Becoming Your Client's Eco Expert

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve noticed the green trend sweeping the promotional products industry. Every industry show is inundated with green options, and many distributors have created end-user green catalogs. It’s no longer just a fad.

Colette Chandler, a nationally renowned green and LOHAS marketing, communications and trends expert, says the green lifestyle appeals to a group of consumers wielding a $230-billion market share. Chandler, a principal at The Marketing Insider, helps companies better understand environmental and health trends so organizations of all sizes and types can position their green brands.

Successful distributors often act as marketing consultants, providing value-added services along with high-quality promotional products. With expertise in designing and implementing green communication plans, Chandler helps distributors and marketing professionals understand the consumer group that their clients are looking to engage. Below are Chandler’s five critical insights into providing value-added, eco-friendly solutions to your clients that will set you apart from your competition.

1. The Low-Down on LOHAS

In lay terms, Chandler is referring to the group we think of as eco-friendly consumers who generally aren’t making purchase decisions based on convenience or cost. These are the people who shop farther from their homes to purchase organic foods and pay more to buy recycled or fair-trade products. It’s important to remember that LOHAS consumers’ preferences extend beyond environmental concerns to social justice, fair trade, inclusion and other key social issues.

These consumers are quickly becoming a major force in today’s market. They may be prospects that were previously unreachable but have come within reach due to the eco-friendly products and services your clients now provide. Your clients will appreciate the time you take to educate them. Many may not be aware of LOHAS or the terminology surrounding this group. Consider compiling a resource and presentation tool that contains common vocabulary — everything from LOHAS to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. Also, if you do not have a green catalog, put together a small sampling of products to share with them at your first appointment. By educating clients, you are demonstrating that you bring value to the table.

2. Know Your Audience

As you know, understanding what makes your target end users tick is one of the most crucial elements of a successful marketing campaign. When promoting an eco-friendly initiative, you first need to identify and reach the audience. You’ll need to know the behaviors and preferences of audience members to ensure communications are well-received. One challenge many distributors currently face is finding detailed information about LOHAS audiences or those audiences you can influence with a green message.

While existing research and white papers are available, finding that information can be challenging. That’s where the experts come in. In addition to consulting, Chandler and The Marketing Insider offer detailed information about LOHAS consumers that can help you better understand this demographic and its purchasing preferences. For instance, it’s helpful to know that 60 percent of LOHAS consumers are women, and the group, in general, heavily influences family purchasing decisions. They are also avid readers and radio listeners, Chandler reports.

Imagine the reception you would get walking into your client’s office armed with specific demographic information for the audience he or she wants to reach; you could quickly rise from a promotional products provider to a marketing expert who is able to recommend the best media vehicles, messages and eco-friendly promos. Make use of free educational resources, and consider attending more educational events. Gaining audience knowledge will place you a step ahead of your competition and make your client’s eco-friendly promotions more effective.

3. Protect Your Client from Greenwashing

As a marketing consultant, you should ensure your client is making the best decisions about eco-friendly promos and communications — and not greenwashing. Viewed negatively by the LOHAS crowd and others, greenwashing is any practice to make something appear environmentally friendly when it is not. “You can equate this to false advertising,” Chandler explains. When people buy products or services based on false or misleading attributes, they tend to question their faith and loyalty to the company, she says.

LOHAS consumers are especially sensitive to authenticity concerns. “Green individuals are a little less trusting and will investigate companies to see if they are greenwashing,” Chandler cautions. When they discover companies are greenwashing, these comsumers don’t hesitate to pass the word through their communities, the media and more, which can destroy a company’s credibility.

To protect your clients from being blacklisted as greenwashers, first make sure the products or services they’re advertising are truly green and that they can prove it, if asked. “For a company to be effective in this green space, transparency is key,” Chandler advises. Bottom line: they should practice what they preach and be true to being a green brand. Second, educate your client in being authentically green. You might share with them a case study that illustrates how greenwashing (even inadvertently) can affect business. Finally, dig into business practices surrounding the new product or service, including how it’s shipped and packaged. If a truly green product is packaged in Styrofoam, the company still might get pegged as greenwashers.

