Welcome to Green Marketing Corner. This exclusive feature of EcoMall provides tips, information and strategies from Jacquelyn Ottman, consultant and author of Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation on how to market to today's environmentally conscious consumers. To ask Jacquelyn Ottman a question, you can E-mail her at Ottman@GreenMarketing.com.
Question: Can a profit be made by selling recycled goods to consumers?
The answer is:
Yes! There are many highly profitable consumer products on the market that use recycled content. Examples include the Scotchbrite Never Rust "wool" soap pad made from preconsumer recycled plastic and Crane's "Denim Blues" and "Old Money" lines of paper made from scraps from blue jean manufacturing and recycled U.S. currency, respectively. Both of these products command a premium price and offer benefits to the consumer beyond just the recycled content. (In the case of Scotchbrite, its the fact that the soap pad doesn't rust like conventional steel wool. In the case of the stationery, its the unique aesthetic.)
Of course, there are many examples of products that use recycled content as a way to cut costs. One great one is Marcal, a line of household paper products that has always used recycled content as its raw material (though they didn't mention it to the consumer until the 1990s when recycling became popular.)
An example of a recycled content product that is not doing well is Wellman EcoSpun fiber, made from 100% recycled soda bottles. It has found a limited market among manufacturers who target green consumers (like Nike and Patagonia), but the fact that it is premium priced versus virgin and offers no consumer perceptible benfits besides the "feel good" is a barrier to growth. (This product is a good example of how we may need government intervention in helping to create markets for green products, as most virgin polyester is coming in offshore.)
If you would like additional information, you can consult our website, www.greenmarketing.com, or read our book, Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation.
Best of luck,
Jacquie OttmanSpecial Feature: Let's Make it Cool to Stop Global Warming: An Open Letter to America's Marketers and Advertisers.
More articles about this topic can also be found at www.GreenMarketing.com.
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Let Us Hear From You... E-mail Jacquelyn Ottman the questions that you want answers for. Her E-mail is Ottman@GreenMarketing.com. She will respond to those questions with the greatest relevance to product marketers and entrepreneurs in future updates of Green Marketing Corner.
About Jacquelyn Ottman: Jacquelyn Ottman is the president and founder of J. Ottman Consulting, Inc., based in New York City. She is also the author of Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation, 2nd Edition. For the past 10 years her organization has helped businesses create competitive advantage by developing and marketing environmentally responsible products and services. Clients include 3M, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Interface, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Ottman created the Getting to Zerosm Process, the first innovation process specifically designed to generate concepts for new environmentally sustainable products and services. A much sought-after speaker, Ottman has addressed industry conferences and professional gatherings in the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. She has been quoted in Advertising Age, Business Week, Fortune, and the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.
Prior to founding her firm, she worked in research, account management, and new product concept development at leading New York advertising agencies, where she managed Procter & Gamble, Ralston-Purina, and other blue-chip accounts. Ottman is a member of the American Marketing Association, O2, the Product Development and Management Association, and the World Future Society.
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