It’s too hard to be green

Why do consumers who say they are concerned about the environment continue to purchase products that are not environmentally-friendly? This is an interesting phenomenon because despite consumers’ growing environmental consciousness and positive attitudes towards the environment, the adoption rate of green products in recent times has been falling. Indeed many consumers continue to buy environmentally hazardous products regardless of their concern for green alternatives. To quote Michal Carrington and colleagues, they do not “walk the talk”.

Dr Lay Pen Tan (from Macquaire University) and I decided to explore this phenomenon in more depth, which involved conducting focus groups as part of a pilot study in New Zealand. Reasons given by participants for not purchasing green products varied. For example:

  • Green products were perceived to be more expensive than other products. As Tracy stated, “well if you’re struggling to pay the bills you’re not going to worry about it”.
  • Some consumers queried whether environmentally-friendly products were as effective as other products.
  • Other consumers did not trust the product’s environmental claims. As Mary informed us, “I don’t trust people who are using the word…everything is organic and green….It’s just a marketing ploy”.
  • For many consumers, the information provided was often confusing.
  • An important issue also was the perception that it is too hard to be green. As Kim stated, “I think at the end of the day people are inherently lazy.  And if it’s too hard they’re not going to do it.”

As our study highlighted, some consumers have not yet personalised the green issue because they have difficultyidentifying how and why it is necessary to take action. Consequently, short-term gains are valued over long-term benefits. In other words, people would rather experience immediate gratification than wait for larger future gains. This typically holds true for environmental gains because it may be difficult for consumers to comprehend what the long-term effects are, when they are likely to occur, or how their actions can have an impact. As one person said, “they haven’t actually ever proven that anyone’s died from using XYZ [well-known brand]”.

The challenge then for marketers, is trying to make long-term social dilemmas such as the environment, meaningful to consumers. Whilst there is a growing awareness of environmental issues, the majority of consumers today continue to purchase along traditional lines; in other words they seldom, if at all, buy “green” products. If marketers and policy-makers want to encourage more people to become green, they need to focus on this group rather than the elusive “green segment”. The green challenge might be difficult but it is not hopeless. As a twenty year old participant stated, we need to change “the idea in people’s minds that even just doing something is better than doing nothing”.

Dr Micael-Lee Johnstone

MaRVL Visiting Scholar, Marketing lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Source:

Carrington, M., Neville, B., and Whitwell, G. (2010), “Why ethical consumers don’t walk their talk: Towards a framework for understanding the gap between the ethical purchase intentions and actual buying behaviour of ethically minded consumers”, Journal of Business Ethics, 97(1), 139-158.

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