The new rules of green marketing - Jacquelyn Ottman

For too long, marketers of sustainable goods and services have targeted "deep green" consumers to promote their products - and they have little to show for their efforts. In this innovative book, Jacquelyn Ottman shows how the green market has moved beyond such niche marketing, and how marketers will find greater success promoting the inherent superior value of their offerings.
Greener products are now available within every industry and are a part of our everyday lives. But they didn't get to be so ubiquitous just because they are better for the planet. Whether they were promoted as such or not, sales of green products have grown so fast because of the added value they provide: health, superior performance, good taste, cost-effectiveness, or simply convenience. This central emphasis on primary benefits - the new rules - is critical to winning over the mainstream consumer and to driving overall organizational growth. The New Rules of Green Marketing helps readers understand why value-based sustainability marketing has become a critical organizational capacity, and how readers can adopt this approach in their own organizations. Illustrated by examples from both international mainstream and the more niche "deep green" leaders who are showing everyone else the way, the book provides practical strategies, tools and inspiration for building every aspect of a credible value-based green marketing strategy, including:How to use a proactive approach to sustainability to spur innovationHow to frame environment-related benefits with relevance to mainstream brandsHow to communicate with credibility and impact - and avoid "greenwashing"How to team up with stakeholders to maximize outreach to consumersHow to use a life cycle orientation to ensure the integrity of one's offeringsHow to best take advantage of recent technological advances in social mediaDrawing on the latest data from leading researchers and reflecting on learnings from Ottman's corporate clients and other pioneers including GE, Nike, HSBC, Method, Starbucks, Timberland, HP, NatureWorks, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Stonyfield Farm and Wal-Mart, this book shows how market leaders are edging out the competition using effective value-first marketing strategies.
This book captures the best of the author's previous groundbreaking books on green marketing and takes the content into the 21st century. Whereas earlier works focused on readers who were less familiar with green initiatives, this work squarely focuses on a new generation of marketers who likely themselves grew up with an appreciation of sustainability and who want and need to know how to connect effectively with mainstream consumers.

{In conclusion}: this is a really interesting and actual perspective of green marketing. This reality is been assuming more and more importance since the marketplace became, and will become even more green and socially responsible and aware. Organisations face now new challenges associated with sustainable branding and environmental management that could be better supassed by following the The New Rules of Green Marketing. - Springer - Arminda M. Finisterra do Paco

Are you following the new rules of green marketing? [...] It is the kind of book that you pick through, dog-ear, highlight and scribble in. It overflows with insightful marketing, smart case studies, and lists of references, resources and "do's and don'ts" for successful green marketers. It now adds another pound or two to my briefcase, even when I try to shoo it away. When it appears again on my office desk or in my home den, I find myself indiscriminately opening it and learning in 5-minute chunks. [..] If you're a brand manager, chief sustainability officer, or ad agency consulting with a self-proclaimed "green" person, product, company or cause, then you need to read, no, wait, "own," The New Rules of Green Marketing. It will give you an immediate jump on your competition through its encapsulation of decades of proven green marketing experience combined with current and relevant resources. Read more ... - Park Howell blog, 5 April 2011 - Park Howell

It sounds like it couldn't be simpler. According to Jacquelyn A. Ottman, the five strategies for establishing credibility for sustainable branding and marketing are: 1. Walk your talk. 2. Be transparent. 3. Don't mislead. 4. Enlist the support of third parties. 5. Promote responsible consumption. Don't be fooled. Behind these 16 harmless words lie an array of theories, models, approaches, frameworks, do's and do not's, regulatory imperatives, consumer analytics, trends, surveys, reports, examples, case studies and commentaries on the entire spectrum of presenting your products and services in an environmentally responsible way, and Ottman's book covers as many of them as you can cram into a compact 223 pages of text and references. As someone who, modestly, believes themselves to be above average on environmental awareness and reasonably up-to-date with the world of sustainability, cause marketing and green corporate initiatives, I found The New Rules of Green Marketing refreshingly informative and enlightening, and I enjoyed reading about many examples that I had not come across before, all put together in a well-ordered and logically-flowing volume. The New Rules of Green Marketing is a book you have to read from end to end. It's written in a punchy, fast-paced style and each page is full to the brim of wise guidance, with references to just about any company, I think, that has ever done anything remotely green. ... The book is full of real, accessible and re-applicable examples of what great companies are doing ... ... Her voice on green matters is authoritative and her book is compelling. If you are currently a Drifter or an Unconcerned, be careful, because reading this book might just turn you into one of the 43 million LOHAS consumers who are continuing to expand in number as you read this. Full review - CSRlive Commentary, 23 February 2011 - Elaine Cohen