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Eco-friendly promotional product sellers see a boost in their niche, but they still face challenges
By LaShell Stratton
Green promotional products are made of materials that were either recycled or produced with environmentally friendly substances such as soy-based inks or cotton grown without pesticides or other harmful chemicals. Green companies focus on sustainable business practices that give equal emphasis to economic considerations, the environment and social responsibility.
Green promotional products can also include apparel. Hats and jackets made with recycled fleece are one of many Weisenbach Specialty Printing’s product offerings.
Access Eco, Long Beach, Calif., has produced many eco-friendly or green products for clients. They include flower seed paper invites that can be planted by recipients, soy ink giveaway pens and organic lip balm that contains no petroleum products.
When everyone from the Union of Concerned Scientists to J.D. Power & Associates consistently ranks your cars as one of the most fuel efficient and eco-friendly, it’s important to maintain your “green” image in the marketplace. So when Honda Motor Company wanted to send invitations for the opening of a new eco-friendly designed facility, it didn’t use a traditional printer.
“We did the invitations on a hand-made, tree-free paper embedded with wildflower seeds,” says Jim King, co-founder of Access Eco, a green promotional products and print distributor in Long Beach, Calif. The invitation recipients can plant Honda’s seed paper and watch it bloom into wildflowers.
This type of marketing technique caters to many American consumers who studies show are becoming more eco-conscious, no longer squinting in confusion at phrases like “global warming” and “greenhouse gas emissions.” And many mainstream businesses have taken notice of this trend.
“There are lots of examples of companies trying to present a greener image,” says Gwynne Rogers, Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) business director at The Natural Marketing Institute in Harleysville, Pa. “You have Wal-Mart and Home Depot, for example. They’re trying to become greener.”
Wal-Mart now heavily pushes products like compact fluorescent bulbs and organic foods. It will also open green Wal-Mart centers that will have solar panels embedded in their skylights, capture and reuse run-off water and use burned waste oil from the garage and food-service areas in a radiant floor-heating system. In April, Home Depot announced that it launched an “Eco Options” program nationwide and would begin offering more than 2,500 eco-friendly products at its stores.
“A lot of companies are trying to figure out what this could potentially mean for them,” Rogers says. “It’s no longer just niche brands doing this like it was five to 10 years ago. When you have the first and second top retailers in the country focusing on sustainability, it’s bound to have an effect on the marketplace.”
Eco-Boom or Market Fluctuation?
Some green promotional products sellers say they see that effect in their business. Customers who may not have bought promotional products made of recycled materials, organic cotton or hemp a few years ago do so now.
“Ever since Leonardo DiCaprio said [in February], ‘The Oscars are going green,’ we’ve had marketing firms and agencies contacting us who probably wouldn’t have before because their clients want to go green too,” King says. “When a celebrity like that says something, people take notice.” King says Access Eco also has been contacted by other distributors who want to find out more about green promotional products and where to buy them.
Dan Weisenbach, president of Weisenbach Specialty Printing, a green promo products manufacturer in Columbus, Ohio, says he’s seen an increase in the green promo products business, but he suspects it may have more to do with market fluctuations than a sustained upward trend. “Right now there’s a lot of interest but as business expenses become tighter and when there are downturns like there was after 9-11, companies have higher priorities than green products,” Weisenbach says. “But it’s definitely doing well now. I haven’t seen this much activity since the early ‘90s.”
“In many cases, we’ll make less of a profit than the other guys. But we don’t transfer the cost to the customer,” he says. “It can mean driving less expensive cars but there’s much more to our work life than how much money we’re making.”
Dan Weisenbach, President
Weisenbach Specialty Printing, Columbus, Ohio
King says in addition to consistent growth in his green promo products business, he’s noticed that the knowledge level of his clients is increasing. “We have hemp fabric products,” King explains. “In the past, when we used a word like ‘hemp,’ we would get a little giggle but now customers understand the difference between ‘hemp’ and [its plant species cousin] marijuana.”
And part of this may be due to the changing habits of American consumers. Rogers says LOHAS conducts annual trend surveys that focus on the consumer marketplace, specifically in green areas such as the buying of hybrid cars and organic foods. Each year respondents to the survey are broken down into groups with varying green buying habits. At one end of the spectrum are the LOHAS consumers that buy green products exclusively. At the other end are the “unconcerned” consumers who have no interest in green products or environmental and health issues. “We see that the LOHAS consumer segment is stable,” Rogers says.” But the percentage of ‘unconcerned’ consumers is decreasing sharply. “It went from 21 percent in 2005 to only 14 percent in 2006,” Rogers says. (A more extensive discussion of the LOHAS study can be found in the sidebar, “The Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability Study” on p. 36.)
The Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability Study
Signs point to changing marketing place on the eco-friendly front
Every year The Natural Marketing Institute conducts a Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) survey to gauge the green and health interests and buying habits of consumers. “We survey 2000+ respondents,” says Gwynne Rogers, LOHAS business director at the Institute. The respondents are broken down into five groups (percentages were rounded to the nearest decimal point.)
