Introduction
Greenwashing is a widely utilized corporate strategy aimed at enhancing a company’s sales by making products seem environmentally friendly. As a result, multiple companies spend large amounts of money in making their products seem eco-friendly instead of enhancing their production techniques. TerraChoice, an environmental marketing firm, reported that the number of products with a green label increased by 73 percent between 2009 and 2010. However, a green seal implying environmental friendliness is not a sufficient reason to claim a product is not harmful to the ecosystem. According to the article, Misleading Marketing: Beware of Greenwashing, most of the products marketed by the green label are not necessarily environmentally friendly (Litchfield, 2013). The article describes greenwashing as a misleading marketing strategy aimed at changing a buyer’s perspective about the quality of the product being purchased. Candice Marie Litchfield authored this article and targeting product consumers as the primary audience. For a fact, greenwashing is a misleading marketing strategy, as it does not give an accurate description of the effects caused by the consumption of a product.
Evaluation of the text
Litchfield (2013) argues that companies use multiple strategies to enhance the consumer’s perception of their products. For instance, they make unsustainable claims about the eligibility of their goods by using terms such as organic, green or natural. In most cases, the utilization of these descriptive phrases does not give a true account of the materials being advertised. According to CBC News (2015), companies use this strategy to make the consumers think that the chemicals used in the manufacture of the product are friendly to the environment, and they do not pose any threat to the user’s health. The article uses Vegan leather as an example to reveal how organizations disguise the harms caused by their products through the utilization of the above-mentioned descriptive phrases. Vegan leather is described as an environmentally friendly solution, but it is a non-biodegradable form of plastic. As such, green-labeled products do not necessarily imply the safety of a product.
The article mentions that companies use misleading green images or names to disguise their product as environment-friendly. In most cases, using the green color to symbolize the safety of a product does not give a true account of its impact on consumption. Just because an organization makes use of the color of trees or pictures of animals does not imply they manufactured the product with considerations to the welfare of the environment (Litchfield, 2013). Rather, this initiative is used as a means to convince a consumer to consider buying their product. In some cases, utilization of the prefix bio and eco before the brand name coaxes the consumer into making a purchase due to their heightened perception of the safety of the product. As a result, there is no assurance of the safety of a product conveyed through the representation of the package.
Do you think the text is reliable?
This text is undoubtedly reliable. This is largely attributed to the fact that it provides up to date statistics and utilizes real life examples to establish the credibility of the claims made by the author. For instance, in the commencement of the review, the author cites statistics from the TerraChoice Environmental Marketing organization to strengthen her initial claim; the number of green labels in the market sector has increased. Additionally, the information presented in the article is unbiased as it gives a true description of how greenwashing is widely utilized in the corporate sector as a marketing strategy rather than providing useful information to the consumer on the safety of the products being marketed. Specifically, the author gives her opinion from an unbiased but realistic viewpoint to capture the attention of the reader. For starters, the utilization of cosmetics with green labels and bioorganic prefixes is quite common in the marketing industry. As a result, she uses these examples to ridicule the effectiveness of the green stickers in conveying a message of environmental friendliness.
Effectiveness/ does it achieve its goal
This article achieves its primary goal; convincing the users of the pervasiveness of greenwashing in the market sector. Primarily, it utilizes credible sources and reliable examples to explain the severity of this issue. It achieves changing the reader’s perspective about the ineffectiveness of advertisements used to give information about environmental friendliness. According to Connor (2014), manufacturers spend twice as much on marketing than they do on the actual manufacture of the products. As such, a lot of time is spent on making their goods presentable to the client other than friendly to the environment. The author manages to explain the detrimental effects of utilizing products labeled environmental friendly without understanding what is used in the manufacturing process. As such, he creates reasonable doubt about the credibility of green labels used to inform buyers about the environmental friendliness of a product.
Conclusively, the article, Misleading Marketing: Beware of Greenwashing, is both reliable and effective as it utilizes proper communication methods to evoke reason in the reader by challenging the credibility of the products labeled disguised as environmental friendly goods. Through the utilization of up to date statistics and relevant examples, this article establishes a stern argument about the extent of greenwashing in the corporate sector.
References
CBC News, (2015). Greenwashing: Busting "eco" labels (CBC Marketplace). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nys5TaGGkRk
Litchfield, C. (2013). Misleading Marketing: Beware of Greenwashing! - Eluxe Magazine. Eluxe Magazine. Retrieved 6 March 2016, from http://eluxemagazine.com/magazine/greenwashing/
Connor, M. (2014). 5 products that claim to be sustainable, greenwashing all the way to the bank. the Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/aug/25/5-sustainability-greenwash-products-ecofriendly-boondoggles-design
