Important New Shades of Green, Part 2

In our last post, we outlined some new shades of green.  Here are five more, and they  have something in common.  They all reflect the new ways that people become green.  As the green wave sweeps through the media, school system and culture, it touches "mainstream" people who were mostly missed before.   (I've coined the names.)

Go-Along Greens — Followers (social conformers) who adopt green values as it becomes the thing to do.  Go-along greens are not driven by deep thought or deep feeling, don't usually have a deep awareness, and are not deeply committed.  However, as long as the culture goes green, the go-alongs will go green too.  Be glad they do!

Indoctrinated Greens — Young people growing up green because they are taught green in school.  More and more, teachers and schools are going green, from kindergarten on up.  And the earlier green is encountered, the more it is taken for granted, just like multiplication tables — which in the age of calculators may not be taken for granted at all!  Indoctrinated greens may be passive or passionate, shallow or deep, but they believe.

Pressured-Parent Greens — Try staying comfortably basic brown when your kids are indoctrinated green!  This time, youth's righteous rebellion has right on its side.  Indignation and logic are a powerful combination.  Rather than resist, a whole generation of parents is retrofitting its attitudes to reality, thanks to this new children's crusade.  That's not to say the parents aren't thinking for themselves.  Many are.  But it's often their kids who force them to confront green issues.

Newly-Converted Greens — The newly converted — to anything — are often the most fervent believers, and the green wave is leaving huge numbers of newly converted greens in its wake.  Green old-timers have been doggedly fighting global warming since the early 80s.  The newly converted hear that the planet is roasting and exclaim, "Something's got to be done!"

Global-Warming Greens (or Climate-Change Greens) — These are basically single-issue greens.  The world is confronted by a host of complex, interrelated environmental, cultural and social-justice issues, but the media has locked onto climate change as the one to talk about now.  It's a good choice — arguably the most urgent — but this narrow focus tends to miss the complexity of the situation and the need for whole-system solutions.  Still, global-warming greens are a significant, vital component of the green population and marketplace.

It's clear that the many shades of green — both classic and recent — are not sharply distinct.  Some overlap conceptually, and even when they don't, a given individual may show two or more shades at once.  Still, each shade is an important component of the green landscape, a nuance which green marketers can't afford to ignore

In our next post we'll explore even more.

Keith Borden, Consultant
Brilliant Green Marketing