Going Green. How to avoid the cliches.

Taglines aren't just words; they should deliver on a brand's promise. And you can argue with me until the cows come home but that delivery should allow for an experience that is so authentic and real,   there is little left   but for the news of your brand to spread.  

Take Fashion Week Trinidad and Tobago (FWTT) for instance, five days of wonderful Caribbean fashion that promised heaps of glamour, fun and a bit of escapism. Did the brand deliver on all three? You bet. Funny though the organisers chose none of those values to communicate the 5-day show, preferring to go with the eco-friendly tag: '"live green, save the earth.''

I understand all too well why green is the new black. The planet is in peril and going green is one way to save it. The green messages that marketers are embracing demonstrate an eco consciousness that can influence   how we live, what we drive and what we wear; high fashion should not be above the fray.

 Several years ago designer Isaac Mizrahi sent his models down the ramp in silk chiffon slip dress worked with treated salmon skin. The material was a byproduct of fish processing plants and was considered   a trendy substitute for traditional leather. At the same show, designer Paulina Reyes worked with carvers from Latin America to supply rosewood handles and tiles for a Kate Spade collection of handbags. 

There were wonderful attempts at FWTT too. Trinidadian designer Robert Young sent every model down the ramp with green plants in sliver buckets   that were tagged with environmental and social messages.  St Lucian designer Queen Esther  wowed the crowd with her natural fiber line and  use of eco friendly jewellery made by   a conservationist.

But the Green Revolution did go much further. Each night patrons sat on chairs stacked with brochures that were not made of  recycled paper,  models walked the ramp under lights that were hardly energy conserving and  many designers failed to understand the nature of a collection making a series  of isolated garments that  didn't maximise their  fabric, their time or their money.  

Did 'live green, save the earth' message work? Yes and no. Many times at FWTT  it seemed like a lovely cliché, the question is how to get beyond it.

As a marketer, I think that taglines have to matter and  if a customer  can't  relate  your brand  to the whole  experience you’re offering then   it  is all just lip service. In other words  don't tell me your core values because you decided them in a meeting room. Instead allow me to feel your core values because you demonstrate them through my entire interaction with your brand. In that sense FWTT failed. 

Still the green revolution  lays a good foundation for  next year's week of fashion because there's  a second and not-so-obvious goal of a great tagline;  it  keeps  you  focused on  who and what you are trying to be. 

FWTT is not yet there but I have no doubt that they will be.