistent certification programs for green businesses and services, so it's easy to stake a claim and risk being accused of "greenwashing." But I try to minimize use of that word because the fact is, among mainstream consumers, there's still a TON of education and action that has to happen to get the majority on a green path.
We don't want to add to the cynicsm and give mainstream a chance to fall OFF the green bandwagon before we get them on it.

Just as Adam Werbach of Saatchi & Saatchi S is a proponent of moving the sustainability* movement description towards the word BLUE to be more encompassing of the issues, LOCAL is another issue that falls under that category. Do we need to keep chunking things out? What about when "Independently Owned" soon becomes besmirched by the "Home Gardened" crowd or the "Virtual Workers Creating Less Carbon" (me.)? We run the risk of alienating people with too much pressure on politically correct labeling before we've had a chance to educate them in general about simple steps to take at the very least. Again, I'm a big fan of the content and intention...just hoping we can put emphasis on action vs labeling.

I remain perhaps a Pollyanna in promoting my mantra that every step is a good step... even if it is a corporation using marketing to move the ball forward...for NOW. Let's start the skewering AFTER we've saved the world!

*Sustainability: Not robbing the future of resources for today's business practices (Think adherance to triple bottom line people (fair trade, etc.), planet (eco-conscious) AND profit.)

It's a small (green marketing) world after all

We are continuing to see an increase in consumer awareness of and demand for more things green. It's time that products marketing to conscious-consumers moved away from the expected "leafy green" approach and got a little more mainstream.

I just got back from the GoGreen Expo in NYC, and was pretty impressed by the number of booths and the variety of eco-oriented products. A lotta baby clothes and body lotions. Water filters and water bottles. Bags and antioxidants, etc. Hundreds of booths and new products.

But whether at the Expo or at the other events and sites I visit, I'm seeing a lot of unsophisticated design and underwhelming marketing in this space. I know how scary it can feel for a start up or small business to invest in good creative, but it doesn't have to be expensive. And there is everything to gain when trying to reach this now very eager audience.

Even the more established companies (relatively speaking) are using conspicuously similar styles... Check out these three companies -- and I happen to be a big fan of each of them -- but look at their logos!:

http://www.vivavi.com/ -- Leafy "V"
http://www.verterra.com/ - semi Leafy V
http://www.veevlife.com/ - double leafy V

Granted, my logo for Moss Appeal Green could be considered a close cousin of the leafy icon, but I come by my last name by birth! Plus it's a brand extension from my main Moss Appeal logo, which was designed to depict that our work has both "mass appeal" but speaks to the target on a 1:1 basis...AND echoes a type of moss plant, which you can see an image of on my home page. I'm not saying the logos for the above companies are not perfectly fine; I was just struck by the similarity of their looks...as well as the pervasive "beige colors and leaf pictures" at the whole expos.

There's one company doing it really well, and it's paying off: Green Apple Cleaners has a "clean" look, and impressive collateral to match. They're even savvy (and authentic) enough to be aligning themselves with the effort to make the Newton Pippin NY's "official apple." (But even they use a little plant cradled in two hands, with leaves that look like one of the logos above, as one of the images on their site.)

The time is now to start creating cool marketing that speaks to the mainstream more, because eco-sensitive products deserve to BE mainstream! We haven't had the opportunity for as big a change in consciousness as we're going through now in decades. Companies hoping to promote their "green appeal" as I like to call it, really owe it to themselves AND to us to get their good green word out there in the most stand-out way possible.

Call me.

Green Dregs and Spam

Well, it happened. Green spam. This is not just "greenwashing" or companies sending emails about their new-found consciousness using images, as my favorite eco-marketing mentor Jacquie Ottman would say, of "babies, planets and daisies."

The good news could be that some understanding of the problems at hand are trickling down and being grasped by enough of the general population so spammers think their .00001% average response will work even for a highly suspect fuel solution product. Or maybe I'm just on a Bleeding Heart Database because of my eco-activities and got it. along with only the .

But yesterday I got spammed about converting my car (I live in NYC - no car) to run on water.... "all for the low, low price of..."

There has been a lot written about "Brown's Gas" or HHO, and a lot of pretty smart people have been working hard at extracting energy from water (and I'm all for them figuring out how to finally perfect a FUSION vs. fission nuclear power plant.) But if a lot of other smart people are to be trusted then I'm putting my money on the pundits who posted about this on wikipedia, vs. the guy who is trying to sell converters for my car. (Whoops -- YOUR car. Remember? I don't have one.)

