2007 year

• Acquisition Creates the Largest Privately-Held Global Digital Marketing Company

  These days, nobody can blame marketers for rushing to “green” their brands. Rarely has there been a bandwagon like the eco-friendly one upon which most of America’s big-name businesses have jumped. Over the last six months or so, the carbon-neutral footprint may have become the new motherhood and apple pie.

  Given the fervor, marketers might presume a substantial payoff for touting one’s eco-friendliness. After all, these big-name companies certainly wouldn’t invest so heavily in getting the message across if there weren’t a measurable — and significant — return on investment, right?

  Well, not so fast.

  While there are many good reasons for companies to run green marketing campaigns, an immediate financial return on investment may not be at the top of that list. In some cases, a measurable financial ROI may not even be on the list. It’s still too difficult to tease out the role a company’s values play in a consumer’s purchasing decision, and there’s not enough analysis given the recent development of these campaigns. Historically, “studies of the effect of a company’s social reputation on consumer purchasing preferences or on stock market performance have been inconclusive at best,” professors Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer wrote in the Harvard Business Review in December.

  So why has green marketing taken such hold of corporate America’s creative teams? Two words: motivation and risk. As news about climate change has gone mainstream, surveys have found that consumers are far more interested in the environment — and in a company’s social values — than they were even several short months ago.

  A May survey by Landor Associates found that concern for the environment among American consumers was “universal,” and that eight in 10 consumers believe it’s important to buy from green companies, and will spend more to do so for certain items like energy-saving household appliances. Indeed, the company reported that “nearly all Americans display green attitudes and behaviors.” Contrast that with last year’s survey, in which 58 percent of respondents declared themselves “uninterested” in whether a brand or a company was green.

  The firm calls this shift “one of the most complete and speedy revolutions in consumer attitudes ever seen.”

  This transformation may well mean that companies that can authentically, and quickly, brand themselves as green will have a competitive advantage over companies that cannot. In fact, it’s risky not to: A full 93 percent of consumers “believe companies have a responsibility to preserve the environment,” according to a recent survey by Cone.

  That same survey also found that 85 percent of consumers “indicated they would consider switching to another company’s products or services because of a company’s negative corporate responsibility practices.”

  It’s not all about pleasing consumers, though. Institutional investors and investor coalitions are demanding information on what public companies are doing to mitigate climate-change risk and are downgrading stocks of companies they consider ill-prepared to adapt to — and help fight — global warming, report Jonathan Lash and Fred Wellington of the World Resources Institute, a Washington, D.C., environmental think tank.

  There’s another financial payoff as well. As more towns, cities and states — and the federal government — adopt green procurement standards, “businesses that can prove they are green will increasingly win contracts and have advantages,” says Rona Fried, CEO of SustainableBusiness.com.