part 2 - EU Ecolabel Marketing for Products

100
9.6 Conclusion for further Ecolabel
strategy and projects
The marketing campaign started in Hungary when both the EU Ecolabel and the national
ecolabel had practically no recognition. This relates particularly to the EU Ecolabel. There
have been no ecolabelled products in the stores and customers had no opportunity to see
the Flower logo. The past three years have brought some progress. Due to the new
awards, publicity, as well as the slow influx of imported ecolabelled products in the
Hungarian market recognition of the EU ecolabel has somewhat increased. If this process
continued, the growing recognition could induce additional companies to apply. If
marketing declined, the achieved results would quickly vanished.
Marketing should continue to address both producers and consumers, increase both
demand and supply.
As long as the number of awarded companies is small, marketing should aim at the low
hanging fruits: companies where top management is open to green ideas. These are
difficult to detect but if the number of awarded companies starts to grow, the process itself
can generate more interest in the ecolabel. With decreasing related fees, more SMEs will
be interested in the Flower. Some companies already think of the ecolabel as a potential
strategy to overcome the current economic crisis.
In the case of consumers, working with retail shops is important, to show the products,
their features and prices and demonstrate that they are affordable and accessible. Interest
in healthy lifestyle and healthy products, also, in environmental protection is increasing
but the myth, that environmentally friendly products are excessively expensive (in many
cases they are) is an obstacle to the expansion of these products.