Consumers and Businesses looking for ‘brand allies’ to help them make the world a better place

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Each of us has a short window of time to make a positive impact in our lives. This drives many of us to find creative ways to manage our time and even integrate goals in both our professional and personal lives.

I think I am representative of a growing market of people (as both a consumer and business owner) that seeks to live by principles at work and at home. I’ve always been intuitive about trends and how they evolve from subcultures to mainstream culture, but I needed to explore this one a bit further, so I set out to find some harder research to back up my hunches.

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This led me to, among other things, a report called Brand Virtue as a Competitive Asset, published in the last quarter of 2009 by Context Marketing and Noesis Research. This report surveyed urbanites like myself in several American cities and in a wide age range—a demographic that is often seen by marketers as an incubator for new trends that eventually go mainstream.

One of the more fascinating insights revealed by this report is that people have expectations of how brands and companies should support causes that make the world a better place. It concludes that we are seeking “brand allies” who share what we believe in most. So what qualities does the report say we value most in brands? See the graph below.

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Yet brands that engage their audience on this level don’t just benefit from a better self-image; they also command higher price premiums and are often more profitable than those that don’t. The graph below shows how much more people are willing to pay for brands with a mission.

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To download the complete report, click here.

New FTC Green Guides expected to Address the Rise of Greenwashing

The average number of ‘green’ products per store almost doubled between 2007 and 2008. Green advertising almost tripled between 2006 and 2008, according to a major report.

Recovering from setbacks at the climate change conference in Copenhagen, the Obama Administration is moving ahead with its agenda to provide stronger leadership to the private sector on environmental issues, with or without the consensus of Congress. This agenda is already having its impact on such agencies as the SEC and the FTC which just recently completed its comprehensive fact-gathering process based on consumer perceptions of green products.

In the Obama era, the FTC is about to get a lot tougher and stricter on green advertising claims made by products and services. In the past, these Green Guides have specifically defined terms used in advertising and marketing communications such as “biodegradable,” “natural,” and “carbon neutral,” to name a few.

In the past the FTC has used its Green Guides to file complaints against companies such as Kmart who made false claims about the biodegradability of paper plate products and a textile manufacturer who represented “eco-friendly” bamboo towels that were manufactured using toxic chemicals. Violators of the Green Guides are subject to criminal and civil prosecution.

Canadian-based TerraChoice Environmental Marketing defines greenwashing as “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.” The Sins of Greenwashing is the name of TerraChoice’s highly-regarded report, first published in 2007 and recently updated to cover 2009.

The update reveals that Greenwashing is on the rise. In fact, 98% of the products on the shelf in the big box retail stores have committed at least on of the seven sins.

Greenwashing is so rampant that a Seventh Sin has emerged. The Sin of Worshiping False Labels is committed by a product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement actually exists, according to http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/. The complete report is available for download.

15 seems to be the magic number for ushering in a new era of climate-conscious marketers

The opening event at COP-15

The 15 warmest years on record since 1856 have occurred in the last 15 years, according to the U.K. Meteorological Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia for the World Meteorological Organization.

It was a mere 15 years ago that an environmentalist wouldn’t dare be in the same room as a Fortune 500 executive. But now, as the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen has shown (COP-15), the convergence en masse of climate specialists and private sector leaders from all over the world reveals that this unlikely partnership is actively involved in integrating climate consciousness into the business model of multinationals as well as small, local businesses alike.

While COP-15 did not result in the intended agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, meetings like the Climate Group’s Climate Leaders Summit showcased the extent to which both small and large private sector players have adopted greener business strategy and practices and developed greener products and services across all industries.

Since marketing contributes much of the vision behind business strategy, it has to be ahead of the eight ball, evaluating consumer and business perceptions about corporate America’s role in addressing the challenge of climate change. After all, sound business strategy is driven by understanding and reflecting target audience’s perceptions.

And an emerging set of studies is showing just how climate conscious consumer audiences are becoming.

A recent BMGG survey reveals that 95 percent of the more than 6,400 shoppers surveyed are open to considering green products, 67 percent of shoppers looked for green products, only 47 percent actually found them and 22 percent purchased some green products on their shopping trip (courtesy of Environmental Leader). This suggests that demand is ahead of supply by a substantial margin and opportunities for new products and services abound.

Tendwatching.com tells us that making it easy for consumers to be green is one of the top 10 trends of 2010. They call it “Ec0-Easy.”

According to the Washington Post, landfill waste was down by 30% in 2009. Robbin Griggs-Lawrence of the Huffington Post explains that consumers are becoming less trashy and more conscious about packaging. “As we consume less, our carbon footprints will get smaller. We’ll buy less, so we’ll waste less packaging,” says Griggs-Lawrence.

But perhaps one of the most interesting insights on this trend comes from Diana Verde Nieto, CEO of Clownfish, a division of Aegis Media (one of the world’s fastest growing marketing communications group). “When brand entertainment is based on the things that really matter, consumers volunteer their attention. It is a move from interruption to attraction.” Read more about this interesting concept at http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/05/20/csr-called-the-new-branded-content/.