March 11, 2008 - Consumers expect to see significant company commitments to environmental leadership before they buy the green marketing hype, according to a new survey from marketing firm EcoAlign. So far, very few brands - among them Toyota and GE - have "walked the walk" enough to achieve any resonance in the market for green products and services, the survey finds.

"There is a great opportunity to become a green brand leader with the right commitment and marketing approach," says Andrea Fabbri, COO and chief marketing officer at EcoAlign. "But the current emphasis on public relations and advertising is not going to do it alone."

Some highlights:

• Seventy-seven percent of consumers think that an operational commitment to energy efficiency or green energy is the single most important quality of a corporation trying to be an environmental leader. When respondents asked which of 12 major companies they thought were most committed to using or providing renewable energy. GE dominated with 81%, while Toyota came in second at 65%.
• Fifty-four percent of consumers had difficulty naming a company that supplied renewable or green energy. GE and BP received the most mentions, especially among 18- to 34-year olds, but only represented 4%- 5% of responses.
• Green-energy providers have netted "virtually no brand recognition," according to the survey. Seventy-one percent of respondents were unfamiliar with the top ten companies in the renewable and green energy space - even when they received help from survey administrators.
• Unsurprisingly, consumers tended to rate environmental statements from non-governmental groups as more believable than those made by for-profit companies. The statements that rated the highest involved a moral dimension, responsibility, commitment, and optimism that individuals can make a difference.
  

The report concludes:

"These results illustrate that consumers have a very clear idea of what constitutes an environmental leader. Corporations need to first demonstrate commitment by making investments to their operations and buildings to be more green and efficient if they want to be seen as a true leader in terms of environmental issues. And they will have to educate consumers about their programs and their commitment. Everything else, like recycling on the premises, or offering employee commuter benefits are “nice to haves” but come after tangible evidence of their leadership through investments.

Even if companies do distinguish themselves as environmental leaders, their marketing departments face another challenge in communicating green efforts: When respondents were asked to rate their familiarity with various terms, 71% rated their level of familiarity "8-10" with the term "energy efficiency," 60% for "social responsibility," and only 53% for "going green."

The report, "Branding Green but Seeing Red," is the third installment of EcoAlign's EcoPinion Survey. Download this report, as well as the first two in the series, here.