We live on a small planet. And when it comes to green marketing, our planet is even smaller. So if you live in the U.S., I encourage you to
think outside our continent when shopping for green companies and services. Check out the UK's
Green Provider's Directory.
This non-for-profit organization is a leading service for green, organic and fair trade products. So the next time you shop online, vote with your wallet and choose businesses that align with your values.
Lisa Proctor is the president and creative director of firefly180 marketing—a branding and advertising agency that specializes in LOHAS marketing, wellness marketing, green marketing and renewable energy marketing.
It used to be that the world of calculating pollution levels was reserved for those who were: A) Nerdy B) Academic or C) True Blue Enviros. But no more.
Thanks to a
marketing climate that increasingly emphasizes transparency, so called green geeks are now mainstream. Fueled by concerns about climate change, more and more businesses are looking to track, measure and reduce their environmental footprint through life cycle assessment. And they're sharing their results with consumers through product labeling and environmental assessment reports.
As a leader in the field of green energy marketing, social change communication, organic branding and the LOHAS consumer, I've worked with a lot of green and progressive businesses. Being at the forefront of this segment has very much been an exercise in rewriting long-established marketing rules.
Green marketing companies like mine have long known that the surest path to success is to run every aspect of your company in the most sustainable manner possible. In the best models, green companies take a
lesson from nature so that waste from one aspect of their business becomes food for another. The good news is, the idea is catching on. Why? Because sustainably run companies are profitable companies.
Lisa Proctor is the president and creative director of firefly180 marketing—a branding and advertising agency that specializes in LOHAS marketing, wellness marketing, green marketing and renewable energy marketing.
Today is October 12 and this is the view outside my office door.
Look closely, you'll see a herd of deer running by. But it's not the deer that are surprising. In a season that is generally all about crunching through colorful fall leaves, those of us who live and office near Minneapolis are looking for snow shovels.
J
ust as weather can take us by surprise, so can marketing campaigns. As the head of a green advertising agency with a focus on organic branding, the LOHAS consumer, yoga studio marketing, green energy marketing and social change communication, we strive to create surprise. We live in a media climate that is in continuous hyperdrive. And yet there is a pervasive cookie-cutter blandness that stifles most marketing messages.
Today, an early snow generated national media and shook up millions in my region. Tomorrow, I hope the same is true for
green marketing companies like mine. The stories of our clients are unique. Their messages are relevant. And their potential to generate change is as refreshing—and as surprising—as snow in October.
Lisa Proctor is the president and creative director of firefly180 marketing—a branding and advertising agency that specializes in LOHAS marketing, wellness marketing, green marketing and renewable energy marketing.
It's a beautiful thing when green marketing, organic branding and social change communication become supercharged through media.
One of my favorite organic tea brands, Zhena's Gypsy Tea, got a great media hit recently when Jennifer Aniston prepared cocktails at a party using the Zhena's Super Berry Blend. Zhena, the founder of this brand, is an incredible visionary, authentic spirit, green goddess and master tea blender. I couldn't be happier for her.
Mass media has incredible power to educate, enlighten and inspire the mainstream. The organic industry, green companies and progressive businesses have amazing stories to tell. Put them together and you have a force for change. It's
a win for green business. And a win for consumers who are exposed to new ways to live healthier and more sustainably.
Lisa Proctor is the president and creative director of firefly180 marketing—a branding and advertising agency that specializes in LOHAS marketing, wellness marketing, green marketing and renewable energy marketing.
For nearly a decade, I've nurtured a native prairie grass restoration on the property around my office. Which is to say, I planted the seeds and let nature do its thing.
Out of astonishingly sandy soil has sprung wild flowers and native blue stem grasses with roots so deep and penetrating, they withstand frigid Minnesota winters and summer dry spells that could rival the Sahara. At firefly180 marketing, we look at brands much the same way. We build them with deep roots that remain strong in any kind of business climate.
Because we specialize in creating advertising and marketing for wellness companies, green marketing companies and focus on social change marketing, wellness promotion and wellness marketing, my team and I are perhaps more in tune to the natural ebbs and flows of business cycles than most. Many of our clients started their businesses with a passion to succeed and not much more. So we build brands deep. We build them to last. And we build them to stay green regardless of economic drought.
While at my desk this morning, a turkey walked past my door. A real, live, wild turkey. 100% organic and free range.
As the president and creative director of a green marketing company that specializes in social change marketing, wellness marketing, wellness promotion, social change marketing and who works with a wide array of wellness companies, that turkey got me thinking. The fact is, there are a lot of turkeys out there.
Are you doing business like a "turkey?" Or are you delivering the real deal? Is your messaging pumped full of artificial fillers, antibiotics and growth hormones? Is it tightly sealed in vacuum-packed plastic? Wild turkeys are quite rare and beautiful. Watch what happens when you let your your brand out of its cage.
