How affective is Green Marketing?

We have all been approached with assertive messages that suggest changes in our everyday life to improve on a sustainable lifestyle. These often scream "Don't eat meat" or "turn off your engine while waiting." Sustainable awareness is increasing and it's becoming a factor of new business opportunities and expanding markets. The Journal of Marketing published a study that was conducted to research the impact of assertive communication in green marketing. The study examines how" green" messages are comprised and its efficiency toward the public.

Through three different studies including the use of Google Adwords, it examines how people react to assertive messages versus non assertive messages. For instance do we respond better to "eat less meat to help the environment!" or "Please consider vegetables, it's better for you"?

The study concluded that people with a prior interest to the subject respond better to assertive messages rather than non assertive messages. On the other hand, people with no, or less, interest in the subject are likely to feel bothered by someone telling them what to do (i.e." Eat less meat!") and therefore respond significantly better to non-assertive messages.

The key to this conclusion is that most people today are not interested in global environmental issues but the majority of green marketing messages communicate assertively. This study shows that in order to get people to react according to the objectives, organizations need to consider the public interest and construct message (assertive or not) thereafter.

(Journal of Marketing, Ann Kronrod, Amir Grinstein, & Luc Wathieu, Vol. 76, January 2012)
Journal of Marketing

Ideas that build mountains in Azerbaijan

The Danish architect Bjarke Ingels presents theories of idea and design evolution and the possibilities of using sub-ideas in new contexts.

Ingels shares tales from his career relating back to Darwin's theories of evolution and adaptability. He unveils how they shipped the statue of The Little Mermaid from Denmark to Shanghai (along with 1 million liters of Danish harbour water) and goes on explaining how they built a mountain out of a housing complex in Denmark that eventually inspired ministers of Azerbaijan. The firm was originally hired to build an urban complex on a lonely island outside the capital of Azerbaijan, that would mirror the mountain range of the landscape. The structure requires its own complex ecosystem that Ingels' team designed.

To summarize: Ideas that evolved from other ideas and found an appropriate context:

/alex

Executing Great Ideas

Frans Johansson speaks about the art of executing great ideas. It is an inspiring presentation that explains the significance of setting a mental strategy, in order to get started rather than leaving the idea on the shelf in fear of failing. The strategy consists of advice to convince yourself that your idea works, hence convincing others that it works. Further on he explains that it will most likely fail (initially) and foremost function as a guiding map of where to go next.

/alex