A good neighbor sent me the attached article after we had enjoyed an evening putting the world of marketing to rights over an excellent meal of chicken that had been advertised naively as 'grass-fed'. We both live deep in a forest and conduct our businesses with the aid of new technology - we both want to walk our talk.
'Deflating a Myth: consumers aren't as devoted to the planet as you wish they were', Mark Dolliver, May 12, 2008 on AdWeek.com Download deflating_a_myth.pdf
I've been learning a lot about 'green marketing' recently and what that means from the varying points of view of consumers, companies, marketing professionals, and those in the business of providing information resources to niche groups. My particular interest is in how this relates to the spa world but it runs deeper.
Here, I want to explore what supports the need to go green, why I'd like to see it become a primary consideration rather than a 'selling point', and what it might take for green to be taken for granted as a sustaining and sustainable way of making a living and doing business.
One of the important points made in 'Deflating a Myth' is that consumers have very high expectations of companies, perhaps far exceeding the expectations they have of themselves. I wondered: Are we asking for leadership or passing the buck? Are we all ready to pull together now?
Some have suggested that a crisis such as a recession or a natural disaster (we've had both) is the only thing that will slow down rampant materialism - a case of dire necessity rather than willing choice. Yet human motivation is a complex thing and marketing people especially know that it is built on dreams.
It follows that what is needed is a shared and compelling dream. No doubt that was the inspiration for the naming of the consumer-oriented New American Dream, and for the many other grass-roots groups now turning their hopeful faces to the longed-for light of the recent change in the American administration.
It's a dream that needs to have a global outreach since our collective future is a planetary issue. But it's reasonable to start with something immediately visible and feasible, to experience it as a positive shift in our own lives.
To do that, we have to be honest about our selves and our future; to get personal.
In 2004, a friend helped launch an organization called BeTheChange (UK) which recognizes this need for a new world view. Their symposium training aims to explore how, 'by pulling together on an unprecedented scale, we can move in a new direction, towards an era of interconnected action and collective wellbeing'.
It's a joint effort that aims to leave no-one out in the cold and to gently dismantle the walls that separate people into 'them' and 'us' - rich/ poor, consumer/ company, government/ people, old/ young, educated/ uneducated, ad infinitum. This is how BeTheChange sees the problem we face:
It has become clear that our political and commercial institutions are unable to effectively address this crisis, primarily because they don't realize that they are looking at an interconnected world through a fragmented lens.
The villain here is not Big Business, the corporate media, the military-industrial complex, or even those who for personal profit seek to clearcut our forests, overfish our oceans, pollute our atmosphere or drain our aquifers.
The villain is an outmoded worldview - a way of seeing the world in which such unthinkable acts appear reasonable, sensible, and even intelligent.
This month BeTheChange took part in a think-tank at Schumacher College, which has made 'sustainability' a central theme of its courses and is currently running a program for entrepreneurs that asks: 'Do you want ethical considerations to come before, not after profit?'
The new dream or new world-view must take root in our hearts and not just our heads, something that HeartMath's recently launched Global Consciousness Initiative endeavors to translate from their well-received corporate and educational tools for personal stress reduction into a daring global affect.
They are 'building personal heart coherence and helping create a global coherence wave that is going out to international crises, severe environmental problem areas and especially to the millions of people and many nations experiencing stress from the current global financial troubles'.
HeartMath has been bringing scientific credibility to the value inherent in heart intelligence and subtle energy. So is the Institute of Noetics in its work of 'advancing the science of consciousness and human experience to serve individual and collective transformation'.
This compares and contrasts with the controversial claims by Masaru Emoto that human thoughts, music or written words have a positive effect on polluted or devitalized water. Emoto's work has been labelled as pseudoscience but it spawned an impressive array of health products.
(It also inspired me to approach the aquatic therapy I practice differently, which I still appreciate. And the idea that people gathered around a dirty lake in Kansas City a few years ago, could have improved its health with their focused prayers was something I did hope were possible.)
There is a warning in this for green+health-related businesses of which the spa industry is a strong example. When I started out in this field Dr Pietroni impressed me with this phrase 'don't keep such an open mind that your brains fall out'. One of the first to incorporate alternatives into general practice in the UK, his views were ones I could respect as being balanced.
