Cone Green Gap Trend Tracker

57% of consumers mistrust green claims made by companies.

59% expect any green claim to be backed up with facts.

75% wish companies would do a better job helping them understand the environmental terms they use.

This lack of consumer trust and their thirsting for more information is creating a sea-changing marketing opportunity for companies that can break-through this consumer confusion by offering the facts and analysis consumers are seeking.

Number One, consumers want to see a third party documentation or certification of a green claim. This is the best practice I call PROVE IT, CONCLUSIVELY!

This strategy was actually pioneered by Clorox in their launch of Green Works, the first green consumer product to gain $100 million in annual revenues.

The strategy is to identify what third parties your customer respect and trust. And then win from these third parties their endorsement.

Bill Roth is the founder of Earth 2017 that focuses upon the emerging smart, healthy and green economy. His book, The Secret Green Sauce, profiles best practices of business making money going green.

Here’s why:

• 35% of CMOs believe content marketing is the future of marketing, almost double from just 2006
• 69% of consumers like that custom content marketing targets their interests with 61% saying they are likely to BUY MORE from companies that provide them with custom content!

This research closely aligns with market research identifying the rise of Awareness Customers seeking “in me, on me and around me” product solutions that enhance their well being and that of their family. These content searching customers have an annual buying power of $10 Trillion.

This is a tremendous marketing opportunity for businesses that have an authentic green, wellness and sustainable message to tell. Authenticity is the engagement “start button” for the Awareness Customer. And authenticity is also the key attribute of content marketing that creates new revenues.

What is content marketing but the telling of your product and company’s story on how you have a real solution to a customer’s search. Content marketing is messaging that provides a path for a customer to authenticate product and company claims.

So a second key element of content marketing is transparency. Today’s customers are increasingly armed with smartphones that allow them to go beyond the product package labels in search of “truth.” Successful content marketing enables the customer with a path to third party documentation of your claims.

Content marketing is a super highway to the Awareness Customer. They are asking questions that the green business and their green products are the solution.

Implementing content marketing requires these steps:

1. Define your content messaging around the question your customer is seeking answers on.
2. Don’t tell, prove it!
3. Engage through social media that allows the customer to share your content message with their tribe or community so they can validate its authenticity. And this creates a “multiplier” effect for your content marketing as your message is shared across the social community.
4. Find a path for engaging the smartphone customer. Swapping the bar code from a smartphone app is exploding as a customer used application. It opens the door for your green business and products to document authenticity.

Bill Roth is the founder of Earth 2017 that focuses upon the emerging smart, healthy and green economy. His book, The Secret Green Sauce, profiles best practices of businesses making money going green.

Part One of this two part article series outlined the Triple Value Proposition of:

1. Practical Benefits. The foundational “must haves” of durability, practicality and safety.
2. Social and Environmental Benefits. They are looking for products that make positive differences in the world.
3. Tribal Benefits. How will others judge them?

This Part Two article focuses upon two mega-trends best practices in sales and marketing that are growing revenues for companies aligning with the New Consumer.

First is what I call “Cost Less, Mean More.” New Consumers are buying products and services that are price competitive and align with their Triple Value Proposition. The New Consumer are re-engineering their lifestyle to implement Cost Less, Mean More. Increasingly they are moving to lower square footage living spaces located closer to their work with walkability and transit accessibility. Rather than owning cars they are looking at alternatives like Zip Car that allows them to rent a car for an hour or part of a day. They are literally getting their hands dirty by turning to urban farming as a path for lowering their grocery bills and insuring a higher quality food source.

Buy Local is an off shoot of the Cost Less, Mean More mega trend for the New Consumer. Increasingly they are looking beyond the mass marketing retail experience and “everyday low prices” to find local merchants. The New Consumer is an “engaged” consumer. They want to engage their merchant beyond an experience at a check out location. The New Consumer wants to input their Triple Value Proposition into the design of products, a key success factor for Whole Foods that seeks their “guests” inputs in shaping what individual local stores stock on their shelves.

