Business & Leadership
27 October 2010
Marketers need to do more to change consumer perceptions of the environmental impact of paper-based marketing, according to the UK’s Direct Marketing Association (DMA).
The DMA and fast.MAP, in conjunction with ONEPOST, recently published the findings of the Sustainability Tracking Study, which examines how environmental factors influence consumer brands and products and looks at perceptions about the environmental impact of direct mail and door drops versus digital communications and other paper-based communications such as newspapers and supplements.
“The facts aren’t anywhere near as clear cut as consumers perceive,” said the DMA’s Alex Walsh. “For instance, recent studies have shown that data centres account for nearly 2% of energy use, the equivalent of the aviation industry, while another report suggests that paper may be the only truly sustainable communication medium. As an industry, we certainly need to be doing more to explain why paper isn’t the environmental bad guy and change consumer opinion.”
According to the DMA, the report indicates that recyclability exerts the strongest force in shaping consumer perceptions of a brand’s environmental credentials. Over half of respondents said the presence of a recycle logo alone would lead them to perceive a company to be environmentally friendly, along with the kind of products a company sells (44pc), information on a website (37pc) and media coverage (25pc).
The study also finds that consumers use some types of marketing activity as an indication of a company’s environmental awareness. For instance, for four out of 10 consumers, polythene-wrapped mail is a signal that a company is not very environmentally friendly while a third feel negatively about window envelopes