It's important to be aware of the risks when we suspend our judgment about what is real and valid. If there is a price to be paid, then it is good to look closer. 'What is truly fearsome', writes Kristopher Setchfield, on Emoto's work 'is the great numbers of people that accept his words as proven facts without looking deeper to find out if his claims are truly justified.' But let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.
I'm inclined to look to the non-profits for a good dream and to look carefully at anyone capitalizing on their findings. The Fetzer Institute says 'our mission to foster awareness of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global community, rests on our conviction that efforts to address the world's critical issues must go beyond political, social, and economic strategies to their psychological and spiritual roots'.
For me, the new dream has its roots in the earth rather than the cityscape; in a preliminary study designed to evaluate the effect of 'daily spiritual experience on health' from the Fetzer Institute (L. Underwood, 2002), the highest value across US populations and age groups was accorded to a sense of connection with nature. They were looking for scientific ways to give recognition to these difficult-to-define aspects of health.
The search for a simpler life in tune with the rhythms of nature is evident in the popularity of spiritual practices - from Taoism to Shamanism - that include embodying, not just transcending, our experiences. These seekers are not yearning for paradise lost but engaged in a soulful marrying of inner and outer life. It's not something you can read about - you have to step out of your front door.
Animas Valley Institute, for example, aims to 'contribute to radical cultural change and global transformation by fostering nature-based personal development and thus the maturation of individuals and the human species', enabling someone 'to access and embody the world-changing and vital creativity at his or her core'. They do this in what is left of the wilderness.
Meanwhile, new technology spawned by the Internet has enabled the connectivity that many of the above organizations allude to, promote, and depend upon to flourish. It has also given individuals from varying backgrounds a hearing, and allowed a growing band of freelancers to work from their homes or on the move.
All these examples are showing the uprising of a group that Dr Paul Ray gave the powerful label 'Cultural Creatives'. Essentially they're comprised of people who have participated in the social and consciousness movements that have emerged since the Second World War when values and freedom were so threatened.
The civil rights movement, the environmental movement, the women’s movement, the jobs and social justice movements, the peace movement, the organic food and alternative health care movements, the new spirituality and self growth movements, all coming together to develop a more inclusive value system.
What characterizes Cultural Creatives is that they are both inner-directed and socially concerned. It's been suggested that they are developing the spiritual and psychological depth as well as the maturity needed for a new culture. They are also noticeably entrepreneurial and creative.
It is claimed that this group now accounts for over 50 million adults in the United States, substantially outnumbering social and financial conservatives. Cultural Creatives are even more numerous in Europe, and are growing in numbers around the world. They don't always identify themselves as being a force of change.
It is this group that gave rise to the concept of the 'Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability' (or LOHAS) market but they are much more than a market. As well as being the founders and leaders of green and socially responsible businesses, they are involved in many non-government and non-profit organizations.
The Natural Marketing Institute is an example of a consulting, market research, and business development company specializing in the health and wellness marketplace. They say they 'focus on the well-being of people and products, and the environmentally and socially responsible sustainability of the planet'.
A new breed of middle-people (Web marketers) is flourishing through the use of New Media. These e-business professionals insist that success depends on freely share your knowledge and demonstrating your authenticity without blatantly promoting yourself or your wares. The difference between copyright (original works) and copywriting (what sells) is being blurred in a way some find alarming.
This e-advice seems to be directed mostly to the small venture entrepreneur who has big dreams. It remains to be seen whether this dreamer, should he or she succeed, maintains their integrity and openness in the face of that promised success. It's reasonable to ask what the new definition of success is.
For a good number it does still seem to be wealth, although the word might have been changed to 'abundance' and the way in which you acquire it is dependent on intangibles such as described in the popular films The Secret and What the Bleep. Everyone can be 'rich and free' is the message, or is it?
The language used can often be very seductive: 'We are creating one million conscious entrepreneurs worldwide who are successful and whole so they can make a difference in the world.' BrandU®, Unified Conscious Development™ and Whole Wealth® .
Or this from one young and very successful e-guru: 'Zero to One Million is my effort to share my message of entrepreneurial possibility and social change, help anyone (who believes they truly can be) become a multimillionaire entrepreneur.'
