Jump on the Green Train With Your Eyes Open
The consumer packaged goods industry has a long history of duking out margins and shelf space to drive sales and build brand loyalty. For many consumers, making healthy and eco-friendly choices, is becoming a strong deciding factor to select one brand over another. The packaging, messaging, and claims all look promising at first glance, but as you dig deeper, you’ll uncover false claims and certifications that, yes, even you’ve fallen for.
A marketing firm by the name of Terra Choice Environmental Marketing regularly checks in on the environmental claims made by consumer markets. In 2009, they published The Seven Sins of Greenwashing. A group of researchers took a deeper look at product details and claims and found that on 2,219 products, nearly 5,000 green claims were made. Ninety-eight percent of those claims committed at least one Greenwashing Sin.
The first and probably the biggest issue highlighted in “The Seven Sins of Greenwashing Report” were the creation of fake labels or false suggestions of third-party endorsements. Unfortunately, as consumers, it’s partially our fault, because we’re demanding to see these third-party certifications on the products we buy. Companies are only too happy to meet that demand with their own made up certifications and endorsements that seem real to the average consumer. How can you tell if a third party certification label is legitimate? Consumer Reports has launched their Greener Choices website. Their Eco-labels center allows you to verify any suspect labels. “As a consumer, look for a third party certification — not just a shiny graphic and educate yourself about what these labels mean. As a designer, ask lots of questions and take responsibility for verifying the claims on your own work”, suggests Vancouver-based design consultant Lisa Hemingway who teaches Design for Sustainability in Langara’s Communication and Ideation Design program.
Kids (toys and baby) products, cosmetics and cleaning products are the three categories in which green claims — and greenwashing are the most common. Consumers often fall victim to the vague or no proof claims that a particular product is “biodegradable’, ‘natural’, ‘organic’, ‘made with natural materials’, and ‘earth-friendly’ and so forth. Natural doesn’t mean it’s green. Didn’t you know, arsenic, mercury, formaldehyde are all ‘100% natural’?
With the heightened awareness of the impact people have had on the environment, consumers make feel good purchasing decisions in the hopes of creating a better future. The good news is green product claims are on the rise, because companies are working to meet the needs of the green consumer movement. With proper education around these certifications, ideally we will get to a point where consumers demand a standard to a point where you can’t just call it green without backing it up. Consumers are getting wiser and an army of sources is ready to tell them what’s a fact and what’s fiction, like the EnviroMedia Greenwashing Index. It’s a great source that’s helping consumers become more savvier about evaluating environmental marketing claims and holding businesses accountable for these claims.
Well, after playing “the sins of greenwashing game, I’ve gone home to take a look inside my own cupboards. I now know that I’ve unassumingly brought shampoo, dishwasher soap, and even tetra pak juice that all committed one or more Greenwashing Sins. On your next shopping trip, can you spot the Greenwashing Sins?
By Sarah Clayton, Principal, Marketer, & Designer, www.blupeacock.ca and BCAMA, Director of Marketer of the Year Award
Sin of Vagueness image, courtesy of Terra Choice Environmental
Member Profile – Rich Porayko
Tips for finding a marketing job abroad – Location is key
By Alice M. Chacon
Alice is a recent MBA graduate with a specialization in Marketing Management, based in Toronto, ON. She has a background in marketing, communications and corporate social responsibility in consumer goods, software and media. She is an avid follower of marketing trends and shares news and analyzes trends on her blog: www.alicechacon.blogspot.com and her Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/@alicemchacon.
Last month I started the story of my search for better job opportunities in Toronto. Leaving Vancouver isn’t easy, especially knowing that I was going to miss the Olympics and finally see what all that construction was for!
Toronto is such a different city from Vancouver in so many ways. One of them is that it is so spread out and so densely populated. Sure, the Lower mainland really stretches out, both North to South and West to East. But in Toronto, commutes over an hour are far more common than they ever seemed to be in Vancouver.