The best practices for sales and marketing are radically shifting under the influence of the New Consumer. Here’s 4 best practices for selling yourself and your products to the New Consumer:

1. Your product and service must strongly represent a purpose. The New Consumer is looking past low price to find best value.
2. You must be connected. The New Consumer uses Facebook and Smartphone Apps in searching for products and services that align with their Triple Value Proposition and that also align with the values of their peer community or “tribe.” Connected outreach is replacing mass advertising as the path to winning the New Consumer’s attention and brand loyalty.
3. Engage, engage, engage. Your strongest marketing tool is engagement with the New Consumer so they can validate your values and that of your product and services. This doesn’t mean having a Facebook fan page. It means engaging them, listening to them and shaping your products, store design, operating behaviors, supply chain, etc around what they have to say. And they have a LOT to say!
4. Price Competitiveness. Only 20% of the New Consumers say they will pay more according to BBMG. The companies that are experiencing meaningful sales success are offering the New Consumer BOTH competitive prices and alignment with their Triple Value Proposition.

Bill Roth is the founder of Earth 2017 that focuses upon the emerging smart, healthy and green economy. His book, The Secret Green Sauce, profiles best practices of businesses making money going green.

For the few that haven’t signed up yet, social group coupons are highly discounted deals available for a limited amount of time and a limited quantity. Group coupons are the social media path for a merchant to do “Buy Now!” promotions.

Green Box Top is a group coupon site that exclusively promotes healthy, wellness, organic and green products.

Green Box Top offers a fresh best practices for marketing to the growing numbers of smart, health and environmentally consensus, consumers. It appears to be on target for connecting with The Millennial Generation that includes “their future” as a key procurement criteria in evaluating products and their “Mommy Blogger” moms focused upon wellness for themselves and their family.

Green Box Top connects green businesses seeking increased exposure with green customers seeking price competitive green products. This path has tremendous growth potential based upon the market research findings that 85% of consumers will buy the more sustainable product vs the less sustainable product if their prices are equal!

Green Box Top’s goes one step further by promoting green businesses offering price discounts for their green products and services!

Bill Roth is the founder of Earth 2017 that focuses upon the emerging smart, health and green economy. His book, The Secret Green Sauce, profiles best practices of businesses making money going green.

Yet, Formstack reports that less than half (45%) of small business have a website!

This is especially damaging for small businesses because consumers are using the Internet and social media to figure out what green products and services to buy.

“Know it, embrace it” is a marketing concept first shared with me by a Web 2.0 guru. This phrase captures the essence of how people are buying green.

Here’s the three step process market research is documenting on how people are going green:

1. LEARNING. Consumers begin going green by doing research. They use web searches to learn and social media to connect with others who are going green.
2. EXPERIMENTING. After going through the learning process consumers begin to experiment. Maybe they try using recyclable carry bags. Or they try a green household cleaner. But through small actions they grow in their understanding on how going green works for them.
3. BUYING. At this stage consumers are shifting toward a sustainable lifestyle. More and more of their purchases are focused upon “in me, on me and around me” solutions for their lives.

The #1 reason why small businesses don’t have websites? The answer is “don’t need one.” The marketing evidence is very convincing that this is a BIG MISTAKE if a small business wants to grow green revenues!

Bill Roth is the founder of Earth 2017 that is focused upon the emerging smart, healthy and green economy. His book, The Secret Green Sauce, profiles best practices of businesses making money going green.

Making this type of connection really works. Green Carpet Clean, A Green Entrepreneur Marketing Success is short video interview with two entrepreneurs that have create a business with its “phone ringing off the hook. ” Their message is that being “real” with a customer focus and having green products will gain 5 star Yelp ratings and exciting revenue growth.

Here’s a statistic that should attract every marketer’s attention: 8 out of 10 people use the web to search for health information! Your customers are searching the web for products that align with their health concerns. To grow your business and product revenues align with your customers’ quest for wellness and health solutions.

If you are a carpet cleaner are you selling a cleaning service that is highly price competitive or are you selling indoor air quality? See the marketing difference? What would a customer pay to know their health and of their loved ones is enhanced vs. compared to what they would pay for a cleaning service?

We all know customer “word of mouth” is so credible and a huge path for winning customers.  If you are marketing just on price, what will your customers say? Compare that word of mouth message to one based upon your business and products solving a customer’s search for “in me, on me and around me” solutions like health, diet, air quality, cost savings, etc. It is this type of word of mouth power that green marketing is creating for companies and entrepreneurs enabling their success in growing customers, revenues and profits.

