Green Marketing had been sitting on top of my review pile when Jacquelyn Ottman emailed me to introduce herself and share kind words about my work and writing. Coming from such a long-time practitioner of green/sustainable marketing, her compliment felt like great validation. And what great timing!
It seems like most of what I read nowadays about sustainability and marketing, Jacquie covered in Green Marketing more than a decade ago (the book’s first edition came out in 1993). The case for green marketing: check. Consumer segments, characteristics and trends: check. Sustainable product design: check. Green communication: check. Stakeholder relations, collaboration, and engagement: check. Implementing sustainability from the inside out: check.
Another uncanny similarity between Green Marketing and the news, reports, and primers today is the optimism in predictions for green marketing. While Jacquie’s optimism probably correlated with the 1990s boom and the post-Cold War atmosphere, and today’s optimism results, at least in part, from the effects of the economic crisis and the evidence of climate change, it seems like we’re treading water. Green marketing has a bright future, just like it did last century. Time to move beyond hopes for self-fulfilling prophesies? What do we do to reach critical mass this time round?
Jacquie proposes a complete rethink and redo of how we do business, and how we make and consume products. “We cannot ‘tweak’ our way to green,” she writes. Modifications to increase energy and material efficiency won’t cut it – we need to leap ahead to take advantage of the opportunities. At the same time, Jacquie acknowledges the implementation of sustainability is a continuous process, which must be culture-driven rather than marketing communication-driven, and which must proceed from the inside of the company out.
As a sustainable marketer, the green communication section attracted me most. Jacquie recommends educating customers, empowering them with solutions, appealing to their self-interest, reassuring them of product performance, and mixing media to reach them where they want to be reached. Note the focus on the customer and her needs, and the absence of promotion.
Green Marketing is a basic practical text full of examples and case studies. If nothing else, it’s fun to read about the profiled companies to see where they stand now. Though perhaps another, updated edition would come handy.
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Jacquelyn A. Ottman, Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation, 2nd edition, BookSurge.com, 1998.
