Six Perspectives to Market to the Green Customer
Sustainability is a key marketing angle for just about any product under the sun these days. But the Green Consumer has expectations, and quickly sees through sustainability marketing measures that feel gimmicky or don’t achieve the “greenness” brands may tout. In order to deliver a true sustainable brand with a commitment to the environment, it’s important to consider the following marketing principles to ensure that your message is on point, delivers on consumer demand, and avoids any shortcuts in getting there. Here we will cover marketing sustainability principles that all public facing cannabis brands should consider when devising their marketing strategy.
#1 - Think Like A Consumer
Brands should consider and organize their marketing activities from a consumer’s point of view. A cannabis brand may consider themselves sustainable, but that sustainability likely takes on many forms - organic, locally sourced ingredients; recycled groundwater; recycled packaging; even a reduced corporate footprint by allowing non-factory employees to work from home. All sustainable efforts are valuable, but how you market those efforts should begin with how they directly affect your customers. Cannabis consumers, particularly new consumers, want to feel that the product they are consuming has been manufactured with high quality, organic ingredients. Start there and work your way out with your other eco-friendly efforts.
#2 - Market Your Values
Scroll through your Instagram feed and you’ll be bombarded with ads that are specific to your interests and demographic profile. Customer segmentation plays a big role in social media marketing and provides marketers with an opportunity to target specific groups and appeal to their interests directly. Marketers have gotten clever with how they build demand by unlocking discounts if a new user registers with them. They may offer quick one-off promotions to compel the consumer to “act now”. They may update their branding or packaging to offer a new look to the marketplace. These strategies are hardly new, but while the bump in sales they may provide will bring in new customers, your marketing strategy needs to consider if they provide real value and brand loyalty. So go ahead and offer a new customer 10% off their first purchase, but center your marketing efforts around your brand ethics, the sustainability efforts your company embraces, and most of all, the value and quality of your product.
#3 - Sustain Innovation
The future of what it means to be “sustainable” is at best a bright but uncertain quest. Consider the fact that a decade ago, the concept of sustainability marketing was derided as meaningless jargon. Now it’s practically a requirement for brands in all sectors to consider if they want to be successful and culturally relevant. But while it feels cutting edge now, it’s likely that some green efforts at the forefront now will either be considered commonplace or redundant a few years from now. Your sustainability efforts are not marketing traits to run a victory lap with. You must continue to do your research, evolve your thinking, and be aware of what is going on in the marketplace. Which leads us to our next point.
#4 - It’s OK To Follow (Sometimes)
While your overall success will likely rely on being ahead of your competition, and your sustainability efforts should continuously innovate, it’s difficult to always be in the lead on every point. If you learn of another brand leading the charge in a particular area, you should consider incorporating those efforts. Let’s face it, it ain’t easy being green - sustainability is constantly being redefined, making it a challenge for marketers trying to do good and sell product. But the good news is that it’s all in an effort to a common goal - saving the planet. Consumers are willing to allow for a bit of copycat-ism if the motivation feels sincere. You probably shouldn’t lead with those principles, but don’t be afraid to join your peers if the idea is inherently good for the environment.
#5 - Market Your Sense Of Mission
At its essence, your brand is a product, or a family of products. A widget, if you will. But if you seek long term success, your marketing needs to be defined by broad social terms rather than narrow widget-centricity. Define your social mission and you will be amazed how much ancillary positivity will surround your brand and ultimately provide sustained sales. As any cannabis aficionado who has a healthy tolerance for lactose will tell you, Ben & Jerry’s makes damn good ice cream. Just like how your company produces damn good flower, or edibles, or vape pens, etc etc. But B&J’s larger social mission of supporting worthy causes (and perhaps of equal importance - marketing those efforts effectively), built customer loyalty and made them one of the more admired American businesses out there. Don’t be afraid to move beyond marketing your core product features (our flower is super strong and gets you hella high) and embracing a larger social mission (we provide the best quality organic product, and sustain a negative carbon footprint in the process). An added bonus to these efforts - it will give your employees and partners a sense of pride that they are behind a brand that is making a difference.
#6 - Greenwashing Is Real
Greenwashing is defined as conveying a false or misleading impression that a brand is environmentally sound. This connects to our earlier point about the savvy Green customer - they can see through efforts that feel more like a gimmick than a godly advancement towards sustainability. ExxonMobil marketed they were reducing greenhouse gas emissions while they were actually increasing. Starbucks made a big deal about eliminating straws and replacing them with innovative cold drink lids, but those lids actually used more plastic than the old straw/lid combo. You can’t just talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk - and you’d better walk with some shoes made with recycled hemp, figuratively speaking….
Sustainability marketing is ultimately about telling a story. These stories are compelling and will forge consumer loyalty. The principles that have made a brand like Ben & Jerry’s successful are no different for the cannabis market. In fact, the new cannabis consumer is perhaps even more focused on how the product is grown and packaged than in other sectors. VIMBY has been crafting marketing content centered around how brands successfully embrace a larger mission for years.
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