In the world of advertising and marketing, there are plenty of buzz words. The latest and greatest marketing guru is always at the ready with his or her brand of can't-lose, sure-fire ten steps to guaranteed genius. Categories like wellness promotion, wellness marketing and social change marketing flutter in google key words searches like sparks from a bonfire on a dark summer night.
Wellness companies and green marketing companies founded with the intent to do well and do good, compete in the broader business landscape amidst the latest marketing, trend-tracking, attitudinal survey, data-driven prophesies that promise quick results.
But the truth is, good advertising and marketing is more than the sum of its quantifiable parts. The best, most effective, most award-winning brands are founded on three tenants:
1. Complete transparency
2. Sincere intention to be of service
3. Knowing, listening and responding to your audience
There you have it. The magic. The formula. The underpinnings for success on personal, financial and planetary levels. Now you know as much as the next green guru.
New research shows that consumers use a plastic shopping bag for only about 12 minutes before tossing it in the trash. And even though I stock my trunk with plenty of canvas shopping bags, the truth is, I don't always remember to bring them into the store. Let me introduce you to my new best friend—the Chico Bag. Made from 99% recycled content (seven plastic bottles), this bag comes equipped with its own built-in carrying pouch so you can tuck it away easily into a purse, messenger bag or pocket.
As a leader in social change marketing who works with green marketing companies, wellness companies, wellness promotion and wellness marketing, I met the founder of Chico Bag at the LOHAS Forum in Boulder a few weeks ago. I can't say enough good about this guy or the bag. Not only do I always have a reusable bag handy, it's really fun when the bagger at the checkout lane says paper or plastic, I now say, "Chico."
I read a great section in
Mother Jones last night, titled, "Waste Not Want Not—We're burying the planet in garbage. Here's how to dig out." As an expert in social change marketing, wellness promotion, wellness marketing and wellness promotion, I've spent much of my career working with green marketing companies and wellness companies to create campaigns designed to inspire Americans to reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink and respond.
In the last twenty years, we've done much to raise awareness and spark action, but as the
mounds of disposables continue to stack up in landfills and incinerators there's still much to be done. One of the unsung vanguards of this movement, New Yorker, activist, classical singer and blogger Juli Borst, who is profiled in the
Mother Jones section, is leading the way. While I'm sure that Juli's dedication, which goes so far as to collect plastic bottle caps from sidewalks and walk them to places like Whole Foods who "take No 5's," strikes most as a bit over the top. I think she's on to something. Besides educating about the fact that tiny recycling numbers are printed on the insides of plastic caps, waste-reduction activists like Juli are stretching the boundaries of basic and fundamental recycling methods like curbside recycling to move us as a culture into a deepening awareness about the consequences of a "wasted" lifestyle.
Several years ago, when hybrids had just begun to enter the market and were very difficult to find, I launched into exhaustive research to determine the best car for me with the least environmental impact. I ended up with a low emission diesel. Was it the best choice? Almost a decade later, I still struggle with that question—even though I worked with several energy-related non-profits to run eco-comparisons for me.
My thinking at the time was that my Jetta TDI did not contribute to climate change, maintained an impressive 50 mpg, could run on bio diesel and the engine was designed to last 200,000 + miles. Plus, I admit I was seduced by the fact that it had heated seats. As the head of a social change marketing firm who works with wellness companies, green marketing companies, wellness marketing, wellness promotion and has an extensive expertise in renewable energy marketing, you would think the decision about what car to buy would come a bit easier. But still, I experience hybrid angst. Did I make the right choice?
Today, Audi ran a tower ad in the New York Times online proclaiming, "Di*sel is no longer a dirty word." All my old questions and doubt came raging back. Which goes to show you, when it comes to buying green, the answers are not always so black and white.
I've just arrived back to the office after spending a few days last week at the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) forum conference in Boulder, CO.
This conference is one of the few where wellness companies, non-profits, Fortune 100 companies, green marketing companies, environmental public relations firms, the organic industry and other progressive organizations gather to meet, learn about new market trends, share with others and recharge.
When I dove head-first into eco friendly marketing nearly 20 years ago, it felt like I was creating and speaking another language. My friends and colleagues all urged me to give it up. They were convinced I couldn't earn a living, that I was too narrowly defining myself and that even though
Forbes magazine had boldly declared the '90s, "The decade of the environment," many were convinced the movement was a blip on the radar that would soon pass.
Sometimes I thought they might be right. But as difficult as it was to blaze new trails in those early days, I simply couldn't give up. There was too much to be gained by unleashing the power of consumer choice to create change in the world. Marketing, I believed, was the key.
Last week, I joined 550 business and NGO visionaries from as far away as South Africa, Columbia and Japan. The language I helped to create nearly two decades ago is now widely known as LOHAS. It has become so widely spoken and has become such a powerful mainstream market that
Newsweek coined the term, "LOHASIAN" when referring to the category. There are thousands of languages spoken on our planet. But when it comes to business, I believe that LOHAS has the most potential to speak to positive change—and a positive bottom line.
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