Making Gold of Green

By Andrew Pierce, January 8, 2008 — A green business strategy will have you singing the blues if it doesn’t benefit your customers. Environmentally responsible efforts should always serve the business, the client, and the brand.

Unfortunately, too many companies begin with an “inside out” perspective. They try to create and sell green products and services without first learning how they’ll ultimately solve a customer need.

Instead of guessing, the process of going green should begin with some simple but important questions. What behaviors are you trying to change or create? Are your green efforts something a customer understands and values? Will they be willing to pay for it? How can the impact of your green investments be measured?

Once those questions are answered, there are two critical elements to ensure your green initiatives work as a business and a brand builder.

First, green initiatives must be authentic and the commitment must permeate the business. Customers are too clever to be swayed by anything less. Consider General Electric’s “Ecomagination” effort, launched in 2005. Yes, it featured beautiful advertisements showcasing the company’s efforts to safeguard the environment. More importantly, though, GE demonstrated its commitment to developing cleaner technologies for its industrial customers, increasing its R&D spending to $1.5 billion by 2010. And the payoff has been huge, with the 45 aligned products expected to generate $13 billion in 2007 revenues.

Second, you must demonstrate how green initiatives address a customer need and enhance the customer experience. Customers want to be part of the solution, albeit without compromising convenience or increasing their burden. Customers need to see the benefit of the environmentally friendly products and services, such as accepting online billing statements instead of paper. When going green means more work and less convenience, beware! The risk of losing the customer and damaging the brand increases.

It’s not enough to dye a brand green. Businesses must be grown green. Do it right and you’ll find yourself firmly in the black.