When brands are not succesfully ‘talking the walk’

Grail Research, a global strategic research and decision support firm, has published a new report late last month, Green Revolution, showing (among other things) that the majority of (U.S.) consumers are unaware of major brands’ sustainability initiatives.

Probably as a result of a ‘sustainability noise overload’, greenwashing-induced skepticism, eco-fatigue … or simply ineffective communications, it appears that the great majority of consumers (in this case 85%) have no idea about what pioneering companies such as Estee Lauder, Hewlett Packard, Unilever, Nestle and Intel  are doing in terms of sustainability and CSR.

Surprising? Not really. While corporate reputation and brand image are converging, the gap between a company’s responsible initiatives and consumers’ perceptions and … ultimately decisions still remains important. And not properly addressed.

While companies have been pressured to practice what they preach, i.e. ‘walking the talk’, it is also critical to be effectively able to ‘talk the walk’ as well:

• By being transparent and authentic: 63% of consumers rely on product labels as their primary sources of information about green companies and their products, only if product labeling does not lead to confusion.

• By leveraging the right communications channels (as well as the right messages), that engage consumers, leverage their experiences and interactions with brands and encourage peer-to-peer evangelism, through word of mouth conversations (both online and offline), which are considered as more trusted sources of information (45%)  than advertising (38%) or company websites (18%).

So in the end, isn’t it more a question of ‘are we allocating marketing & communications budgets properly?‘ What are you thoughts?