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 info@greenmarketing.com.
Jacquelyn Ottman Urges Business Leaders To Adopt More Responsible Green Marketing Strategies
NEW YORK, NY — On Thursday, September 27, Jacquelyn Ottman, green marketing pioneer and author of Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation used her keynote address to the Sustainable Brands '07 conference, New Orleans, as a voice of warning to conference attendees for potential regulation of deceptive green marketing practices and bans on polluting products.
In a speech in which she recapped 20 years of green marketing, she challenged her audience to consider whether any real progress has been made. The FTC's green marketing guidelines now exist. Businesses know to spotlight primary benefits in their green messages. Empowerment has become a focal point for the Energy Star label and HSBC Bank's "There's No Small Change" campaign. BP, with a deadly fire at its Texas refinery and oil spills in the Artic, has learned the necessity of "walking its talk."
However, as demonstrated by the Kermit the Frog ad asserting "It's Easy Being Green" for Ford's Escape SUV hybrid or the now defunct Biota Co.'s use of a "biodegradable" claim for corn-based bottles destined for landfills, the marketing community has generally not learned from past green marketing debacles and risks strict regulations in the future.
Ottman, a sought-after speaker who has advised 60 of the Fortune 500, warned about the potential for bans on ads for polluting products like SUVs, bottled water, and disposable diapers. Ottman cautioned that the growing number of eco-labels may result in consumer confusion, and noted that Congress has already held hearings on the now unregulated and often misleading practice of carbon offsets.
Ottman told conference goers, "We need to pursue a course of sustainable branding that is rooted in aligned values, engaged employees, and communication with stakeholders and the public." Noting that by 2025, China is expected to be the largest car market in the world - with its attendant greenhouse gas emissions - and that 1/3rd of the world's people will live in a water-starved area, Ottman urged her audience to follow a course of eco-innovation with the potential to create the next generation of products and services with significantly reduced environmental impacts. Such products, Ottman noted, represent the prospect of significantly enhanced customer benefits and as such, don't need to be promoted through green marketing claims or Kermit the Frog.
For more on the Sustainable Brands '07 Conference visit www.sustainablebrands07.com
For more on Jacquelyn Ottman and her firm visit www.greenmarketing.com
For a more detailed summary of her remarks, email info@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 info@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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