Author: Drew Neisser

Interesting article in the Wall St. Journal today about how slow the fashion industry has been to offer green apparel:

For an industry that prides itself on being up with trends, Fashion Inc. has been slow to recognize that eco-friendly and luxury are no longer at odds with one another.

It is not an issue of technology or know-how:

You can have your clothes fully organic, recycled or in a variety of other permutations that attempt to minimize harm to the environment, animals or factory workers — variations collectively referred to as “green” or “eco.”

But if you want to buy an ecologically sensitive wardrobe for Earth Day this Sunday, unless you wear nothing but yoga clothes, you’ll need the bloodhounding capabilities of Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

It also isn’t an issue of demand:

But they are clearly missing a rapidly emerging market. In a survey of 67,000 people by NPD Group — tracking consumer interest in ecologically sensitive products from food to cars — interest in buying organic fashion products increased to 18% of consumers in 2006, from 6% in 2004. “That is a huge jump,” says Marshal Cohen, an NPD analyst who has been studying eco business.

Basically it comes down to risk aversion and entrenched business processes:

High-end store buyers are risk-averse when it comes to veering from the tried-and-true luxury pitch that’s espoused by the Guccis and Louis Vuittons.

The big guys are “slow off the mark” to see the opportunities, says David Wolfe, one of the industry’s more frank trend gurus, and creative director at consultants Doneger Group in New York. “They’re not the quickest thinkers on the planet.”

Entrepreneurs in the fashion industry will undoubtedly capitalize on the green movement and at some point in the next decade the big guys will try to catch up (after the market has been established).

Ms. Loudermilk achieved the holy grail of fashion this year — a gown on stage at the Oscars, worn by producer Lesley Chilcott of “An Inconvenient Truth” — and is opening her own store on trendy Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, near Marc Jacobs. She has also launched a sort of good-housekeeping seal, called the Luxury Eco Stamp of Approval, whereby her staff will also certify a variety of luxury products by other designers. That’s a concept that might help us consumers figure out what’s really green and what just claims to be — but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

From a Marketing for Good perspective, green clothing, luxury or otherwise, only offers competitive advantage if the styling is as good or better than non-green goods. One early entrant from Bono’s wife Ali Hewson failed miserably because the product wasn’t all that stylish. In the luxury market, parity pricing should not be a significant factor but will be in the mass market.  To turn green into gold will take innovative minds that can create competitive products regardless of the category.

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Comedy is often the juxtaposition of the known with the unexpected. I don’t know about you but I typically don’t think of tax preparation and rapping in the same breath. That’s why I thought the TurboTax Tax Rap contest was so amusing. Here’s what they wrote about it in Promo Magazine:

TurboTax selected Christian Pulfer, a 28-year-old real estate investor, as its $25,000 grand-prize winner in its recent Tax Rap contest. The promotion drew 370 consumer-generated videos, which featured people rapping about their taxes.

In his video, called It’s Just a Breeze…G, Pulfer raps, “If you need a dollar, holler, ‘cuz I got a lot back.” The video was featured on the YouTube.com homepage yesterday.

Rapper Vanilla Ice, also known as Rob Van Winkle, promoted the contest on YouTube.com and he selected Pulfer as the winner from 13 finalists after a consumer vote.

The TaxRap contest ran Feb. 8 to March 30 on YouTube and TheTaxRap.com. Submissions were viewed more than 2.5 million times. Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, is offer a free “best of” audio download of the contest entries on iTunes at Audio.TheTaxRap.com.

I can’t vouch for the other finalists but the winning rap is hilarious. Kudos to TurboTax for finding the humor in the otherwise dismal task of tax preparation. If they can make taxes funny surely other marketers in less onerous categories can do the same. And ya, I’m down wit dat.

As I’ve noted before, thinking green is no longer a nice to consider option, it is now a price of entry attribute for just about every category. Witness today’s article in the New York Times on Home Depot’s new line of eco-friendly products called Eco Options:

Home Depot today will introduce a label for nearly 3,000 products, like fluorescent light bulbs that conserve electricity and natural insect killers, that promote energy conservation, sustainable forestry and clean water.

The initiative — which is expected to include 6,000 products by 2009, representing 12 percent of the chain’s sales — would become the largest green labeling program in American retailing and could persuade competitors to speed up their own plans.

Since green doesn’t always translate to green at the cash register, Home Depot is giving is Eco Options line of products prime shelf space and pricing the products competitively:

Mr. Jarvis said Home Depot found that “given the option of a product that performs just as well, we are seeing the consumer would rather buy something that has less of an impact on the environment,” adding, “We are just making that easier.”

The company said it had asked suppliers to produce Eco Option goods at the same prices as conventional merchandise. But it acknowledged that some products would be more expensive at the cash register, even if consumers are likely to save money over time — as in the case of the energy-efficient light bulbs.

