We all know that unless we want the planet to turn into Kevin Costner’s Waterworld, we should be consuming less.
However, sometimes the green agenda can prove to be a bit of a troubling concept for marketers. After all, our traditional role has been to sell people stuff they didn’t know they needed, and preferably as much of it as possible.
So what can marketers do to reconcile their conscience with the need to make some cash?
Inspiration comes from IBM, Nokia, Streetcar, IKEA and howies…
Unlike many other sectors, the home gardening industry has had a great start to 2009, with strong demand meaning mail-order companies have run out of seeds for basic vegetables such as onions, tomatoes and peppers.
Most commentators put the upsurge in home gardening purely down to the need to cut back on spending. However, focusing just on these ‘push’ factors risks missing out on another trend to emerge from the economic downturn: a renewed desire to create, not just consume.
If you were to believe the hype, you would think we were all so busy fretting about the global economic apocalypse that we wouldn’t have time for frivolous things like redecorating.
The economic downturn may have supressed our willingness to spend with such abandon, but it hasn’t completely erased our creative aspirations. It might be easy for brands to use the economic downturn as an excuse to get lazy and focus purely on cost, however, they do so at their peril.
One brand that recognises this better than most is IKEA…
