Marketing clean energy or any green product has always had to rely on overcoming the fact that the consumer would pay more.
One ad I wrote a few years ago for a solar company pictured a young girl looking at the camera, with the headline, “The main reason for going solar may
be right in front of you.” The ad outscored all the other ads tested in focus groups by a wide margin. That’s because people want to do the right thing for the next generation. The
emotional pull of protecting our kids and the planet has been the only thing that could get consumers to open their checkbooks and pay a relatively high cost for green.
Times have changed. Companies like SolarCity are thriving with a lease model that allows customers to pay only for the energy, and not the panels, at a rate that’s
lower than what the utility charges. My mother-in-law drives a Prius, not because she’s a tree hugger, but because she’s frugal to the extreme (she once stuffed my kids’
Christmas stockings with the free toothbrushes she received at the dentist – yeah, that’s love). And now wind energy in many parts of the United States is not just cost par with
fossil-fuels, it’s cheaper. Sure, part of the reason is a hefty tax credit, but much of the decline in costs has been driven by less expensive turbine technology, with similar drops in cost for
solar panels.
The drop in costs has left the coal industry flat-footed at best. For years, it has been banging the “low-cost abundant
domestic energy drum,” showing commercials where coal was literally the boxer helping America fight its way back from the recession. Sure, coal pollutes the air, but it’s cheap and
it’s American. Toxic coal sludge seeping into a West Virginia river and polluting drinking water may not diminish the appetite for coal mining in some Southern states, where coal is the Wonder
Bread of energy, but much of the country is cutting back.
You might think that now that clean energy and green products are more mainstream
and not expensive, that our job as marketers would be easy. The reality is, though, that while the landscape is changing, the job of selling greener stuff will be simply different, and not necessarily
easier. Here are a few tips for navigating these cleaner waters:
Show there are no trade-offs: Instead of appealing to our better
natures, appeal to our desire to have something really cool, without tradeoffs on cost. The Tesla motor company does an excellent job with this. It’s a sexy sports car. Yes, it’s good for
the environment, but they never lead with that message. The reason the car costs a lot right now is because it’s a high-performance vehicle, not because it’s all-electric. As lower-cost
Teslas enter the market, they’ll be competing with other all-electric brands of comparable price, but those other brands won’t have the Tesla cool factor.
Learn from Big Oil: Clean energy and green products are becoming more of a commodity. As costs have come down, the difference of being green isn’t so
different, with more competitors on the scene also offering equally green solutions. Green marketers will need to rely on good old-fashioned branding smarts, just as the oil companies have done
for decades. We’d buy Exxon to put a tiger in our tank – a tiger that’s exactly the same as every other higher octane fuel is.
Share what drives you: Since one electron is the same as another, what is it about your clean energy that stands out? One way to win in the market is by showing the
skill and dedication of the people who are generating your clean energy. Just as an artisanal craft beer company might show a video on its website with all the steps that go into making a great
beer, you can show all the steps your experts take in developing a power project responsibly, or how a percentage of profits go towards worthy local causes. People don't buy a product; they buy
into a feeling that your company – your brand – is a reflection of who they are.
There may, of course, be instances where
leading with the message that the product costs less is the best approach. But since nobody owns the sun or wind, and more and more competitors are jumping into the shark tank every day,
it’s too easy to get undercut on price, and profits go out the window. More and more, green will be the norm. In fact, green is the new black. And that’s a great thing.