What it Means to be Green in Carwashing

Green marketing might be the carwash industry’s biggest opportunity since we swapped out brushes for cloth. To date, however, few operators have been willing or able to make environmental issues a core part of their business strategies. This is despite the fact that carwashes are intrinsically “green.”

Green Marketing History

The term green marketing grew in popularity in the late ’80s and early ’90s, as environmental issues became a growing concern and topic of conversation for many Americans. While there had always been a handful of companies with owners who were public advocates for certain environmental causes, few companies thought of using environmental issues as an opportunity to increase the value of their products or services.

However, as these issues became a regular feature of news coverage, more consumers began looking to make purchases from companies that took steps to reduce their impact on the planet. Increasingly, over the past 20 years, companies ranging from GE to Domino’s Pizza have tried to include “green” in their marketing plans.

The problem is there continues to be a lot of confusion over what it means to be “green” and too much drive to jump on the green bandwagon without implementing measures that are truly environmentally friendly. This has resulted in many companies touting themselves as “green” but not making clear what that means. If you do a search for “green marketing” on Amazon.com, you’ll find more than 4,000 books to guide the way, but many businesses still fail to find a balance between real environmental benefits and superficial green efforts.

Before we explore different aspects of green marketing, we need to agree on a definition. For the purpose of this article, let’s define green marketing as communicating with your community about the measures your business has taken to reduce the negative impact your services have on Earth’s ecosystem.

Why You Should Care

Aside from the altruistic benefits that come from being a better steward of the planet, green marketing represents a real business opportunity. Promoting the green aspects of your business demonstrates that you are a responsible local business that cares about its community. For most carwashes, 80 percent of their business comes from within a three-mile radius. Therefore, showing that you care about the local water supply and local environment creates goodwill and increases the perceived value of your carwash.

In a world where we are inundated with marketing messages, goodwill is the stuff that cuts though the noise and proves that you care about more than just profit. This builds community trust and creates a more loyal customer.

For this reason, demonstrating that you are concerned about the environment helps build a strong brand that resonates with the community, whether you have one carwash or 100. All great retail brands are based on values. In his book, Pour Your Heart into It, Howard Shultz, the creator of the Starbucks brand, wrote, “The most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign.”

Communicating values has always been a difficult thing to do in carwashing because it is perceived as a commodity. However, carwashes are naturally environmentally friendly when compared to traditional driveway washing. This environmental benefit provides a built-in path to a values-based brand.

If you want to explore the possibility of utilizing green marketing, the most important question is not how you implement it, but why. Authenticity is the most important aspect of succeeding with green marketing, and companies that try to appear environmentally conscious simply by slapping a label on a product or on their Web site do not understand what green marketing is all about.

The International Carwash Association last year created the WaterSavers program to help carwash owners “promote their environmentally friendly business practices and educate consumers about the environmental benefits of professional carwashing.” While this is a valuable service and a commendable effort, true impact from green marketing can only come from operators that make environmental concerns a core value of their businesses.

Marketing is about listening, learning and reacting to your customers. So green marketing means you have to be concerned about what your customers are concerned about.

If you want to succeed with green marketing initiatives, you have to personally care about what’s happening to the environment. Personal concern can then translate into real action, and that authentic tone will resonate with customers.

This doesn’t mean you are required to handcuff yourself to a tree that is about to be chopped down or adopt a whale. What it does mean is you should educate yourself about environmental concerns, particularly those that have relevance to the carwash industry and running a business. Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is required if