LLINMARKETING A BUSINESS AS GREENREQUIRES A BLEND OF T R A N S P A R E N C Y ,PRACTICALITY AND SAVVY, HERE ISEMTREPRENEUIfS F I V E - S T E P G U I D E T OH O W T O D O IT RIGHT, BY MATT VILLANO

In the world of marketing, greenis the new black.

Have a recycling program?That's green. Use LED lightbulbs? That's green, too. Heck,

if you go so far as to encourageemployees to carpool to work, you

might as well be able to say yourbusiness is green.

And yet, green marketing—thatis, successful green marketing—isn'tnearly as easy as it seems.

It turns out there's more to eco-consciousness than simply being

conscious of the environment. Weasked a number of entrepreneurs andexperts for insights on the compo-nents of green marketing that works.The gist: Green only yields greenwhen messaging blends transparency,practicality and savvy.

52 Entrepreneur//November 20 J1

WHATYOURCUSTOMERSWANT

Marketing your business asgreen is a great idea—pro-vided your customers are into

that sort of thing. Executives at Bardes-sono, a luxury hotel and spa in Yount-ville, Calif., learned this the hard way.

When the é2-room property openedin 2009, executives trumpeted thehotel's Platinum status from the Lead-ership in Energy and EnvironmentalDesign (LEED) program—the resortwas one of only two such honoredhotels in the U.S. While the facilitywas a hit among environmentalists andgreen-obsessed journalists, it struggledwith perhaps its most important groupof constituents: customers.

The problem? Travelers accustomedto the luxury hotel experience perceived

green to mean"sparse" and "un-comfortable" andbooked elsewhere.

"Our messag-ing was great for occupancy but notso good for the average daily rate,"says Jim Treadway, the hotel's generalmanager. "We had lost sight of the factthat our core customers value a luxuryexperience above all else."

Naturally, in 2010 Bardessonochanged its tune, tweaking marketingmessages to emphasize luxury first andgreen second. Almost overnight, book-ings—at full price, mind you—soared.

The lesson: Never assume everybodywill love you just because you're green.

"It took us a while to realize thebest message for our customers was,'We're a world-class hotel and, ohyeah, we're green,'" Treadway says."That might not be intuitive, butwhen you consider that your custom-ers are the top priority, targeting yourmessages to their lifestyle certainlymakes sense."

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BEWARE OF 'GREENWASHING'^ Êk ^ hile marketing% M\ M your company as% ^ % ^ green has undis-% # \ M puted benefits,

W W misrepresentingone's greenness—a process known as"greenwashing"—can be disastrous toa company's credibility.

ConAgra, the food product com-pany, is facing a class-action lawsuitfor labeling its cooking oils as "natu-ral," even though they're made withgenetically modified ingredients.

Then there's Sigg. The Switzerland-based reusable-bottle manufacturertold its customers that itsproducts were BPA-free, eventhough the bottles containedthe chemical in their liners.When news of this hit themainstream media, salesdropped precipitously.

Apparently, greenwashing is get-ting worse. According to the 2010Greenwashing Report from theTerraChoice Group, an environmentalmarketing agency based in Ottawa,Ontario, more than 95 percent of allconsumer products claiming to begreen were found to commit at leastone of the "Seven Sins of Greenwash-ing," which include not providing evi-dence, being vague or flat-out lying.

The best way to avoid theseclaims, according to Shel Horowitz,CEO of Greenandprofitable.com, is tokeep messages consistent and sup-

port every claim with incon-trovertible evidence.

"Transparency and honestyis the best approach," he says.

\ "If you're accused of green-* ^ washing and there's some stick

• "is to it at all, you're dead." —M.V.

• DEFINEIWHATIGREENIMEANS(TOYOUI I "V escribing something asI I 1 "green" can be dicey, since theI Ë •^ word often means differentI things to different people.I In one instance, it could summarizeI an off-the-grid production facilityI powered by solar energy. In otherI cases, it could signify the existence ofI a telecommuting program that helpsI reduce a carbon footprint.I Jenny Grayson, a Los Angeles-basedI consultant who helps companies goI green, says it behooves companies toI be totally honest and to define exactlyI what "green" means to them.I "Everyone right now, from CloroxI to Huggies, is marketing themselvesI as 'natural,' but what does that reallyI mean?" she asks. "EnvironmentallyI savvy consumers can become quicklyI disillusioned with a company whenI it doesn't live up to its eco-friendlyI claims," or when it doesn't explain how"I it's eco-friendly in the first place.I Personal explanations usually workI best. Ava Anderson Non-Toxic, a per-I sonal-care-product manufacturer (andI one of Entrepreneur's "Entrepreneur of12011" award winners), explains on theI company website how its founder, as a114-year-old girl, became disillusionedI with chemicals in beauty products dueI to their hazardous health effects.I Bill and Jane Monetti offer similarlyI personal insights on the website forI their company, Eco-Command, whichI produces GoFlushless, a spray thatI neutralizes the odor of urine and reducesI the need to flush a toilet. The MonettisI detail how the product was born out ofI necessity when they purchased a homeI in the environmentally sensitive area ofI Maryland's Eastern Shore.I "Along with our new home, we ac-I quired a well, septic tank, drainage fieldI and an extreme awareness of every dropI of water we use," they write. With this,I it's easy to understand the company mis-I sion of "saving watei saving energy."

