Verified ecoproduct policy evokes confusion

Environmental marketing communications can be complex (Bernstein 1992 & Ottman 2010), and we can categorize and verify ecoproductization marketing messages in different ways. The ecological marketing arguments that the company wishes to communicate need to be chosen already in the development phase of product features.

Environmental policy in the EU gives us verified context of LCA productization. The message of the policy message means environmentally friendly product planning and the production process being an integral part of environmental marketing. However, environmental friendliness causes confusion from the perspective of environmental policy, the Nordic Consumer Ombudsmen and environmental philosophy. In place of environmental friendliness, the concept of environmentally favourable product design has been suggested, but it does not solve the damage thinking behind the concept.

The choice of strategy for environmental marketing is that both the product’s Life Cycle (LC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) have to be taken into consideration in large scale global environmental communication. This is the aim of verified official productization.

Environmental products become officially acknowledged when receiving official standards and eco-labels (European Commission 2007e, Finland’s Ministry of the Environment 2007c, figure 11). This is the generally adopted way to signal to customers that the product is also officially accepted as an environmental product. Technology oriented language means the product is any Goods or Services ISO 14024:1999, which is narrower than the marketing allowed product definition (Kotler el al. 2008).

Nowadays, in environmental product planning policy, the term ecodesign is also used and is accepted in environmental policy language. This means that products which used the ecodesign label signify an official verified ecoproduct. In this way, ecodesign is linked with LCA and damage thinking. Therefore, during product’s life cycle the negative impacts are minimised and they call this generally environmentally friendly production. In other words, product planning covers the product’s entire life cycle (Hofstetter 1998, Hofstetter et al. 2000, Hertwich et al. 2000, ISO 14040). Adding to the confusion is that environmentally friendly production planning is called design for the environment, DfE, which is used, for example, in the design of a product’s appearance (Brezet & Hemel 1997). Management for environmentally friendly product design has been proposed as an alternative environmentally favourable product design (Heiskanen et al. 2004). In this way, environmentally favourable product design means activity that broadly takes into account environmental perspectives and impacts. This term is used preferably in place of “environmentally friendly” that can even lead people to think that the product could even be good for the environment (Heiskanen et al. 2004). Environmentally favourable product design supports and strengthens the damage thinking included in ecoproductization phenomenon.

Indeed, environmental management has been adopted as a wider ecodesign concept for the working environment of ecoproducts, but the concept “ecodesign” does not self-evidently include other principles of sustainable development. In English, the concept “life cycle design”

has also been used to mean product planning that takes into consideration the product’s whole life cycle (e.g. Laurila 2007). If the concept “Life Cycle Design” (LCD) is used in marketing as a synonym for “ecodesign”, it has to include the principles of sustainable development.

Through ecodesign, the discussions have returned to the drawing board for what is meant by sustainable development and how it can be understood in the working environment of an SME. In this way, ecodesign works as a link combining DfE thinking and LCA thinking to sustainable green marketing strategy. This opens up value positions for sustainable marketing planning, and enables to investigate what kind of know-how is needed in marketing planning and what kind of products can be accepted as environmental products.

Environmental laws and regulations, the will of the enterprise’s owner to engage in ecobusiness and the customer’s will to use ecoproducts form the basis of enterprise’s working conditions, and they also direct marketing planning. “Design for Environment” (DfE) is sometimes used as a synonym for ecodesign, but it is also used to refer to a product’s certain environmental benefits, like “Design for Recycling” tai “Design for Disassembly”. These benefits are generally accepted and verifiable concrete environmental benefits to customers (figure 8). DfE can be seen as a sub-concept to ecodesign (Simon et al. 1998).

Figure 8. Chaining of ecoproduct characteristics attempts to strengthen the product image.

Technology-orientation communications can be seen in generally accepted environmental labels, and for instance, the generally approved colour for ecoproducts is green. However, different databases could be easily accessible for SMEs and provide them with information about sustainable management systems, certificates and other relevant information (e.g. LCA).

