We’ve mentioned it on countless occasions, there is no cookie cutter formula for Green Marketing.
I’m writing about green marketing this morning because of the incredible amount of traffic we get on our website regarding this subject. Yes, Exo Marketing can help any business with their environmental marketing practices, but it involves so much commitment from the client that to say that we have a ‘green program’ or ‘green marketing service’ would be a lie. We have helped businesses in the past, to great success, but we won’t lie and say that it’s easy.
Green marketing strategies must be adapted to each individual business, each strategy is custom built from the ground up. There are no ‘5 steps to becoming green’ or universal guides showing you how to become green in 30 days.
To truly go green, to state that ‘WE ARE AN ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE COMPANY’ takes an overhaul of not only a client’s business, but the businesses of a client’s suppliers, transport partners, POS, and almost everything else you can imagine.
You see, Exo Marketing won’t get involved with any business that wishes to ‘appear’ green without actually doing the work necessary to ‘become’ green. We are greenwashing watchdogs, well, at least in our corner of the world we try to be, and will only help businesses who are serious and willing to invest the dollars, time, and effort, that true green marketing requires.
It’s easy to do like the STM, and shout: “Look at us! Look at us! Our Metros are electric, which means that we are green!” While right beneath those giant ads accumulate piles of those useless polluting paper dailies that they allow to be given away at their stations.
You see, if you do it the wrong way, like the STM, you’ll get people like us writing things like these all the time. This might just be a little blog post, but there are countless firms, environmentalists, and professional associations, watching every business who dares to say “We’re green”. And they are much less gentle with their choice of words than we are.
The easy part of Green Marketing is leveraging and communicating the positive environmental changes that a company makes. Even a communication agency can handle that part! The hard -very hard- part is actually changing. A business must revisit all their products, the way they get manufactured, their packaging, their distribution; everything must go through a microscope. Every internal and external business practice must be reviewed, repondered, and reconsidered. That’s why an Integrated Marketing firm like Exo is a must for any business considering truly going green. Communications and Advertising, that’s the easy part.
The bottom line is this: If you want to make your business more environmentally responsible, we’re here for you, but it’s expensive, and it’s hard work, and ROI is seen only after a few years have passed. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there is no other move a serious business can make that will help as much on the long run, both for the profitability of the business and for the environment, as becoming truly green.
If you’ve done your research and are interested in going green but need help, please, don’t hesitate to call us. We’ll meet with you personally, audit your business practices, and tell you the truth. And trust me, considering the dollar figures involved, that’s something that few marketing firms are willing to do.