Entrepreneur//November 2011 53

CONNECTTHEDOTS

No matter how well a companydefines green, being greenalone is not enough—there

has to be some substance behind themessaging to make it work.

Park Howell, president ofPark&Co, a sustainable market-ing firm in Phoenix, says that in thecurrent economy, emphasizing howpeople can save their green by goinggreen is the most effective approach.

"In these overwhelming effortsto come across as eco-friendly, most

small businesses taking their productsto market miss the most importantdifferentiators: quality and price," hesays. "Something that's good for theplanet is nice, but in this day and age,the masses simply don't care aboutit as much."

Howell contends that the bestgreen marketing campaigns addressthe "three Ps" of profit, people andplanet, effectively answering consum-ers' questions in the following order:• Is it good for my budget?• Is it good for my family?• Is it good for the planet?

Howell adds that in most cases,green campaigns should avoid theword green and avoid incorporatinggreen leaves into a logo. "Really, thesetactics are just camouflaging a branddifferentiator," he says. "Finding an-other way to tell your story will alwaysend up delivering a targeted message tothe people you want to reach."

DO CUSTOMERS CARE?^ A ^ ith businesses in% m\ Ê just about every% ^ % ^ industry vying to% ^ \m market thennselves

W W as green, it's natu-ral to ask: To what extent do custom-ers care? The answerdepends on whereyou look.

Some dataindicates that in-creasing numbersof Americans areseeking out greenproducts; Accordingto the Organic TradeAssociation, organic food sales havegrown about 20 percent per yearover the last decade. What's more,Wal-Mart, that mass-market jugger-naut, is now the world's largest buyerof organic cotton.

Still, when most companies gaugecustomers about what matters mostto them, answers such as "green-ness" or sustainability frequentlycome in behind key issues such asusefulness and price.

Saul Kliorys, environmentalprograms manager for Great LakesBrewing Company in Cleveland, has

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taken surveys of this nature, andsays green is always near the top butnever finishes first. "On the whole,"he says, "greenness doesn't sell prod-ucts; products sell products."

Still, to be fair, certain demograph-ics appear to be moreconcerned than otherswith whether productsare, in fact, green.

Women, for in-stance, account for amajority of householdspending, and manymay be worryingabout the chemicals

in their kids' shampoo, or might betrying to avoid purchasing geneticallymodified food at the grocery store.

The bottom line: Green likely isn'tthe sole factor determining customerbehaviors in today's economy, but itundoubtedly is one of the few.

"Customers want good-performingproducts at prices they can afford thatare healthy for their families and easyto get," says Park Howell, president ofPark&Co, a sustainable marketing firmin Phoenix. "If a product has met allof those considerations and it's green,that's even better" —M.V.

•PRACTICEI WHAT YOU¡PREACHI "¥" n an age when just about anyoneI I can find out just about anythingI A about the inner workings ofI a company online, transparency isI key. For this reason, it's importantI for companies that market themselvesI as green to operate sustainably inI many of their day-to-day operations.

At Green Apple Cleaners, a non-I toxic dry cleaning business in NewI York City, this has meant no printI advertisements whatsoever, steeringI away from the traditional approachI within the industry. Instead, founderI and CFO David Kistner has optedI for virtual (and therefore paperless)I services such as Groupon and GoogleI Offers to bring in new customers.I "Could you imagine if one of our¡coupons came in the mail?" he says,I assuming eco-conscious customersI wouldn't remain patrons for long.I Other businesses have opted forI different strategies. At Fco-Command,I owners Bill and Jane Monetti haveI installed in their home water-efficientI shower heads, aerators for sink fix-I tures and an Energy Star clothes wash-I er. GreenChoice Bank, a green-themedI bank in Chicago, issues debit cardsI with a 100 percent recycled plasticI core and boasts electric car chargers inI all of its bank parking lots.I Consultant Shel Horowitz, authorI of Guerilla Marketing Goes Green,I says it doesn't matter how a companyI embraces eco-consciousness, so long asI it does so on some quantifiable level.I "You need to walk the walk toI some extent," he says. "The minute aI customer calls credibility into ques-I tion, that customer will start shoppingI somewhere else."

