On November 12th, Brian Morrissey reports on a recent Yahoo study in AdWeek30. Yahoo commissioned an in person survey of fifteen hundred 18-54 year olds in Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon and Chicago. 3 out of 4 (or roughly 77%) respondents described themselves as "green" consumers.
57% reported making a "green" purchase in the last six months. Motives varied. 23% described themselves as "deeply committed" to the cause. Another 24% found purchasing green "trendy". Yahoo surmises, this 24% is derived from the younger demographic 18-34.
Overall the study found 5 consumer groups:
1. Deeply committed - 23% who are early adopters who are going green for the long haul. This group is mostly females over 35 who are more educated and likely to live in metropolitan areas. The best message for this group is "positive environmental impact".
2.Trendy - 24% who are going green to be cool. This is a younger and more ethnically diverse group who are motivated by the message "everyone else is doing it".
3.Practical - 13% are motivated by immediate health benefits or dollar savings. This demographic is generally more rural, over 45 with children.
4.Passive - 17% understand that green is important but don't see going green as their responsibility. It is more the responsibility of others. These are younger adults 25-34, more female, with children. They can be swayed if the benefits to their family are stressed.
5. Other - 23% who don't care about the environment or don't take any action.
Green purchases are most often made in cleaning and personal care product categories. Sustainability considerations are entering into larger purchase decisions as well, particularly in the automobile category. 71% reported interest in purchasing an environmentally friendly automobile.
Consumers reported using both online (68%) and offline (72%) sources for research. Traditional media, web portals and web search were mentioned most often. Company websites (20%) and blogs (21%) were also rans for research.
This is an interesting statistic. Word of mouth and peer to peer information are two of the most powerful purchasing motivators. Is it possible the geographic locations had something to do with these findings? Possible in LA and Chicago, but Portland is one of the "greenest" cities in the country and is very community oriented so I have to think both these factors come into play in purchasing decisions there.
Is it possible this is NOT true in the green category? Maybe the question is defining "green". Purchasing "green" products doesn't make one "green", especially when a percentage of those purchases are most likely made because being "green" is "trendy". Curiously, the "trendy" group is the one most likely to be affected by peer decisions and to use technology for their research. Maybe these are the ones using websites and blogs for research.
What can we take from this? There is a great deal of Green Awareness. 60% of respondents are buying green on a regular basis no matter what their motivation. 4 of the 5 consumer groups are open to a green marketing advertising message. Open to information, Awareness and Action are positive results for Green.
till next week --Restore, Refresh, Recycle and Renew
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It's great that you brought up the issue of the places that these surveys were taken in. Like you said, I know Portland to be a very "green" city so that definitely could have swayed some results. Maybe they could have included some east coast cities or southern cities. Also the fact that "green" is such broad term can have an effect of the results found. Some people think that a product with one "green" attribute is considered green but some do not.
I would most likely fall into the category of the "trendy" consumer group because of my age and the fact that anything "green" is so marketable right now. Before it became popular, I knew about these products but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy them. Now that I have more information, indeed with use of technology, I feel like I can better understand the impact it has. I try now to get products that I consider "green" but as you said, buying green doesn't make you a green person. I am trying incorporate it more into my lifestyle instead of just something to do because "everyone else is doing it". I'm reading books and really researching for new ideas.
I am surprised that they broke up the groups into five components. I would actually expect there to be less. However, after reading through them, they do make sense. I myself would say that I do believe that going Green is “trendy”. Although now, more people are educated so it is starting to stick that this is not a fad, it has to actually be a change in the world of the consumer. I don’t actually try to be green but I do recycle and reuse all plastic and grocery bags, and bring reusable bags to the grocery store. If there is a green product that is less expensive I will buy it, but I rarely go out of my way to do so. I am glad that large companies are changing their ways because then it makes it easier for lazy consumers like myself to change ours. I think that communities will continue to expand as green awareness does. I feel that places that seem to be greener than others are more rural places where people have more time, and less money. This is just what I think I know that it is not a fact. All around I enjoyed this post a lot because it breaks down everyone I know and I can put them into one of the five groups.
I think the influence location has on “green” shopping is interesting. Last year in my Univ 101 class we had to take a quiz online to determine our carbon footprint. Out of curiosity I took the quiz twice, once for my practices at home in Maryland and once for my practices here in Philadelphia. Not surprisingly my carbon footprint was dramatically reduced here at school. One of the main factors was my change in transportation. In Maryland you have to take a car everywhere, here you can walk or take septa. Despite my lifestyle change I have to admit that when at home I am more likely to purchase “green” products. One reason is that I have my money earning parents to help pay for a product I might want. A second is that I have found certain stores stock different products in Maryland. For instance, I have a fallen in love with this organic shampoo and conditioner that I can find at home in any grocery store or CVS. Here in Philadelphia the only place I can find it is the Rite Aid on braodstreet. It makes sense when you think about the target customer likely being the well educated, over 35 female that is deeply committed to the green movement. The area here in University City consists of students but in the suburbs of Maryland homes consist of working families. Our priorities are different and therefore our willingness to buy green products differs.
