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19.11.2009 Feature Article

A case for branding the environment

A case for branding  the environment
19.11.2009 LISTEN

Choosing a brand name for a product is important from a promotional perspective because brand names communicate product concepts and help position the product in the mind of customers. Names like Key (soap) Blue band (margarine), Omo (washing powder) Ideal (milk) ,Arid (antiperspirant deodorant) and spic and span (floor cleaner) all clearly communicate the benefits of using these products.

In the same way the environment can be positioned as a product and promoted in the minds of the citizenry whose present and future life depends on it. Slogans like: 'don't litter', 'reduce pollution', 'excessive noise is injurious to our health', 'if the last tree dies, the last man dies', 'protect water bodies and reduce burning to save our climate; all clearly communicate the role of the citizenry in protecting the environment. Many company's use individual brand names for each product because they want each brand to have a unique and distinct image as a separate entity with its own strength and ability in meeting consumer needs. In our case the environment stands out even more distinct and diverse.

The environment is made up of the atmosphere, the air we breathe, water bodies that is rivers, lakes and the oceans and their fishes, soils and the forests they host, animals - birds and insects - that these forests hosts, and human beings who are the custodians of these diverse natural resources. Each and every natural resource is distinct, has it own image delivering unique benefits to mankind just as products do. The only unique difference between products and these natural resources is that where as products stand out on individual basis, natural resources are linked, intertwined or connected such that it is difficult for any of them to stand on its own. Therefore any harm caused to any of these natural resources could have negative impact on the others and this will directly affect mankind who depends on these resources for life. One important role that advertising plays in branding is to create and maintain brand equity; this equity is often thought of as an intangible asset of added value or goodwill that results from favourable image.

This image or impressions of differentiation or strength results in consumer attachment to a company's name, brand name or trade mark leading to increased sales. In case of the environment and its ecosystems like water bodies, forests, air, soils and wildlife, a deliberate corporate agenda can be pursued by way of advertising through branding how fragile these ecosystems have become due to the activities of man and his insatiable demand on resources. This could create some equity for these natural resources in the form of sympathy, goodwill and passionate attachment to save our environment..

It is time that the level of environmental consciences is raised to the highest pedestal through branding. In this context, there is a need to splash environmental slogans on vehicles plying the inner city suburbs (fleet branding) especially buses and other long chassis vehicles plying the regional capitals and the countryside.

Walls of public buildings, playgrounds and even cemeteries should have drawings (graffiti) of the natural environment including wildlife and slogans of how to protect them.

This branding effort will eventually meet potential polluters and degraders everwhere they go and since the slogans are practical, it could change perceptions about the environment. Since noise and sanitation (littering) are major problems facing urban settlements, district assemblies could raise giant billboards at various entry points of the suburbs that will announce noise limits and no littering of plastics notices and the offence it carries as a form of education and deterrent at the same time to potential polluters. It will be a brilliant idea to carry slogans of health hazards associated with noise making and littering on banners and avenue trees to communicate the concept of protection to the people.

As the environment is positioned like a commodity, it gains its own distinct identity like a new brand, using brand extension strategy, issues such as burning of refuse and fossil fuels by vehicles, industrial discharges of smoke and other forms of emissions that cause global warning can be discouraged. All human activities associated with emissions can be branded through short and precise slogans like “smoke inhalation kills, makes breathing difficult and could cause respiratory diseases, cut down on emissions now” , “use cleaner fuels, service your vehicle regularly”.

The above slogans can be replicated for protecting water bodies, the mining environment, the beaches, wildlife sanctuaries and wetlands. These ecosystems can only be protected if users are aware of the enormous benefit and life sustaining properties it possesses. We can use television, radio, the internet, billboards and newspapers to project these life supporting systems in the minds of the people, so it can assume the place of a product to be cherished.

I am aware in branding the physical as well as the emotional attributes of a product is brought out. In the same way wild plants and animals can become a source of beauty, wonder, joy and recreational pleasure, if only it is projected so that the aesthetic and recreational importance is cherished. Wild game species provide recreation in the form of hunting, fishing, observation and photography called wildlife tourism, or eco-tourism, can generate millions of dollars for the country as in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. In a branding strategy for the environment, all the packaging of consumer products produced in Ghana could carry slogans of environmental protection and every newspaper, magazines and other public printed publications can create environmental pages for advocacy purposes, then, we would be on the path of branding the environment.

On the other hand, failure to brand the environment will signify failure on behalf of one species “our own,” humans, by using 40% of the earth's terrestrial net primary productivity without a corresponding attempt at restoration.

We are all involved, at least indirectly, in the destruction of the environment anytime we buy or drive a car, building a house, use consumer products and almost anything including electricity, paper, water or any other resource. All the above activities contribute to the destruction or degradation of the environment; we need therefore to modify our consumption habits as a key goal in preventing species, the environment and ourselves from extinction. Branding in this connection will mean supporting efforts to reduce deforestation, projected global warning, ozone depletion, population growth and poverty - the greatest threats to the environment and human species. During our short stay on this planet we have gained immense power over our plant, animal and, bird species, our climate, including ourselves. We named ourselves the wise sapiens, if we don't brand the environment now and the decades to come, we will eliminate ourselves and take other millions of species down with us, and we will be mourned by no one and what is left will go cycling on without us.

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