Lawn Darts: Chemical Pesticide Makers vs Environmental Activists
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Lawn Darts: Chemical Pesticide Makers vs Environmental Activists
Date:
Tue, 17 Sep 2002 09:58:28 -0400
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
September 9, 2002; Marketing Magazine - Lawn Darts - The battle between chemical pesticide makers and environmental activists is being fought using some pointed marketing messages By Andrea Zoe Aster.
The full-page ads urged readers to consider the surprising benefits of sporting a healthy lawn: "Did you know a healthy lawn reduces urban noise levels by 20 to 30 percent?" "Did you know a healthy lawn helps provide a better environment by cleansing air pollutants?"
A campaign from the local environmental alliance?
Actually, the ads, which ran for three weeks this spring in Toronto-area community papers, came from the Urban Pest Management Council (UPMC), which represents makers and distributors of pest control products. The Toronto-based council's members include market leaders like Nu-Gro and Scotts Canada, which each hold shares of about 30% of the $100-million Canadian consumer pest control category, according to brokerage firm Loewen Ondaatje McCutcheon in Toronto.
Many municipalities are encouraging people to cut back on their pesticide use, or are banning pesticides entirely These ads are only the best example of the moves pest-control marketers are making to market an increasingly sensitive product. The strategy is to embrace rather than refute growing consumer concern about the safety of pesticides and herbicides. Rather than focusing on the potency of one product compared to another, pest-control marketing is taking a decidedly educational bent, with text-heavy print ads urging consumers to use the product only as directed, hefty in-store product booklets and new initiatives like in-store product education reps.
"The biggest challenge in the industry is to counter the misinformation," says Kimberly Bates, executive director of the UPMC.
"These ads were designed to address the myths about pesticides. For example, they don't contribute to water pollution. They are actually biodegradable."
The move to such educationally oriented marketing is largely a reaction to the anticipated increase in consumer health concerns.
Home gardeners have long been urban cowboys, swaggering around their weed-free lawns, pesticide nozzles blazing. And, until recently, marketers of weed and bug killers confidently used such "knock 'em dead" creative to create resonance with their customers.
But the green movement has mobilized more than the crowd on Vancouver Island. In a slow shift, personal health concerns have replaced general anxiety about the decline of the environment. Now, suburban double-income families are the ones more likely to be wondering about the impact of man-made chemicals on their families' health: Is it safe, really, for a toddler to crawl all over that freshly treated lawn?
At the municipal level, the Montreal-area town of Hudson, Que. thought not. It went so far as to ban all cosmetic pesticide use on private and public grounds through a bylaw that the Supreme Court of Canada upheld in a landmark decision in June 2001. Then, in July, Quebec proposed a province-wide ban on 28 household pesticides and herbicides that would include the active ingredient in Scotts' Killex brand, the most widely used weed killer or "selective herbicide" in Canada.
This summer, the City of Toronto used garden gnomes and pink flamingos to highlight the perils of pesticide overuse on the city's lawns. In the campaign created by Axmith McIntyre Wicht in Toronto, one execution shows an ill-looking garden gnome, his eyes bulging and a hand over his mouth. The second execution features a plastic pink flamingo lawn ornament trying to climb trees to escape the pesticide-heavy lawn below.
Against this backdrop, herbicide and pesticide marketers are responding to the challenge. "The misunderstanding is that if it's synthetic, it's not safe, and if it's natural, it is," says Jill Fairbrother, director of stakeholder relations for Scotts Canada in Mississauga, Ont. "But, for example, there are recipes from the municipalities out there containing rhubarb leaves, which can be deadly to humans. So, increasingly, our focus has to be on education and on teaching the consumer to use the right product in a responsible way."
Killex ads emphasize targeted use and consumer education Consider Scotts' recent ads for its Killex brand, which it sells under its Green Cross label. The print ads, which ran this summer in specialty gardening magazines including Canadian Gardening, show a weed in the middle of a target. The headline reads, "Targets only what you want it to." The ad is promoting targeted, and hence judicious, herbicide use. It also refers consumers to a Web site, www.greencrosscanada.com, and a toll-free number. Emphasizing the consumer education strategy, the hotline is called Know Before You Grow.
Additionally, in a pilot project launched last year in Ontario and Quebec, Scotts deployed in-store product consultants to major distributors like Canadian Tire and Home Depot, where they answered product questions and distributed information booklets. The intensive campaign chalked up more than 400 events in a 10-week period.
"Both the retailers and the public like it," says Fairbrother. "This kind of marketing is critical. Mass media is used less for pest-control products. We need to reach the consumer where they're making their product decisions. We want them to choose a solution specific to their needs, so it can't really be a mass-marketing message."
