Steve Katz03.24.10
Make a Lasting Impression on Green Consumers
Success in the marketplace for sustainable health and beauty products requires more than earth-friendly practices and ideals. Understanding what differentiates green consumers from one another, what they look for when buying green products, and how they attain information about them is crucial.
WRITTEN BY: Silvia Springolo, Client Service Officer for Grail Research
AUTHOR BIO: Silvia Springolo has more than 10 years of experience advising global brands in the development of successful marketing strategies. At Grail Research, she oversees specialized research that many of the world’s best known consumer brands use to answer their most pressing marketing questions. For more information on Grail Research, email Springolo at sspringolo@grailresearch.com.
A green revolution is underway, precipitating a fundamental change in consumers’ purchasing behavior. Grail Research recently set out to gain a deeper understanding of what this trend means by conducting a survey of more than 600 consumers in the U.S. The survey posed questions about a wide range of product categories in order to uncover not only what motivates green buying decisions, but also specific insights companies can use to effectively communicate how their products stack up in the rapidly-growing market for earth-friendly alternatives.
Several truths of particular interest to all companies and to the health, beauty and fragrance industries in particular, emerged. First and foremost, the reality is that green is here to stay. More than 85 percent of consumers surveyed reported making a green purchase, and despite tough global economic conditions, nearly all of them plan to make more in the future. Of this 85 percent, almost half are consumers who have bought green health and beauty products and will continue to do so. Of those who have not bought green health and beauty products, 35 percent said they will in the future. The key point is clear: if health and beauty companies are not actively targeting the market for sustainable products, they are competing against it.
The survey also revealed that green consumers, despite similarities, come in different shades, from those who make earth-friendly purchases opportunistically (i.e., “light green” consumers) to "dark green” shoppers who make a deliberate effort to buy sustainable products most of the time. This is particularly true in the health and beauty market, which has nearly twice as many dark green consumers (16 percent) as the overall green population, indicating a much greater appetite for environmentally-friendly products among health and beauty consumers.
With distinct demographic characteristics and behaviors, these shades of green consumers make purchase decisions for different reasons. For example, while light consumers of sustainable health and beauty products bought their first green product largely out of curiosity after seeing it at the store (39 percent), their dark green counterparts were far more deliberate and were equally split (24 percent in both cases) between making the purchase when they “heard about the availability of the product” or were “researching for general information about the product.” This underscores that there is no one-size-fits-all green product marketing strategy and stresses the importance of gaining a deeper and more granular understanding of green customers.
This is even more imperative given that the study also found that nearly 85 percent of consumers cannot recall or are not aware of the sustainable practices of companies considered leaders in the green movement. This proved consistent across all industries, not just for health and beauty.
Perhaps most importantly, nearly 70 percent of consumers who purchase green health and beauty products reported looking to packaging, and labeling specifically, as a key source of information about green products and companies – a finding that was consistent for both light green and dark green consumers. For beauty packaging professionals, the ramifications are clear: packaging plays and will continue to play an important role in green product messaging, not only in differentiating products on the shelf, but also in communicating the sustainable corporate practices consumers increasingly demand.