"It's not easy being green . . ."
Green is certainly a color, a mixture of yellow and blue, but much, more.
Green is confusing . . . definitions are hard to develop and harder to communicate or to understand.
Green is also conflicting . . . do we construct wind farms as alternative energy sources, or as bird killers?
Green is complicated . . . particularly when most people want to help with the environment and do their part, just not at their expense.
Fair Weather Environmentalists
Most consumers are, in reality, fair-weather environmentalists.
Research continues to show that most consumers are fickle when it comes to answering questions about being green and then turning those answers into action. The key deciding factor is usually price, usually retail price — but it could be the price of appearance or taste, the price of a scenic view or the price of time/energy expended or the price of having to sacrifice some other personal interest. When told that a product or process won’t hurt the environment, most consumers are all for it — but when it comes to actually buying or using that product or process, they are much more influenced by price, whatever the definition.
For example, when it comes to disposing of the new energy-efficient light bulbs, how many follow the very stringent government guidelines? Or how many will mix the hardening additive to paint before they dispose of it? How many really recycle or compost? How many will select the produce that appears to be lesser quality or the detergent that doesn’t quite perform? Very, very, very few.
So what does all this have to do with Private Brands?
Understanding how the consumer really responds to the clarion call of the environment is critical in deciding how much of their “marketing capital” a retailer should invest in developing, promoting or pricing Private Brand environmentally friendly products. Review the suggested guidelines below before embarking much further along the Green Path.
Private Brand Guidelines
1. Use care in staking out a Green Position. Be sure that your position on the environment and what you can do about it is legitimate, that it’s meaningful, that it’s non-controversial and that it’s consistent with all other corporate Green Policies. It should never appear or be opportunistic. “When you call attention to yourself, you call attention to yourself . . . be prepared for the consequences.” (Steven Rubow)
2. Make Private Brand Green Items an important part of a much bigger picture. Look for opportunities to take consistent stands in all other parts of the business: store operations, warehousing, transportation, manufacturing, advertising, store construction. Know what your suppliers are doing relative to Green. Involve them and let them know what your desires and commitments are. And make sure that communications to your customers reflect this commitment.
3. Invest in Private Brand Green Items in relation to their business contribution. Private Brand Green Items should not overshadow the investment in the rest of your Private Brand items. Taking attention or focus away from the Private Brand business base would eventually weaken your ability to use Private Brands to build customer equity . . . and there’s been too much effort in the right direction to take anything for granted.
4. Set realistic expectations for performance. Be sure that you’re committing to the long haul and that you won’t be discouraged by the slow pace of sales or consumer acceptance. Communicate your expectations to your employees, so they see the results in a realistic light and not interpret short term results as failure.
5. Commit for the duration. While consumers can well afford to be “fair-weather” environmentalists—after all, they’re the boss—retailers and manufacturers cannot. That’s why the positioning decisions for Private Brand Green Items have to be well thought out before diving in.
6. Develop Private Brand Green Items with full attention to quality and performance. Most customers will initially suspect that they will be trading off quality and/or performance. Surprise them . . . or don’t introduce the Green Item. Wait until you’ve got the formulation right. And follow up on quality assurance protocols with the same rigor that you apply to your base line of Private Brand products.
*Steve Rubow has over 40 years experience in retailing and private branding and was President/CEO of Topco Associates for 8 of those years. He is currently associated with Leo J. Shapiro Associates, a Chicago-based market research firm and is on the faculty at The University of Chicago. Steve can be reached at steve.rubow@ljs.com.
