Other than social networking, there can surely be no bigger issue consuming the minds of the nation's marketers right now than the environment. 'Paradigm shift' is one of the most annoying marketer's phrases, but there's nothing that more suitably sums up the impact that the green debate has had. And yet, despite the intense debate going on in the media, many consumers seem to be confused, ambivalent or, worse, cynical.
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Research by TNS for Combat Climate Change found that nearly half of the UK's consumers found the whole debate confusing. Of these, more than 40% have delayed taking action on reducing their carbon footprint, despite the fact that 79% of them believe the threat of climate change to be real.
Similarly, research by The Future Foundation found that while most consumers recognise the importance of the climate-change issue, their personal commitment does not seem to extend much beyond recycling. And when it comes to understanding carbon emissions, footprints, trading and offsetting, there is much confusion.
Yet in the business world things appear to be different. High-profile brands such as M&S and Tesco have been making big, expensive commitments to reducing their environmental impact. Business people are changing the way they travel, with many switching from road and air to rail. But in a study published by The Guardian, 40% of consumers distrusted messages from businesses on climate change.
Great marketers take complex business ideas and make sense of them for consumers. They turn them into simple propositions and bring them to life through compelling creative work; think the complexity of modern LCD technology and bouncy colourful balls.
What's the consumer proposition when it comes to the environment? Well, it's pretty straightforward. Brands have got to make it easy for consumers to reduce their environmental impact without killing the fun. At Virgin, we call this 'responsible desire'.
Consumers who travel, for example, do not think it's their personal responsibility to solve the world's problems by taking fewer foreign holidays. However, show them an airline finding genuine ways to make its operation greener, and the chances are they will switch.
Brands must make it easier for consumers to pick the right option by cutting back the environmental impact of products. This means focusing on hard, practical stuff, not wasting effort on making our brands look good by offsetting or becoming carbon neutral.
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The story we tell must also be creative and compelling. If we patronise, condescend or bore, we'll switch people off. Images of forest fires, floods and melting ice caps just aren't going to cut it. Shouting about becoming a carbon-neutral company is just noise to your average Joe. Climate change may be a worthy issue, but that doesn't mean we have to throw out the principles of creating good campaigns in order to produce what we think are worthy ones.