Consumers Sip, Rather than Gulp, Green Kool-Aid

Interesting article found today on Marketing VOX regarding the world of Green and how much consumers actually care. Based on a new Yankelovich study, the article points out that despite a glut of media coverage, a relatively small percentage of consumers are really passionate about being Green.

Yankelovich illustrates the degree to which all consumers - from “Green-less” to “Green-Enthusiasts” - are likely to buy a product based on its green features:

• Green-less (29%) Unmoved by environmental issues and alarms
• Green-bits (19%) Don’t care but doing a few things
• Green-steps (25%) Aware, concerned taking steps
• Green-speaks (15%) Talk the talk more than walk the walk
• Green-thusiasts (13%) Environment is a passionate concern

While the largest percentage of Americans are “unmoved”, those “passionate” can still be a valuable niche.  At 30 million strong they are nothing to snicker at, they simply should not be viewed as a mass audience.

Further, this is, to a large degree, a corporate driven movement based on good PR, and the reality is that as “organizations are required to meet strict federal and state environmental regulations - often at huge expense - it makes sense to try and leverage “new and improved” green product to consumers.”

As more marketers are finding Green is not just the color of money anymore, it'll be interesting to see which campaigns hit on the right message for the right audience and which just throw it out to the masses , to find the message falling mostly on deaf ears.