“What in the hell was I thinking?”

How many times have you asked yourself this following a less-than-spectacular decision, especially at the ass end of a dumb purchase? Instead of being a willing buyer, you were probably subconsciously manhandled and you didn’t suspect a thing.

Many experts in the art of influence, like Arizona State University professor, Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D, a self-proclaimed patsy, suggest we are more susceptible now than ever to slight-of-hand salesmanship. Content is the culprit. Or more accurately, the tsunami of information we choose to surf  and are swallowed up in every day leads to our rash decision making. But we’ve set ourselves up to hucksterism.

Humanity’s ability to archive, curate and consume unfathomable amounts of information is working against us. Our brains, the ones that brilliantly created the 24/7 library of the internet for instance, are not developed to handle the stimulus overflow it creates. When disseminating information, especially fundamental “yes and no” verdicts of everyday life, we often respond with instinct over intellect. It’s an energy-saving, self-preservation default that is hardwired in all of us. We unwittingly prune our decision tree to one sprout of familiar stimulus, make a snap judgement, and act, sometimes to the detriment of our personal ecosystem.

Dr. Cialdini put his fall guy weakness to work and studied the craft of compliance practitioners. He captured the principles of getting people to say “yes”  in his book, Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion, and is now one of the foremost authorities on persuasion, compliance and negotiation.

Selling Sustainability is Tricky

Being persuasive for the right reasons is a good thing. And I was curious how to sharpen my persuasion skills, especially when trying to get consumers that are rightly skeptical about green marketing and sustainability to do something good for themselves and the planet. So I read his book, and then tested his compliance theories in the ultimate den of persuasion: A Hawaiian timeshare presentation. Shudder, you might. But I actually invested nearly three hours of my and Michele’s vacation on the Big Island exposing ourselves to the virtuosic sheen of a Shell Vacations Club pitchman.

Here’s how the match went down as the Shell man punched and massaged the six proven compliance triggers within us, including reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. But we were formidable opponents, sturdily armed with the anticipation and recognition of his wax-on-wax-off sales Jujitsu.

I. Reciprocity

You do me a favor and I am compelled to do one in return. Reciprocity is a deep rooted instinct: the basic currency of social life (See The Godfather). Shell Vacations triggers it immediately by providing a host of significant savings on every kind of Hawaiian adventure – snorkeling, luaus, golf, fishing, dining, etc. – as long as you commit to a timeshare presentation. They also highly recommend that you “take advantage” of their connections first and enjoy your stay on the Big island and THEN do your time in the presentation. They are not only playing off your reciprocity tendencies, but are attaching great experiences to their vacation ownership. Which is a nice set-up for commitment and consistency.

II. Commitment & Consistency

We are all suckers at wanting to look consistent, even when we don’t act consistently. Compliance practitioners prey on this other fundamental need to get us to commit, so we look consistent (See “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”) One of the first things our salesman – we’ll call him Jim – asked us when we sat down to the presentation was how much we enjoyed our experiences on the island: outings that were mostly provided at reduced rates by Shell. Get their game? To say we didn’t enjoy them would be dishonest and inconsistent with our experience. We had to commit to the wonderful time we were having.

III. Social Proof

Social proof is a term used often in social media. And why not? We’re social animals. Remember the last time you found yourself in an unfamiliar situation? What did you do? You looked at the people around you to provide the social cues as to what was the proper behavior. “The world’s leading detergent,” “The top grossing movie of the weekend,” “A New York Times Best Seller,” are all obvious advertising constructs to get us to buy into pack mentality. After a 20-minute initial sit down with Jim to get to know us, and for us to get to like him, we were herded into a room of 15 couples for a group presentation. When polled, curiously half of the people in the room already owned a timeshare, and they weren’t shy about “spontaneously” sharing how wonderful vacation ownership has been for themselves AND their families. I wonder if they were plants? This had all of the initial markings of timeshare neophytes being corralled for a stampede to the investment abyss (See Jonestown).

IV. Liking

Why does Facebook “Like.” In addition to anchoring the top three compliance practices, we also do business with and are persuaded by those we like. The front man, we’ll call him Bob, who arranged all of our Shell Vacations-sponsored activities, was a handsome, athletic and affable guy, who also happened to be an alum of ASU, was a former golf pro, and told a hell of a story about entertaining Willie Nelson as his golf partner at Gainey Ranch: three attributes that Michele and I could immediately connect with, although the golf pro is a stretch, given our games.

