Check it Out: Get Ready for Green Tuesday 2012
By the time you’re reading this, the 2011 holiday season will be over. As such, you’re probably analyzing what worked and what didn’t during the critical fourth quarter and, believe it or not, beginning to plan for this year’s holidays. When making those plans, don’t forget to add the latest holiday shopping tradition to your marketing calendar: Green Tuesday.
Developed by nonprofit organization Green America to help shoppers who wanted to be green save some green, the inaugural Green Tuesday was held this past year on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. (Mark your calendars, this year Green Tuesday falls on Nov. 27.) From Nov. 29 through Dec. 6, Green America’s deal website GreenDeals.org featured special offers, discounts and deals from local and national green online businesses approved by Green America. The site features a new deal every 24 hours to 48 hours.
Up to 20 products and coupons ranging from 30 percent to 50 percent off were featured on GreenDeals.org during the eight-day event. Products included jewelry made from recycled nuclear bomb equipment by retailer From War To Peace; a self-watering system for indoor or outdoor plants from DriWater; and fair trade and organic apparel from Indigenous Designs. Green America kept a percentage of the sales from its Green Tuesday promotions.
To extend the reach of Green Tuesday, Green America promoted daily contests and special GreenDeals.org credits on its Facebook page. The outreach efforts have worked. Since its launch in January 2011, GreenDeals.org has acquired over 160,000 members and featured over 150 deals from green businesses (as of press time).
Growing Marketplace for Green Goods
Green Tuesday is tapping into a growing segment of the consumer population — those interested in buying environmentally-friendly goods. Consider that 72 percent of U.S. consumers believe it’s important to buy from green companies and 30 percent say they plan to spend more on green products in the next year, according to findings from the 2011 Global Green Brands Study conducted by WPP agencies Cohn & Wolfe, Landor Associates and Penn Schoen Berland Associates, as well as independent sustainability strategy consulting firm Esty Environmental Partners.
The study also found that 62 percent of U.S. consumers cite cost as the biggest hurdle to buying green products and services. That’s why Green America created Green Tuesday — to give consumers the opportunity to not only make a positive impact on the environment, but also get a great deal in the process.
Whether the shopping event will catch on and become a holiday tradition much like Black Friday and Cyber Monday remains to be seen. My instinct tells me that the Thanksgiving dinner table isn’t the only thing getting crowded these days; the shopping events surrounding the holiday are getting rather full as well. That’s not to say Green Tuesday doesn’t have a place on the shopping calendar, but it has a ways to go before it becomes a mainstream tradition.
Let me put it in terms that most everyone can relate to: Black Friday is the turkey of holiday shopping events — it’s not Thanksgiving without turkey or Black Friday; Cyber Monday and Small Business Saturday are the stuffing and mashed potatoes, trusted sides that consumers have come to rely on and look forward to; and Green Tuesday is the cranberry sauce. Yeah, it has a place at the table, but is anyone rushing to dig into the cranberry sauce when they can fill up on turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes? Not me at least. By the time Green Tuesday rolls around you’re likely to find me asleep on the couch with a shopping-induced coma.
