Green Trending: What Consumers Want in Tech and Consumer Goods

The Green Revolution is upon us. There has been much talk in recent years about all of us being kinder to our environment through our behaviors and actions. Ipsos has been keen to follow this issue as both a societal shift and a business necessity. There is clearly a paradigm change happening out there and consumers and marketers alike are taking the environment to heart. But what are the expectations and the demands? And when it comes to putting down one kind of green for another, what messaging and products are consumers buying?

We examine this from a few different perspectives. For several years, Ipsos MediaCT has been tracking green technology issues through The Ipsos Green Technology Report. And recently, Ipsos Marketing, Consumer Goods has conducted a number of studies tracking consumer habits and preferences in regards to consumer packaged goods, including food items. Findings in this article are derived from these studies.

Techno-Green

Data show that environmental policies and programs are becoming more top of mind for U.S. consumers when they make technology purchases. At the same time, the proportion of consumers who said they investigated or considered the environmental aspects of their purchase remains low overall. This suggests that environmental considerations, although important to some, are still second tier purchase criteria for technology products and fall behind factors such as price, brand, and form factor. Still, some are willing to pay more for a green positioned technology product, so these perceptions can positively impact the bottom line for many retailers and technology marketers.

Overall, awareness of environmental policies and programs offered by technology companies is still low. Approximately 4 in 10 consumers did not associate any technology brand tested with Green or environmentally friendly business practices. That said, in the time since Ipsos began tracking such information, a number of brands did make significant improvements in their Green perceptions. This suggests that brands can impact their perception through their policies and messaging.

Packaged Green

Over at Ipsos Marketing, the Consumer Goods division discovered that while global consumers care about the environment, they still relish the conveniences of the modern world. Many are taking the environment into account in their daily behaviors and purchasing decisions, but are weighing the impact on convenience as well.

Nearly all of the respondents in the global study were likely to take or continue to take actions in the next 6 months to protect the environment. Leading the way were behaviors such as reusing jars and containers (51%), buying products with recyclable packaging (50%), using dishcloths and sponges instead of paper towels (49%), and reducing usage of paper plates and plastic cups (48%) as well as single-serve plastic bottles (45%).

Yet, global consumers were least likely to curtail their usage of dishwashers, washing machines and dryers or cut back on their usage of individual-size packaging and plastic bags. And global consumers were also lukewarm to the ideas of buying less bulky packaging if it was less convenient to use, looking for alternatives to cleaning products that use toxic chemicals, and using economy-size packaging.

Packaging is also a tricky area. Consumers want packaging to be recyclable, yet they are wary of using economy sizes and other packaging alternatives that might interfere with the convenience of the product. Marketers must really explore their specific categories to ensure that the steps they are taking to develop innovative, environmentally friendly products and packaging will meet consumers' thresholds for convenience and value.

Eating Green

The same Ipsos Marketing, Consumer Goods study also indicated that global consumers have readjusted their priorities regarding food products. What do they want? It is simple. For North American consumvers, the top priorities were fresher ingredients (26%), increased health benefits (24%), and more environmentally friendly packaging (21%). These are also the top priorities that consumers from around the world are placing on food companies.

For the North American consumer, traditional factors such as improved taste (14%), ease of preparation (6%), and convenient packaging (4%) scored lower.

For food marketers, the challenge is to ensure that innovation platforms are clearly focused on these consumer needs, without compromising taste (although this should go hand-in-hand with the use of fresher ingredients).

Conclusion

Green matters. From the living room to the kitchen and every room in between, consumers are more and more concerned with the health of the planet and environment. The challenge for marketers is not to merely appear green, but to actually be green - to live up to the promise and deliver.