Jim, who we were handed off to for the presentation, was a fit and tanned 60-year-old, former special ops and drug enforcement agent who also taught Sunday school. I had some consistency problems with his story as the presentation and his reactions to some of our our curveballs unfolded. You’d think a highly trained covert ops guy would be unflappable enough to overcome a change of venue when I suggested we leave the crowded sales floor for the lanai to continue our discussion, as well as locating his misplaced calculator that I had to remind him was in his pocket after suggesting he shouldn’t leave it on the table when we went in for the group discussion. Wax on, wax off. But at one point with both Bob and Jim, Michele and I both looked at each other and said, “I like this guy.”

V. Authority

We naturally gravitate to authority figures. One of Jim’s early ploys was to “have the authority” to provide us a deal no one else could: a “one-of-kind” offer on back-owned inventory. A euphemism for foreclosure. I’m sure the previous owners probably just bailed. It was because of his longevity with the organization that he could offer this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” He was doing us a favor, and it would be inconsistent of us not to commit to such a proven concept at such a great price from such a likable fellow, don’t you agree? Body blow, body blow, faint, upper cut, shield, block, parry.

VI. Scarcity

When we’re afraid we can’t have something, we want it even more (See Tickle Me Elmo). So if you want people to act, you naturally dangle a limited supply of what you’re selling in front of them. Our day began with scarcity. Jim proclaimed that they had more buyers than they had property, and today was our lucky day  but we had to act quickly. When we weren’t buying is when Jim pulled out the one-of-a-kind offer of the repo. There is another coercion tactic at play here, too. That is the “contrast principle.” They present the highest price possible on the package, and then reduce the rate, which looks cheap in comparison. You experience the contrast principle in nearly everything you purchase, so beware.

Vacationers running the timeshare gauntlet

Although all of this sounds extraordinarily underhanded and manipulative, Dr. Cialdini’s message is about using these ancient triggers to motivate people for good. Many great organizations have employed compliance practices to better people’s lives, the community and the world. And the best way to thwart the evil-doers is to anticipate, recognize and use their own tactics against them: Jujitsu like.

Given our all-consuming, harried lives, these principles are more effective now than ever, and they’re everywhere.

How have you been exploited by, or have thwarted, a professional compliance practitioner?

So here it is for you. It’s full of great stats and facts about greenwashing and what to look for. And it begs the question:

Are the companies accused of greenwashing doing it on purpose, or do they just NOT know how to communicate the real environmental impact of their products overselling their “greenness”?

Could it be that they have the best of intentions and are simply bungling their green marketing; their nefarious character created from naivet’e? I’m not ready to condemn all of them just yet, and that was my reason for not immediately posting the info graphic.

What do you think? Who are the biggest greenwashing offenders? Who are those that simply don’t get it? How can they do a better job with their stories of sustainability?

Created by: Marketing Degree

It’s not. It’s making fun of companies and brands that are eager to jump on the green bandwagon without doing their homework. Their green marketing shortcuts are laughable, diminishing the credibility of the entire green marketing industry.

At least Lorna Li of Green Marketing TV appreciates my humor. She recently invited me on her web TV show to discuss the art of green marketing.

The Art of Green Marketing for Sustainable Brands – Park Howell, Park & Co from Green Marketing TV on Vimeo.

In this interview we cover:

• Which companies tell their sustainability story well, without the hackneyed green marketing cliches
• Big brands that are failing the “got green?” test
• Successful examples of green marketing
• Egregious examples of green wash, in products that have no business calling themselves green
• Whether green marketing is really dead and if we should just give up

This revealing discussion with several real world green marketing examples, ought to help you better define your green marketing strategies and bring you closer to becoming a remarkable sustainable brand.

GoGreen Conference at the Phoenix Convention Center

Do you think you have your green brand and marketing figured out? Do you want to put it to the test? Join me as I moderate the workshop, Green Marketing & Branding: Creating Behavior Change during the inaugural GoGreen Conference at the Phoenix Convention Center this Tuesday, November 15.