Certainly, buying pest control products is an experience that requires some expert advice. Unlike many other household emergencies, where consumers send in the pros, about 80% to 90% of homeowners take care of weeds and pests themselves, according to a study of consumer attitudes to pest control by Ipsos-Reid. Additionally, three-quarters says they talk to store staff before they buy anything, and 90%, thankfully, read the label before they use the stuff.
"It's not about spin or sizzle," says David Postill, vice-president, group account director at Young & Rubicam in Toronto, which supervised 10-second Killex TV ads created by Alliance Atlantis.
"Families want deep and meaningful consumer information. They want the facts, not a pitch."
Still, it's not always so easy for the consumer to navigate the range of media and marketing messages surrounding the topic of responsible gardening.
"There used to be a clear-cut division between the goodies and the baddies," says Jacqueline Howe, publisher of Canadian Gardening in Toronto. "On one side, there were the environmental activists. On the other, there were the pest-control industries." Mentioning the Killex ads as an example, Howe says, "It's clear that our readers don't just want to sweep and kill everything. They want a targeted approach. For consumers and for advertisers, now it's all about not overdoing it."
Still, for other leading marketers of pest-control products, the "baddies" can often include the media. "The media stories are often erroneous," says Jay Pollack, VP of marketing for Nu-Gro Corp. in Brantford, Ont. "We are only mixing and blending approved chemicals."
Nevertheless, anticipating factors such as heightened consumer awareness and precedent-setting municipal bylaws, Nu-Gro's synthetic-based brands are complemented by its Green Earth line, relaunched three years ago with plant-derived, enviro-friendly alternatives. Nu-Gro ran a series of ads for such products as its lawn food and compost accelerator in specialty gardening magazine this summer.
Yet, while Nu-Gro and its competitors have the clout and authority of federally approved chemicals on their side, the green movement is countering the new direction in pest-control marketing with its own brand of education.
"It's their science against our science," says Rich Whate, a toxics program co-ordinator with the Toronto Environmental Alliance. Its Web site contains links to fearsome testimonials and health warnings from organizations like the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
Whate has also noticed the strategy pest-control marketers are using to respond to potential consumer concern. "They're not just trying to shore up against the competition," he says. "The marketing now is not about 'Kill weeds.' It's about 'Don't worry. It's safe.' "
In fact, the Toronto Environmental Alliance is eager for the public to be aware that pesticide marketers are explicitly prohibited from advertising their products as "safe" according to rules from the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency. Still, according to one of the Alliance's recent reports, roughly 75% of all pesticide marketing breaks this law. "Words like 'safe' or 'environmentally friendly' are prohibited in pesticide marketing materials," says Whate. "They also say things like 'these chemicals have been thoroughly approved by the government.' But the laws also say that you can't use the government as an endorsement."
Ads from pesticide makers are embracing rather than refuting consumer safety concerns Nu-Gro's Pollack admits the strict laws "make marketing hard. You can't even say things like 'it's environmentally more friendly.' "
With all this brewing controversy, it's not just environmental groups that are keen to offer consumers alternatives to synthetic pesticides. More marketers and retailers are stepping up to provide organic, or plant-based pest-control products. Woodstream Canada is one such marketer. The Mississauga-based company makes the Safer's brand of insecticidal soap. It kills hard-shelled insects using plant-based ingredients derived from sources like chrysanthemum flowers.
"In the past we've focused our marketing on specialty gardening magazines," says Josie McDonagh, director of sales and marketing.
"But now our sales are growing at 10% a year and we plan to reach out with broader mass media like television and radio next year."
Moreover, on the retailing front, Loblaw announced four months ago that it would discontinue all brands containing chemical pesticides, by next year, at its more than 400 gardening centres across Canada.
The move is, in part, a politically astute one based on the pest-control precedents brewing in Quebec.
"We're anticipating where the municipalities are headed, and we need to have one merchandising strategy across the country," says Jeff Wilson, VP of industry and investor relations for Loblaw in Toronto.
Still, just as many die-hards would rather have a heart attack than believe in the powers of tofu, it's not a sure thing that consumers are fully ready to embrace organic pesticides just yet.
"Non-pesticide alternatives take more time and require more frequent treatments," says Canadian Gardening's Howe. "It's a delicate balance. If you're concerned, are you prepared to go the extra mile?' In the meantime, at least, Nu-Gro's Pollack believes many consumers aren't ready to give up their urban cowboy hat just yet.
"Our Green Earth line doesn't sell as strongly as our synthetics," he says. "Our research shows that consumers aren't as interested in the gentle solution. They just want to kill bugs now."
The Key Players The following are the market shares of the key players in Canada's $100 million consumer pest-control market as of June 2001.
Nu-Gro 34% Scotts Canada 30% Later's 10% Safer's 5% Chem Free 5% Small private labels 16% Source: Loewen Ondaatje McCutcheon, Toronto ANDREA ZOE ASTER is a freelance writer based in Toronto.
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