How to: Make your marketing claims concrete

by Mark Nagurski, May 3rd, 2008

I just read a post over on Seth Godin’s blog about “The Coming Backlash over Green Marketing“.

No doubt Green Marketing is facing an issue here - if everyone and everything flaunts their greenness then it no longer becomes a point of difference. i.e. Does one company saying they’ll donate trees any better or worse than another saying they don’t damage the environment in the first place? Why should one claim be more believable / viable / sustainable / true / useful than another?

Seth’s solution is to make claims - and greenness - quantifiable. Marketers and business in general should be defending the green and not, as Seth says, using the environmental message as “short-term, often selfish come-ons”.

Despite the green example, there is a lesson here you can apply to just about any business. Customer service could be viewed in a similar light - how many companies claim to offer first class service and always put the customer first. Everyone.

It’s been said so often that it no longer has any impact. The customer service claim has already had its backlash. Claiming customer service is meaningless.

So, if as Seth suggests, a quantifiable green number can save the green message, then what can you do to ensure your claims aren’t simply ignored as platitudes and hyperbole?