GoGreen Conference Phoenix has a terrific lineup of speakers, including:

• Al Halvorsen, Senior Director of Environmental Sustainability, Frito-Lay North America
• Derrick Hall, CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks
• Phoenix Mayor, Phil Gordon
• Kevin Tuerff, President, Enviromedia

Photo from the Cafeteria Culture Blog

“Last year, I participated in the prerequisite class for Intern/Mentor, Independent Research, and researched the effects of Styrofoam on the environment and am currently still working to rid my school system of the Styrofoam lunch trays.  I have decided this year to study green marketing and how marketers reach the maximum number of consumers. I want to know how companies make their advertising and marketing greener and how these changes affect their clients.”

1. What do you find are the key factors to a successful green marketing campaign?

Too many companies are jumping on the green marketing bandwagon and not doing a particularly good job at telling their stories about sustainability. They forget the first five rules of marketing anything – green or not – from the consumer perspective:

1. Do I want and need it?
2. Does it work exceptionally well?
3. Do I get a ton of value for the price?
4. Is it convenient to buy and easy to use?
5. Is it good for my family?

Only then do the majority of consumers care about: Is it good for the planet?

Most green marketers still don’t get it, and that’s why “greenwashing,” even though most of it is inadvertent, has become such a nasty nemesis to the credibility of promoting sustainability.

Thank you, Audrey, for including me in your research for your important project of ridding your school district of styrofoam trays. It is gratifying to see young stewards like yourself know that they can make a real difference in this world. Keep up the great work.

Great Lakes Brewing Company sources its ingredients locally to green its operations

But there’s hope and help for the Coal Burgers of the world. Entrepreneur Magazine, in its November issue, features an article on the five-step guide to marketing a green business called: Selling Green. They called me as a source for their piece the day after I wrote about Coal Burger, so the information was top-of-mind. Here are writer Matt Villano’s five steps to green marketing that he culled from his interviews with marketers and business owners across the country.

1. See What Your Customers Want – Do they even care if you’re green? Bardessono, a luxury hotel and spa in Yountville, CA, made this mistake.
2. Define What Green Means to You – Green has many nebulous meanings to consumers and proprietors alike. Ava Anderson does a nice job of explaining what being natural means in their non-toxic personal care items.
3. Connect the Dots – Answer consumers’ questions: Does it work? Is it good for my budget, my family, and our planet?
4. Practice What You Preach – Are you backing up your green position with sustainable actions that matter? Green Apple Cleaners in New York walk the talk.
5. Reinvest in the Community – The old think globally, act locally adage. Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland only sources its ingredients locally.

The article is filled with case studies that demonstrate each of the five steps to marketing yourself as green. However, I’d like to remind you that being green isn’t so much about your marketing as it is about your philosophy and action. Being sustainable should be a natural bi-product of how you approach your business with planetary efficiency and healthy products as your highest priorities. That’s when your green story starts to get really interesting.

Do you have a favorite company that is doing its green marketing well? Please let us know below.

But like many things American these days, Dodge has under delivered. Dealers tell me they won’t be out until 2012. Maybe that’s a good thing, saving me from myself. Plus, imagine the flack I’d catch on my green marketing blog tooling around in this gas-guzzler, although I do only live one mile from my office, so I’ve got that going for me.

I think the Prius is too prissy for a macho man like me.

So Michele and I went to the Toyota dealer to test drive a red Prius, one of the hottest cars on the market. It drove great and had a lot of spunk. But the tires are too small and the interior was a smidge cramped. By the way, if you every use “smidge” to describe anything about a car, you probably shouldn’t buy it.  “Smidges” become large, long-term annoyances.

I told Michele it just wasn’t “Manly-man” enough for me. She said I sounded ridiculous.

So did our our 17.5-year-old son, Caed, but for a different reason. He was so crestfallen at the thought of me abandoning the “sick” Challenger for a puny Prius that he couldn’t look me in the eye for two days. I suppose it’s often difficult for eco-consciousness and testosterone to coexist.

Hmmm, what are my options? How about the all-electric Tesla Roadster 2.5? It’s perfect. My cool factor will go through the roof, I can blaze around town leaving Ferraries driven by broken Scottsdale commercial real estate brokers and platinum blond princesses standing still at the green light, all while I’m doing my part to save the planet. As I snapped out of my daydream, my 2004 Acura 3.2 TL responded to my corrective maneuver and swerved back onto the road. Reality reminded me that the $120,000 roadster wasn’t very sustainable for my bank account or my marriage.

