‘Green’ Honeymoon Is Over : Analysts Say Consumers Are Cooling to Environment-Friendly Products

The “green” marketing movement--still in its infancy--is turning brown.

Battered by recession-ravaged consumers and confusion over environmental product claims, marketers who embraced the environment as the great sales tool of the decade are discovering that instead of saving the Earth, more consumers today are concerned with saving a few cents.

One executive who specializes in creating ads for companies that make environmentally friendly products said that in recent economic hard times, many of these clients have severely reduced their budgets--and others canceled key projects altogether. Evergreen Oil, an Irvine firm that sells recycled engine oil, dropped its public relations program because sales could not justify the expense. And lack of interest killed one national trade group’s green marketing seminar.

“The green movement has stalled,” said Gerald Celente, founder of the Socio-Economic Research Institute of America, a Rhinebeck, N.Y., trend research group. “The environmental movement will move ahead in baby steps instead of giant steps. As the economy continues to stall, environmental premiums will not be paid.”

This slackening interest comes less than one month before the world’s largest environmental conference is scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro. President Bush has yet to commit to attend.

The green marketing trend began nearly a decade ago with such now-common products as recyclable containers. Now there are even dating services that specialize in matching environmental activists.

But with the sluggish economy, many of the same consumers who two years ago were willing to pay a few cents extra for products with environmental benefits are now simply hunting for bargains.

“If it is cheaper to buy disposable diapers, some housewives who consider themselves environmentalists will go for a bargain on Pampers,” said Stephen Garey, founder of the Santa Monica agency Stephen Garey & Associates, which specializes in environmental clients.

“The recession has been a bad thing for the ecology movement because the environment is as expensive as hell,” said Laurel Cutler, director of global marketing at the New York agency FCB/Leber Katz. “It is not a hot topic--and it won’t be again until the economy is better.”

Also, marketing experts warn that the same consumers who tell survey-takers that they buy environmentally sensitive products will often head to the store the next day and purchase Aerosol-in-a-Drum.

Although 80% of the people interviewed in a national telephone survey last year said they would switch to brands that came in recyclable containers--only 50% of those same consumers said that they actually purchased more environmental products. Consumer skepticism and confusion have added to the problem.

“Consumers want to do the right thing, but they have no way to know what that is,” said Norman Dean, president of Green Seal, a Washington group that will soon offer an environmental seal of approval on products that meet stringent requirements.

Only 13% of the nation’s consumers believe what companies say in advertisements and on packaging about environmental benefits of their products, according to a recent survey by the Hartman Group, a Newport Beach-based environmental consulting firm.

Last year, the Environmental Defense Fund issued a hit list of consumer product firms that it said were spewing the most misleading environmental claims in ads. Among them, it said, Procter & Gamble was misleading the public by claiming its Luvs and Pampers diapers were “compostable.” And last summer, Mobil paid California and five other states $150,000 to settle charges that it misled consumers about the biodegradability of its trash bags.

Environmentalists are wondering if this shift in consumer attitudes is temporary.

Marketers, however, are hardly stepping back from brash environmental product claims. In fact, the number of marketers that link their products to everything from preserving the rain forest to saving the ozone has never been greater. Last year, 13% of all new products sold made some sort of environmental claim, one report says.

Lever Bros.--maker of Wisk detergent--is about to unleash a trade campaign that proclaims how much the company has cut back on the plastic it uses in its bottles. But officials recognize that it will appeal to a tiny market. “There is a hard core of 10% who truly put their money where their mouths are,” said Melinda Sweet, director of environmental affairs.

One New York firm, TDI, which sells advertising space on bus sides from New York to Los Angeles, has just begun to offer a service it calls “green targeting.” It plans to sell ad space on buses that it claims travel through areas where only the most environmentally conscious consumers live.

The firm has even mapped out specific segments of the Los Angeles area where it said these environmentally conscious residents are concentrated. Among them: Burbank, Beverly Hills and Carson.

Oddly, Westwood didn’t make the cut. “Common sense would have told us to go there,” said Jodi Yegelwel, director of marketing at TDI. “But in some cases, young single people are less in tune with the environment.”

Briefly

Teleline, a Beverly Hills-based telephone promotion agency, has sold an 85% interest in itself to ad giant Saatchi & Saatchi North America. . . . The Los Angeles office of Grey Advertising has won the $5-million account for Maxicare Health Plans. . . . Fonte & Vaamonde, a Los Angeles Latino agency, has won the Spanish-language ad business for Southern California Edison. . . . Santa Ana-based Roberts, Mealer & Co. has been named ad agency for InVitro International of Irvine. . . . Gene F. Cameron, former president of BBDO/LA, has been named president of Hill, Holliday/LA. . . . Jim Smith, a British ad executive, has been named general manager of the Los Angeles office of Lord, Dentsu & Partners. . . . Pepsi is introducing a “Gotta Have It” plastic card to be used for discounts on products such as Reebok shoes and MCI calls.

Whom Do You Believe? When it comes to information about the environment, consumers are least likely to believe information that corporations supply them in advertisements, on product labels or printed packaging. The most believable information comes from universities. These findings come from a survey of 1,006 men and women of 18 years or older living in the continental United States. The random telephone survey by the Hartman Group, a Newport Beach environmental consulting firm, was completed in October, 1991. Percent who rated the following as trustworthy sources of environmental information. Universities: 51% TV / radio news: 47% Newspapers / Magazines: 46% Environmental groups: 46% Government: 23% Companies: 13%