Green here to stay?: Green Revolution study by Grail Research

From the PR newswire, "Green Revolution" study by Grail Research


Study Provides Unique Insights to Help Companies Improve Their Communication Strategy and Effectively Influence the Shopping Behavior of Green Consumers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Grail Research, a global strategic research and decision support firm, today announced the availability of its study of "green" sentiment, titled "The Green Revolution." The report -- based on a nationwide survey of U.S. consumers -- provides new insights into consumer preferences, behaviors and attitudes toward green products.

"To effectively capitalize on the large and growing market for green products, businesses need to know what's driving consumer purchasing behavior. Our research was designed to help organizations understand how consumers define green, how committed they are to being green and what drives their decisions to purchase green products in specific categories," said Grail Research Client Service Officer Silvia Springolo. "Empowered with that knowledge, organizations can tailor their green communications, branding and marketing strategies to most effectively influence consumer shopping behavior and drive revenues."

The study, which is available on the Grail Research Web site, www.grailresearch.com, was commissioned to address several fundamental questions that the firm believed remained unanswered about the green revolution:

1. What does green mean to consumers? Does it relate to packaging, energy consumption, organic ingredients, all of these or something else entirely?
2. How committed are consumers to sustainable products, especially in tough economic times?
3. How do die-hard green consumers differ from their "light green" counterparts in attitude, behavior and demographics?
4. How effective have leading green companies been at establishing their green market positioning with consumers?

Key findings from Grail Research's "The Green Revolution" report include:

Green is here to stay:

* 84% of consumers currently purchase at least some green products.
* Only 1% of consumers who purchased green products have abandoned the category.
* A high percentage of green consumers expect to convert to green products in new categories, including cleaning products (93%), paper products (90%), fruits and vegetables (89%), electronics/small appliances (88%), durables (81%), packaged food (79%), health and beauty (74%) and apparel (59%).
* Price is the main reason non-green consumers have not purchased green products (69%).

Green consumers are more diverse than many companies believe:

* Green has some penetration in all demographic segments; however, the majority of green consumers are married women with no children under 18 in the home (57%).
* The 8% of consumers that purchase the majority of their products green (i.e. "dark green" consumers) are more likely to be older, more educated and more affluent.
* Dark green consumers have a better understanding of what green means, and their decision to buy green is driven more by environmental and health concerns.
* Dark green consumers are also much more likely than light green consumers to go directly to the green products section of a store.

Purchase drivers aren't just about the product being green:

* Consumers expect green products to be on par or superior to their non-green counterparts with regard to safety (72%), healthiness (70%), quality (66%) and price (65%).
* Each product category has a unique set of green features that is most important for driving purchases. Recyclable product packaging is the only green feature that is considered important for multiple product categories.

Companies' green initiatives are important to consumers, but in many cases they have not been effectively communicated

* 93% of consumers feel that a company's "greenness" is at least somewhat important to their purchase decision.
* However, on average 85% of consumers are unaware or cannot recall the green initiatives of companies like Hewlett-Packard, Estee Lauder and Intel, which are recognized by industry groups as leaders in the green revolution.
* Consumers rely on product labels (63%) and word of mouth (45%) as their primary sources of information about green companies and their products. Advertising (38%) and company Web sites (18%) are not as important to consumers.

The recession has impacted green but not trumped it:

* Almost two-thirds of consumers have changed their green purchase behavior in response to the recession.
* Most of these consumers have switched to less expensive green products (41%) or simply reduced the overall amount of green products that they use/consume (19%).
* However, 16% of consumers have actually increased their use of green products.

For additional information or to access the full report, please visit the Grail Research Web site at: www.grailresearch.com/green_revolution.