Are you targeting the correct green consumers?
Traditional means of marketing by demographics simply will not work for green consumers, you need to be able to identify how they behave...
Why do you market your company as ethical?
Do you do it because you have to, or because you want to?
Some companies might do it as a form of self-preservation, because they are afraid of what customers will say if they don't. Other, more progressive firms may do it because they realise that there is an opportunity to target customers who feel strongly about the issue.
In the UK, the Co-Operative Bank's 2007 Ethical Consumerism report, published in November, showed that ethical spending in the UK had jumped by 81 per cent since 2002. At £29.7bn, the market is still relatively small compared to the annual consumer spend of over £600bn, but that presumably means that there is plenty more headroom for market growth. Meanwhile in the US, the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI), a market research firm that focuses exclusively on this area, classifies the whole target market under the banner of lifestyles of health and sustainability (LOHAS) – the sector is worth $209bn on that side of the pond.
Who is buying these ethical products and services, and how can companies reach these customers effectively? Trying to pigeonhole the green consumer by pointing to a single demographic was probably naive 20 years ago. Today, it would be extremely foolish.
Types of green consumer... Analysts suggest that there is a slight demographic bias, but it is far from conclusive. In his November 2007 report In Search of Green Technology Consumers, Forrester analyst Christopher Mines found that the bright greens - a small contingency of serious green consumers representing 12 per cent of the US market - were likely to be primarily female and from slightly older age groups. Aside from the bright greens, the greens (those with a moderate interest in green issues) and browns (those who could not care less) that Mines identifies are tricky to accurately characterise.
Identifying a slight demographic trend in bright greens might give companies a hint at the age range and gender they could pursue. But according to LOHAS business director at NMI Gwynne Rogers demographics are notoriously difficult to pin down. Instead, NMI has developed a segmentation model that is behaviourally driven, which reveals that "behaviour tends to be driven uniformly across demographics". Dividing consumers by behavioural traits rather than demographic characteristics makes the LOHAS consumer base is more predictive, Rogers says.
However, this scattered distribution of green consumers makes purely demographic targeting more difficult and as result marketers have had to focus on what people think and feel, and how they behave, rather than how old they are, or where they live. NMI revised its market segmentation in 2005, settling on five different behaviourally-defined consumer categories: LOHAS, Naturalites, Drifters, Conventionals and the Unconcerned.
LOHAS consumers map onto Forrester's bright greens. They are early adopters of green products, and extremely brand loyal, but very demanding. "LOHAS consumers ask more questions about how the ingredients of materials were sourced and how they were processed and shipped, which is why you see them interested in things like fair trade," explains Rogers.
Naturalites also exhibit strong green attitudes, but they are focused more on personal health issues. Expect the holistic living, yoga-practising consumers to inhabit this space. Drifters are what NMI calls "trend sensitive". They are the type of consumers that are more worried about image than actual execution, and are eager to be seen in trendy eco-supermarkets such as Whole Foods partly because it's the hip place to be. Conventionals are a group of consumers that have an interest in green issues but are driven by practical concerns. They want to conserve energy and water because it saves money and makes good old-fashioned sense. Finally, the unconcerned consumers correlate directly with Forrester's 'brown' group. Green issues simply aren't on their radar.
Reaching the masses? But how can companies reach these various green consumers? In keeping with the mainstream nature of green and ethical issues, Nate Elliott, senior analyst at Jupiter Research, says that some companies have simply begun folding green messaging into their general branding, without trying to create distinct marketing messages for specific groups. Then, when consumers come to them through channels such as the web, companies can guide them into specific areas focused on green topics.
Similarly, Ted Ning, director of the LOHAS conference, notes that the days of the organic ghetto aisle in the supermarket are over. Instead, companies are folding green and ethical concerns into their product propositions at a more fundamental level. Organic products have made their way onto every shelf in the supermarket, because a broader range of consumers is becoming interested in such things.
This broad brush approach is useful if you are a company with the marketing budget to address a wide market with your brand, but for those who are more limited will need to focus on smaller markets, where other techniques are necessary. For example, Perry Goldschein, managing director of specialist green marketing company SRB Marketing, relies on email campaigns for direct response marketing. That requires a partnership with websites and publications read by green users. He advises trying to avoid the larger, better-known 'green portal' sites, because they are more expensive. "Some sites charge quite a bit, but if you can do your homework and find those lesser-known sites still reaching hundreds of thousands of people, you can get good deals and still reach a lot of people in your campaign," he advises.
Jupiter's Elliott also recommends using social marketing tools that sit well with the concept of green purchasing as a consumer lifestyle choice. Using social networks to engage these customers, along with frequent, informative messaging about green issues, can help build the type of brand loyalty that LOHAS consumers are known to have. However, such activities are still relatively new for many companies, and many marketing professionals are feeling their way in the dark.
Taking advantage of social media may be one of the most labour-intensive forms of marketing, but it could also build the type of brand value that companies crave. If the message is sincere, and companies can demonstrate that they practice what they preach in their operations, then the signs are that LOHAS consumers will be more than willing to listen.
