Are you planning to create an eco-friendly brand for your business? Here are the five pitfalls you must avoid.
Today’s businesses must go green or go home. More and more consumers are becoming aware of the environmental impact companies have on our planet, and they are committed to supporting those brands that do something about it.
In fact, as of 2020, 45% of consumers worldwide agreed that they are interested in finding sustainable and eco-friendly brands. What’s more, 44% of them said that they wanted to find brands that supported recycling. So, now is the time to create an eco-friendly brand for your business, attract consumers to you, and leverage over your competitors.
But, building a green brand isn’t going to happen overnight. It is also not going to be that easy. Green marketing takes a real commitment from your brand to truly deliver a positive environmental impact. What’s more, there are also many pitfalls that your brand might fall for if you aren’t careful enough that can do a lot of harm to your business.
This article explores the five pitfalls you need to avoid at all costs when building an eco-friendly brand.
Not being green
If it isn’t obvious enough, to create an eco-friendly brand, you first need to become green and take your impact on the environment seriously. Before you start thinking about your branding strategies as an eco-friendly business, make sure that you take actual steps to be one.
Basically, make sure that you’re not doing any harm to the environment through your products, events, and services. Use recyclable materials, have good waste management solutions in place, such as different compactors and balers, train your employees to reduce the impact on the planet, use sustainable energy sources, and so on.
It would be a mistake to start market your brand as an eco-friendly one before you have all sustainable practices in place as it may be seen as greenwashing, despite your good intentions for protecting the environment.
Don’t just be green
Green marketing can bring your brand plenty of benefits, including helping you stand out from the crowd, entering a new audience segment, earning eco-friendly incentives, and even cutting down your costs. And, while this may be good news, we have some bad news as well: you won’t be the only eco-friendly brand.
Like it or not, the “green marketing” trend is no longer a secret. More and more businesses are taking a serious look at the environmental impact they have and what they can do about it. So, you can’t hope to stand out from the crowd only based on your commitment to reducing your impact.
Now, what exactly does it mean to be more than just “green”? Well, that depends on your business and the type of brand you want to build. Your other distinctive factor could be your innovative product, it could be your brand’s voice, or it could be your packaging’s design.
The point is that you should add that something extra in your branding that sets you apart from all other brands that are also embracing the green trend.
Greenwashing
Probably the biggest mistake you could do is to portray your brand as more eco-friendly than it is in reality. Greenwashing is a very hot topic these days. With more and more brands turning to more eco-friendly practices to ride the green wave, some of them tend to exaggerate their efforts.
The problem with that? Well, not only that it does nothing to the environment, it misleads customers, and if consumers ever find out about it, it can mean a significant hit in a business’s reputation.
How to avoid greenwashing?
- Make it clear what sustainability benefits your product/ service has.
- Back up all your sustainability claims with facts.
- Avoid making vague statements.
- Don’t attempt to confuse consumers with jargon they don’t understand.
Being irrelevant to consumers
All environmental efforts matter to the planet. And they also matter to consumers, but only if they understand what you’re talking about. More precisely, don’t make the mistake of getting lost in statistics, percentages, and numbers because all these “corporate” things matter little, if not anything, to consumers.
Many brands trying to show their commitment to going green share a number of statistics, studies, and percentages on how their eco-friendly efforts help or will help the planet. But, at the end of the day, very little of that information actually gets to the hearts of their customers.
Sure, documenting and researching your environmental efforts is a great idea. It gives you a clear idea of where you stand and what you can do better to have a smaller impact on the planet. What’s more, it also gives your brand more credibility. But, what we’re saying is just to be careful how much of the data you gather you share with your customers. And, it’s not about hiding anything. It’s just about not bore them with too much hard-to-read data.
Whenever you share your company’s sustainability goals, efforts, and achievements, better make a fun infographic to share them rather than a five pages-long report filled with data and percentages. To prove that there’s nothing to hide, leave a PDF file or a link to the full report for those customers who want to dig deeper into all the stats.
Not getting your customers involved
Data shows that 57% of consumers report being willing to change their purchasing habits to help reduce negative environmental impact. So, it’s evident that consumers want to feel included, and your eco-friendly brand should not ignore that.
Those brands who are serious about reducing their impact on our planet know that they are only a tiny part of the solution. So, they actively encourage their customers to be as committed as them to reducing the harm brought by consumerism to our environment.
To make your customers feel part of your sustainable initiatives, make sure that you constantly encourage them to recycle. The best way to do that is also to have a reward scheme in place to offer something in return for their help.