“That’s it,” I decided.  “I’m going ‘All In’”! If the Challenger is too much muscle, and the Prius is too prissy, and the Tesla is too fanciful, then what about an all electric Ford Focus? I understand they’re coming to Phoenix this summer. I can put charging stations at our office and offer free parking to electric vehicles during the high traffic lunch and dinner crowds across the parking lot at the strip center.

The Ford Focus plays to my sometimes irresponsible early-adopter cravings. I’m intrigued by the hi-tech buzz around its interior electronics. It might be kind of like driving around my iPad. Unlike the Prius, it burns no fossil fuels. And, living in the center of the Valley of the Sun, I am a perfect candidate for an electric car to whiz around town. AND, it apparently comes in red.

So what do you think? Can the Ford Focus somehow fuse the fun of a convertible Challenger, with the smartness of the Prius, with the coolness of a Tesla Roadster? Probably not, but I might just try to plug into one all the same.

1. Are the people charged with managing your green brand thinking with originality?
2. Have you put the word “green” in your name, and if so, do you have the cojones of Greenpeace to back it up?
3. Has your logo sprouted a leaf?
4. Do you use the recycling logo as a crutch to prop up uninspired messages?
5. Have you put mother Earth in an ad?
6. Does your website look like the eco-equivalent of the Stepford Wives with green grass, blue skies and clouds?
7. Do you use the term “All natural” to excite your inner hippie?
8. Be honest, have you committed any degree of “Green Fogging” lately?
9. Have you adopted children and pretty flowers as your core visuals?
10. Have you ever even considered using the font Papyrus?
11. Has any sort of environmental image showed up in cupped hands in your creative?
12. Do you rely heavily on the color green and its expected cousins, blue and brown?
13. Has a globe ever appeared in a water drop, even when you’re daydreaming?
14. Has a sapling ever emerged from a non-sequitur image like gold coins or a pile of coal?
15. Have you ever used “Green” in a sentence referring to both saving money AND the environment?
16. Have you ever talked about carbon anything at a cocktail party, church gathering or during sex?
17. Is a lightbulb an illuminating metaphor to you?
18. Does the fear of “sameness” haunt you?

With the race by product manufacturers to embrace the new green consumer, they’re taking shortcuts with their brands along the way. Are these marketing clichés in sustainability making “Green” the new “Vanilla”?

Download the Got Green? and 10 Other Brand-Curdling Clichés of Green Marketing? PDF, and see how sustainable your green brand really is.

What clichés have you seen in green marketing? Let us know below.

Is Green Smoke a form of "Nicotine-washing"

It used to be cool to smoke. It was a personal statement: a brand differentiator.

People didn’t think twice about polluting their bodies by puffing on tumor-causing cigarettes. Still today, the stench permeates smoker’s clothes, cars and homes. Fingernails turn brown, lips crack, healthy skin becomes ashen, and lungs heave with the slightest exertion.

The act of smoking is so insidious, it even risks loved ones through disease caused by second hand smoke.

The filthy habit that once separated the elite from the middle class has become stigmatized in our society, primarily due to massive education about its harmful effects through campaigns like The Truth.

“Tobacco companies’ products kill nearly 37,000 people every month. That’s more lives thrown away than there are public garbage cans in New York city.”

Like nonsmokers, with the benefit of education, hindsight and self-preservation, more and more companies are making themselves and their communities healthier through green practices. They have realized that it’s not sustainable to keep polluting our waterways, ravaging natural resources, and producing products harmful to the world.

A perfect storm of external forces, including the global recession, an upswing in corporate social responsibility initiatives, supply chain process improvement, and a crescendo of voices in environmental education have helped satiate toxic business practices and promote more sustainable organizational behaviors. In fact, they have become key to survival.

Companies are now trumpeting their newfound green exploits like jittery chain smokers that are resolutely kicking the habit. The whole world seems to be in one big Kumbaya for green. Which is a good thing. It’s just no longer a differentiator.

