Closer tie between green marketing and overall brand image
An emerging trend for 2009 will be a closer link between companies’ sustainability initiatives and their overall brand identities. This means that environmental stewardship will no longer be a section buried in the back of a company’s website. We’ll likely see more companies tying their green initiatives directly into their overall marketing scheme.
Toyota’s “moving forward,” for example, presents technological innovation (which today is synonomous with fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas [GHG] reduction) to the forefront of its core brand identity.
Increased attention to audience and customer engagement
No longer will a simple “report” about environmental stewardship be sufficient. Instead, companies will become further engaged in a dialogue with their stakeholders, tailoring sustainability initiatives to specifically suit the values and expectations of everyone from investors to suppliers to the individual customers. This will be achieved through “reporting 2.0,” or the use of online tools to develop this two-way communication. Coca-Cola, for example, uses an “Addressing your Questions” section, monthly e-newsletters, on its sustainability homepage as a means to address stakeholder concerns and develop specific sustainability initiatives.
Stakeholder engagement will not only come from communication, but also from action, especially in local communities. Look for fast food companies to develop local physical fitness programs, traditionally environmentally unfriendly companies to local community clean-up initiatives, and more.
Smart Ads and Online Video
Video as a medium experienced 350% growth in the past year. The growth in popularity of YouTube and other social media networks makes the sharing and linking of videos increasingly easy, so don’t expect this trend to dissipate any time soon. The increased portability of the internet (through Blackberrys and the like) will also affect the way messaging is conveyed. This means an increase in out-of-home ads linked to the use of cell-phones and other web-enabled mobile devices.
Goals will be more clearly identified using specifics
This will prove most crucial as greenwashing becomes increasingly recognized. Clear, understandable initiatives, identifiable benchmarks, and tracking progress (both positive and negative) over time. But this won’t mean endless pages of facts and figures that are inaccessible to a lay audience. Instead we’ll see clearer, more identifiable goals, and measurable results that detail progress (both positive and negative) over time.
This will also include more relevant initiatives. For example carbon offsetting, one of the most widely-used sustainability initiatives, will taper off as the push for carbon regulation (such as cap and trade legislation) intensifies in 2009. Look for water to become the new carbon in the eyes of companies looking to become more sustainable.
More Partnerships with Environmental Groups
One of the soundest ways to develop accountability is to work with sustainability advocacy groups. This will, in the long run, blur the once clear divide between businesses and other organizations, such as not-for-profit (NFP) groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Working with these advocacy groups, companies will start to take active roles in conservation, wildlife protection, and other areas of sustainability and issue advocacy.