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 thatuse 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 manufacturingand recycled U.S. currency, respectively. Both of these products command apremium price and offer benefits to the consumer beyond just the recycledcontent. (In the case of Scotchbrite, its the fact that the soap pad doesn'trust like conventional steel wool. In the case of the stationery, its theunique aesthetic.)
Of course, there are many examples of products that use recycled content asa way to cut costs. One great one is Marcal, a line of household paperproducts that has always used recycled content as its raw material (thoughthey didn't mention it to the consumer until the 1990s when recycling becamepopular.)
An example of a recycled content product that is not doing well is WellmanEcoSpun fiber, made from 100% recycled soda bottles. It has found a limitedmarket among manufacturers who target green consumers (like Nike andPatagonia), but the fact that it is premium priced versus virgin and offersno consumer perceptible benfits besides the "feel good" is a barrier togrowth. (This product is a good example of how we may need governmentintervention in helping to create markets for green products, as most virginpolyester 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 forInnovation.
Best of luck,
Jacquie OttmanSpecial Feature: Let's Make it Cool to Stop Global Warming: An Open Letterto America's Marketers and Advertisers.
More articles about this topic can also be found atwww.GreenMarketing.com.
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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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