Environmental research & marketing

The environment is, once again, a business priority.

Driven by millennials and Gen Z, a company’s environmental image is increasingly making a difference in attracting business, growing revenue and creating a positive brand image.

All things being equal, including price, a positive environmental reputation can tip the scale from one company to another in both consumer and business-to business marketing.

“Young people care intensely about the world they’re inheriting and are motivated to stand up for the causes in which they believe.”–Deloitte Millennial Study

And, at the very top of their list of causes is the environment.

For more than 30 years, Environmental Research Associates (ERA), a wholly-owned smartworks company, has conducted research and developed environmental marketing programs for dozens of companies, associations and other organization.

We have helped build their images, develop messages and environmental strategies and marketing programs.

Our research was the basis for a successful environmentally-focused campaign significantly increasing sales of Procter & Gamble’s Downey Refill product. Our research revealed that most consumers believed products with environmental benefits, cost more. The campaign, “Put a little less in the trash and a little more in your pocket.”

smartworks is the thought leader when it comes to environmental marketing strategy.

• Our research was used by Kraft Foods, and other companies, in testimony to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in developing environmental marketing regulations.
• smartworks president, Lois Kaufman, Ph.D., served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental Information and Public Access Committee.
• For Arm & Hammer (the Church & Dwight Co.), we conducted research and developed campaigns to build sales through environmental imaging and forming relationships with environmental groups.

We conducted research in targeted communities selected to receive a special longer-lasting light bulb. Later, we conducted follow-up research, analyzed and compared results from both and recommended strategies for a national rollout of these more efficient bulbs.

We have also conducted environmental research and created marketing programs for such other companies and organizations as Johnson & Johnson, Ford Motors, Coca-Cola, Sunoco, the American Forest and Paper Association, Private Label Manufacturers Association, Grocery Manufacturers Association, BASF, Dow, the U.S. Energy Department, The Council on Office Products Energy Efficiency, The Council on Plastic and Packaging the in Environment, and many others.