Replying from Laura’s blog, I want to talk about how greenwashing affects branding in the marketing world today.
From our lecture in branding, “Your brand promise is the heart, soul and spirit of the benefits you deliver. It’s never about your product or service; it’s about how you want to make people feel”. No company wants to be perceived as environmentally harmful or indifferent about our environment. They want to be perceived as sustainable, green, eco-friendly and socially responsible. By advertising that the products they sell are green, they want to make consumers feel like by buying their products, they help the world be a better place or they live a healthier lifestyle.
Companies aim for customer equity (loyalty) so they can capture more profit by adding value to their customers. So, why do they greenwash if they know that this will hurt their reputation as a trusting brand? Companies should realize that greenwash practices can only give them a head-start advantage but the risk of it damaging their reputation and destroying customers’ loyalty is far too great. It would be difficult to gain their customers’ trust back again. Branding their product in the future may be doubted by consumers and will hurt their company financially in the long -run.
Furthermore, greenwashing can tarnish the eco-enthusiasm in our society. Companies who do legitimate eco-friendly products and services can be doubted by consumers and ultimately ruin their investment. Green washers are contaminating the marketplace with their bogus eco-friendly claims. There is a website called The Greenwashing Index which evaluates environmental marketing claims. Consumers now can be well aware of greenwashing and they can be more protected against the false claims. Companies who legitimately brand their products as eco-friendly now has to prove their marketing claims to avoid being called as greenwashers.