So if you want to have at it, I'll forward you the ad and maybe you'll be the one in .00001 that buys this, puts it in your Chevy and will write back and tell us all how it worked for you!

Keeping Up

I try to keep up. Maybe I'm better than the average Joe(ette) with techno gizmos and social media stuff. But sometimes I feel woefully left behind. Thanks to new friend and followee on Twitter, Iyna, I learned about Google Alerts the other day. Where have I been!?
Since she's a PR maven, I told her how I'd been interviewed a couple of times recently and never knew if my comments made the cut. She showed me how to track alerts about me. So today, I check in...and voila! There was something about "branding by consultant E.B. Moss". Whaa?? Another brand marketer named E.B.? Hmmm...
I click on the alert link and...
Ce's t moi!

A few months ago, I spoke on branding, quite eloquently I thought, at the Alliance for Community Media International conference in D.C. I knew someone was taping it for their internal review, but didn't catch her name.
Well, someone -- whether the woman shooting it or someone who downloaded it -- created two clips of me. Not so pretty clips. But a couple of my smarter comments, I must say! Now, I know I can be verbose, but I'm sad to say my brilliant 35-minute branding presentation got summarized pretty well in two thirty-five second clips!

(But speaking of clips, who did my hair and makeup that day?)

If you want me to come do the long or short version on the basics of branding (OR my Appealing Shade of Green marketing schpiel) at YOUR next seminar or company meeting, let me know. (I'll get my blow-dryer ready.)

Season's Greenings - Recyled News You can Use...

On the one hand, we're exiting a year that is on record as one of the Top Ten HOTTEST...and I don't mean cool hot. I mean polar bears endangered hot. On the other hand, I'm pretty excited that as 2009 kicks in, all of the projects I'm scheduled to work on so far each are either bonafide environmentally conscious or at least have a tinge of green. That's pretty different from just three years ago when I was trying to get clients to at least let me purchase post-consumer waste paper for their sales kits.

But of course we still a ways from green streaks being mainstream speak.

Anyway, one of the projects will be the branding/marketing from the ground up, so to speak, of an eco-conscious improvement on an existing service-industry category (yes, that's all I can say for now!)... Another will be a mall tour for one of my mainstream media clients, but I got them to add an "e-cycle" overlay. It's this tour that got me thinking about sharing some of the stuff I've come across in researching electronics recycling providers.

At last year's Greener Gadgets conference (which is coming up again in February and for all you green gear heads out there it's a very cool event), I met the founders of three new companies:

1. Myboneyard.com, which pays you for a lot of the stuff you'd just drop off for recycling (but things change quick. Last year I researched what they'd pay for my old Pentium Toshiba and it was about $35. This year it's worth bubkus to them.)
2. Solio, which keeps your gadgets charged by the sun;
3. HyMini (an unfortunate name that comes from Hybrid and Miniaturized, but still. Clearly they didn't talk to Moss Appeal first about their branding), which keeps your gadgets charged by the wind or sun or handcrank.

But, like I said, things changed. Now there more cash-for-trash sites and portable powerpacks out there, even as Solio and HyMini have evolved more...and a ton of ways to e-cycle, even in Alabama. And if you're lucky enough to live in a house vs. apartment, you might check out the Power Cost Monitor to show you exactly how much you just saved when you turned off that appliance or shut off your laptop when you left the room!

So, as you clear out the old (my never ending battle in my world of packrat meets closet-challenged apartment) and try to welcome a little less of the new, here are good sites with links to some of the e-cycling centers that should help. If that's still to hard to deal with, Waste Management and other companies will send you a postage-paid box you can fill with old electronics, for a fee.

Season's Greenings, and an abundance of health, wealth and happiness in the new year to you all.

Blue Green?

In the May 5th issue of AdAge, Adam Werbach wants to shift focus to a new BLUE movement to embrace more consumer comfort and eradicate the growing consumer green fatigue:

"Blue is a platform for sustainability that goes beyond the deep, beautiful green of environmentalism. Green puts the planet at the center of the dialogue; blue puts people -- consumers and shoppers -- at the center."

This is a head-spinning topic, and while Werbach makes some worthy points, I hope the dialog doesn't obfuscate the objectives:
In other words...We've gotta get going here!


One article commenter makes a good point:

"If fatigue is prevalent among some circles, it's because we have yet to offer the consumer clarity. Throwing in new terms or words such as "blue" doesn't help move us closer to a common understanding. I would hesitate to guess the average person wouldn't have any idea what "blue" means."

