Friday, February 13, 2009

Greener can be cheaper part three


Targeting needs, not marketing illusions

One of the great failings of the green movement in this country has been the failure to start the process by looking at where demand already exists but is not met, instead of trying to force a "green" version of products that may not have a significant market.

Creating and marketing a product not in demand results in:

Higher costs. The item needs to be advertised, promoted and otherwise pushed as "green." The potential buyer needs to be sold on your product, rather than happy to find what they already wanted.

More waste.
High prices and low demand means more product will end in clearance racks, on discounter shelves and ultimately in the trash.

A bad reputation. The more green products are viewed as indulgent and overpriced, the more people will turn away from the green movement. That's bad for legitimate green manufacturers and providers, and ultimately, bad for the planet.


The lesson for would-be green businesses?


Make sure there is a demand
Check out the competition to verify that the demand is not being met
Find lower cost green raw materials or elements
Skip the gimmicks
Market your products at a price point that will encourage demand to remain high

1 comments:

David said...

If people want to get serious (and cleaner) about the environment then they should get a Bathroom Bidet Sprayer from www.bathroomsprayers.com and you won't even need toilet paper anymore, just a towel to dry off! It's cheap and can be installed without a plumber; and runs off the same water line to your toilet. . You'll probably pay for it in a few months of toilet paper savings. And after using one of these you won't know how you lasted all those years with wadded up handfuls of toilet paper. Now we're talking green and helping the environment without any pain.