Avoiding Green Marketing Myopia

Instead of looking at organizations that have made a commitment to environmental sustainability, I examined traditional organizations who have tried to market sustainable products. I addition, I found a trap, “Green Marketing Myopia,” a situation that many products and possibly organizations easily fall into. In a 1960 Harvard Business Review article, Harvard professor Theodore Levitt introduced the classic concept of “marketing myopia” to characterize businesses’ narrow vision on product features rather than consumer benefits. This meaning product oriented not customer oriented (Levitt, 1960).

Philips Corporation provides a valuable lesson on how to avoid the common pitfall of “green marketing myopia.” Philips called its original entry, Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulb, “EarthLight” to communicate the CFL environmental advantage. While noble, the benefit appealed to only the deepest green niche of consumers. The vast majority of consumers, however, will ask, “If I use ‘green’ products, what’s in it for me (Ottman, et. al., 2006)?” Phillips defined its business incorrectly. It thought it was in the “green” business when it actually was in the light bulb business. Instead of marketing them as green they could have marketed their long life and excellent energy savings. Toyota considered this when marketing it hybrid cars to the public.

Toyota recognized the ambiguity of the term “green” and discouraged its use in its marketing of its gas-electric hybrid cars. One proposed slogan, “Drive green, breathe blue” was dismissed in favor of specific claims about fuel efficiency, such as “Less gas in. Less gasses out (Farah, 2005).”

Green marketing must satisfy two objectives: improved environmental quality and customer satisfaction. Research indicates that many green products have failed because of green marketing myopia—marketers’ myopic focus on their products’ “greenness” over the broader expectations of consumers or other market players. To avoid green marketing myopia, marketers must fulfill consumer needs and interests beyond what is good for the environment. When consumers are convinced of the desirable “non-green” benefits of environmental products, they are more inclined to adopt them (Ottman, et. al., 2006).




Farah, S. (2005). “The Thin Green Line.” CMO Magazine. 1 December 2005.

Levitt, T. (1960). “Marketing Myopia,” Harvard Business Review 28, July-August (1960): 24–47. Reprint. Retrieved from http://www.casadogalo.com/marketingmyopia.pdf

Ottman, J. A., Stafford, E. R., Hartman, C. L. (June, 2006). Avoiding Green marketing Myopia: Ways to Improve Consumer Appeal for Environmentally Preferable Products. Environment. Volume 48, Number 5, pages 22—36. Heldref Publications. http://www.heldref.org/env.php

Steven Karst, Chattanooga