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Green 'scares' can catch you unawares, advise authors Daniel Esty and Andrew Wilson of the book Green to Gold. The book aims to create a profitable model for businesses to fashion the current concern about the environment into viable marketing technique. Green to Gold is about the strategic use of greening in product positioning as well as provides advice about damage mitigation if the company is portrayed, fairly or unfairly, as environmentally careless. Even the best companies can be surprised -- think ahead, seek new benefits, and above all, remember that environmentalism is not a fringe issue (Esty & Wilson 2009, p. 2).

The authors suggest that companies in the future ignore environmentalism at their financial peril, going against the common wisdom that consumers always put cost above environmental concerns. The biggest, toughest companies from GE to Wal-Mart know that they have to go green to remain competitive and have made 'green' a cornerstone of their new images, using everything from environmentally innovative light bulbs to organic food (Esty & Wilson 8). Climate change, energy, and water use are some of the top issues of concern amongst American consumers (Esty & Wilson 2009, p. 34). The authors give a basic overview of the science behind major environmental concerns, and also, more importantly from the marketer's point-of-view, they examine how the public perceives these issues.

This book is particularly valuable to read in light of the current national debate over the future of the American car industry, because of its case study of the Ford Motor Company. The case of Ford illustrates how marketers cannot ignore how environmental issues are positioned by in the media, as well as the science behind the issue. Ford strove to create a green manufacturing plant, in an effort to deflect criticisms from environmentalists. However, by still producing the same SUVs that became symbolic of environmental waste, Ford still was rejected by environmentally-conscious consumers in favor of foreign competitors like Toyota, which manufactured hybrid cars like the Prius and made environmentalism synonymous with its brand image. Without focusing on what the customer saw and used -- the car, rather than the supply chain -- Ford's green factory did little in terms of improving its image (Esty & Wilson 2009, p. 236). In short, greening a company is a combination of real science and real people-savvy, like all good marketing.