Ecopreneurist

Growing green companies should tread cautiously when considering using certifications, marketing hype and eco claims on their product package.

A great article over at Marketing Sherpa explains how you can avoid making some common green marketing mistakes.

Hyping your business or products as environmentally friendly can attract eco-concerned consumers and boost overall customer affinity. But beware! It holds just as many risks. You could get slapped with “greenwashing” your brand.

With a wide variety of certifications offered, and many regulating agencies taking a hand’s off approach to words such as “natural”, entrepreneurs are left to figure out on their own exactly what consumers understand and what they find valuable. As this leaves green marketers in a bit of a lurch, it’s no wonder that:

99% of 1,018 consumer products surveyed were guilty of greenwashing, according to TerraChoice’s ‘Six Sins of Greenwashing’ study.

• » See also: Eco-Libris: An Interview With Orly Zeewy, a Branding Consultant, on Green Branding
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While hardcore green consumers are quick to pick up on greenwashing, the average consumer may not immediately perceive any “stretching of the truth.” However, today roughly half of American consumers take into account “sustainability” when choosing a brand, according to a new survey by Information Resources, a market research firm, so that uninformed group is shrinking.

While there are a variety of sources available to consumers showing them how to avoid greenwashing, the resources available to marketers are few. But, that is changing. A close look at The Six Sins of Greenwashing from Terra Choice provides a broad but, useful guide to copywriting with a clear conscious.

1. Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off: Focusing consumer attention on a single environmental issue such as recycled content or energy efficiency while ignoring additional important environmental issues such as toxic content or the impacts of the manufacturing process.

2. Sin of No Proof: Being unable or unwilling to provide proof of an environmental claim.

3. Sin of Vagueness: Making broad, poorly defined environmental claims that are essentially meaningless.

4. Sin of Fibbing: Making a blatantly false or misleading claim.

5. Sin of Irrelevance: Making an accurate statement that is unimportant and unhelpful for consumers seeking more environmentally responsible products.

6. Sin of the Lesser of Two Evils: Claiming environmental benefits for products that are actually harmful or that pose significant environmental challenges.

Click here for more information and examples of products guilty of the six sins of greenwashing.

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