From Guest Blogger Ben Allen: The Key To Successful Green Branding

Good branding is essential to any business succeeding over time. A good brand can retain customers, attract new customers, and make a business more memorable. For a business that specializes in green products or services, a strong brand is important to connecting with the green community. If consumers feel that a business isn’t sincere about being green, then they won’t buy from them. A strong brand also keeps customers loyal in the longer term, meaning they’ll purchase from you again and recommend others.

What Makes Up A Brand?

First off, what is a brand? Some would say a brand is the name, logo, and color scheme of your business. Others would say it’s made up simply of marketing materials. In reality, your branding is how consumers view your business. You can identify what you want your brand to be, and control what you put out for the public to see, but the consumer decides how they view you and what your brand ends up being to them.

That being said though, certain things influence your branding more than others. Things like the business name, what products you sell, your company values, marketing tactics, and customer service are all hugely important to a good brand. Making sure they all convey the same message to consumers can ensure your impression of being a green business gets across.

Focus On A Single Culture

If you want to be viewed as a “green” business, you need to understand and be a part of their culture. Even within the green culture are a variety of subcultures within it, many with differing priorities in what they consider important. Even definitions of green are different to different people. Some many view recycling waste as the most crucial part of a green lifestyle, while others concern themselves more with renewable energy. Knowing what is most important to your target culture can help guide you in your business and branding.

To help focus on that target culture, build a persona that is representative of your target market. A persona is a fictional person who has the traits of your target market. This can include things like age, gender, location, social standing, purchasing habits, and other important parts of the culture. This persona can guide you on how to best build your brand.

Being Memorable

It’s incredibly easy to be forgotten. The purpose of branding is to help consumers remember your company and products. Keeping your business at the top of potential and current customers minds is what branding should do. It’s like how, when people think of eating burgers, they think of McDonalds. Good branding is the cause of that.

To become memorable, that means doing something worth remembering. When it comes to green branding, that means standing out in your green efforts. If you are doing something exceptional, promote it. This could be how your product is the only one of it’s kind that is built from recycled products, or how it pushes the world to become greener. Your message in everything needs to highlight what makes you special.

Keeping It Simple

When planning out branding, it can be easy to get caught up in the details. Focusing on things like what fonts to use in what situations, how employees should answer the phone, even what type of paper to print brochures on. These things aren’t that important in the grand scheme of branding.

The simpler your branding is, the easier it is to remember. Look at the massive brands in the world for examples, like Coke, Starbucks, McDonalds and Nike. Their logos are simple, slogans are short, and their messages are all focused on one point. Everything works cohesively and has a simple message for consumers to remember.

Being Seen By Your Consumers

You could build the most fabulous website, the prettiest logo, and do everything right, but if your consumers never see it, it doesn’t matter. That means getting your business in front of them and being where they are.

If you understand your target customer and built a persona, this shouldn’t be hard to determine. Becoming a part of their community and a voice for different green practices can help you gain their attention and help validate your business. Get your marketing materials and business noticed has to happen to find success.

Got an example of a company with a strong green brand? Do you run a green business and want to share a tip on building a brand? Let us know in the comments below.