This is an appeal to the dream, and it does have an element of sharing to it that might retrieve it from the elitist realms of self-interest couched in a language of unconditional love. What would you do if you had a million or more hard-earned dollars?
As the writer of another report on AdWeek.com, Joan Voight (14 Jan. 2008: Q&A Faith Popcorn) says to strategists and marketing leaders: 'Get up from your desk and the Internet and go out in the world, see what is out there and learn what people are feeling. Then you will be able to grasp these changes [in business] faster.'
People want to be heard - as the burgeoning blogging movement indicates. From Facebook to Gaia, from LinkedIn to the Idealist, individuals are creating a host of profiles for themselves. These are not just platforms for the monikers (online names) of bored, lonely, or unfulfilled people.
Many of those profiles blur the lines between individuals and their livelihoods. They have the potential to bring together how we live and what we do for our livings in a way that is far more open than ever before. Obviously, this will depend on what form that openness takes and whether it is backed by positive values.
Some interesting self-policing standards exist in many of these online social networks. It's a trend that contrasts sharply with the way in which a few corporations earned a great deal of suspicion by hiding behind the artificial legal status of being individuals in order to avoid accountability for their actions.
In a recently produced (co-created with multiple users) handbook for the micro-blogging tool called 'Twitter', the language of the future is distinctly revolutionary. Even though I've heard this arena described as serving the 'ADHD generation', it's an interesting call to immediacy and connectivity. And also responsibility.
The subheading for the handbook is 'How social media and mobile marketing are changing the way we do business and online marketing'. It goes on: 'The tidal wave of cultural transformation is not coming - it has already hit....
'Since this reformation of the market place is being powered by the New Media, it looks like it's all about technology.... [but it's] about people, participation and persuasion.' I admit that I have found the 'tweets' by which the users of this tool communicate can appear superficial but there is a noticeable dynamism to it.
Just as with the 'Give thanks seeds' that members of Gaia can share, these 'tweets' seem to be defining a new language or code for quick connectivity. Gaians and Tweeple (people on Twitter) reveal themselves and sometimes meet in person too. They form their own opinions and share them unedited and quite fearlessly.
The New Media revolutionary can spread positive and negative 'approvals' like wildfire across his or her network. Of course, the proof of all this high-energy high-tech 'chatting' will be in what actions actually arise from it. There are some positive examples:
The Idealist, a project of Action without Borders, has grown into an interactive site where:
'... people and organizations can exchange resources and ideas, locate opportunities and supporters, and take steps toward 'building a world where all people can lead free and dignified lives'.
Another social action network is Change which aims to support and advise the new American administration. They say this:
'Today as citizens of the world, we face a daunting array of social and environmental problems ranging from health care and education to global warming and economic inequality. For each of these issues, whether local or global in scope, there are millions of people who care passionately about working for change but lack the information and opportunities necessary to translate their interest into effective action.
'Change.org aims to address this need by serving as the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time.'
There are countless other online social networks - created easily and at no cost by anyone who sees a need - that serve professionals in all fields (for example, I currently moderate one for Aquatic Therapists) and provide a virtual coffee room in which work-related and personal aspirations can merge.
All these networks are enabling participation at an unprecedented level, though exactly what they are participating in is still a bit nebulous. I think the main thing is that they are loosening old paradigms in a way that offers a great deal of potential. Perhaps it's a 'chaos as opportunity for change' equation.
Consider my title: 'Aspiring to a dream' after 'Deflating a myth', with regard to the issue of green marketing, as the breath in after the breath out. We just have to choose what kind of air we want to breathe - air that is stale with failure or the air of fresh ideas.
The author of 'Deflating a Myth' asks if the 'green marketing boom has reached mainstream and is no longer any different than other trendy marketing messages'. My own preliminary researches in the spa industry left me concerned: whatever the worries about green-washing, green is not everywhere visible.
In another article, I'll be writing more about the appearance of green on the spa landscape. Meanwhile, the author of the thought-provoking article that inspired me here, taunts businesses with the further question: 'Will virtue be it's own reward or will it actually give companies an advantage to be green?'
This reveals that 'marketing gurus' may not have their fingers on the pulse after all. The question I believe we must ask is whether we are willing and have the ability to apply critical and creative thinking to the problems we all face. Reward and advantage can no longer be our guiding principles.
See: Quotes and Inspirations.
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