Arnold on ethical marketing

CHRIS ARNOLD

Organic food sales have slumped, no surprise in a recession. Firstly organics are bought by many because they see them as quality and tasting better rather than planet saving (sorry my green friends but that’s the way it is). The real problem is greed, the supermarkets have been over pricing organics for too long and given the recession they are first on the list of cutbacks.

As an ad on LBC suggests, when people are worried about their jobs, savings and their home, trying to convince them they need to worry about the planet is a non starter.

Yeo Valley, Tesco, Green & Blacks and a few others have been reported to be considering pooling budget together to run an ad campaign through the Organic Trade Board to try and reverse flagging sales. The solution is simple, stop supermarkets over charging. I was called up by the BBC last week to comment on this, “did I think an ad campaign would reverse sales”. “No “ I said.

Yes it could maybe if the strategy was dead right, the supermarkets played ball and the media plan was right. But history tells you that these brands will end up at the wrong agency (they’ll go for a safe big name), get the wrong advice, a bland media plan and spend their money the wrong way. Cynical maybe, but there are so many badly marketed green campaigns about, just look at Stella (all my green friends think it’s a cynical campaign).

An interesting point, in the survey we carried out into ethical buying of supermarket products (full details and results in the book Ethical Marketing & the New Consumer) most people didn’t recognise the organics symbol. Well it is terrible, the Soil Association really needs to have it redesigned, the Tesco’s one is far better.

However, green cleaning products are suffering, the only exception being recycled paper kitchen towels (well they are cheaper than posh ones). The cause is price slashing. Consumers are faced with a dilemma, save money of save the planet… umm… she thinks… save money. This is not helped by the fact that some green cleaners don’t clean as well. Again this all comes down to the same factor, greedy supermarkets charging too much.

Green legislation is a big worry for supermarkets, especially when it comes to plastic bags. Of course no one wants knee jerk legislation from ill informed politicians, more interested in saving face than saving the planet. Packaging is still high on the agenda and challenges many brands. Kerrygold is leading the food field with massive savings on packaging, over 90 tonnes annually. But Britvic’s J20 outdoes Kerrygold as it is launching a lighter bottle that could result in a saving of  4,000 tonnes, a 10% reduction on 40,000 tonnes of glass it produces.

Whereas organics may be suffering local isn’t. Groups like Spar have seen a 5.2% rise in sales. However, this is not enough, the Federation of Wholesale Distributors has been trying to get people to shop local by dumping the car. The ‘My Shop Is Your Shop’ campaign is a good idea but the cheesy title feels like it was dreamt up in a PR agency.