So the question of “What is the Wellness Customer looking for?” is a major concern for all businesses. To find answers to this question I interviewed Clif Bar Executive Vice President of Marketing, Michelle Ferguson. In the following video interview she talks to the varied nutritional needs being sought by a range of consumers including women and children. Her observations align with those of Linda Gilbert of EcoFocus Worldwide who reports market research findings showing three out of four Americans believe a greener planet starts at home. This group now includes “Dads”: half of all dads are looking for greener, more sustainable, healthier options for their current purchases of household paper, garden products, vehicles, cleaning products, food and appliances.

Michele’s interview also addresses the marketing issue of how to connect with these consumers who are increasingly focused on wellness and sustainability, or as Clorox defines it, a search for “in me, on me, around me” solutions. Her observations align with market research documenting consumer confusion on what to buy and who to buy from. In the video she shares Clif Bar’s best practices for connecting with consumers seeking answers that are credible and timely, including a social media best-practices favorite called “Chris!”

However, companies are struggling with how to evolve their operations and product offerings to meet this growing consumer expectation. A common call to action among speakers at the recent Sustainable Brands 2010 conference (SB10) was the need for innovation in strategy, product design and messaging.

To capture this theme I conducted video interviews with SB10 speakers and attendees that I thought had unique insights on customer expectations and how to deal with issues of greenwashing, product certification and consumer engagement. This interview with with Lee Ann Head, VP of Market Research with Shelton Group profiles what consumers want, what they don’t want and how they relate to green brand messaging.

About 90 seconds into her video interview is an insightful discussion on the Sunchips video ad focused upon their “completely compostable” chip bag. Focus groups ranks this as the best ad among those targeting the green consumer. Yet behind this success lurks growing consumer awareness that “compostable” packaging does not decompose in today’s waste management system. Is this type of advertising an example of vision or greenwashing? What are the dangers of a future backlash from consumers self-educating themselves on sustainable practices who could potentially call it a “greenwash?”

The good news is that no one is expected to turn green overnight, but brands are expected to be truthful about their progress. “Restaurants should be honest about the extent to which they’re green. It’s OK to say you’re taking steps and not where you want to be,” Roth says.

Roth’s “secret green sauce” recipe to help avert the skeptical activist is to “prove it conclusively.” He cites the Green Restaurant Association, which is a third-party endorser of legitimate green practices by restaurants that has been around for 15 years but only recently gotten the industry’s attention. “I’m enthusiastic about their methodology because it’s about progress: It’s easy to enter, but to maintain affiliation you have to get progressively better every year,” he says.

In terms of getting the word out, social-media vehicles seem to be the method of choice among the experts I spoke with. Menken says that since it is only the activists and business people who have been getting the word out about green practices, “quick serves need to reinvigorate their messaging by going directly to the consumer. In the consumer space and the restaurant industry, these companies need to directly engage customers through blogs, online, and Twitter. Skip the influencer and go peer to peer.”

Roth agrees. “It’s a new paradigm,” he says. “With the development of social media, companies who are effectively communicating green practices are engaging their customers through this medium. Engage your own consumer as if you, the entrepreneur, are involved. It’s a communal premise—it’s not advertising.”

Benchmarks and Basics
That premise is exactly what seems to have helped Amanda West launch her restaurant, Amanda’s, in Berkeley, California, in 2008 that serves “quick-service foods that are better for both customers and the environment.” West’s background as a blogger on healthy and enviro-friendly living gave her the perfect forum, and credibility, for attracting dozens of local media, including television, restaurant guides, eco-publications, and other grassroots endorsements to create buzz about her store and attract patrons.

“I started out doing monthly e-mail newsletters to anyone I met,” West says, including to a local news reporter she met at a city council meeting who became Amanda’s first TV interview. “Networking is really effective. I met a woman at a Chamber of Commerce meeting who does East Bay green tours. We’re the first stop of the tour.”

West says she also donates a lot to community organizations involved with health and the environment, including the local public radio station. “A lot of people say they heard about us from that,” she says.

In some ways, small-scale operators like West may have an advantage in the green marketing trend. For example, a large company can promote its groundbreaking sustainability program on a national level, but still miss the local piece that consumers experience.

No matter the size of the quick serve, West’s advice is that “it is important to be authentic when you’re marketing. People appreciate our Google spreadsheet we embedded in our Web site that says what we’re doing well and what could do better. That’s really transparent. If you say you’re doing something well, why not say what you’d like to do better?”