Consumer Brands Should Think Twice Before Making Green a Fundamental Part of Brand Messaging, Veteran Store Designer Says
| Source: CBX
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - November 4, 2009) - Retailers, foodservice chains and consumer
product manufacturers should think long and hard before attempting to cast
their brand as "green," according to Joseph Bona, president of the retail
design division of New York-based strategic branding agency CBX.
"The bottom line is simple enough. If you aim to make green a fundamental
part of your brand messaging, do not do so until sustainability truly is
written into the company's very DNA, from senior management on down," the
veteran store designer wrote in a column titled "Winning over today's
greenwash-weary consumers," which appeared in the October issue of retail
design publication DDI. "If your efforts are more modest, make sure your
marketing is just as low key. And no matter how green your company might
be, communicate those efforts with an honest and straightforward
transparency. Doing so can deflect criticism and win respect from today's
increasingly eco-savvy shoppers."
In the column, Bona pointed to the different approaches of three companies
-- Patagonia, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts -- in communicating their green
virtues to consumers.
At Patagonia, visitors to the company's website can click on the image of
any of the outdoor apparel manufacturer's garments and find information
boxes describing the product's ecological upside. "No surprises there,"
Bona wrote. "After all, Patagonia would be crazy not to tout its
sustainability efforts, given the green bent of its consumers. But here is
where it gets interesting. Under the heading 'The Bad,' the info box then
proceeds to describe exactly what is not green about the garment."
Bona praised the company's transparency in admitting that certain chemicals
in its garments are "bad" for the environment. "By being so forthright --
and by pledging to further green its products and operations as its ability
to do so improves -- Patagonia is building immense brand credibility. This
preemptive strike can stop any would-be watchdogs from hurling
'greenwashing' charges," he commented.
At Starbucks, the SharedPlanet Web site provides a wealth of information
about the company's numerous sustainability initiatives, including the
plans to pursue LEED certification in all of the chain's new stores. "Take
a tour through the green blogosphere, however, and you'll find no shortage
of scathing criticism for the company," Bona wrote in the DDI column. "On
one hand, there is little Starbucks can do to mollify a certain stratum of
extreme critics. If it touts its efforts to buy Fair Trade coffee, for
example, these eco-warriors will nonetheless say Starbucks doesn't buy
enough Fair Trade, or will assail it for using too much water or too many
paper cups. On the other hand, you can't help but wonder whether the volume
and tone of that criticism would change if Starbucks took an utterly
transparent, Patagonia-like approach and said, 'Here's the good and the bad
of what we're doing.'"
Meanwhile, Dunkin' Donuts' "very low-key" approach to promoting its
participation in the Fair Trade coffee movement "befits its regular-guy
image," Bona observed. "Rather than running green-themed ads rife with
imagery of smiling indigenous farmers carefully tending coffee trees on
Guatemalan hillsides, the chain was careful not to overreach. It worked a
simple Fair Trade logo into some marketing materials, which was just enough
to prompt a nod of approval from those who care about such things -- and
not enough to arouse suspicions of greenwashing."
He went on to advise that when communicating their efforts to go green,
"brands must be clear-eyed about their own complex relationships with
consumers. Starbucks' commitment to Fair Trade actually is a big deal,
considering the enormous scale of this multinational corporation.
Unfortunately for Starbucks, its size and corporate aura make it an easy
target for eco-warriors. It has a much harder sell than, say, Ben &
Jerry's, which all of us would immediately assume is green to the hilt, or,
for that matter, blue-collar Dunkin' Donuts, which nobody expects to be on
the cutting edge of the environmental movement."
To read the full article, go to the digital edition of the October issue of
DDI:
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nielsen/ddi_200910/index.php?startid=48#/50
About CBX
CBX, www.cbx.com, is a fully integrated creative agency specializing in
retail design and operations, brand and corporate identity development,
packaging, research, and motion branding. The company maintains offices in
New York City, Minneapolis and San Francisco.