All the companies that have supported their policy by selling products and services based on an artificial lifestyle have not always come to play fair with their sales strategies. Keep in mind that marketing has various strategies whose sole objective is to sell products. The Greenwashing means green washing of form and refers to the bad practices that some companies carry out when presenting a product. This product is normally presented as environmentally friendly, although it really is not.
Therefore, in this article we are going to tell you how Greenwashing works, how you should recognize it and what its characteristics are.
How Greenwashing works
Not all companies use ethically and morally legal product policies. The main objective is to sell and make big money profits. Many of the companies use green marketing strategies where they sell us an idea of a product when the product does not comply with what is presented to us. It is a kind of makeup for the observer or potential client to give a false idea about something that is not really so respectful with the environment.
It is like an evolution of the traditional concept of image whitewashing where some positive cultural values of companies or institutions come into play in which many cases do not have any type of ethics and simply try to clean their image so as not to lose or regain customers.
It can be said that the Greenwashing It is understood as the induction of the public towards the error or different perception of a product, emphasizing the environmental credentials of a company, person or product when they are really irrelevant or unfounded. Simply put, companies take advantage of the immoral susceptibility of people who make responsible consumption to refer to certain services and products. These references try to reinforce the ethical and moral consistency that ends in the development of a behavior that, from the social precept, is affected. These values are usually based on sustainability and protection of the environment.
Prevention and recognition
In an effort to prevent Greenwashing, an attempt is made to warn customers and companies about the different marketing strategies that are being carried out. We are going to see some of the strategies with which some companies do Greenwashing:
- They use ambiguous language: they are usually terms or words that do not have a clear definition. For example, on many labels we find the phrase “friends of the environment”. This really has no basis whatsoever, since you cannot be a friend of the environment.
- The so-called green products are widely used in the field of cleaning cosmetics. These are companies that offer products that clean perfectly with green colors and images of nature and freshness. However, during the production and use of these products, the waters of nearby rivers are seriously polluted. In the case of cosmetics, it offers the image of perfect health, while to produce these products, large amounts of chemical components are required that pollute the environment.
- Suggestive images: we usually find some labeled with images of airplanes that leave a trail of flowers in the air. It is evident that the star is pollution and they try to camouflage it with flowers in the air.
- Irrelevant messages: We usually find many ecological attributes in many objects where it does not have any kind of relevance.
- Alluding to the best in its category: this is key. A brand or company is often declared as significantly more sustainable or green than the others from its own perspective. For example, many annual reports on companies often state that they are more sustainable or that they have polluted less than other companies.
- Act quickly. analyze the product as a whole: A clear example is the nuclear plants that are promoted as low polluting, when they actually use high risk and polluting fuels to get energy. Another case is tobacco. They try to make them look like an organic product from the land itself and use the color blue and the packs to make it look healthier.
Ways to identify Greenwashing
In many product labels they often use confusing language that includes words or phrases that allude to sustainable and environmental benefits. These languages are usually so confusing that only industry professionals can understand. Large companies may have divisions or a sub-company that meets environmental and sustainability standards.
They also use claims without scientific evidence backed by official bodies. Phrases like "could be the best product" "could be confirmed that". These phrases try to avoid all the images of polluted environments with which it is usually associated. Visual communication is the easiest way to identify Greenwashing. These are some of the recommendations to identify these types of strategies.
We are going to see some of the most classic examples of Greenwashing. The organic yogurts had to change the name, although there are still many people who have in mind that the product is healthier. This is one of the great green marketing strategies to trick our minds. Another recognized Greenwashing is McDonalds. It is a company that is increasingly accused of doing bad practices and in communication they try to sell that their raw materials are obtained from increasingly sustainable sources. In addition, they try to paint many of the restaurants green and have left aside the old red color that has always characterized them.
Another example is that of bioplastics that try to make one think that the bottles are made of organic materials. In reality they are not. In conclusion, it can be said that companies try to make a green wash using a common environmental conservation strategy to deceive the public into believing that they will buy more sustainable products. Really the human being does not stop surprising us and all this perspective must be dismantled.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about what Greenwashing is, how to recognize it and what its characteristics are.