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Did you nail sustainability marketing in the last decade? Or did the complexities of the sustainability landscape leave you cold? Either way, keep yesteryear’s lessons in your back pocket, but relish the fact that we’ve got new terrain to explore. Sustainability, the free market and their intersection were three of the most dynamic themes in the 2000s. Even painting with the broadest brushstrokes, we would have to write a magnum opus to do right by all the developments of the last decade and their implications for this New Year and beyond. But we’ll save that undertaking for our spare time and leave you with the bulletpoints. (Some of the trends and takeaways may be market agnostic, but all were limned with the U.S. landscape in mind.) 1. Niche Needs New Niche We just bore witness to another round of tortuous climate change debates in the scientific and political communities. What fun. But beyond the ranks of the bureaucratic-academic disputants, consensus regarding the looming “what now?” question does exist. In the land of action-over-angst – otherwise known as the business community – it’s full steam ahead toward sustainable solutions. Why? It all comes back to two wonderful little words: profit motive. If nothing else, cooling the planet is still a hot business trend. When Wal-Mart goes green and demands similar efforts from 20,000+ vendors, you know eco-consciousness has truly hit mainstream. While big business is finding new ways to capitalize on the eco-consciousness of an increasing number of consumers – throwing R&D and marketing dollars at all things green – smaller companies and brands with an ‘innate’ sustainability paradigm are struggling to maintain an edge. As prices on sustainable goods and services fall with the influx of producers and providers, niche brands will have to find new ways to differentiate themselves and justify premiums. 2. More Better Introducing the More Better Mandate – not a grammatical sin but a business imperative. I thank Joel Makower for summing it up so clearly on his Two Steps Forward blog: “The bar keeps rising [for businesses]: What seemed cutting-edge 10 years ago — carbon neutral products and companies, zero-waste factories, green chemistry, life-cycle analysis, green buildings — is now mainstream, or at least warrants a so-what? response when trumpeted by companies. Things that used to make headlines — or, at least, good promotional copy — are now business as usual.” Which means it’s time for brands to start thinking of sustainable credentials as customer-expected instead of value-added. The logical next step: figure out what’s the next value-add. Time Magazine reported that 40% of Americans purchased a product in 2009 because of the social or political values of the company that produced it. And we expect this number to grow. So, while you may have launched a mostly-green product in 2009 as a one-off nod to sustainability within an otherwise “normal” portfolio of goods, this year you probably need to make that product – and its entire supply chain – 100% green. But don’t stop there. Back up the effort with a commitment to make the rest of your portfolio greener, too… not to mention the chairman of the board’s POV and the CEO’s voting record. More better. You heard it (used intentionally) here first. 3. Suspect Science in the Age of Reason This last decade (along with a few preceding) perpetuated the great triumph of science over the so-called humanities in America and beyond. Science became the unquestioned bastion of truth: empiricism over instinct, data over divination, ions over art. It also became something else: politicized. As “data” became an ever more important political commodity, the academic insulation surrounding scientific inquiry was worn dangerously thin. Science became a partisan mercenary, used and abused on both sides of the proverbial aisle. We saw the clima(c)tic fallout of this phenomenon at the end of ’09, when scandal turned climate change consensus into climate change chaos. But climate-gate gives rise to much a bigger question: where will people invest their trust when scientists are dethroned? We don’t trust business. We don’t trust politicians. We don’t trust the media. We don’t trust ‘purveyors of culture’ – whoever they are. And now we can’t trust scientists? It’s a recipe for cynicism – and not just for New Yorkers. Historically rational but rosy-eyed Main Street is changing its tune from happy-go-lucky to “that seems like horse pucky.” And this signals a major attitudinal shift. (A Rasmussen poll found that 59% of Americans say it’s at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data to support their own theories and beliefs about global warming.) Bottom-line: Your consumers have trust issues. Make your business and brands their therapists and give them a reason to keep the faith. 4. Apocalypse When? One of the greatest triumphs of the Hopenhagen campaign (we’re still not done tooting our horn on that one) was the power of its clean, simple message of optimism. Forget the doom and gloom, forget the apocalyptical messages, enter hope on solid ground. Despite the success of our fresh take, most of our ENGO cousins seemed determined to continue with business as usual, threatening global doom really soon if global accord didn’t transpire right now. But here’s the thing: most people simply don’t buy into the urgency. (According to Rasmussen, 71% of Americans say the bigger priority for U.S. national leaders should be stimulating the economy to create jobs. Only 15% say they should focus instead on stopping global warming to save the environment.) To the majority of American eyes, there’s no clear and present danger, but there is a small army of boys-crying-wolf – and they may be the more tangible enemy. The task for the decade ahead is not to convince everyone that harm will come if urgent multinational solutions to global warming aren’t forthcoming; and it’s not to position your business as the climate change messiah; it’s to continue to develop the personalized sustainability value proposition, which should focus on well-being benefits and functionality. 5. Getting Persinal We’ve seen that consumers aren’t convinced climatic apocalypse is imminent in the absence of drastic measures, but we also have evidence that they’re continuing to adopt increasingly “green” habits. (According to an April 2009 survey commissioned by the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation, a non-profit group formed by the rechargeable battery industry to promote battery recycling, which polled 1,000 Americans age 18 and older: seventy-four [74%] percent of Americans said they were likely to purchase a compact fluorescent light bulb within the next 6 months; sixty-five [65%] percent said they were likely to unplug dormant appliances; and fifty-seven [57%] percent said they were at least “somewhat likely” to pay a premium for earth-friendly products.) And as green habits on are the rise, the number of folks who report feeling guilty when they don’t recycle their soda cans or do cart home seven plastic bags from the grocery store is on the wane. According to RBRC surveys, 22% of Americans felt “green guilt” in 2008, down to 12% in 2009. While some see this as a sign of increasing apathy and the reprioritization of frugality, we believe that less green guilt results from the fact that more and more consumers are acting in accordance with evolving consumer eco-conventions, and they’re proud of it. In 2010 and beyond, Americans will be looking to reconcile consumerism with conservation in innovative ways. But the macro-issue of climate change will be far less of an impetus than the emotional-rational rewards of ‘doing the better thing’ on a personal scale. Goods and services that help consumers continue to avoid green guilt and partake in healthier lifestyles will have inherent magnetism. And discovering and articulating the value of these products and brands will be the savvy sustainability marketer’s gold – er, green – ring.
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