Across the Spectrum of Green
What a difference a year can make! Last year’s Green brands study indicated that only a small percentage of the population cared even slightly about the environment. This year’s study, which Cohn & Wolfe did in conjunction with Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen & Berland, tells a completely different story.
We found that all consumers are a shade of green. The majority (34%) are a vibrant, active green while 11% are a duller and more passive green, but we all fall somewhere on the spectrum and we all cognitively acknowledge a role in the environmental problem. The Active Green people very pointedly blame themselves for global warming and can identify steps towards improving their own green behavior. The Dull Greens, while not entirely convinced the problem is as dire as some say, make a minimal effort to be part of the solution.
For Cohn & Wolfe, the important question is how to develop Green platforms that help our clients communicate to customers along the entire green spectrum. In working with our clients on Green strategies, the fundamentals of CSR and reputation management certainly come into play, but we also have to address more intuitive aspects of the topic. Last year’s study, for example, indicated that companies with green-colored logos may subconsciously sway consumers into thinking they’re healthier or better for the Earth. (Lesson for those companies that already have green logos: You have a built-in advantage!)
For many well-known companies, such as Whole Foods (the brand identified as the “greenest” by consumers in the 2007 study), communicating Green is fundamental to the brand. Other companies are testing various techniques to see what consumers respond to but have already learned — for example, that programs such as carbon offsets are only acceptable in conjunction with a concerted effort to actually reduce emissions. For many companies, the thought of becoming a Green business is still in a nascent state and the communication piece is far away.
No matter what stage of developing a Green strategy a company is in, I do know that if consumer concern expands in 2007 as quickly as it did in 2006, communication will play an increasingly important role. We already know that consumers are suspicious of the word “natural” and confused about the differences between “recyclable” and “biodegradable.” What will happen when people really care?