1) The Green consumers or the LOHAS audience, which currently accounts for 16 percent of the American public. “They were responsible for environmental products and organic foods going mainstream,” Rogers says. “They are the most likely consumers to buy these types of products and there’s less of a cost consideration for them. They are an advertiser’s dream.”
2) The naturalites, which are 25 percent of the population. “They have above average interest in the environment and society, and are very conscious of their health,” she says.
3) The drifters, which are 23 percent of the population. “They may express environmental or health interest but they don’t reflect that in their behavior,” she says.
4) The conventionals, which are also 23 percent of the population. “They demonstrate civic-minded behavior but they may be more motivated by personal interest than the planet itself,” Rogers says. She gave the example of how a higher electric bill could lead to a conventional changing his or her energy consumption habits.
5) The unconcerned are 14 percent of the population. They have no concern for environmental issues and don’t let it affect their buying habits.
“We see the LOHAS consumer segment is stable. But where we see growth is through the middle three groups,” Rogers says. She has also noticed a decline of the unconcerned from 21 percent of the population in 2005 to 14 percent in 2006.
To find out more about The Natural Marketing Institute reports, go to http://www.nmisolutions.com/reports.html.
The Realities of Green Business
“Ever since Leonardo DiCaprio said [in February], ‘The Oscars are going green,’ we’ve had marketing firms and agencies contacting us who probably wouldn’t have before because their clients want to go green too. When a celebrity like that says something, people take notice.”
Jim King, Co-Founder Access Eco, Long Beach, Calif.
Now that the green promo products market is showing strong potential, many distributors may want to consider adding these products to their arsenal. But the environmental pros offer a few warnings and words of advice for anyone planning to do so.
First, these products often cost more than other promotional products. “In many cases, we’ll make less profit than the other guys,” says Weisenbach, whose company’s bestseller is its patented, fitted funnels made from post-consumer automotive battery casings. “But we don’t transfer the cost to the customer,” he says. “It can mean driving less expensive cars, but there’s much more to our work life than how much money we’re making.”
The higher costs can be due to the organic materials or manufacturing processes. From the distributor’s perspective, it can be due to the limited number of manufacturers that fall under the green umbrella.
Another thing to consider before getting into the green market is that green promo products have a limited range of offerings. “We’re limited because we’re eco-friendly,” says King. “A lot of the knick knacks you might find with other promo product sellers like lighters or little clocks, we can’t make. Sometimes, you have to explain to customers why you can’t do something, but also why it’s still a better choice for the environment.” King gives the example of clients who may want to order organic cotton T-shirts with screen-printed logos in bright yellows or light pinks. “But those bright colors are made with synthetic-oil based inks,” he says. Instead he encourages customers to think of T-shirts printed in greens, browns and reds that can be produced with soy inks. “They should shoot for more earthy tones,” King says. “Unfortunately, the eco-friendly way tends to produce less spectacular colors.”
Weisenbach also says that distributors who consider getting into the green promo market should educate themselves about eco-issues and learn the terminology. “It may take hours, days, months, maybe even years to learn everything that’s involved,” he says. He gave the example of knowing the difference between “recycled” versus “recyclable.” “These are not interchangeable, but I hear them used interchangeably all the time,” he says. “Don’t use those words in your marketing material unless you fully understand what they mean.” (A short glossary of green terms can be found on page 34.)
But for those companies that have been selling green promo products for decades, it’s all worth the effort and the sacrifice.
“If a company is just concerned with making money, it will fail in the green promo products world,” Weisenbach says. (His company has been in business for 26 years.) “There has to be a triple bottom line: your people, your profits and the planet. The goal of our company is to provide for our employees and we have to profit to be sustainable, but we also have to help the environment. Without all those components, you’re really missing the point.”
The Green Business Glossary
Biodegradable – (adj.) when products can be broken down by micro-organisms through composting or anaerobic (oxygen-free) digestion.
Carbon neutral – (adj. also known as “carbon net-zero.”) when an individual or organization offsets its net carbon emissions by investing in resources that absorb greenhouse gases. For example, a facility might pay to have trees planted to offset carbon dioxide or methane it may have emitted during its production processes.
Organic – (adj.) products created through a system of farming that maintains and replenishes soil fertility without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers. According to the Organic Trade Association, organic growers and handlers must be certified by third-party state or private agencies or other organizations that are accredited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Recycled – (adj.) a product made through the reuse of other materials that may have undergone a physical, biochemical or molecular change.
Recyclable – (n. also referred to as “recyclable material” or “recyclate”) materials that can be reused. They include glass, paper, aluminum, asphalt, iron, textiles, plastics and biodegradable waste.
Tree-free – (adj.) paper products that are not made from bleached wood pulp, but from recycled, post-consumer waste (like previously used paper) combined with substances such as industrial hemp or organic cotton.
Triple Bottom Line – (n. also known as “TBL”, “3BL” and “People, Planet, Profit”) A spectrum of factors a business can consider when determining its success. It includes social (people), environmental (planet) and economic (profit) considerations. The phrase was coined in 1994 by John Elkington, co-founder of SustainAbility Ltd., an international consultancy and think-tank dedicated to promoting the business case for sustainable development.
LaShell Stratton is assistant editor at Print Solutions magazine. Email comments to lstratton@PSDA.org.