One of the trickier parts of any green initiative is determining what is “green” and what isn’t. Home Depot is smartly turning to third parties to help in this area:

Merchandise can qualify for the new line in two ways. It either meets widely accepted federal and industry standards, like the Energy Star or the Forest Stewardship Council certification process, or its environmental claims are tested and validated by an outside company, Scientific Certification Systems. Ultimately, Home Depot, rather than a third party, determines what products will receive an Eco Options label.

There is, for example, a silicone window and door sealant from General Electric that improves the energy efficiency of heating and cooling systems and reduces greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-burning electricity plants. Another product is a glass cleaner from OdoBan that has low levels of volatile organic compounds, vapors linked to health problems. And organic plant food from Miracle-Gro uses no harsh chemicals that imperil water supplies.

If Home Depot and Wal-Mart, two of America’s largest retailers, are going green, then surely this is not a passing fad or a “nice to have” option for other marketers. As more and more Home Depot shoppers experience green products especially those that offer competitive value and performance, green will become like fluoride in toothpaste, a price of entry attribute which is expected across multiple product and service categories.  Canadian Home Depot shoppers have already responded favorably. Surely American shoppers won’t be too far behind their northern neighbors.

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This may come as a shock but I don’t think about tampons much. But when the designer of this blog shared a story her sister wrote about the marketing efforts of Seventh Generation, I became a lot more interested. The story illustrates the potential power of Marketing for Good and is well worth sharing. It starts with a website called Tamponification which sets the tone with this introductory paragraph:

Let’s not beat around the bush here. People still tend to pussyfoot around the “forbidden” subject of menstruation. Tampons and pads don’t tend to surface in conversation at cocktail parties or tailgates or even at PTA meetings as often as we hope they might. That can make it really tough to get people talking about choosing safer alternatives to conventional feminine care products. We’d like to change that, so we’ve opted to go beyond the flow…

The website provides a forum for women to pontificate on all issues related to menstruation which in and of itself is smart and forward-thinking. But what makes this effort really newsworthy is the tie in to homeless shelters. Turns out the lack of availability of feminine hygiene products at shelters is a real problem. So, Seventh Generation, a small Vermont-based company, decided to enlighten women about the issue and inspire them to help out. The Tamponification website made it easy for visitors to make virtual tampon donations with a simple click. The response was simply overwhelming. Here’s how the momentum grew according to Joann Klimkiewicz, Staff Writer for the Hartford Courant:

With little fanfare, this maker of environmentally-friendly laundry detergents, paper products and yes, tampons and pads, launched TamPontification last April. A “quiet effort,” says the company’s Chrystie Heimert, who helped develop the campaign, but one that generated strong support.

Site visitors trickled to a swell. With just a click and drag of a mouse, they made “virtual donations” to the state of their choice, the bill footed by Seventh Generation. That’s when this site dedicated to the Girl Flu went unexpectedly viral.

Bloggers linked to it. Girlfriends e-mailed each other about it. In just a few weeks, visits to the site skyrocketed. As did donations. To the tune of over half a million Red Cigars. (Compare that to the 5,000 clicks or so collected over the first five months).

“It’s completely exceeded anything we anticipated,” says Heimert. “Then again, that’s the beauty and the wonder of viral.” So, although Seventh Generation is regrouping, it’s not backing away from the cause.

As the campaign has generated so much buzz, it’s also gotten the attention of various retailers offering to partner with the company. While it works out those possibilities, Seventh Generation says it will continue its mission to link visitors to volunteer opportunities at homeless shelters in their communities and encourage customers to donate toiletries and hygiene products. (A volunteer section of the site also directs visitors to JustGive.org and Shelters.org.)

Response was so strong that Seventh Generation had to put it temporarily on hold while it met demand. Here’s what they now say on their website:

Thanks to the thousands of you who have visited this page to donate tampons and pads. We are moved by your overwhelming response to this initiative and are looking forward to distributing these much-needed products to shelters across North America in the coming months. We have received so many clicks in the past few weeks that we are temporarily suspending the click-to-donate action until we can get all of the product out to the shelters that need it. While you’re here, please sign up for our monthly newsletter, so that we can keep you posted about our donations program. In the meantime, please contribute your creative thoughts to our ‘tampontificate’ page and make plans to volunteer your time at a homeless shelter in your area. If you currently work at a shelter, please contact Seventh Generation to submit your shelter information and we will add you to our donations list. Thanks again to all!

Here’s to Seventh Generation for doing well by doing good especially in area few will touch let alone promote. In addition to attracting new customers, this effort has helped them generate positive momentum with their retailers, a critical factor for all brands especially small ones who usually are relegated to bottom shelf treatment. As far as Marketing for Good is concerned, this program is spot on.

