What is Green Marketing?

Competition is fierce in the business world and is only getting more so. The modern consumer is savvy and has more options than ever before. It's also more straightforward to switch brand allegiances at the drop of a hat in many niches.

All that explains why companies have to explore more innovative marketing ideas. One such is that of green marketing. It’s a tactic becoming more widespread among forward-thinking brands. If you don’t know what green marketing is, then, it’s time to find out. Fortunately, all you need to do is to read on.   

What Does Green Marketing Mean?

Green marketing is when a brand promotes its environmentally-friendly credentials. It’s a way of generating interest, publicity, and loyalty from prospects and customers. The idea being that modern consumers care about how green the firms they interact with are. 

There are lots of different areas in which a business can practice green marketing.   

1. More eco-friendly supply chains.

People are more aware of the carbon footprint involved in getting products to market. Savvy brands, therefore, are starting to make their supply chains more sustainable. That way, they can market their business as having a less detrimental effect on the environment. 

The most obvious example of this is when firm’s promote ‘locally sourced’ materials. By using ingredients or elements from close by, less pollution gets generated. That's because they don't have to transport them around the world.  

2. Environmentally friendly products.

Green marketing can mean an even more fundamental change to business operations. A brand may choose, for instance, to sell only environmentally-friendly products. Or, they may decide to publicly shun products or ingredients which don't live up to those standards. Recent pledges from brands to avoid palm oil is a prime example.  

3. Green packaging.

It’s not only a company’s products that can impact the environment. The collateral material involved in marketing and supplying them can, too. Many brands, therefore, choose to use green packaging and other materials. For example, a business might use a digital catalogue maker. That way, they can list their items online rather than print physical brochures. 

4. Promoting broader efforts to reduce environmental impact.

Other efforts to limit your company’s impact on the environment may prove popular with consumers. As such, promoting these attempts to get more green can make for effective marketing. Say, you needed to teach newly remote staff how to setup a VoIP phone at home. You could share with the public how you used virtual training. That's rather than printing thousands of manuals.  

Why Should You Consider Green Marketing?

Green marketing is a useful potential tactic for one reason; consumers like to see it. In the modern age, people want brands to be ecologically responsible. Adopting green marketing, then, can form part of a broader customer engagement strategy. It will be most beneficial if you find that your target audience is notably concerned with climate change and green issues.  

An aside. Don’t ‘greenwash’.

Green marketing can work well for many different businesses. It’s not something to take on lightly, however. It needs significant planning and teamwork. Your whole organization must get on board and live up to your new standards at all times. If that doesn’t happen, you may get accused of ‘greenwashing’.

Greenwashing is when a brand falsely promotes its green credentials. For instance, if a company claims their packaging is recycled when it isn't. Or, when they use imagery and terminology to suggest they're eco-friendly without backing it up. This kind of underhandedness does not go down well with consumers.  

Conclusion

Effective marketing is about meeting your target customers where they live. You need to tailor your business and how you promote it to what consumers demand. Increasingly, customers expect brands to be responsible when it comes to the environment.

That’s what’s behind the trend toward green marketing. Companies have realized that promoting their green credentials is a way to get more consumers on side. With environmental issues gaining, not losing, significance, this trend is only set to accelerate.