Know Your LOHAS: Ad Club Gets Greened

Among the highlights of Thursday night’s Ann Arbor Ad Club meeting was the revelation that the group’s president, Tracy Lindsay, looks like Sarah Palin/Tina Fey. Especially when she pulls her hair up – as she was exhorted to do by several attendees.

But the club’s main event was a presentation by consultant Colette Chandler, who spoke about how to “green” your business. Here’s a summary of her remarks:

• “The term green is getting really overused today.” Companies are trying to tap the $230 billion market, which is expected to grow to $845 billion by 2015. Those dollars tempt some firms to misrepresent their environmental efforts – a big no-no. Green consumers are savvy consumers. They’re likely to discover when a company is trying to “greenwash” them. And the results won’t be pretty.
• The most hard-core green consumer is the LOHAS – a person who has a Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability. They are more brand loyal and spend, on average, 20 percent more than the typical consumer, even in a down economy.
• What makes a brand green? It’s transparent, authentic, connects with issues that are important to consumers, and strives to reduce its carbon footprint throughout the business. Since 70 percent of Americans believe a corporation’s environmental message is just a marketing tactic, it’s important to be able to prove your business is green through certifications, legitimate awards, case studies and other methods.
• “As you know, blog writers are very aggressive.” Her point was that bloggers often pick up stories that can hammer a business – like the time when Salesforce.com announced they were becoming carbon neutral, then sent a reporter a gift that included Styrofoam packaging and other environmentally uncool features. A blogger got hold of the story and accused the company of greenwashing consumers. “That just negated everything they did,” Chandler said.
• “Is anyone familiar with Fair Trade?” Yes, they were.
• “Plastic water bottles are horrible for the environment,” Chandler said, holding up a Nestle PureLife bottle which claims to be made with “30 percent less plastic.” In preparation for the meeting, apparently the hotel had placed these same bottles in front of every seat at the event. If they’d asked Chandler beforehand, she’d have said, “No thanks.” (The Chronicle was relieved to have left our bottle unopened, thus avoiding public shame.)

Chandler runs The Marketing Insider, a consulting business based in Westerville, Ohio. The Ad Club’s next meeting is Nov. 13 featuring Shawne Deperon, whose talk is titled “Changing your Channel: Gossip, Media and the Law of Attraction.”