Matt Pliszka, founder of cleaning products startup Simply Safe, noted that people just won't buy a product merely because it's eco-friendly; it's got to be just as good as anything else on the market.
"If people associate green cleaners with poor performance, they will not be bought again," Pliszka said. "They must perform as effectively as the hazardous cleaner."
A good reminder that effective communications about green products and services always hinge on communicating the practical aspects of "green" — that being eco-friendly is not just virtuous, but a matter of self-interest for all. Read more from Ted McKenna and the "targetgreen conference" here
Speakers at the Target Green conference in DC today repeatedly emphasized the need for green products to, perhaps not surprisingly, actually be useful, by generating a decent profit for the manufacturer and providing a product as good as any non-green product available, along with being beneficial to the environment, of course.