One of the first areas marketing departments started jumping on the green bandwagon was by sprouting leaves on logos. Logo design is about capturing the iconic brand essence of a person, product, company or cause. This may be the first time in the history of advertising that marketers are singularly focused on a simple act of being responsible as a brand, and not the company’s collective character. “Green this” and “Eco that” have become the calling cards of corporations so numerous that they all sound the same. Just explore any blog about green logos, or how to create them, and ask yourself if green isn’t the new color for vanilla.

Communication professionals are missing the big picture. Being “green” is only one element of being sustainable. Even your customers know that. In the “State of Green Business 2010” report, Joel Makower of GreenBiz.com, states,

“Consumers want products that aren’t just greener, but better — that offer some kind of personal benefit, whether they’re cheaper to buy or own, have enhanced features or higher performance, are more convenient, less wasteful, healthier for their families, or simply cool.”

Is your green marketing approachable, believable and doable?

A great measure of your approach to sustainability and how it is reflected in your green marketing is if your mission and message are approachable, believable and doable. One of the world’s largest snack-food manufacturers, Frito-Lay, has done a remarkable job of marrying its SunChips brand to sustainability that address this three-legged stool to green marketing.

SunChips is a whole-grain snack that was launched in 1991, and has experienced phenomenal growth (about 20% per year). Earlier this decade Frito-Lay recognized the growing intersection among its consumers’ concerns for their health and the health of the planet.

SunChips marketers know that consumers want a tangible, functional benefit (the healthy food snack) with a green benefit. So sustainability became core to their business strategy. Their efforts started in 2007 and they knew they couldn’t do it overnight. They managed expectations and curbed any whiff of greenwashing by branding this initiative, “One small step at a time.” Their efforts include:

• Purchasing renewable energy credits to offset its energy needs
• Using solar power at its Modesto plant
• Reducing the environmental impact of its packaging by introducing a fully biodegradable chip bag in 2010
• Supporting sustainability initiatives, such as helping to rebuild Greenburg, Kansas into the greenest town in America following a devastating tornado

As an expression of their brand, their website encourages their customers to join SunChips in making a difference one small step at a time.

“Can one person make the planet greener, better…happier? We think so. Because big change starts with small ideas… We think everyone has the power to change the world. One small act at a time. Let’s do this together.”

SunChips, with National Geographic, then invited customers to come up with the best Earth-saving idea. These ideas were collected on the website, The Green Effect, and each of the five winners received $20,000 to put their idea into action.

Noisy bag aside, SunChips is a remarkable example of all three legs of our green marketing stool. The “tangible” healthy qualities of its product are very approachable, and therefore make the larger brand approachable. Powering their plants with solar energy and creating biodegradable packaging make Frito-Lay’s green efforts with SunChips all the more believable with no fear of greenwashing. Engaging its customers in their “One small step at a time” initiative makes it all very “doable.”

Here are seven other examples of organizations that have made their brand positioning much more sustainable by turning their green marketing into wholistic movements for the greater good.

If you’re touting green, imagine yourself as a smoker who has recently quit. How are you enhancing your health? Have you become a jogger, an avid 10k competitor, marathoner, ironman? Just being a nonsmoker – or being green – for practical health reasons is admirable, but not that cool of a differentiator.

You can read the entire article in the February 2011 issue of O’Dwyer’s Communications and New Media magazine focused on environmental public relations and public affairs. I’m especially pleased to be included with such noted P.R. practitioners of sustainability as Nathan Schock, Rachel Rose Belew and Jaquelyn Ottman, who recently penned a new book, The New Rules of Green Marketing.

Just see our conversation in an earlier post about New York city’s sustainability initiative. It’s had positive impact on reducing traffic, increasing the fitness of New Yorkers through biking and walking, dampening the noise in Time Square, and increasing business. It’s even increased the life expectancy of New Yorkers by just over a year.

These are all wonderful sustainability efforts with a bi-product of helping clean the air. But that is lost on Pat and the multitudes of consumers like him who are legitimately cynical about greenwashing organizations.

Then yesterday I recieved an email from Hunter Richards about Software to Hold “Greenwashers” Accountable.

Perfect timing. In order to save me time (it was exhausting trying to keep up with Pat’s rants about my post on N.Y.) I asked Hunter if he would share some insights into the development of Enterprise Carbon Software.