The heads of Corporate Social Responsibility from Discovery, Amex and Price Waterhouse Cooper spoke at a terrific panel discussion from the IABC last week. But the first part of the panel had to do with what the heck we should be calling CSR: Corporate Citizenship? Corporate Philanthropy? Cause Branding? I know that clear communication is key to getting the message out there...and we'd like to be able to have a phrase that we can all refer to for common ground. Like, say, "Green." It's just easier, even if, say, "Green" is a subset of social responsibility.


(FYI: If you are practicing social responsibility as a company, you're most likely going to INCLUDE "sustainable" actions, like not polluting and using up virgin forests for your paper needs. BUT social responsibility ALSO means you're looking out for your workers and being a good corporate citizen by doing things like supporting the local library or whathaveyou. So "green" is a subset -- a PART of doing good overall. If you want more, contact me and I'll share some pages from my eco-education deck.)


Back to my point, since I let the words get in my way: I worry that debating the phrasing too much can get in the way of action. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" As a marketer, I'm all about proper positioning to get a clear and effective message out there.

But, to borrow from that company with a swoosh, let's "Just Do It" already!

Green Streak

This week has given me the opportunity to reflect privately and publicly about all things ecological and not so logical. I sent a note to some clients and prospects right around Earth Day, and have been pondering how in less than a year, that became a borderline faux pas. Ad Age published my reaction and plenty of others to their article about marketers glomming on to the event like a materialistic Christmas grinch. I'm a little optimistic about good green intentions, despite the "road to hell" and all that. But it did give me pause.

I'm constantly "checking in" and running through a mental check list about my own eco-actions. They say it takes three weeks of doing something consistently to start to form a habit. I know my reasons for not eating meat started from reading "Diet for a Small Planet" (still a great book) back in the '70s, but I sometimes think now it's more a habit than anything; I'm just USED to skipping to the vegetables and fish on a menu and not even considering any other options. But that's a 30 year old "habit" by now!

I've always loved antiques and the concept of "repurposing" perfectly good items (influenced that childhood favorite book, "The Boxcar Children," from even longer ago, perhaps?) And I have pangs of guilt if I toss so much as an envelope into the garbage instead of the recycle bin, so I guess that's a habit.

Motivated by saving green and going green, I tried to break an unconscious shopping habit by forming a new NON-shopping habit. I forswore buying anything other than replacing necessities, except for dinners out, etc. That meant I passed by ALL the January post-holiday sales (except for one shirt I got with an expiring gift certificate) and even worked to work my way through the old travel size shampoos I'd stored up like a squirrel before allowing myself to indulge in a new full sized bottle.

Then spring happened. And conspiring with that like the perfect storm was a big going out of business sale at my favorite store. Four dirt-cheap but fabulous skirts and shirts later I felt like a glutton after a midnight snack. Truth be told, I'm still pretty proud of myself. I was on the wagon for for 15 weeks of purchasing only necessities, and intend to get right back on.

Lots of people have done this, and done it better; there are plenty of blogs and books describing the experience in different levels. It's astonishing to look around at all I have, and see all I don't need more of. And it was (make that is) a big deal for me, a recovering shopaholic, and was an important habit to FORM, just like recycling or buying local.

I may fall off the wagon again, but I believe I'm officially in the conscious consumer camp now...daycamp perhaps, but

pre-Fatigue Fatigue

I'm worried. The more we see and hear the green message, the greater the chance for the planet-killjoys to circle the wagons with cries of "it's a trend!"

Last night I attended a mainstream networking event. Instead of the usual pats on back and looks of intrigue from most people who hear I have Moss Appeal Green, a couple of clearly conservative fellows in the finance and real estate worlds actually challenged me to a little eco-duel. ("Come on, E.B. ...Isn't "green marketing" just trying to get companies to look like they're doing stuff?" or "This won't make any difference," "it's a passing phase," etc.)

I believe I won. I think a "trend" or "fad" is based on sizzle, not meat or merit. We have no choice but to embrace this and get used to the need for substantive change.

But they are getting tired of hearing eco-this and sustainable that. I think that is the good news and the bad news. Per my previous comments, I think when we get tired of hearing the message is when it may finally be sinking in. But miles to go before we sleep.

Green doyenne, Jacquie Ottman, fought back a little in today's Sustainable Brands Weekly newsletter in a blurb on "green fatigue." See that, and my supporting comment, below it.
And don't give up on us yet!

Putting it in Green Perspective, Pt. 1

Reuters had a story on Thursday about a study, vetted by the EPA, that confirmed the impact an individual household can have by simply opting to receive and pay bills online vs. paper statements and checks.

