Environmental-Friendly Branding: More Than Just Lip Service

As far as environmental-friendly branding goes, it has grown more imperative than ornamental in the US in the past few years. Customers have incorporated more environmental friendly lifestyle in daily lives.

I went to buy body lotion at The Body Shop on Broadway in New York last week. When I told the cashier to save the bag, she said: "I hear this so many times a day!" Before I stepped out of the store, I did a quick research, within the next 15 minutes, 8 out of 10 customers saved a bag.

An increasing environmental awareness among customers offers a great opportunity for companies to market green brands, but, on the other hand, exerts more pressure as well. Customers are looking at what companies do than what they say, because talk is cheap.

The best example is the non-green automobile manufacturer Toyota. It obviously hit the home run with it's fully hybrid Prius. (See the comparison of MPG here) As a result, Toyota goes around with a big badge of environmental-friendly brand.

Some customers bought Prius despite the fact that they didn't like Toyota. A new Prius owner eDevin commented in an online auto-forum that:

"I've never liked Toyota,"..."But, the fact of the matter is that they, at this particular moment make the best and most efficient car and sell it at a reasonable price."... "I do love driving my Prius, but I consider myself a Prius-driver instead of a Toyota-driver."

But for Toyota, whether someone is a Prius-driver or a Toyota-driver doesn't make a big difference. By producing Prius, Toyota has successfully reached out to the customers that actually "dislike" Toyota. What a great success!

Other success stories including American household brand names such as Whole Food (grocery) and Sub-Zero (Appliances). Those are the companies who have devoted years in pushing their environmental-friendly images.

Whole Food, for example, identified as the greenest brand in the US, has reaped the benefit from this trend. The grocery store speciallized in natural food started for a niche market but soon evolved into mainstream. As other food markets tried to catch up to offer organic alternatives, Whole Food still takes up 23% of the natural food category.

The less successful marketers are among travel, online technology and petroleum industries. Those industries are known for their big carbon footprint and extra effort are expected before they resonate with customers. Among them, there are Southwest Airlines, Google and BP.

A 2007 survey Green Branding 2.0 Report that done by Cohn & Wolfe, Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen and Berland, there is a detailed illustration of which American brands are doing well on marketing their environmental friendly images.

"From the brand perspective, many companies have witnessed the affects of greenwashing and recognize that being a green company is truly more than marketing or public relations," Annie Longsworth, Executive Vice President at Cohn & Wolfe, said: "It requires (companies to have) a C-level (top level) commitment, years, in some case, of system changes, and a deep exploration into every nook and cranny of the business to address its impact on the environment as well as having a relevant and differentiated product offering."

See the top 10 environmental-friendly brands in the US:

1. Whole Foods
2. Wild Oats
3. Traders Joe's
4. Toyota
5. Honda
6. Sub-Zero
7. IKEA
8. The Body Shop
9. GE
10. Aveda