By: Stefan Deeran
It can be tough to draw conclusions from surveys that ask people their positions on social norms. In other words, if you ask a consumer whether they care about the environment, they’ve been trained to say “yes,” even though their purchasing behavior suggests otherwise.
Nonetheless, marketing surveys have consistently found that roughly 3/4 of consumers could be roughly characterized as green (the light green/dark green divide is another story). The Shelton Group, an ad agency focused on the green market, surveyed the consumers who could be classified as green and found six myths that are “shattering the stereotypes of the green consumer.” Here the are, edited down for length:
- Myth: Green consumers’ top concern is the environment. Greens still care more about the economy (59 percent) than the environment (8 percent).
- Myth: Green consumers’ main motivation when reducing their energy use is to save the planet. 73 percent are mainly motivated “to reduce my bills/control costs.”
- Myth: Green consumers are all-knowledgeable about environmental issues. 49 percent incorrectly believe C02 depletes the ozone layer.
- Myth: Green consumers fall into a simple demographic profile. While the study detected some demographic tendencies, it found that green consumers aren’t easily defined by their age, income or ethnicity.
- Myth: Children play a big part in influencing their parents to be green. Only 20 percent of respondents with children said their kids encouraged them to be greener.
- Myth: If people just knew the facts they’d make greener choices. Individuals who answered all of the science questions correctly did report participating in a significantly higher average number of green activities. However, the 25-34 age group consistently answered the question correctly, yet, on average, their green activity levels were lower than those of older respondents.
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