According to a study by Dentsu International and Microsoft Advertising, more than 77% of people around the world say in five years, they only want to spend money on brands that practice sustainable advertising. Furthermore, 91% of people want brands to demonstrate they are making positive choices about the planet.
But what does this have to do with Digital Marketing and what has been the impact on companies and their consumers?
Green Marketing and its relevance to companies
Green Marketing is a strategy focused on developing sustainable actions and improving services and products that reduce the impact of climate change.
This strategy has gained strength and importance in recent years due to the constant advance of global warming, causing sad consequences in different parts of the world, such as floods in China, water shortages in Colorado reservoirs, and forest fires in the Amazon.
To the detriment of these and many other events, consumers have been increasingly aware of the environmental impact of their actions and, especially, of the actions of companies. This is what the study carried out by Microsoft Advertising and the agency Dentsu International says:
“Consumers put governments (51%), companies/brands (43%) and the advertising industry (41%) ahead of themselves (36%) as responsible for decarbonising ads and hold companies responsible for the way they experience the advertising they consume.”
Therefore, people are becoming more and more discerning in relation to:
- What they buy
- From whom they buy
- How it impacts their life and the environment
These considerations are made by the consumer before deciding to purchase a solution and directly impact brands, as 3 out of 10 people are willing to pay more for more sustainable alternatives for products and services.
How can this data affect companies and brands?
With greater environmental awareness being propagated, Green Marketing has ceased to be an option and has become a necessity.
As an example, I bring up the case that occurred with a couple of friends who own a popular restaurant in my city. As local entrepreneurs for over 3 years, they have always been concerned about sustainability, using biodegradable and recyclable packaging, in addition to constantly improving their products.
However, at a certain time during the most critical moment of the pandemic, they had problems receiving these packages from their distributors and, in order to deliver these orders, they had to resort to plastic and Styrofoam.
To the surprise of the owners, they received several complaints from even the most loyal consumers and several negative reviews on delivery apps and on the establishment’s social networks.
Thanks to good management, the owners were able to solve the problems without major losses. This brief but real case serves as a warning not only about the direct impact of Green Marketing actions but also exemplifies one of its greatest benefits: customer retention and loyalty.
In the book Customer Success by Dan Steinman, Lincoln Murphy, and Nick Mehta, we can see the concept of two types of loyalty existing in the public: behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty.
Behavioral or intellectual loyalty indicates that a customer is only loyal because he needs it, and the scarcity of other solutions makes him loyal to the brand out of necessity. Attitudinal or emotional loyalty, on the other hand, concerns customers who are loyal because they love the brand, finding values similar to theirs and identifying with that company.
And Green Marketing is directly related to attitudinal loyalty, as these are the most valuable consumers who will not only become loyal customers, but are also willing to pay more for solutions and, above all, become brand promoters for their network of friends and family.
What should you expect from Green Marketing in the coming years?
Although the practical example of a Green Marketing strategy is specific to physical products, sustainable actions can also be applied in the digital environment and should be a practice to be considered as early as 2022.
According to The Rise of Sustainable Media study, more than half of consumers have shown themselves prepared to switch to brands that adopt more sustainable alternatives, and within a year, 3 out of 5 people will start boycotting companies that have no action against climate change.
However, care must be taken when adopting these strategies because, more than a message, sustainability needs to be practiced in a transparent manner and in accordance with the brand’s values, so that speech and actions are always together.
If you want to know some examples of good practices and better understand how to embrace Green Marketing in your 2022 strategies, I suggest checking out These 5 Innovative Green Marketing Examples.
I hope you enjoyed this article and started planning your strategies for 2022, inserting Green Marketing not only in marketing and sales actions but also in the organizational culture as a whole.
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