Sidewalk Life

Nothing For Sale

This marketing idea reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when George and Jerry pitch their idea to NBC: a show about nothing. 

Of course, the show never really was about nothing.  And neither is this cleaning product from Arm & Hammer.  The tiny bottle shrink-wrapped to the big one is filled with liquid concentrate cleaning agent.  (The big one in the picture is empty). The user adds his own water from home.

This is a good idea actually.  But it is a bit startling to see an empty bottle for sale on the retail shelf.  And more shocking to see how little cleaning agent is actually used in detergent. It makes you think about how much water we are shipping around the world at huge expense and environmental cost. I imagine this is an interim packaging solution for Arm & Hammer.  Putting the tiny bottle of concentrate on the shelves by itself might be a bit too big of a leap for consumers to make. 

Better to condition them that changes are coming and gradually make them more comfortable with buying less. There is also a practical reason to sell the big empty bottle along with it.  Most people buy a new bottle after they've thrown out the old one.  So if you did want to buy the concentrate you'd need to have saved your old bottle at home before heading to the store.

Last Years Model

I really like the idea of going against throwaway gadget culture. 

I'm not sure I like the idea of trying to make it cool.  Seems slightly hypocritical. 

Green or Obscene

What is Green and what is not Green marketing?  As the flood of Green ads gets wider and deeper, it might be nice to have some sort of rating system and archive of ads.  Something where people can actually vote and discuss what makes an ad or marketing idea Green, or not Green.  Like Hot or Not. 

I'm thinking of starting a website for this.  Unfortunately greenornot.com was taken.  So was greenornotgreen.com  The other problem is they don't rhyme like Hot or Not.

So if there was such a site, what would it be called?  Two that I like:
Greenorsheen.com
Greenorobscene.com

Sheen because that's what Greenwashing attempts to do.  Or Obscene because what some companies try to pass off as Green is just offensive and immoral.   

Americans Not As Dumb About The Environment As Journalists Think

This was an encouraging report (when you read a little further down).

According to this Harris Poll, Americans will screw the environment when the economy goes in the dumpster.  But a closer look at the report may say more about the research report than people's attitudes toward the environment. 

The researchers asked this question:

"What would you say is more important to your region: protecting the environment OR economic growth and development?"  The majority answered economic growth.

Well of course, if you ask someone to make a trade off, they make a trade off.  And any first year psychology student would remind you that, according to Maslow, people will choose jobs and food on the table when their future economic security is threatened.   

What would be really interesting is to see the data that they refer to in their summary:

"Also, most people do not see the hard tradeoff between economic development and protecting the environment: Many say we not only can do both of these but that we should be doing both, according to Harris."

That "most people do not see the hard tradeoff..." seems to be the big story to me. 

Americans, it appears, are not as dumb as the politicians, the press and maybe in this case, the researchers, seem to think.  Perhaps we can and do understand the complex issue of creating a sustainable economy and know that we're not playing  a zero sum game.

It's Not Easy Being Green

Two recent articles got me thinking about Green marketing. 

The first one is about how all the Green Noise out in the marketplace is creating consumer confusion about what companies are asking them to do to be more green. 

And the second is about Green Fatigue, or how the over-marketing of Green is creating suspicion among consumers about marketers claims.

It appears that companies find themselves advertising in an environment of confusion and suspicion when it comes to Green claims. 

Skeptical consumers should be nothing new.  It's been argued for more than a decade that modern consumers exhibit the same skepticism with regard to most marketing.  The obvious answer is not to over-claim or even to shout about your (mostly new) Green credentials. 

The confusion problem is probably an issue that should be looked at with more scrutiny from each brand.  Marketers may ask themselves "is it clear what we are asking them to do?" and "is it hard what we are asking them to do? 

Consumers will only go out of their way so much.  Change is hard.  Nobody likes it.  And while consumers may not want to change their entire lifestyle, they may want to do the easy things.  Advertisers may want to find ways to make it easy for them to do the right thing.