如何破解绿色食品推广难题

    “当初我产品开始进入沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）销售时，许多极端环保主义者感到失望之极，”石原农场（Stonyfield Farm）首席执行官加里Ÿ赫西伯格说。“他们说，‘沃尔玛是个魔鬼’。可在我看来，其实它是个天使。”

    周二，在《财富》杂志（Fortune）主办的“绿色头脑风暴大会”（Brainstorm Green Conference）上，赫西伯格作为嘉宾，在“可持续之路的边界”分会场发表了以上观点。他的一席话充分说明，绿色商业近年来经历了观念上的巨大改变——它们不再视消费品巨头为敌人，而是优质的合作伙伴。

    导致这种变化的一部分原因在于，诸如沃尔玛这样的企业已经改变了思维模式，开始在很多层面上接受可持续发展的理念。同时也是因为一些小型生产商认识到，与巨头牵手是规模化发展的唯一道路。

    一同列席的嘉宾还包括沃尔玛执行副总裁兼首席营销官迈克Ÿ诺登，以及谷歌（Google）的可持续发展负责人里科Ÿ尼德曼，后者详细介绍了谷歌投资于清洁能源的情况。嘉宾们一致认为，与大公司携手合作是在绿色领域取得长足发展的关键。

    至于如何实现这个目标，特别是在定价方面，嘉宾们的观点不尽相同。诺登反复强调说，对沃尔玛而言，让大众接受绿色食品的关键在于降低价格。他说：“我们认为，优质的食品不应该意味着更高的价格。客户也告诉我们，他们不愿意总是多花钱去购买绿色食品。”

    赫西伯格并不认同这个观点，他表示，让老百姓接受绿色食品的关键是把他们的注意力从价格转移到质量。他说：“我们要打破廉价的神话。”据赫西伯格介绍，他们付给奶农的价格比其他公司高，生产过程也更环保，因此毛利率低于其他酸奶制造商，但净利润却高于竞争对手。“这是因为我们的客户忠诚度更高，而且我们的市场推广费相比竞争对手来说简直微不足道。人们可以访问石原农场的网站（YoTube），看看那些正在悠闲吃草的奶牛。”

    诺登承认，沃尔玛在自身的可持续发展方面取得了很大进步，但在引导消费者关注绿色环保方面做得还不够。他介绍说，沃尔玛正在考虑增加绿色指标来评估供应商，有可能明年就会启动这一方案。这种做法将会产生巨大的影响。只有魔鬼、或者说只有天使才能办到。

    译者：珠珠

    "A lot of eco-fascists in my world were very upset when I started selling to Wal-Mart," says Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farms. They said "'This is the devil.' But this is the angel in my world."

    Speaking as part of the "Boundaries of Sustainability" panel at Fortune's Brainstorm Green conference on Tuesday, Hirshberg's comment shows just how much green business has changed in recent years. Instead of seeing huge consumer companies as the enemy, they have become the preferred partner.

    That's partly because of the huge changes in the mindset of companies like Wal-Mart (WMT), which have embraced sustainability on many levels. But it's also because many of the smaller producers have realized it's the only way to scale.

    The panelists, which also included Wal-Mart EVP and CMO Duncan Mac Naughton and Google (GOOG) sustainability head Rick Needham, who shared details of the company's investment in clean energy assets, all agreed that large company partnerships are key to making progress in the green area.

    But they disagreed on how to get there—primarily when it came to price. Mac Naughton, EVP and CMO at Wal-Mart, reiterated that for Wal-Mart, the key to making sustainable food work is its cost. "We believe that good food shouldn't cost more," he said. "But our customer tells us that they're not always willing to pay more."

    Hirshberg disagreed, saying the key to getting people to embrace sustainability was to move the focus from price to quality. "It's about banishing the myth of cheap," he said, noting that while his gross margins are lower than other yogurt makers because he pays his farmers more and uses sustainable practices, his net margins are higher. "I've made it up by building consumer loyalty," he says. "My marketing spend is a rounding error [compared with competitors,]" he says. "But you can go on Stonyfield's web site (YoTube), and watch cows chewing their cud."

    Naughton admitted that Wal-Mart has made more progress in greening its own company than in convincing the consumer why they should care about sustainability, and said the company was considering adding sustainability metrics to the way it evaluates suppliers, possibly next year. That would have a huge impact—in the way that only a devil—or is it angel?—can.