Forest through the trees

Corporations know the benefits of being seen as green by their consumers, but is it just as simple as looking the part? There are a lot of brands that appear to be earth-friendly when they are far from it. Greenwashing can often be difficult for even the savviest consumer to spot.

The visual language of green began in the 1960s. Hippie culture popularized a natural way of life with products such as additive, animal-friendly Dr Bronner’s Magic Soap. It wasn’t until the early 1980s when the look of the green was made familiar to the mainstream with brands such as The Body Shop, Aveda and later on Whole Foods.

Looking like a sustainable brand is easy. Natural visual elements such as leaves, trees, earth circles and flowers, in tones ranging from moss to grass to bark, traditionally paint an environmentally-friendly world. Green as a color is commonly considered fresh. British supermarkets Waitrose, Morrisons, Asda and M&S all use green. Claiming a company is green seems to be easy as well. A recent study by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, called the Six Sins of Greenwashing, uncovered 1,000 household brands that make false environmental claims. TerraChoice found that brands would claim to be ’Certified Organic’ when the product had no credible certification. Many products were making entirely irrelevant claims such ’CFC-free’, when CFCs or Chlorofluorocarbons were actually banned in the United States in 1978 all products in the US are CFC-free now.

Even the savviest consumer can be fooled by a strong set of ’green’ visual elements and messages. BP has a brand perception among consumers of being good for the earth when the reality is far from it, according to Pierre Berton, Professor of Marketing at Bentley College. He goes on to say, in a recent NPR interview, that BP’s ’Beyond Petroleum’ brand message is misleading, since over 95 percent of its business is still in petroleum.

Since then, BP has stopped using that tagline for that very reason. Aside from its messaging, BP’s yellow-green sunflower logo has a powerful impact on its green image. On the Brandtags site, where users are asked which words they associate with famous brands, ’green’ is the third most popular word for BP, after ’gas’ and ’oil’. Brands that look the part are clearly benefiting. However, if you don’t look green, you might be in trouble. Brands that don’t have green as their central look or message tend to be ignored as being sustainably responsible even when they are. IKEA’s flat-pack furniture means it gets more items on trucks, boats or trains, using less fuel and creating fewer emissions. However, ’green’ is not one of the words triggered by the IKEA logo on Brandtags. Nike produces a large quantity of its shoes with recycled materials. But according to Berton’s study, Nike is perceived to have a negative environmental impact.

How can ’green’ be represented without leaning on this overly used symbolism? Al Gore’s We campaign avoids using the same old green leaves and trees, but instead uses powerful statements that describe its main green objective. Brands, please stop trying to fool us! We are all getting confused by what’s really green. Governments in the UK, Canada, US and Australian have all fast-tracked efforts to address false environmental claims, according to WorldChanging.com. Until then, if your business looks green, then live up to how you look. The way your brand looks means a lot to the world.

9 June 2008, posted by Lily Williams

Re-packaging India: is corporate identity enough?

Recently, Jet Airways, Godrej, Shoppers Stop, Deccan, Ceat, Canara Bank and Air India have all been re-branded, and are currently running advertising campaigns to tell Indians how interesting and important this is. Some companies, like Jet Airways and Shoppers Stop, are very young and others, like Air India and Canara Bank, are heritage brands. A new corporate identity and mass advertising are bold steps. We should applaud them for taking these steps. Change is welcome: it can help create employee pride and a real buzz in the market. It can also signal that these brands want to be a part of New India. So far so good. Good looks and advertising are the easy bits. The snag is that the buzz will not last for too long if the reality does not change for staff and consumers. And frankly, who needs another logo in an overcrowded market?

India’s great opportunity is to build service businesses. China will naturally be big in products: India can be great in services. But a common mistake both in India and in the west is to treat a service brand as it was a consumer product. It is one thing to repackage Sunsilk shampoo; it is another thing to brand a service. The key for any service brand to succeed is delivery. This takes time. So the opportunity for these leaders is to take the lead, to invest and to create India’s first globally successful service brand – in proposition and delivery, not just looks.

This change will truly move the leaders from representing Old India to New India – a New India where the customer comes first and no longer says in frustration, ‘This only happens in India!’ Where people start talking and saying, ‘You should try them. They’re great’. And where employees say, ‘I want to work there’. This change will not come from copying ideas from the west. Instead, India’s service companies should build on their philosophy and vision to create something that works specifically for the Indian market, and that can then resonate beyond India. Currently there is no Indian brand listed in any of the various global brand rankings. As an Indian, I would like to see a great Indian service brand listed within the top 500. That’s India’s great opportunity in the world.

29 May 2008, posted by Zia Patel

New style?

Style magazines and fashion columns have already started predicting what will be hot for the coming season. Yet again, styles and trends are repeating themselves. Whether it’s boating or safari, block colours or crazy patterns, the rules don’t change fundamentally and we just end up having a revised, updated version of the last year’s fashion. Same goes for macro trends. Over the past ten years we’ve seen a resurgence of 60s mini-dresses, 70s wide-leg trousers and 80s stripes and shoulder pads. No real newness, just the past with a modern twist. Can fashion brands really drive style innovation? Is there a genuine need for a new millennium style? Designer brands such as Prada, Miu Miu and Hussein Chalayan have introduced new materials and production techniques to deliver exquisite pieces of design. Comme des Garçons explores new ways of integrating fashion with architecture and visual communication. But the only innovation in look sits in different combinations of elements we’ve already seen. Fashion brands should look back at what makes them unique, and use their brand to inspire a genuinely new style.

23 May 2008, posted by Giorgio Rondelli