Tomorrow a Sea of People will vividly demonstrate the potential of catastrophic climate change in lower Manhattan simply by getting together and wearing blue shirts. I love this idea as it combines many of the principles of Marketing for Good (engage, enlighten, inspire and even entertain) into one huge press worthy, GoogleEarthy punctuation point. The blogging community has embraced this event with numerous posts:

No Impact Man (see early MFG post) noted:

Treehugger predicts that this Saturday, April 14, at 12 noon, New York City will have the biggest environmental event since the first Earth Day in 1970. Get out your blue shirts! Why? Because the New York event, called Sea of People, aims to line up thousands of participants along the predicted climate-change flood lines in Manhattan. The blue-swathed masses will represent the water’s edge (map courtesy of Treehugger).

The Gothamist provides a terrific interview with the organizers of this event. Here’s a brief snippet:

Tell us about Sea of People.
Sea of People is our local contribution to the April 14th Step It Up National Day of Climate Action. The whole campaign focuses on one goal: getting our national politicians to commit to serious action on climate change. Specifically, we’re asking them to mandate an 80% reduction in American carbon emissions by 2050.

Here in NYC, we’ll be having a massive rally down in Battery Park, with speakers from a diverse span of fields–youth, scientists, businessmen, politicians, pastors, activists–to breifly touch upon why this political action is urgent. After the rally, participants will stretch into a single line–a ‘Sea of People’–along lower Manhattan’s 10-foot elevation line, or the “future sea level” zone.

When did the idea for it come about?
The goal has always been to create an event on scale with NYC’s size, influence and boundless creative vitality. In early January, Ben and a few other New Yorkers in the “green scene” got an email from the revered environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, who’d come up with the idea for the national campaign. We all got together, worked through a bunch of ideas, and this plan surfaced as the most striking and inspiring.

Streetsblog noted:

Volunteers will form a “Sea of People,” as part of a rally and march that will demarcate the projected eastern and western 10-foot waterlines that may one day redefine lower Manhattan under the ten-foot sea level rise scenario. This is part of the national Step It Up 2007 campaign to raise awareness of climate change.

Marketers would be smart to analyze the Sea of People project and all its implications. It is an inspirational idea that makes it easy for anyone so inclined to participate, to share with friends and family, to be a part of something bigger than themselves. It might not be eco-Woodstock but it is certainly close to eco-Hands Across America. Those who do participate will not just talk about this at the water cooler on Monday but will surely remember it for years to come.

I’m not sure I really understood the notion of “sea change”–until yesterday. In less than an hour my desk was literally flooded by a tidal wave of eco-activism, one by Ogilvy UK and the other by an organization called Sea of People. Both of these efforts are meant to dramatize the problems associated with climate change. In combination, these two efforts bridge the physical and virtual worlds, cut across the pond between London and New York and send a clear message to all who will listen that a sea change is happening both literally and figuratively.

Ogivly created waves with a well-timed stunt on Second Life as reported by Shots.net:

Large swathes of Britain, Europe and Japan experienced catastrophic floods unprecedented in scale last week. In case you wondered why you hadn’t heard about them, the disasters occurred in the virtual world of Second Life.

The flooding of the virtual equivalents of Britain, the Netherlands, Ibiza, Majorca and Japan – low-lying areas that will be most vulnerable if global warming continues at its current rate – was orchestrated by the Ogilvy Group UK for the charity Adventure Ecology as a campaign to educate young people about the potential consequences of climate change.

And then there is the Sea of People project as reported on its website:

The Sea Of People project combines the dynamics of a mass rally with the expressive power of an interactive artistic installation. Following a 12 Noon Rally in Battery Park on Saturday, April 14, 2007, thousands of participants, dressed in blue, will stretch north in two columns along the projected eastern and western 10-foot waterlines that may one day redefine lower Manhattan under the ten-foot sea level rise scenario.

The goal of the organizers is to have both lines extend one-half to one-mile north from the Battery. We estimate that a line of this length would call for at least 5,000 participants, and no less than 200 volunteers to help coordinate its movement and formation. Therefore the need to execute successful and broad outreach prior to the date will be of paramount importance.

Sea Of People is a part of Step It Up 2007, a nationwide campaign that aims to deliver a clear and powerful message to our congressional leadership: CUT GLOBAL WARMING POLLUTION BY 80% BY 2050! The campaign will culminate on Saturday, April 14th, a national day of climate action, when Americans, representing voting districts throughout the country, will voice their support for this bold and necessary commitment by gathering together and making their voices heard in hundreds of local demonstrations.

Both of these “stunts” attempt to visualize a problem that is otherwise invisible and relatively easy to ignore. Or at least it was easy to ignore. Marketers take note. This is your wake up call, or perhaps a cold shower. The tide has indeed turned. Eco-activism has gone mainstream. If your company does not have a plan for going Green, you better develop one on the double.  I can tell you from our efforts at Renegade (and we’re a relatively small company) that is neither easy nor quick to suddenly go Green. It takes time and concerted effort by a lot of people to change organizational behavior, to reduce energy consumption or even to recycle a few sheets of paper. However, it’s not only the right thing to do but also the only way to ensure your corporate ship can cruise through the changing tides of public sentiment.  This is no longer a question of Marketing for Good–it is a necessity to stay competitive.  And that is indeed a true sea change.