Pushing green the right way
Resellers need to be smart about how they present the benefits of green technology, writes Tracey Rawling Church, marketing director at Kyocera.
Despite the recent flood (excuse the pun) of marketing trumpeting the planet-saving credentials of technology companies and products, organisations that have been promoting environmentally sound products for some time know that the only way green technologies will make it though the customer’s door is if they also compete on cost and offer an economically sound alternative.
The benefits of “eco-marketing” have been studied for some time, and research from 1993 showed that despite high levels of personal concern for the environment, when it came to business the overriding focus in purchasing decisions remained firmly on the bottom line. Companies that were promoting a “green” alternative were forced to focus instead on the economical benefits of their products. The green message, although still an important differentiator, was relegated to second place.
It was interesting therefore to note the tidal wave of green marketing precipitated by the publication of the Stern report and spearheaded by Marks and Spencer’s high profile “Plan A”. Should vendors now be advising their channel partners that pushing the green message once more would generate greater sales? We repeated our research of 1993 and the answer was a resounding “no”.
Amazingly, of the 340 directors, purchasers and end users questioned, only 23 per cent claimed to deliberately select eco-conscious suppliers and only 31 per cent would pay any kind of premium for environmentally sound products, a drop of almost 50 per cent compared with the 1993 figure. Against all the media evidence, UK PLCs remain as focused on the bottom line as they have ever been. Not perhaps surprising given economic conditions in the intervening period.
This is not to suggest that the channel should dismiss environmentally sound products in favour of cut price alternatives. The way legislation is currently developing this would be a short-sighted strategy in any case, as products that do not benefit from environmental design are harder to dispose of and create more problems for resellers and vendors at the end of their lives than they solve when they go onto the order books at the start of it. It simply means that resellers need to be smart about how they present the benefits of green technology.
There’s no doubt that purchasers would prefer environmentally sound technology, in fact, some are beginning to demand it. They just don’t believe that they should pay for it, and cost will always win out. Resellers need to market an environmentally robust solution that highlights the cost-saving benefits that such technologies can deliver, be it through reduced energy consumption, waste minimisation or greater efficiency. This gives customers and channel partners alike an opportunity to bask in the glow of saving the planet, while having a good story to tell the chief financial officer as well.
Highlights