So, what first caught my eye on these markers as my 3 year old and I shopped to re-supply our arts&crafts closet was the “washable” claim. We’ve had some mishaps (to say the least) on our kitchen benches and table. Yes,the sharpies have now been hidden. What became much more interesting to me about these markers -and frankly the whole Crayola brand- was the bigger story about their “Crayola Eco-Evolution”. The markers are black- my girls thought they glowed in the dark- but in fact according to the box, “Black is now green! Black marker barrels let us use more recycled plastic in Crayola markers-keeping hundreds of tons of plastic out of landfills each year!”. They also tout their other efforts- using solar panels to provide enough power to make one billion crayons each year, and a new tree is planted for every one used to make their colored pencils. Great stuff.

Now, as per the box, “to learn about more ways Crayola colors are getting greener all the time, go to crayola.com”, I went. And I searched. And I couldn’t find anything. And I searched by product and found some products buried in their pages of markers but come on Crayola- leverage this suite of products and your efforts:

-Create a stand alone URL: www.crayolaeco-evolution.com (they trademarked it after all)

-Create a button on your site that leads us to the products that are greener

-If I search for, “eco-evolution” in your search box, give me some results.

It kills me when a brand gets close but doesn’t quite get it.  Perhaps Crayola has something up the eco sleeves for Earth Day– a big announcement, a site skin, a micro-site launch?

They have about 24 hours to go for it just in time for the greenest retail month around.

That’s right folks, “earth month” starts tomorrow!

p.s. Just did a little surfing around and see that the black marker product got some bad “marks’ for being too hard for kids to replace the lids due to the black barrel nature of the marker, teachers are up in arms. Seriously? All the extra hard work to keep the planet a little greener? Shades of the noisy sun chip bag. Greenvenience  is NO JOKE.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot as I prepare to present on the topic of Gen We’s Eco-expectations at our upcoming conference in Miami. What will this group of kids expect from companies when they open up their pocket books? How much are they already influencing their parents? How much eco-education is taking place at school?  I know this. My 6 year old refused to eat the yogurt I packed in her lunch  a few days in a row but ate the yogurt at home. I couldn’t figure it out and finally asked and she explained, “Mom, if I eat this at school in the cafeteria then I have to wait in the recycling line and I am late to recess.” I later visited the cafeteria at her public elementary school and saw what she meant- they had three lines: compost for food waste/bio-degradable food packaging, recycling and garbage. The collection process is overseen by the 5th graders and the kids wait in lines to de-construct and properly dispose of their lunches. The less parts and pieces, the more time they get for recess– this is their consideration set. Would a marketer know this? Would they consider this possible push back from a Gen We kiddo and a new purchasing motivator (or de-motivator) for a parent? I think they best take note- Gen We and the world they are growing up in has green written all over it.