Is Going Green Nothing More Than a Marketing Gimmick
Green marketing is somewhat similar, but it is the activities of promoting products or services that are presumed to be eco-friendly. There are many perspectives on green marketing, for example, it is just a marketing strategy of a corporate and it is mainly targeting on consumers who are concern of environmental issues. To put it simply, a business is utilizing green marketing tactics when their marketing message is targeting the eco-conscious members of the target market, for example, a Web hosting provider markets itself as environmentally friendly to prospective customers by touting the fact that their facilities is run by wind or solar power.
Another example would be in food marketing, where you’ll find products marketed as organic or pushing the fact that it’s from local farmers (meaning less preservatives and less waste in transporting the food). Essentially, the marketing campaign revolves to some degree around appealing to a consumer base trying to be more environmentally friendly. While my overall outlook on green marketing is a positive one, because of its consumer-driven and often altruistic to at least a degree, I do think there’s a flip-side where certain green marketing techniques are simply gimmicks.
First, there’s green-washing, the false claims about environmental issues to raise concerns with the public, convincing them there’s a problem that may not even exist, and then pushing your product as a solution. In this case, consumers who fall for the trick are committing the fallacy of inappropriate appeal to authority. According to McGraw-Hill (2012), the fallacy means we look to an authority in a field other than that under investigation.
Similarly, consumers tend to buy green products from an authority that is not specialized or professional in environmental issues. This is just deceitful, and we’re in a day and age now where it’s very likely you’ll be caught and publicly exposed. Lie is a deliberate attempt to mislead without prior consent of the target (McGraw-Hill, 2012). I also think the premium prices for green products will eventually become a thing of the past.
As people come to expect more products to be environmentally friendly, their willingness to pay more (looking at the items as special in some way) will diminish. However, with the demand rooted in personal convictions, I don’t think the demand for green products will fade to match that price issue company will find a way to go green for less. When it comes to green marketing, the real key is to be sincere. If you truly care about the environment, and are acting out of that concern first and foremost, consumers will notice.
Taking actions is definitely more effective than using emotive language, language that is purposely chosen to elicit certain emotional impact in order to promote products which might be useless for consumers. Focus on building a more sustainable business beyond simply being able to increase prices or appeal to the eco-savvy markets.
References
- McGraw-Hill. (2012). Think. New York: NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies.
