GREEN PROFILING: MARKET RESEARCH ON GREEN CONSUMERS

In recent years, marketing and consulting firms have created detailed profiles of green consumers. Though the profiles are primarily used by client companies, they are not irrelevant to consumers themselves. The profiles are, after all, about them.

LOHAS

LOHAS stands for "lifestyles of health and sustainability." Four years ago, Natural Business Communications debuted the LOHAS Journal, a marketing publication about consumers "who value health, the environment, social justice, personal development and sustainable living." 68 million LOHAS consumers—32 percent of American adults—spend $227 billion annually on products that appeal to their values. 90 percent of LOHAS consumers, versus 62 percent of the general population, say that they will usually buy from a company with values like their own.

Green consumers are only part of the LOHAS picture. The LOHAS market is a loose amalgamation of everything from eco-tourism and recycled paper to acupuncture and yoga mats. Perhaps because of its inclusiveness, businesses have adopted LOHAS as the leading classification for values-based consumers. The large web-based lifestyle company Gaiam designed its marketing strategy around catering to LOHAS consumers, and companies as diverse as Tom’s of Maine and Ford Motor Company sent representatives to last year’s LOHAS Market Trends Conference.

CULTURAL CREATIVES

Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson’s Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World (www.culturalcreatives.org) describes a group that overlaps with LOHAS consumers. Like the LOHAS group, Creatives are defined according to broad concerns about health, the environment and social justice. In fact, marketers refer to Creatives and LOHAS consumers interchangeably.

Released in 2000, the book is a product of Ray’s 15 years of market research on Creatives. He found that women outnumber men three-to-two overall, and two-to-one within the core group of opinion leaders. Creatives are slightly wealthier and better educated, watch half as much television, read more lifestyle magazines, listen to more radio and read twice as many books as the general population. They are a critical and discerning audience that distrusts mass media and relies instead on word-of-mouth and targeted advertising gather information about companies. Creatives, who Ray estimates may compose half of the U.S. in 10 years, see themselves as the pioneers of a new social order, not to the Left or the Right, but in front. They are looking for companies that share their vision.

To successfully market to Creatives, companies are advised to tell the stories behind their products, connecting them to values, personal experiences and life’s larger concerns, and to establish themselves as good citizens by supporting worthy causes.

GAUGING GREEN

Market research firm Roper ASW publishes the Green Gauge Report, which it describes as "the nation's preeminent guide for surviving and thriving in the green marketplace."

Roper divides the population into five segments. "True Blue Greens" and "Greenback Greens" are the two segments most likely to buy green. According to the 2002 report, True Blue Greens constitute 9 percent of the population. Wealthy and well-educated, they include environmental activists, leaders and others who live in close alignment with their values. Greenback Greens (6 percent) are also wealthy and well-educated. They are likely to be green consumers, but don’t always sacrifice comfort and convenience for the sake of the environment.

The Green Gauge Report helps companies tailor their marketing strategy by providing poll data about consumers’ willingness to pay more for green products, where they turn for information about the environment, their personal involvement with environmental issues and their most significant environmental concerns.

PASSIONATES, FANATICS AND LOVERS

J. Ottman Consulting (www.greenmarketing.com) divides green consumers into three categories: "Planet Passionates," "Health Fanatics," and "Animal Lovers."

Planet Passionates are committed to maintaining a pristine environment. They pattern their consumption to reduce waste and avoid products from companies with bad environmental reputations.

Health Fanatics worry that environmental problems will impact their health. They are by toxic waste, sun exposure and pesticides, and try to stay in good health through a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Animal Lovers defend animal rights through vegetarianism, by purchasing products labeled "cruelty free" and "not tested on animals," and boycotting products like fur and tuna.

Ottman recommends that companies green their image by developing relationships with NGOs, community members, educators and regulators.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE, AND THE COMPANIES

Profiles of green consumers, particularly the LOHAS consumers and Cultural Creatives, offer encouraging evidence that green consumers are empowered to play a significant role in the marketplace, now and in the future. As the numbers suggest, they are increasing in size and influence.

They also show that companies, too, are empowered with insight into the minds and lives of green consumers. This insight is essential for genuine green companies to succeed in a competitive marketplace. For example, "storytelling" allows companies to communicate with like-minded consumers in the "About Us" section or on the packaging of their products. Through market research, green companies know where to tell their stories and what type of stories will resonate with their customers.

Often times, the stories uncover real common ground in values and philosophy, upon which customers and companies can together build a greener economy. At the web-site of Real Goods (www.realgoods.com), for instance, consumers can be assured that the company isn’t trying to make a fast buck off of their green values. Real Goods has been promoting renewable energy for over 25 years and, writes company president and founder John Schaeffer, "We will always strive to maintain our innovation, our friendliness, our integrity, and most of all our authenticity which values walking our talk and shunning the hyperbole and disingenuity that has become commonplace in American business." Real Goods provides evidence for its claims with data from an "Eco-Audit", including the total amount of virgin and recycled paper it uses annually for its catalog, newsletter and other publications.

Yet consumers should be advised that companies can become trained in the style of storytelling and other forms of green marketing without changing the substance of their environmental practices. J. Ottman Consulting’s clients, for example, include established greenwashers Kraft Foods, DuPont and General Electric.

Regardless of who is behind them, the stories reveal a positive trend towards transparency and communication between consumers and companies. Their connections do not have to be merely financial, but can be based on joint activism and mutual support. This current trend grew out of consumers’ savvy in sorting out truly green companies from greenwashers. Faced with increasing skepticism about their environmental claims, companies responded by opening up, or at least appearing to do so. To maintain the trend, consumers should continue to reward companies that are sincere and specific about their environmental commitment, which will force those who aren’t to follow suit.

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