Notice how many brands are promoting “green?” That can be good news for consumers, and hopefully the planet. But it could be bad news for you if you want to bring a green product to market. The market is so inundated with organic, local and sustainable products that consumers are beginning to experience a “green fog.” It’s difficult for them to sort out what is truly good for the environment and what they can do about it in their own lives. And they have a healthy skepticism that companies really do something significant to improve the environment or that a product is truly green. What can you, as a manufacturer, do?

One key step is to be very crisp in your positioning. Before you market your green product, ask yourself these questions:

1. Who is your product for? Be specific. Just saying that it is for those interested in a healthier lifestyle or an environmentally friendly product is too vague to help you position correctly. Do you need to appeal to different generations?

2. What exactly is your product or brand and how specifically is it helping the environment? Is the primary value of your product its low impact on the environment or is that an extra bonus? Which do your customers care about?

3. Is the core function (cleaning, printing, playing music) as good as, or better than, the competition? You don’t get a pass on the quality of the basic function of your product just because it’s “green.”

4. What are the specific attributes you can claim, both for the core functions and the environmental friendliness? Is it specific in the materials you use? Is it your company’s redesigned supply chain? Is it because you have reduced your intake of raw materials? Your answers will help determine what exactly you should promote.

5. How will you promote your green attributes? With a key message on the packaging? In advertising and PR? Wherever it is, be simple and direct. Make the advantage and the proof points easy to find.

Having crisp and clear answers to the questions above will help customers cut through the “green fog” and see the true value of your brand and your products.

Popularity: 55% [?]

An international brand always has to determine how to capture the hearts and minds of customers in local markets while maintaining its corporate identity. I think the folks at Coca-Cola have done a marvelous job of doing just that with their sponsorship of the Olympic Games in Beijing. They’ve always done well in China, and it helps that Coca-Cola translates into Mandarin as “Delicious Happiness.”

To build on their success, they’ve taken the Olympics platform, a symbol of human beings from around the world coming together, and created their “Design the World a Coke” campaign. This social media program invites consumers to redesign the iconic coke bottle.

Think about that - using the core design element of your global brand and encouraging individuals to play around with it - creating whole art galleries if they want to - and posting them on the web. The result is that it strengthens the global brand by playing on the theme of unity through diversity and individual creativity. All of this plays delightfully into “Delicious Happiness,” especially for the folks at Coca-Cola.

Popularity: 55% [?]

Every brand needs to do four jobs for its customers: functional (what the products do); emotional (how I feel when I use the products); economic (do I feel this is a good use of my dollars); and social (help me feel connected and socially responsible). The social value of brands has been gaining quite a bit of momentum since the early 2000’s. Think of all the commercials you see where companies tout how they are good corporate citizens. They are trying to let you know that if you buy their products, you can feel good about your purchase.

Cynical? In some cases, yes. But if brands can truly discover not only what creates and emotional connection with their customers, but demonstrate a hgher social value (what Dave Norton calls “brand truth”), then they can pull away from their competitors. Consider the Body Shop.

Brand and product positioning based on higher social and emotional value can command a premium price in the market. Think ethos water, organic clothing for children, working vacations to Costa Rica vs. Cancun.

The social job is not always the most important and cannot be done at the sacrifice of brand trust. But it can add to your brand’s value.

Popularity: 54% [?]

What makes someone choose your brand over another? How do your products reflect your brand identity? As your promise of what you stand for in the marketplace, your brand must be both relevant to consumers and different from your competition. When you design for your brand, you integrate marketing analysis and design instincts. What’s going to be relevant to your customers is based on where your products are in their market life cycle, and on the spoken and unspoken needs of your customers.

You may have a technology advantage over your competition, but is that what is important to your customers? Your brand design elements must show your customers that you get them. They must not only communicate the functional advantages, they must radiate the emotional cues that attract and retain your customers.

Do your brand elements engage senses other than sight? What does your brand sound like? Smell like? Taste like? What is its feel? Effective brand identity design considers multiple ways to express your brand persona and value proposition, all aimed at reinforcing customer preference.

Popularity: 45% [?]