The first statistic about 3 out of 4 people surveyed claiming that they are green consumers really surprised me. I feel that many of them probably feel that they are "green" consumers when they are only purchasing a few green items here and there. After seeing that the survey was in Portland, I also immediately thought about how green that city is, so it definitely had some sort of impact on the survey. The five types of consumers were very interesting as well and they seem to be accurate from what I would assume. The trendy consumer is probably one of which is claiming to be green like the beginning survey but really isn't committed to the cause. I also feel that many consumer are purchasing green products but they are not completely replacing the existing products they use which kind of defeats the purpose. Many americans like myself are curious consumers, we see a new product or cause and immediately feel we need to purchase because it's new or trendy, not to completely support the cause. While on the other hand there are the deeply committed and practical consumers who are purchasing because they have thought of the difference/benefit it will have.
It is hard to research and attain accurate statistics when something isn't clearly defined. The variable in the study, being "green" could have a thousand different meanings. I think the comment that you made about how people define green has the possibility to sway results makes complete sense. For one person, simply recycling may qualify them to be "green", someone more passionate about it may consider green to be taken across the board in every part of their daily life. I was extremely shocked that 3 out of 4 said they consider themselves green. I can't imagine getting the same results in philadelphia, but who knows. I think its obvious what a trend green has become, and it makes complete sense that its a younger generation affected by trends. However, I don't think that its only younger people affected by the green trend. Most older people weren't talking about it 10 years ago, now it is an everyday part of our media, papers, conversations. Movies with moviestars are telling us how we are supposed to feel. Websites are throwing out falicized facts to uneducated people that form their biases on false statistics. I think in some ways its less about educating people and more about the trend of it all, and it only makes sense for younger, less experienced people to be buying into it.
I agree that "green" is a very broad term because there are so many components that go into the green category. A product might be made from organic fabric, but its carbon footprint might be extremely hazardous to the environment. When referring to the deeply committed group, I wonder what their green lifestyle consists of and how it varies from the trendy or practical group. Of course, as stated, the groups have different motives but how does this really effect their actions? Does the motive really matter if one is trying to take part in the movement to improve the environment? Although the study found 5 consumer groups, I cannot label myself under one particular group. I understand that going green is more than just a trend. While I believe that making these improvements in our lifestyles is very important, I simply cannot completely change every aspect of my life and think green at all times. For instance I cannot give up on Forever 21 because it a very wallet friendly retailer. While Forever 21 may not fall into the green movement in anyway, I can’t afford (literally) to give up one of my favorite stores. Instead I try to be eco-friendly in other ways. I have given up bottled water and strictly use my Brita, recycle, and even prefer to buy eco-friendly clothing and accessories when available at a reasonable price.
At first when I tried to figure out where I fell in the list of consumer groups, I felt like I didn't fit in. I care about the environment and do something when I can, but I am not deeply committed about it and I also don't ignore it. I guess that drops me in the Trendy percentile because I am aware of it through other people and now want to participate in whatever way I know how.
However, I am wary about anyone that claims they are a green consumer because I fear that some don't know exactly what green is or if the products they purchase really are truly green.
Hopefully word of mouth and education will make the percent of committed consumers rise.
The first fact in this post was the most suprising to me..." 3 out of 4 (or roughly 77%) respondents described themselves as "green" consumers."
When I read this I was shocked, the first thoughts that ran through my mind were "do these people even know what green is?" "if over 75% of the population in these cities call themselves green why is our earth in the current condition that it is.
I am glad that Anne thought the same thing, for it was brought up later in the post.Along with discovering the five consumer groups another important question that should have been included in the survey could have been
What is your definition of green?
This yahoo survey polled alot of people from the four cities surveyed. I would love to see the results to this survey from four cities on the east coast. I have a feeling the responses may be quite different.
--Kristan
I find the comparison of location to the amount of “green” consumers to be very interesting. In a broader scale, I can definitely see a difference when it comes to small towns and metropolitan areas. Here in Philadelphia, I find “being green” to be a hot topic of discussion, yet when I go to my hometown it’s unheard of. For example, over thanksgiving break I ran into someone from high school. He told he how he started his own company and then continued to tell me how he just bought a brand new Hummer. Seriously? It astounds me how people will buy such products, but the question comes up, does he not know how bad its hurting our environment? Or does he just not care? Even before “being green” became trendy, it was thrust upon me by my sister when she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico for college, where they’re a little more in touch with nature than the northeast. She has since moved to Portland, and from everything she tells me about the city as a whole, it is extremely environmentally friendly. The city provides free public transportation encouraging their residents to use it instead of driving. Because of examples like this, I can then see that Portland could have swayed the poll when in comparison to LA, an area where everyone is driving everywhere they go.
I'm glad to hear that Going Green in starting to impact a lot of people. Going green should be a concern for everyone. With more and more people going green I feel like soon everyone will be going green, it a growing trend. I think it is the cool thing to do today. It's definitely the smart thing to do. With more people starting to take notice of how bad our environment is getting and how our natural resources are running low it's about time people and companies start to take action. I feel like soon our whole world will revolve around going green. There have been people from the beginning of time trying to help the environment and warning people of the dangers we are causing the earth from over using our resources and polluting the environment. Finally people are taking notice and realizing if we don't start doing something now soon it really will be too late. In actuality this is a movement that should have been taken more seriously decades ago. It's not until the world is in great danger that people finally start to take notice. At least we are starting to take notice and acknowledge what we need to do to turn this place around. -Dana Dougherty
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