Communicating sustainability to the customer

Do you communicate your sustainability* goals to your customer? Which information do you tell them? And how? 
In this article I am going to give you my view on how to communicate about sustainability to your customer.

In January I wrote an article about the way consumers perceive products made with recycled material. It became clear that recycled content is not the first reason why customers buy a product. Which didn’t come as a surprise. There are many more studies that demonstrate sustainability is a nice added value, but not THE reason to buy. However it might make a choice easier between a non-sustainable and sustainable similar product if the customer knows which one is more sustainable.

Most important product aspects
The most important aspects of a product are looks, functionality, quality and price. You need to make something your user likes on these aspects. Maybe even together with the user. Having a good story is important, but it must be a true story. Sustainability as a unique selling point is a difficult one, especially if you want to build a company that lasts. Let me explain:

When sustainability is in your heart, you hope every product/service and way of living is in balance with the earth. You want it to be normal. Sustainability could be part of quality and products/services that are not sustainable do not have good quality. So maybe it is time to act as if sustainability is normal and find a different unique selling point: a reason why people would love to buy your service or product. 

What to communicate about sustainability?

Do not use sustainability referrals in your company- or product names, like “eco” “fair” or “green” (which is actually a colour).

Hang a label/hangtag on your item that explains in a few words the added value of your item for human & environment. Just a few words, if people are interested they go to your website.

When not all of your products are sustainable because you choose to go in depth with a few items and not to improve your whole range step-by-step: you might consider adding an extra category. For example: bags, cushions, t-shirts, trousers, sustainable items. And add your sustainable bag into both categories. Although I recommend you to integrate sustainability in your core business and see it as improving the quality of your products and services.

Make one page on your website that tells why you think sustainability is important, what your goals are and how far you are at the moment. Keep it up-to-date. Transparency is important to be trusted.

You could make a wiki page with information about sustainability in a broader sense and refer to that page on your website. A wiki page could be shared with multiple organisations. 

Give each sustainable product a short tag. If a customer has to choose between a similar product and sustainable item, it is likely to choose the sustainable one. 

The tag can be a link to your sustainability page. When a customer is interested he will click on the tag and will go to your sustainability page for more information. 

When you have a search function on your website add a search option for sustainable products. Those customers who are interested in sustainability will be able to find it easily.

Do you need help with your communication?
These experts could help you:

www.christinealgera.nl
Helps you with formulating your goals and information into a great story for your customers.    

www.katcom.nl
When you have a great story but you’re looking for the right way to bring your content to your customers.

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* the word 'sustainability' could be replaced by 'eco-effectivity', but most people are used to the word sustainable, which is the reason I choose to work with 'sustainability' for this article.