white paper

white paper, an authoritative report detailing an issue, position, problem, solution, or even a commercial product and service. Originally produced or commissioned by a government agency or office, providing in-depth background information on topics of public interest, including proposed and existing legislation and government policies, white papers are now a common tool in marketing, used by corporations, private companies, and nonprofit organizations alike to inform or sway the general public, prospective customers, journalists, even investors.

An early example of a governmental white paper is the Churchill White Paper (formally entitled Palestine: Correspondence with the Palestine Arab Delegation and the Zionist Organisation), issued by the British government in 1922 in response to anti-Jewish riots in Jaffa (now Yafo), Palestine. Named for the British colonial secretary Winston Churchill, the document attempted to lessen tensions between Arabs and Jews by declaring in part that Great Britain did “not contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be founded in Palestine.” A later British white paper, In Place of Strife: A Policy for Industrial Relations, issued in 1969, sought to limit the powers of the country’s Trades Union Congress by enabling the government to enforce settlements of interunion disputes, but its specific legislative recommendations were never enacted.

White papers are generally distinguished from green papers, which are issued by governments to invite relevant individuals and organizations to discuss differing approaches to particular problems. The former, however, can result from the latter. Examples of green papers include those on aging and retail financial services issued by the European Commission in 2015 and 2021, respectively. White papers issued by the European Commission have included those on the future of Europe (2017), foreign subsidies (2020), and artificial intelligence (2020).

In business contexts, white papers are frequently used to promote specific products or services. They are generally used for business-to-business (B2B) marketing—that is, marketing by manufacturers aimed at wholesalers or marketing by wholesalers aimed at retailers. Most white papers take one of three main forms: backgrounders, numbered lists, and problem-solution papers.

Backgrounders are essentially descriptive and fact-based, delving into the benefits and features of a product or service. Numbered lists include questions, answers, and tips related to a given product or service and are designed to reassure prospective customers and to instill fear, uncertainty, and doubt in competitors.

Problem-solution papers propose a new solution to a problem in a persuasive manner and are typically aimed at potential B2B customers who are not close to a purchasing decision. Such documents seek to increase brand recognition as well as to build a market for the firm’s products or services.