2

We are all green consumers

Since it was first ignited during the 1970s, the green consumer revolution has been led by women aged between 30 and 49 with children and with better-than-average education. They are motivated by a desire to keep their loved ones free from harm and to secure their future. That women have historically been in the forefront of green purchasing cannot be underestimated. They still do most of the shopping and make most of the brand purchasing decisions (albeit aided by tiny eco-cops riding in the front seat of shopping carts), and they naturally exhibit a nurturing instinct for the health and welfare of the next generation. Poll after poll shows that women weigh environmental and social criteria more heavily in their purchasing decisions than do men. This may also reflect the fact that men in general feel less vulnerable and more in control than women, and thus feel relatively less threatened by news of environmental gloom and doom.

However, with the mainstreaming of green, we are all green consumers now. Yesterday’s activist moms have been joined by teen daughters searching out Burt’s Bees lip balm made from beeswax while their “twenty-something” nephews opt to clean their new digs with Method cleaning products. Husbands boast of higher mileage, fewer fill-ups, and the peppy look of their new Mini Coopers or diesel-powered Jettas that get 50-plus miles to the gallon. The incidence of green purchasing is so prevalent throughout the U.S. population (and I would venture to guess the populations of all countries where greening is prevalent), that consumers need to be segmented psychographically, i.e., by lifestyle orientation and commitment to green, in order to zero in on one’s most appropriate target customers. One such segmentation is provided by the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) of Harleysville, Pennsylvania. Their research, based on interviews with over 4,000 U.S. adults and entitled The LOHAS Report: Consumers and Sustainability, is excerpted below.