Tag Archives: Green Communications
Would this label affect sales? Tell us what you think…
by Caroline Rennie When it comes to nutritional information, data is presented relative to “recommended daily allowances”. Innocent Drinks (with the Carbon Trust) estimated the food & drinks RDA for each UK citizen at 2.90 Kg CO2 equivalents. A cheeseburger weighs in at 3.08 Kg CO2 equivalents, exceeding an individual’s daily allowance for all food [...]
Sure fire labelling – that sways consumers
by Caroline Rennie As UK retailers outdo eachother in their efforts to build consumer and political good will, they have had to develop immediate and compelling ways to help consumers do the right thing. Among other techniques they have demonstrated that labelling can not only sway consumers, but change the company as well – in [...]
Increase your sales through Good Causes
by Caroline Rennie Linking your brand to a good cause can increase sales of your products by as much as 74% according to the 2008 Cone/Duke University Behavioral Cause Study. To gain the increase, the cause must be linked to what the brand and company stand for as a business, as well as the target [...]
Exploiting Green Guilt for profit: a lesson from the Catholic Church
by Caroline Rennie Purchases of carbon offsets* by individuals are at an all time high – despite the grim economic news, reports the Washington Post. And this tells us that there is money to be made by businesses who invite consumers to participate in solving environmental problems. A lesson from the ChurchThe Catholic Church has [...]
Weee! Stealing a march on your competitors*
by Caroline RennieHP, leading manufacturer of electronic products such as printers, computers, and the like, has implemented a take-back programme in the US with a difference: you can ship any brand’s cartridges or computer hardware back to them – and they will send you a coupon greater than the cost of shipping, towards an HP [...]
Who checks your claims?
by Caroline Rennie The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has prosecuted Saab for misleading green claims – and won in federal court. The court found that Saab’s claim that planting 17 trees per car would ensure carbon neutrality for the car’s running life was untrue – the trees would only cover year one. Why is [...]
Who’s policing your environmental claims?
by Caroline Rennie Incidents like the protests around Shell’s disposal of the Brent Spar oil rig have caused many businesses to fear NGOs – worrying how they might attack their business. But as companies seek to profile their environmental credentials, they are finding their most ferocious watchdogs aren’t NGOs. They’re competitors. In a recent example, [...]
Snappy case for Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
by Caroline Rennie As this video makes clear, its a no-brainer. But the 3-minute video is an example of such good communications that it was irresistible to put on this blog. And of course, if you run a business, and do the maths, replacing bulbs should be irresistible too…
Why does Innocent Drinks matter to your business?
by Caroline Rennie The Daily Telegraph reports that Innocent Drinks are not, in fact, as environmentally innocent as Innocent claimed. Innocent’s assertion that “fruit always travels by boat or rail” and processed “in the countryside” are not true – which the company has quickly admitted. Why does this matter to you? It matters because Innocent [...]
How to change behaviours
by Caroline Rennie To generate action against a problem, people must feel pain, says Harvard professor of cognitive psychology and behavioral economics, Dan Gilbert. (source: video from the PopTech Conference) Specifically, they must feel that the threat is: Personal – it needs to have a face. Abrupt – not slowly warming water, but the immediate [...]