How to Effectively Market Green Products

A study, involving Edelman and nine major brands, finds that despite corporate hesitations, sustainable products are growing twice as fast as conventional ones, appealing across all demographics. Brands should ensure that product quality is not compromised while promoting sustainability. Combining sustainability claims with core brand attributes can broaden consumer appeal. Effective sustainability messages prioritize the personal and community benefits, while technical or scientific claims are less compelling unless tied to consumer benefits. Sustainably-marketed goods are consistently growing across demographics, indicating that compelling sustainability claims can boost customer engagement and business growth.

In these polarized times, corporate leaders are growing skittish about promoting sustainability in their products. Yet our research on actual consumer purchases demonstrates that sustainable products are growing two times faster than conventional, at a 28% premium in average, across most demographics.

To help brand managers and marketing leads capitalize on this growing market, we partnered with Edelman and nine leading brands across different industries (tech, apparel, beverage, food) to research which sustainability messages work best with consumers. In contrast to current hyperbole about polarized consumers, we found that the most resonant sustainability claims are highly compelling for all demographics — old/young, blue state/ red state, high income/low income, men/women, etc.

We conducted a custom online study of a sample of the U.S. general population in end 2022/early 2023 for the nine iconic brands. Respondents for each brand were asked to evaluate 30–35 different claims (including a mix of category and environmental sustainability claims) to gauge their overall appeal. Rather than using a traditional rating scale, we utilized a user-friendly and robust analytical approach called MaxDiff. It forces a top and bottom pick from a short list of claims in each choice set, making the respondent task easier, and providing better discrimination in responses across the claims. Each respondent evaluated multiple choice sets, allowing for claims to be randomized based on an experimental design. The MaxDiff results yielded an appeal score for each claim — in aggregate and among key sub-groups of interest. Most importantly we added a TURF component to identify the optimal combination of claims to maximize overall appeal.

Following are the insights and lessons learned.

Core category claims are paramount — the product must work, be tasty, clean properly, etc. This makes sense. Who wants sustainable chocolate that does not taste good or a sustainable cleaning product that does not clean? Yet, occasionally, marketing materials focus solely on sustainability which can limit a brand’s potential.

Compelling sustainability claims anchored in the core brand attributes significantly expand brand reach by bringing in new consumers. As seen in Figure 1, the core attribute claim may resonate with 44 of every 100 people (average among nine brands tested), but when you add compelling sustainability claims you can increase customer appeal to 74 in every 100 people. An example of a high-performing, laddered claim is: “Formulated with sustainable ingredients that are good for your skin.”

High-resonance sustainability claims focus on what is in it for the consumer, starting with themselves and their families and then moving to their communities. For instance:

• Healthy for you and your family: “Grown without harmful ingredients synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides” for food, and “Formulated without harmful ingredients parabens, phthalates, dyes and aluminum” for skincare
• Saves you money: “Lower energy for lower monthly energy bills,” or “Helps reduce waste and save money.” For non-CPG items, messaging can stress durability and access to repair services.
• Protects our children: “For future generations.”
• Helps local farmers: “Working with local farmers to use regenerative farming practices to help conserve nature, encourage biodiversity, and improve soil health.” Claims that only talked about regenerative practices without connecting the claims to local farmers did not resonate.
• Protects animals: “Not tested on animals.”
• Sustainably sourced: “Sourced from 100% sustainable ingredients/materials.”

Lower performing claims included science-based claims, traceability, packaging-based claims, and certifications. In other words, the consumer is less interested in technical topics than in personal concerns. However, if the reason for the consumer to care was added to science-based claims they performed better (e.g., carbon neutral for cleaner air to breath vs. carbon neutral). Certifications, while not highly resonate by themselves, are important to ensure the brand protects against green-washing.

In summary, effective sustainability marketing, though to a certain degree category specific, has a top 10 set of components that are compelling for all demographics. Marketing leaders can use the following guidance to develop messaging (and also review the full report). It should be stressed that sustainability marketing needs to be tied to real and effective sustainable sourcing and production practices. To move forward:

• Prioritize the communication of your brand benefit first and foremost. Leverage the relevant sustainability messaging to strengthen the brand positioning.
• Link the sustainability claim to the category reason-for-being. “100% sustainably farmed for a great tasting product.”
• Focus the claim on the benefit to the consumer and their families. Consider sustainability claims that ensure the products are safe for human consumption or contact such as “made without chemicals harmful to human health.” Articulate the claim with an emotional component, particularly as it relates to the long term health of the planet or their children, such as “good for your children/future generations,” or “good for the planet.” To the extent possible, provide a personal monetary benefit to the claim, such as “longer life,” “less waste,” “lower energy bills.”
• The term sustainable, as it relates to “sustainable sourcing and production” is compelling and does not need further explanation. E.g., “100% sustainably sourced,” “100% sustainably produced.”
• Consumers are concerned about animal welfare. If appropriate, include communication to ensure that no harm is done to animals in the testing of the product, such as “no animal testing” or “cruelty-free.”
• For food and personal care categories, if possible, tie the claims to farmers and local sourcing, such as “sourced from local farmers.” Regenerative agriculture claims are compelling, for example, when focused on local farmers and their farms. E.g., “Partnering with local farmers to ensure the long-term health of the farm for the future of our food systems.” or “Partnering with local farmers to ensure the farms stay climate resilient, nutrient dense.”
• Provide a reason to care when communicating the more scientific aspects of sustainability. “Carbon neutral to reduce the impact of climate change” vs. “carbon neutral” by itself.
• Quantify sustainability claims for greater resonance, such as, “Using 1 million tons of ocean-recovered plastic bottles.”
• Use certifications to guard against greenwashing, but don’t rely on them as the sole point of information. For example, “100% sustainably sourced and certified by the Rainforest Alliance” works better than just putting the label on pack.
• Deliver the product with fully recyclable packaging. While consumers generally were less responsive to sustainable packaging claims, “made from 100% recycled plastic/cardboard” was the most compelling.

We are convinced that compelling sustainability claims will help businesses grow consumer loyalty and market share. In another research initiative with Circana (which collects consumer purchasing data), we have reviewed purchases of consumer packaged goods in the U.S. on an annual basis since 2019 (when we looked back to 2014). In reviewing 36 categories annually (several hundred thousand products), we have observed consistent conversion of conventional products into sustainable ones. For example, in 2019, nine out of 36 categories were over 20% market share in terms of sustainability-marketed products and 14 categories were under 5%. Today 13 categories are over 20% and 9 categories are under 5%.

And, while purchasing skews younger, wealthier, urban, and more educated, in fact we see significant purchasing across all demographics. Sustainability-marketed milk and yogurt, for example, which have more than 60% market share, are purchased by virtually every demographic at that rate, including rural, high school education or less, seniors and lower-income (despite an approximate 30% premium).

Sustainable production of goods is beneficial for the planet, for consumers and for business. Corporate leaders can take heart from this research and invest in authentic and compelling messaging to engage customers, grow market share and make a positive contribution to society.