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What is "green marketing" and why is it so important today?

A simple definition of greenwashing and examples of well-known companies, because even the best are not immune to greenwashing mistakes! Why can greenwashing be very harmful to your company?

Anastasia Mishchenko
December 8, 2022
Contents
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In this article, we'll be talking about green marketing, a controversial notion that is little understood and sometimes confused with greenwashing. We'll see why green marketing is essential to meet the expectations of customers and consumers.

Background and consumers

Consumers' and customers' needs determine companies' marketing strategies. So let's start by looking at consumer expectations.

Consumers are increasingly turning to responsible consumption because they are aware of environmental challenges.

As a result, 63% of consumers worldwide have taken steps to become more responsible over the past five years. 50% of consumers say they are willing to pay a premium for responsible brands. And 49% of consumers say they have already paid more for socially or environmentally responsible products in the last 12 months!‍

If brands' social and environmental responsibility is so important to today's consumers, how do they judge whether they're doing enough in this area? The initiatives they take? Do they calculate their carbon footprint?

Green Marketing 📢🌿♻️

As you can imagine, this is reflected in green marketing (also known as sustainable, ecological or responsible marketing). A simple definition of green marketing is the sharing of actions taken by companies to reduce their social and environmental impact on the planet. Some researchers call green marketing "a product of the evolution of sustainable development policies over the last 30 years that is reflected in marketing", and our team couldn't agree more.

However, not all green marketing campaigns can be relied upon, as they sometimes conceal elements that make for greenwashing. Indeed, some companies (particularly under pressure from competitors) resort to positive communication on details that conceal poor environmental performance: this becomes greenwashing. This type of marketing misleads consumers about a company's environmental performance, and can only be profitable in the short term.

💡 To find out more, read our article on greenwashing.

How can we eliminate consumers' ecological skepticism?

With Waro, companies can implement ethical and trustworthy green marketing campaigns in the furniture and fashion industries based on measuring the carbon footprint of your products (and other environmental impacts such as water pollution), and comparing your results to average industry scores. Our software is based on internationally recognized standards, and we calculate the "Product Environmental Footprint" score suggested by the European Commission, as well as the (A-E) score based on the methodology proposed by ADEME (the French Agency for Ecological Transition). By using reliable methodologies, you ensure that results are communicated in a trustworthy way, which ultimately eliminates ecological skepticism among consumers.

It's time to adapt to the needs of today's consumers by making sustainability a driving force behind business decisions!

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