This kind of information can be seen as an official guideline for the development of green products. They do not provide answers to all the questions, but they do provide some idea about what issues should be considered when developing such products. Small enterprises can acquire this information from the internet, books and articles. It is important that the entrepreneur decides what kind of information and skills are needed in developing green products. An increasing number of companies are considering eco-efficiency and “green”

issues as a major source of strategic change. The society, the governments and a wide set of company stakeholders are aware of the environmental un-sustainability of the company’s activities, owing to the scarcity of natural resources and the continuous growth of resource consumption. The costs associated with environmental management force many firms to certify their environmental management system according to a regulatory scheme such as EMAS (Eco Management and Audit Scheme). The EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme is a management tool for companies and other organizations to evaluate report and improve their environmental performance. The schemes have been available for companies to use since 1995 (European Commission 2007d/EMAS portal).

Global ecoproductization focuses on the improvements of singular factors such as use of water or energy. Design for environment, which is based on LCA, is used in demonstrating this type of action in marketing argumentation. The goal of this is to create more responsibility and trustworthiness of the product and its marketing, and it shows in product innovations as well as ecological communication (Lewis et al. 2001.) European Union research programs on

the subject have been made from the DfE viewpoint, which is linked to ecodesign (Ferrendier et al. 2002). The same technology based phenomenon is also apparent elsewhere in the world (Simon et al. 1998). For example, in New Zealand, the merino industry has been studied from the point of view of eco-benchmarking. In another study, results tested the suitability of different eco-accreditation schemes for the industry (Merino New Zealand Inc. 2005) and merino wool life cycle analysis findings are published from energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions (Barber & Pellow 2006).

By comparing different eco-accreditation schemes (e.g. EMAS and organic standards), it is possible to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the schemes and determine the shortcomings of the industry against practices in different countries. It is then possible to further develop practices and gain competitive advantage. Comparison can also be used when defining the environmental features of a product and its production process. In New Zealand, merino industry LCA-analysis was used for this purpose, to create validity for environmental claims and to be able to compare the product’s impacts on the environment (merino wool) to those of different products (e.g. nylon). By using comparison of measures, it is possible to define the best practices and find gaps in production processes that can be filled.

Although knowledge and practice in product design and ecodesign are quite advanced, there are still gaps (Tukker & Tischner 2006:101-102): Integration of social aspects is still very difficult. Practicable indicators and tools covering social and ethical aspects and the routines for integration into design and development are missing. Most of the ecodesign tools and methods are for large companies and they do most of the ecodesign activities. It is necessary to translate the methods and tools and adapt them to the specific needs of medium-sized and small enterprises, which make up almost 90% of business. Attention to the soft factors of sustainable design and ecodesign such as aesthetics, product semantics, cultural aspects, consumer behaviour and preferences.

The language and principles behind LCA differ from language and principles of sustainable green marketing. Life cycle assessment thinking focuses on damage thinking and therefore cannot be used in marketing per se. LCA has a strong position in verifying marketing arguments officially among authorities, but SMEs have difficulties in using it. LCA is often attached to green marketing and its features are used in industrial organisations in the productization processes and in building images of the enterprises and product. LCA thinking is part of the so-called second generation green marketing in creating credibility for the ecoproduct and is a basis for building green brands and labels and benchmarking (Linnainen et al. 1999:214, Merino New Zealand Inc. 2005).

Percy and Elliot (2005:95) offer marketing communications, a five-step decision making model, which is essential to identify the impact of communications such as sales growth and the effects of the target group, with the client, a phased decision making. These steps are necessary to inspire options for exploration and evaluation of the selected option of buying and using the product purchased. Phases can be used to search the place, the channel, where the target groups and channels may vary according to stages. In addition to marketing, communications should provide the decision-making in different stages of communications in the right place.

The differentiation of business or part of it as ecological is important in positioning (Fuller 1999), because the marketing of ecological products encounters the chaining of matters in

different operational environments. Chaining forms subject environments where the SME products are improved and gain natural features that may, for instance, be utilised in making marketing arguments for a product. This affects the goals the entrepreneur sets on ecological business. The enterprise’s values depend on the entrepreneur’s own will and ability to localise the enterprise in an environment of changing values.