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Greenwash - it's been emulsional
Posted by: Henry Hicks
Greenwash is certainly a hot topic right now and the green gloss of some companies (and their marketing agencies) is flaking in the heat.
As we've pointed out in our Greenwash Guide, greenwashing is not just irritating it's dangerous; because it undermines people's trust in environmental claims. A few bad apples spoil it for everyone.
And from a comms point of view the frustrating thing is that it's really, really bad marketing.
In a recent post Seth Godin defines great marketing in four words:
Make big promises; overdeliver.
Now compare Seth's definition of great marketing with our definition of greenwash:
Greenwash is an environmental claim which is unsubstantiated (a fib) or irrelevant (a distraction).
Why would you lie to or distract your customers, your employees or any audience? I don't believe that the marketers responsible are doing it on purpose, they just don't really get it.
Back to Seth for some wisdom:
Marketers often make big promises that appear to be unrealistic or are delivered in ways that don't match the worldview of the prospect. Marketers get carried away with themselves and focused on their greatness and forget to tell a story that people enjoy believing.
But (thankfully) there are companies that do get it. Companies that make (ethical) promises and overdeliver, that live their values and wear them openly, and are honest when it comes to improving on what they're doing already.
And they're the ones we love, the ones we recommend to our friends, the ones we want to work for. Companies like howies, innocent, The Body Shop. I'm sure you can name your own. Companies with great stories and great people.
Keeping the promises we make and living up to the stories we tell gives us the credibility we need to operate as individuals or businesses.
The greenwashers out there are like kids at school who lie to win attention. It’s a bad strategy that most of us grow out of pretty quickly. Let’s hope that marketers are as quick to learn.
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The problem for many organisations that have made a commitment to sustainability is how to convince a sceptical, even cynical media, that they are sincere and are making a genuine effort. ASDA are taking a new approach to deliver direct, unmediated communications, through broadcasting their own programme 'People, Prices, Planet' broadcast on Information TV (Sky Digital channel 167). Its appears daily for the next three weeks at 9.00pm (Mon-Sat) and 6.30pm on Sunday. Its not PR - as there is no editorial filter and the programme aims to communicate their message to interested, self selecting viewers. But its not strictly advertising either. I'd be interested in your views and whether you see this new way of using television to enhance communications as a positive step. You'll find Information TV at...www.information.tv