Many companies do not understand what it means to be green and are unaware of the potential to turn off consumers. “They think something such as recycling allows them to say they are a green company, where it’s really just a first step in an overall process toward becoming more environmentally friendly,” Chandler says. “Green is not a marketing, PR or advertising tactic; it’s a lifestyle for many consumers. They expect companies to understand that and support their lifestyle with products and services they can believe in.”

4. Do Your Due Diligence

A critical part of being a green expert is doing your due diligence to ensure you’re selling truly eco-friendly products. Many times, greenwashing happens outside the knowledge of companies trying to communicate their eco-friendly initiatives, Chandler points out. “While industry suppliers are advertising eco-friendly products left and right, on occasion, those products are not as eco-friendly as they seem,” she says. For instance, a product made of a sustainable material [such as bamboo or organic cotton] may be less than green if the manufacturing process creates more waste and toxins than the non-eco-friendly alternative method. Or, there’s always the possibility of a supplier misrepresenting its product as green, even if they really believe it is so. You could lose clients if they hear from one of their end users that the product you sold them really is not eco-friendly.

Due diligence means asking for certification or other forms of documentation from your supplier stating that the product meets green standards. Always probe a little deeper to ensure that products are what they claim to be, and share the proof or certification with your clients. They will appreciate your expertise and feel more confident purchasing eco-friendly items from you if they know you do your homework and protect their interests.

5. Call in the Cavalry

Let’s face it: Even after reading this article, researching and creating presentation tools, you aren’t going to have every answer about the LOHAS market, green marketing and eco-friendly certifications. If you encounter a client who is interested in a large eco-friendly campaign or who could be accused of greenwashing, consider bringing in an expert for support. “If a promotional products distributor needs to tactfully make their clients aware of what it means to be green, there is research and expertise to support the position,” Chandler says. “Sometimes, it is easier to bring in an outside expert.”

Because LOHAS consumers are more involved with the brands they purchase, Chandler suggests involving an expert for those whose primary focus is green products and services. “It is critical for both the distributor and the client to collaborate or consult with an outside expert who is familiar with this marketplace, if they are not an expert,” she says. “It’s a tough marketplace to navigate, and it’s less forgiving than a traditional marketplace. Plus, the ways you communicate, the vehicles you use to communicate and the market are much different.”

The more you know about eco-friendly promotional products, LOHAS consumers and best green business practices, the more value you can offer your clients. If you take these five tips to heart, you can position yourself as an expert and set yourself apart from the competition in green promotions. n

Colette Chandler, a principal at The Marketing Insider, channels more than 15 years of marketing, public relations and research experience into dynamic workshops, seminars and consulting to help companies profit from understanding consumer health and environmental trends and the consumers who drive them. She will offer five weeks of webinars on green programs with true value beginning Sept. 22. For more information, visit www.marketing-insider.com.

Julie Cajigas is a freelance writer in the promotional products industry. She can be reached at juliecajigas@gmail.com.

A Greenwashing Case Study

A company — we’ll call it ABC Co. — was excited to launch its brand-new, eco-friendly product. The marketing team sent releases to media outlets and consumers of ABC’s products. A blogger covered the launch and gave it rave reviews. The company decided to send him a small thank-you gift to help foster a relationship.

The blogger received the package a few days later. Much to his surprise, the package was shipped through a common shipping company via a city more than 100 miles away, despite ABC being only blocks away. He marveled that ABC, with its new eco-friendly product, didn’t think to hand-deliver the package to save fuel and carbon emissions from the shipping. When he opened the package, he saw it was packed with Styrofoam peanuts.

The blogger was displeased that ABC promoted a green product with very un-green means. He roasted the company in his next blog, pointing out ABC’s environmentally unfriendly business practices and effectively alienating many LOHAS consumers who were interested in the new product. Branded as a greenwasher, the company lost potential revenue from the new product when intensely loyal LOHAS consumers refused to purchase from a non-eco-friendly company.

The LOHAS Demographic

Empower your clients with details on LOHAS consumers. They are: • 60 percent female
• Highly educated
• Average income-earners
• Highly influenced by brand image
• Not price-sensitive
• Very influential over the buying decisions of family and friends