Sustainability Communication - A Balancing Act
Only a few ‘green’ innovations manage to successfully enter the mass market. This is confirmed by the research project ‘Diffusion Paths for Sustainability Innovations’ by Klaus Fichter and Jens Clausen, which highlights numerous obstacles on the path to mainstream adoption. A critical barrier to market success lies in the ineffective marketing of sustainability.
Finding the right codes for marketing sustainable products or companies is challenging:
Sustainability Communication - A Balancing Act
Only a few ‘green’ innovations manage to successfully enter the mass market. This is confirmed by the research project ‘Diffusion Paths for Sustainability Innovations’ by Klaus Fichter and Jens Clausen, which highlights numerous obstacles on the path to mainstream adoption. A critical barrier to market success lies in the ineffective marketing of sustainability.
Finding the right codes for marketing sustainable products or companies is challenging:
- Greenwashing derives from the analogy of ‘whitewashing,’ a term that describes the clever concealment of building flaws by painting over them with white paint. In marketing, greenwashing refers to strategies in which companies, brands, or products are intentionally portrayed as more environmentally friendly, sustainable, or socially responsible than they are. Especially consumers with a sustainable lifestyle have become particularly sensitive to signs of greenwashing today.
- Greenhushing describes communication in which less sustainable actions or product benefits are presented than exist. This type of communication is often driven by the fear of being perceived as greenwashing and generating negative PR. The goal of greenhushing is to avoid addressing complex issues and activating consumers’ guilt, as they might completely refrain from consumption.
- Greenvocalism refers to the communication of environmentally friendly and sustainable products or social initiatives by companies that genuinely practice sustainability. This requires a delicate balance, as even here, incorrect emphasis can easily be placed in visual and verbal codes.
Only with a thorough understanding of sustainable products and initiatives AND how they are perceived by their target audiences does the communicative balancing act lead to success
- Greenwashing derives from the analogy of ‘whitewashing,’ a term that describes the clever concealment of building flaws by painting over them with white paint. In marketing, greenwashing refers to strategies in which companies, brands, or products are intentionally portrayed as more environmentally friendly, sustainable, or socially responsible than they are. Especially consumers with a sustainable lifestyle have become particularly sensitive to signs of greenwashing today.
- Greenhushing describes communication in which less sustainable actions or product benefits are presented than exist. This type of communication is often driven by the fear of being perceived as greenwashing and generating negative PR. The goal of greenhushing is to avoid addressing complex issues and activating consumers’ guilt, as they might completely refrain from consumption.
- Greenvocalism refers to the communication of environmentally friendly and sustainable products or social initiatives by companies that genuinely practice sustainability. This requires a delicate balance, as even here, incorrect emphasis can easily be placed in visual and verbal codes.
Only with a thorough understanding of sustainable products and initiatives AND how they are perceived by their target audiences does the communicative balancing act lead to success