Greening Print Marketing: Is There a Double Standard When It Comes to Paying for Green?

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Most of us have heard the popularly cited statistics that given the choice between two similar products, 83% of consumers will chose those that are “environmentally friendly” and will pay more for them.

According to the DoubleClick study, not only are consumers interested in green products and companies, but nearly half are willing to pay at least 5% more for them.

It’s not a new study. It came out in April, but I was cleaning out my email, and when I re-read it, the findings got me thinking. In our consumer lives, it’s true. We’re not just wiling to pay extra. We actually feel good about it, as if that extra few cents or a dollar, in itself, shrinks the hole in the ozone layer.

Yet, when it comes to paying more for recycled paper, or spending those extra dollars improving our database for more targeted marketing, or switching to a Web-to-print document management system, and other initiatives that green our print marketing programs in ways that have equal, if not greater, environmental impact, all of a sudden, it’s, “Oh, no. That’s too expensive.”

Do we have two different standards for paying premium for green?

View all my “Greening Print Marketing” posts.

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