Green Marketing

The idea for this blog came from this article posted on Prof. Johnson’s M-Blog.

            As the newest craze in consumer demands, environmentally friendly aspects are becoming more and more crucial to the success of a product.  The article explains that in order for green marketing to be effective, companies must do three things: be genuine, educate customers, and give customers an opportunity to participate.  In my opinion, I feel that most customers already are somewhat educated on environmental aspects and know they have an opportunity to help participate.  To me, the most important part of green marketing is to truly be genuine.

            The article explains that being genuine in terms of green marketing means two things: “that you are actually doing what you claim to be doing in your green marketing campaign” and “that the rest of your business policies are consistent with whatever you are doing that is environmentally friendly.”  I am currently taking another Management class here at Keene State called “Sustainable Management Practices” and we talk a lot of this idea called “greenwashing”.  Greenwashing is basically when a company says they are focused on being environmentally friendly, but does nothing to support their claim.  This is starting to become a problem as more and more companies are just saying they are “green” solely to help sell more products.

            I feel that this is becoming a major problem today.  Customers who buy certain products because they want to be environmentally conscious may not even really know what they are buying or whom they are supporting.  Now that it has become such a phenomenon, companies should have to be government certified in some way to call their company “green”.  No longer should “green marketing” allowed to be used unless companies truly back up their claim.  How do you feel about this idea of “greenwashing”?  Do you agree that there should be laws in place that companies must be monitored and certified in order to call themselves “green”?

In Response to Dan Sweeney's Post on 4/7

           I have noticed this recently as well.  Almost every fast food chain has been advertising the healthier options they are offering.  The thing that really bothers me about this is that, while they may be healthier options than the Big Mac, they are still extremely unhealthy foods.  And as you had pointed out, often times the “healthier” options aren’t even better and can often be worse!  This really reminds me of the recent issue with “light” cigarettes.  Since everyone became aware of the harm their product caused, tobacco companies began to market “light” cigarettes as a better and healthier alternative to regular cigarettes.  But the fact of the matter was that “light” or not, cigarettes are bad for you and will eventually kill you.  Today, cigarette companies are no longer aloud to promote their products as “light” cigarettes due to a court order.  I feel that the same should be done with fast food chains such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s and so on.  There is no truly healthy option that you can purchase at a fast food chain, that’s just the way it is.  And the fact they can advertise and promote these products as if they are healthy is just plain wrong.