Location is key when you look for work here, especially considering that traffic is a nightmare at almost any hour of the day and any day of the week, and that public transit can be terrible when you are trying to get to or from a place far from the subway. And besides long walks, waits and switching buses, trains, etc several times, you have the nasty wind and snow, or the very high temperatures in the summer.
Ideally, you’d want to live close to the place where you work, especially if that is out and far from the subway lines, like Mississauga, Brampton and Markham. But it’s hard to know exactly where you’ll work until you get a job. In some industries, that can be more predictable. Banks and investment firms tend to be located downtown. A lot of technology companies are located in Markham. But if you’re interested in CPG, like I am, it can be hard to say.
In a tight economy, companies want the sure thing. Having a Toronto address is very important when looking for a job here, I’ve been told. I got very little done when I was in Vancouver last fall, finishing my MBA. Since I’ve been here, I’m impressed at how many more people I’ve been able to meet. That means that, like me, if you’re really decided on working here, you may have to find a place to live first, before you know where you will be working.
The good news is that real estate is cheaper here than it is in Vancouver. Rent can also be much cheaper (I’m paying less here for a 1 bedroom condo near trendy Yonge and Eglinton than I was in a much smaller, two-bedroom basement in Dunbar). The bad news is that you probably will need a car, even if you got along fine without one in Vancouver. Even if your home and work are on the subway line, having a car means it will be easier to get out to cottage country or Niagara on the weekends. In Vancouver, you can get around (even to go hiking or get a ferry out to Bowen Island) without a car.
But is it worth it? As of yet, I’m still searching for a good opportunity. However, this is a fast-moving city and there are so many companies in the Greater Toronto Area. I’ll share more about the job search in my next post.
Vancouver 2010 Olympics – Everybody Wants a Piece
Locals, tourists, media, sponsors and non-sponsors will be descending onto this Village of Vancouver over the next few weeks for one of the world’s biggest sporting events. And while this blog’s title may or may not be a veiled reference to the 100,000 free condoms distributed to the participants, it’s clear that marketers are pulling out all the stops in order to align their brand with the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
First up on the docket is Subway, who’s manoeuvring around the whole ‘non-sponsor thing’ is downright comical. In fact, I’m inventing a term for their particular style of ambush marketing – ‘overt covertness’. The commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGJ8Q84L4I) has US Olympian and Speedo-clad Michael Phelps – a summer sport participant no less – swimming his way toward Vancouver. There is no actual mention of Vancouver or the Olympic Games, but it shows a map of the Pacific Northwest with Phelps clearly heading through Washington and toward Vancouver, with the narrator chiming in ‘so he can get to where the action is this winter’. I suppose we can only assume he’s heading to the Puyallup Sewing and Stitchery Festival.
Closer to home, Edgewater Casino have unveiled their ‘Our Games Are 24/7’ campaign at bus shelters across the city. Howe Sound Brewing made news with the release of their latest beer, an imperial red ale that features three beavers adorning gold, silver and bronze medals. Lululemon have gone a step further and unveiled a clothing line cheekily entitled ‘Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place in British Columbia Between 2009 and 2011’.
Clearly VANOC’s concerns are well-warranted and they have a lot to watch out for. This isn’t just a random event company controlling their logo usage to protect their brand and sponsor interests. VANOC is charged with the enormous and difficult task of developing and implementing a brand that not only speaks to their organization; but also a brand that will demonstrate to the world what it is to be Canadian. Caley Denton, VP, Ticketing & Consumer Marketing at VANOC, said at a recent luncheon “The impression of the games and what it says about Vancouver and Canada will be our legacy.” A tall order indeed.
Caley’s words may seem grandiose but they couldn’t be more on mark. We are far beyond maple syrup and Mounties; we are a compassionate, tolerant, multicultural and spirited bunch who take pride in the natural theatre in which we live. Too often an afterthought on the world scene, Canada will emerge from these games with new meaning and Vanoc’s message of “with glowing hearts” will deliver that. I attended the BCAMA’s Speaker Series event – The Art of Storytelling – and among speaker Bill Baker’s many insights was the following quote: “To be human is to have a story”. Well, to be Canadian is to have a story as well, and now is our chance to tell it.
