Have you ever Honest & effective believed them, toothpaste commercials? Brush your teeth once and you have sparkling white teeth. Or the commercials for cleaning products. One swipe over the counter and voilà: the entire kitchen shines at you. Nobody believes that. And yet we still throw our favorite brand of toothpaste in our shopping cart.
The time for this kind of advertising is over, dear communication people. The consumer has become super critical of all our expressions. Especially when it comes to sustainability. After all, greenwashing can come around the corner at any moment. As a consumer, you have just spent your hard-earned euros on a sustainable product, and it turns out that the producer has fooled you. Not cool. In the book ‘ Speak up now! ‘ (affiliate), Wim Vermeulen talks about the challenges and opportunities for the business community. And how to do that, communicating about your sustainable initiatives.
Speak up now, business community
What turns out? Consumers look to the business community to take sustainable initiatives. They expect action from that corner. Not from the government. The government is too slow and does not take enough action. Of course, companies have been the place where innovation takes place over time. So it makes sense that consumers see it that way.
So now grab this responsibility. And these opportunities.
So, how do you communicate about sustainability?
First of all, you follow the guidelines of the ACM, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets:
Your claims must be clear, specific and complete
Be factual and current
Make fair comparisons with other products or competitors
Be specific and measurable
Ensure visual claims and quality marks are helpful
The authorities in the United Kingdom have added another rule to that: if you make sustainability claims, they must be about the entire life cycle of your product or service. So chain responsibility. That is an interesting addition, because it makes your responsibility and therefore your communication a lot more difficult.
Chain responsibility
As a company, you need to know how sustainable your entire production chain is. Not just the chain that you produce yourself, but also the raw materials or ingredients that you purchase. How climate-friendly are these produced? And how are the employees treated in these chains?
Another important link: the consumer. How environmentally friendly is the use or consumption of your products? Quite a challenge. But one that the business community must take on. Because who else will do it?
Credible communication
What requirements must sustainable initiatives and expressions meet in order to be believed? These are the values, ranked in order of importance:
Also read: A big pill: 3 tips to make serbia email list 543010 contact leads communication about sustainability manageable
Honesty
Dedication
Urgency
Shared values
Clarity through details
1. Honesty
What is being communicated? Does the customer find want to increase your webshop’s turnover? get started with product bundles it fair? It is about the customer’s perception. Not whether you, the board or the sales team find it fair.
2. Dedication
How well do you, as an organization, demonstrate that you are committed to a good cause?
3. Urgency
Do you as an organization understand the urgency of the climate crisis? Consumers feel that we are too late when it comes to the climate crisis. Politicians are not making decisions or they are too late. Consumers want to know that a company sees the urgency and that they are acting on it. This coincides with the role that consumers see for aob directory business: taking social leadership.
4. Shared values
Consumers are well aware of the actions that industries are taking to solve the climate problem.