Citation: “Avoiding Green Marketing Myopia: Ways to Improve Consumer Appeal for Environmentally Preferable Products.” (2006) Jacquelyn A. Ottman, Edwin R. Stafford and Cathy L. Hartman Environment, 48(5), 22-36.
Summary (via Green Clips): In 1960, Harvard business professor Theodore Levitt warned that corporate preoccupation on products rather than consumer needs was doomed to failure because consumers select products and new innovations that offer benefits they desire. Today’s research indicates that many green products have failed because of green marketers’ myopic focus on their products’ “greenness” over the broader expectations of consumers or other market players (such as regulators or activists).
Evidence suggests that green products are able to appeal to mainstream consumers or lucrative market niches and frequently command price premiums by offering five “non-green” consumer values (efficiency and cost effectiveness, health and safety, symbolism and status, convenience and improved performance). A study conducted by the Alliance for Environmental Innovation and household products-maker S.C. Johnson found that consumers are most likely to act on green messages that strongly connect to their personal environments. According to popular culture experts, green marketing must appear grass-roots driven and humorous without sounding preachy.