The average U.S. household receives about 19 bills and statements and makes about seven payments by paper each month. Apparently, by switching to electronic bills, and payments, "the average American household would save 6.6 pounds of paper a year, save 0.08 trees, and not produce 171 pounds of greenhouse gases -- the equivalent of driving 169 miles." The great thing about this article is twofold: it confirmed that individual acts DO make a difference, and it QUANTIFIED things in a pretty tangible way.

Now, for some people, it may still be hard to grasp what 6.6 pounds of paper a year feels like, or the impact of 171 pounds of greenhouse gases. But luckily the article goes on to describe it even more clearly with help from the Pay It Green Alliance, of banks and others who have teamed up to encourage electronic statements and payments.

The Alliance, formed in November of '07, has a terrific page on their site with facts that were also quoted in the Reuters article. And THESE are the examples that really help you wrap your brain around the impact little old you can make. For example: They put that 171 pounds of greenhouse gas in other understandable quantities like:

• The emissions avoided by not consuming 8.8 gallons of gasoline
• Planting 2 tree seedlings and allowing them to grow for 10 years
• Preserving 24 square feet of forestland.

I could save 24 sq feet of forestland...and the $100 a year or so in postage on mailing bills at the same time? Cool!

And then they gross it up for you for what that equates to if 20% of US Households paid bills electronically, which would mean greenhouse gas reduction the same as:

• Taking 325,722 cars off the road
• The emissions avoided by not consuming 200 million gallons of gasoline
• Planting 45.6 million tree seedlings and allowing them to grow for 10 years
• Preserving 12,405 acres of forestland

I always work to create "benefit-based" green or mainstream marketing programs for my clients, thinking about the WIFM -- the "What's in it for Me" -- that the end-user would care about. By putting themselves in the shoes of the average American, who has been hearing all this "green " this and "eco" that but is tempted to not participate because s/he is just one person, it's this kind of information that personalizes it and really shows exactly "What's in it for EVERYONE."

PS: A great book that takes this concept to the next level is The Green Book.

Driving (Green) Responsibly

I had an inspiring call with a prospective "green" client today. A couple of reminders and came out of it.

First: In the green scheme, no one (or business) is perfect.
What is perfect is being on the path to making a difference.
I remember when I attended a green marketing seminar last year, speakers from a really worthy company called ICESTONE apologized to the audience for not have a ZERO carbon footprint. Maybe they were, like, a "one" -- or a "two." This company recycles glass into a more eco-friendly countertop material that is BEAUTIFUL. They hire and manufacture locally, encourage employees to bike to work, they are Cradle to Cradle certified ...and on and on. They are doing almost everything right, and what isn't perfect they are aiming to improve.

But they were apologetic. And that was when I realized our potential as a society for throwing stones at glass espousers. C'mon! If only we were all as close to a zero footprint as them! So, I think, if you're not on the path, get on it. If you're on it, take another step, or hopefully three!

Second: There's more to doing right as a company than being green(er).
My prospective client has gotten on the green path; eliminating plastic from the cafeteria, changing their lightbulbs, using post-consumer waste paper...the boss drives a Prius, etc. They've even started an employee green committee to start evangelizing more eco-conscious behavior. They are on the way, and looking to Moss Appeal Green to help them head further down the green brick road. GREAT!

So, in researching some of their stakeholders I discovered that their corporate parent has put extensive support behind supporting economically disadvantaged children and community programs. That's really their calling card. Not a lot of bucks behind environmental causes. But that's okay. (See above.)

Just as PR is one area of marketing, green is one area of social responsibility. And customers are looking to companies to demonstrate corporate social responsibility overall.

This reminded me of something I did some years back in a promotion created for IKEA. It was a cause-related promotion with a green element:

We tied a consumer promotion in to the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger. The theme was Improve Your World. We'd help “improve the world” through donations and matching contributions to the national program. We'd help improve the consumer's local world by awarding a dining room set to a winner from each store location and make a contribution in their name to an area food shelter. Finally, we did it all around Earth Day, and held in-store events that taught kids to “Plant an extra row” to help fight hunger.

So, my prospective client can start to impact change in their own back yard by first creating programs that are consistent with its owner's goal of giving back to the community, even if they are only tinted with green...Maybe a coat drive, to recycle for the benefit of area kids, for example.

The point is, any socially responsible program contributes to the greater good, and if honoring the "brand" of the corporate parents will help them get buy-in from the top down for more support, it will lead to respect from the very ground on up.