Rolling back the Faux-Green Tide

Arun Sudhaman’s article How to fight a green backlash (PR Week, 1/5/09) made for interesting yet not entirely surprising reading, I must say. That 81 per cent of consumers indicated that they are paying more attention to cost over environmental credentials is entirely understandable as this god-awful recession bites ever-harder into household budgets.

We’d be doing Green ‘Team GB’ a disservice if we painted ourselves as frugal spendthrifts all too willing to trade off long-term ecological sustainability for short term savings at the supermarket, however. The market outlook isn’t necessarily that vile, after all. At the risk of countering one survey with another, Branding consultancy Clear recently reported that 42 per cent of Britons are still spending money and feeling positive about their financial situation. This is surely cause for celebration, and evidences that there’s still market share out there to be had.

Business rules of engagement have fundamentally changed these past months, obviously. The companies and brands which will not only survive but even prosper during the rest of 2009 and beyond will be those whose marcoms reassure consumers and whose products/services are perceived to add value – to their hip pockets, sense of wellbeing and the environment. Now is definitely not the time for clever eco-tricks or marketing gimmicks, in my opinion. Offer the punters something tangible and aspirational and believe me, as the CEO of a company who’s products stop over 1.3 billion items of unnecessary junk mail being sent each year, they can and will respond.

At the risk of sounding like a heretic, maybe this is the recession we had to have to roll back the faux-Green marcoms tide once and for all. The public, environment and marketing practices will be all the better for it in the long run, I reckon.