54 Entrepreneur//November 2011

ALLUrxt Jennifer Kaplanis a partner in green marketing firm Greenhance and the author ofGreening Your Small Business. She is also an entrepreneur in herown right, having recently founded VineCrowd.com, a websitedesigned to connect artisanal, independent wineries with consum-ers to buy, sell, discuss, compare and share. Kaplan compiled thisranking of green marketing innovators from the past decade forthe Green Marketing and Communications class she teaches atGolden Gate University in San Francisco.

I • Tide ColdwaterChallengeThis landmark 2005 mar-keting campaign addressedthe money saved by wash-ing in cold water and theproduct's deep cleaningand whitening abilities,making green the ancillarybenefit. The far-reachingcampaign included nationaadvertising, in-store pro-grams, product sampling,a strong Internet presence,consumer promotions andstrategic alliances.

• • • Jamie OliverThe outspoken Englishchef and advocate ofhealthy food is a brandin and unto himself. Heuses "disruptive mediaand public visibility" tocommunicate and moti-vate, creating a new kindof "infotainment."

O a Diesel Clothing:Global Warming ReadyIn print ads promotingits 2007 spring/summercollection, the Italian cloth-ing company depictedlandscapes transformedby environmental disaster.The campaign provedthat green marketing andtongue-in-cheek humor-when done well—resonatewith young audiences.

(6)

(1)OLDWATER

4. GE EcomaginationA massive 2008 multime-dia campaign for Ecomagi-nation established GE'sgreen position in a com-petitive marketplace wherecredibility and believabilityare paramount to success.

The resulting creative wassimple, beautiful and com-pelling and delivered themessage in engaging ways.

5 i HSBC: There'sNo Small ChangeA highly successful 2008print campaign elevatedHSBC's environmental cre-dentials and consolidatedthe bank's environmentalleadership position—allwithout TV or radio.

O> TOMS Shoes:Project HolidayFor the month ofDecember 2008, TOMSpromoted its ProjectHoliday campaign to sell30.000 pairs of shoes soit could give the same

number of protectiverubber shoes to kids inEthiopia. The companyexceeded its goal by 23percent and raised un-precedented awarenessfor its cause—all withoutpaid media.

/ • Toyota Prius:HarmonyThis 2009 multimediacampaign showed howthe Prius delivers extrapower, space, safety,advanced technology andsuperior gas mileage.

8.Pa Timberiand:EarthkeepersThis 2009 global cam-paign showcased theEarthkeepers collectionof eco-friendly appareland included TV, print andretail ads, as well as socialmedia and a microsite thatused 3D technology.

9 a Method: Just SayNo to JugsThis cheeky 2010 cam-paign is typical of Meth-od's marketing, mockingmainstream cleaningproducts as feeding ahousehold's "jug" habit.The campaign relied onlyon print and oniine ads.

10. BMW Diesel:Ch-ch-changesThis 20n campaignlaunched at Super BowlXLV, communicatedvaluable information anda relevant message tothe American audienceabout the environmentalbenefits of and changesin diesel technology.

REINVESTIN THECOMMUNITY

One of the most importantattributes of sustainabiHty isreinvesting dollars and energy

into the surrounding community. It's asimple step—but it's also an initiativemany green compa-nies overlook.

Reinvesting inthe community cantake many forms.GreenChoice Bankoffers flexible loanterms to commercialclients who buildsustainably. Ben &Jerry's, one of thefirst green compa-nies, continues todonate significantmoney to nonprofitsmore than a decadeafter it was pur-chased by Unilever.

Great LakesBrewing Com-pany, a brewery indowntown Cleve-land, has taken adifferent approach:It sources locally. Alltold, the brewery's restaurant uses localvegetables and herbs in dishes wheneverseasonally available, as well as localeggs, milk, cream, butter and locallyraised meats. Saul Kliorys, the compa-ny's environmental programs manager,says the brewery has gone so far asto manage and till part of the 16-acreOhio City Farm in Cleveland, growingmany of the herbs and vegetables itself.

"Why source from elsewhere whenwe can get what we need right here?"Kliorys says. "Being green isn't alwaysabout making the best choices for theplanet at large; sometimes it's aboutmaking the best choices for the peoplein your own backyard, too." t

MATT VILLANO IS A FREELANCEWRITER AND EDITOR BASED INHEALDSBURG. CALIF.

hi dovvntt)wn t.,lLM;l,inü. dLiikes Brewing Compan

invests in the communiasourcing ktcal ingrcdic

56 Entrepreneur // November 2011

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