Green Advertising and Marketing – How Your Local Small Business Can Use It to Increase Profits

We could spend time arguing about how valid or important these claims are, but that’s not why we are here. I’m here to show you how to use Green in your marketing, and make it effective.

Every once in a while, at a seminar I”m giving, someone asks me how to incorporate “saving the environment” into their ads. The problem with that question is that the person asking is very concerned about the environment and wants to share those ideas in their marketing. But maybe that’s not what the market wants. Maybe that ad would fail.

Gas is now over $3 a gallon. Now people are screaming for more fuel efficient car, cars that run on water, hydrogen cars. Is it because of a sudden interest in Global Warming? Maybe for some…..but for most it’s that darn $3 a gallon at the pump. That is what is driving most demand for fuel efficient cars.

There is a lot of bad “green”” advertising out there. The reason it doesn’t work (my only criteria for Good is that it works), is that the message is to “save the planet” when the message should be “This product will solve this problem for you, and save the planet”

The altruistic appeal is always secondary. Not because you don’t care about saving the planet, but because you want to appeal to the widest audience.

On page 5 are a couple of short articles clipped out of a newspaper. They list problems that we can all relate to. Everyone is concerned about their money. These articles could be easily converted to ads that sell energy saving devices off all kinds.

Do you sell a product that saves energy? By that I mean saves money.

Think. People don’t scream about energy as in “We are using too much energy. We need to cut down” as much as “We need to cut our energy bill to save money”.

So your ads should stress the savings to the customer, and then tag on the “green” part. For example; “Saves An Average Of $245 A Month On Your Electric Bill, And No Carbon Dioxide Emissions”

What grabbed the reader was the “Saves $245”. But they will feel better if they can say that they are also helping the Global Climate Change problem.

But right now, Saving money on gas, heat, electricity is a hot button. I would include it in every ad. That way, all the articles about the energy crisis will be like little ads supporting your ad.

Source by Claude Whitacre