ABSTRACT
Communicating environmental and social initiatives with authenticity and impact can help establish one’s brand in the vanguard of this important trend. With stakeholders of all types – employees, investors, and consumers among them – wanting to know about the sustainability of products at every phase of their life-cycles, communicating the environmental and social advantages of one’s brands is now critical to running a well-managed business. Although there are many opportunities associated with communicating one’s sustainability initiatives, challenges abound – and not communicating one’s environmentally and socially oriented product and corporate initiatives may be riskier. Sustainability-oriented marketing communications targeted to mainstream consumers work best when they address the new rules of green marketing head on. In selecting the right consumer to target, keep in mind the complexity of green consumer segments. Just as there are many different types of green consumers, there are many different kinds of environmental and social issues of concern.