So in reality, chasing down an ambush marketer or besmirching a local companies’ attempt at good old Canadian wit is the least of Vanoc’s worries. The public are pretty marketing savvy in today’s world anyway, and they will hardly be fooled by imposters.
The challenge, therefore, is not in wrestling their brand rights from rogue ambushers, but rather quite the opposite: taking the brand and infecting everyone so they may embrace and live it. Every interaction a tourist encounters upon arriving in Vancouver will play a role: the customs officer, the cab driver, the hotel clerk, the waitress, the nightclub bouncer, the museum guide. From Zulu to Roots, from Japadog to Roxy, we are all brand ambassadors. Storytellers, you might say.
Let’s just hope Michael Phelps is arriving in more than a Speedo.
Written by Ryan McKee, Manager, Marketing & New Media at Vancouver Whitecaps FC and BCAMA Director of Special Events
The Toronto blogger: Leaving Vancouver in search of new career opportunities
By Alice M. Chacon
I won’t lie to you. Graduating in one of the toughest economic times in recent history is intimidating, to say the least. On top of that I’ve decided to move to a new city, Toronto, to try to look for job opportunities I can’t find in Vancouver. I’ll be sharing my experiences with you on the BCAMA marketline blog.
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Back in 2008, when I decided to go back to school for my MBA, I thought that it would be a good way to hone my business skills and improve my opportunities of advancing my career as a new immigrant in Canada. But only weeks into my program, the news about the economy got infinitely worse. I crossed my fingers and hoped that job prospects would improve by the time I finished my program: December 2009.
I chose to do my MBA program at the Sauder School of Business (UBC), because I wanted to settle permanently in Vancouver. But once in Vancouver, my opinions changed. I was interested in joining an international company that could give me the experience of working with a global brand, and learned that most headquarters were located in Toronto.
I finally decided to move to Toronto last summer, when I was doing my internship in Ontario. While being here in the summer, I realized that there were more opportunities in more industries. It wasn’t an easy choice. Vancouver is an amazing place to live in, and most of my friends and professional network are in that city. Moving to Toronto means starting from scratch. That is even harder considering that I’m an immigrant and looking for my first full-time Canadian job.
I moved here just after finishing my MBA in December. The greatest challenge has been building a network. I’ve been meeting with friends of friends and reaching out to Sauder alumni here. I switched to the AMA Toronto chapter and went to my first meeting last week. It isn’t easy to start a network from scratch, but I’m not alone in doing this: With a shaky economy, it seems that many young professionals are considering the GTA as a good place to look for new opportunities.
Alice is a recent MBA graduate with a specialization in Marketing Management, based in Toronto, ON. She has a background in marketing, communications and corporate social responsibility in consumer goods, software and media. She is an avid follower of marketing trends and shares news and analyzes trends on her blog: www.alicechacon.blogspot.com and her Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/alicemchacon.
October Member Spotlight: Martin Reed
Each month, we will be featuring BCAMA members on our blog, highlighting some of the innovators, trendsetters and leaders in BC’s marketing community.
This month’s interview is with Martin Reed, the Director of Marketing and Creative Services at Central 1 Credit Union.
 Martin Reed |
How long have you been a BCAMA member? Three years What type of marketing do you employ? B2B and B2C marketing and communication. Have you attended any BCAMA events? If so, which ones? Breakfasts, speakers and the annual Marketer of the Year Gala Have you used the network that BCAMA provides, for job searching or Not really – mostly educational and a bit of networking What is unique about BCAMA? The association provides good quality and value for marketers |
| What school did you attend and what degree did you achieve?
Bachelor of Commerce, Major Marketing (with Distinction) Concordia University, Montreal Do you have a LinkedIn profile we can refer to for additional information? Interview conducted by Camilla Crawfurd, BCAMA Member Appreciation Manager. If you would like to be featured in Member Spotlight, please contact us at bcama.membership@gmail.com. |
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