photo credit: thingermejig
There’s one thing you need to know about the green consumer. They want to know.
According to the Roper Green Gauge, over 50% reported they would do more if they only knew what and how. So moving your communications to educate and inform can do a lot to grow your green business.
While representing an eco-friendly paint company, we raised the issues of indoor air pollution which is caused in part by the out-gassing of toxins in conventional paints, stains and cleaning products. We built into their quarterly consumer catalog an educational component called “Did You Know?” Sprinkled throughout the pages were various statistics that enlightened consumers.
For instance, using EPA statistics, we informed them that “indoor air pollution is two to twenty times worse than outdoor air pollution even in a heavily industrialized city.” A few pages later, a statistic from Scientific American stated, “A baby crawling on a conventional carpet inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes a day.”
These eye-opening facts broadened their audience considerably, bringing many mainstream people into their consumer base who now understood the close-to-home benefits of their products. Then we launched the branding line for their non-toxic paints, “Beauty without the Beast.” We struck the balance between the reasons people buy their products: To beautify their homes AND avoid unnecessary toxins – the real reason for that “just painted smell.”
Most of us trust the marketplace to bring us products that are safe, useful and effective. Consumers have not trained themselves nor felt the need to examine everything that’s out there before they purchase. But that’s beginning to change.
The thousands of recalls of everything from children’s toys to chopped meat are beginning to wake up and energize a more informed consumer. They’re demanding to know more before they buy and that has profound implications for marketers.
