Green brands: beyond products features, it is about your corporate reputation

While reading this blog in my Google Reader, I discovered the results of this 2009 ImagePower Green Brands survey conducted across seven countries – the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Brazil, India, Germany and France - by WPP agencies Cohn & Wolfe, Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB) as well as independent strategy consulting firm Esty Environmental Partners.

According to the survey, consumers in both developed and developing markets ‘buy green’ not only because of  eco-friendly product features but mostly because green credentials relate to corporate reputation and are another proof of companies’ and/or brands’ honesty and trustworthiness (i.e. transparency, accountability).

This shows pretty well that corporate reputation and brand reputation are now inextricably linked. For consumers, it is less about the products and more about the brands. Consumers are questioning existing brand behaviour and asking whether they believe in brands and/or companies’ overall practices (which comes down to corporate DNA, values and strategic priorities).

The advantages of going green are not in increasing sales but rather in reinforcing corporate reptuation, enhancing relationships and/or rebuilding trust with key stakeholders such as employees, etc.

Therefore, I believe the graphic below can be understood as an assessment of the some of the most trusted  corporations as well as the greenest brands in each given market.

And you, what do you think?