Att: Environment, marketing & business editors

For immediate release

August 18, 2009

Green messages often lost in the woods

Actions speak louder than words when it comes to getting green messages across to the public, according to the latest Creo / Perceptive Corporate Trust survey.

The survey shows that major campaigns featuring sponsorships, pictures of whales, plants and blue skies appear to be largely going over consumers’ heads.

In response to the unprompted question ‘which international brand is leading the way in terms of its environmental thinking?’, respondents ignored the large budgets of Toyota and BP and opted for the environmental activist, Greenpeace.

Of those surveyed, 18% backed the activist organisation, against 8% apiece for two second-placed corporate organisations.

Creo’s CEO, Hamish Anderson, says the results show that when it comes to environmental issues, actions have more impact than conventional media channels.

“It seems that it’s quicker and cheaper to get your message across by scaling a smoke-belching chimney or take on Japanese whalers, than it is to design, build and market a hybrid car, or put solar panels above your service stations.”

“But in the case of Greenpeace, its current approach is something of a two-edged sword. They scored another first by being the organisation most disliked for its environmental actions, with a distaste rating of 14% against second-placed McDonalds at 3%.”

“The other interesting aspect of the survey is that 53% of the 1,000 people surveyed couldn’t name a brand leading the way in terms of demonstrating its environmental thinking, which indicates that a lot of marketing activity isn’t getting through to mainstream New Zealanders.”

He says a significant finding on the local front is that the brand leading the way in environmental thinking is an organisation which is far from being a household name.

“Eco Store significantly outranked brands like Air New Zealand, Fonterra, The Warehouse, Genesis Energy, Contact Energy, Greenpeace and the Green Party.

“Eco Store shared its top billing of an 8% rating with Meridian, which positions itself as our largest renewable energy generator.

“Sadly for their followers, the Green Party was down at 2%, while Greenpeace came in third equal with 5%.”

“Clearly the Eco Store is an organisation that is demonstrating its environmental credentials in everything it does.

 “Consumer respect for Eco Store looks to be based on the company’s dedication to producing sustainable household cleaning and personal care products that tick all the desired boxes in terms their environmental friendliness, which is not to say the other firms mentioned by survey respondents don’t make a fair fist of doing that.

“In old-fashioned terms Eco Store is an organisation that is seen to be walking the talk, donating a share of its earnings to a good cause, embracing recycling and the environment and backing that with simple, eco-friendly packaging.

“It’s a ground-up approach that, from simple mail order beginnings, now has the company ringing the tills in mainstream stores not just in New Zealand but in Australia, the United States and parts of Asia.

“Our view on the results is that if you are looking to build an environmental reputation it’s important to do the job from the ground up, rather than just talk about it and, in an age of conversation marketing, it’s becoming increasingly important to look beyond traditional media channels, if credibility is your goal.

Hamish Anderson says another interesting finding of the survey is that while some 74% of respondents could think of an organisation they disliked for its environmental actions, only 47% could think of one that was leading the way in terms of its positive environmental thinking.

“For those wanting to be recognised for their good environmental work it is worth noting that 53% of the people responding could not think of a New Zealand brand that is leading the way in terms of environmental thinking.

“Clearly a lot of organisations are not getting their environmental messages across, and may need to rethink their approach.”

The Creo / Perceptive Corporate Trust survey is run quarterly for Creo as part of Perceptive’s omnibus research programme. The survey is conducted online, involving 1,000 people throughout New Zealand.  Participants are selected at random and the total sample stratified to ensure it is nationally representative across age, gender and location, in accordance with 2006 Census data.

ENDS.

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