Interesting new data from Harris Interactive on green buyer behavior. BGM

Many People Prefer to Buy Locally Grown, or Organic, Produce and “Green” Products from Environmentally-Friendly Companies, But Not If They Are Much More Expensive

It`s quite popular for people to claim that they care about the environment. In fact many millions of people – from 18% to 39% of all adults – say that their purchasing behavior and other interactions with companies is sometimes influenced by environmental factors. However, in reality, only a very small minority is willing to pay substantially more for “green” products or goods produced by environmentally-friendly companies.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 3,110 adults, surveyed online between July 7 and September 8, 2009 by Harris Interactive®.

Over 30% of adults say that they often or always purchase locally grown products or seek out and are willing to pay more for “green” products. And a quarter of all adults say that environmental issues are very important to them when deciding what products to buy. But only a few people seek out and buy green products if they have to pay a lot more for them (2%) or say the cost doesn`t matter (3%).

Some of the findings of this Harris Poll include:

* 26% of all adults say that environmental issues are extremely or very important to them when deciding what products or services to buy;
* 17% say that environmental issues are extremely or very important to them when deciding what company to work for;
* Fully 32% say they seek out `green” products and are willing to pay at least a little more for “green” products;
* However, only a few do not consider cost (3%) or are willing to pay a lot more (2%) for them;
* 18% of all adults prefer to do business with a “green” company.

These findings come from a much larger survey by Harris Interactive which asked many other questions about environmental issues, attitudes and behaviors. The survey also found that most people were taking some action, however modest, to limit their use of electricity, water or gasoline. While two-thirds (67%) of these people said that they were doing this to benefit the environment, over half (55%) said that they were doing this to save money.

This Harris Poll divided the adult population into four segments based on how they described themselves in response to four different questions. These segments went from the least to the most “green” and the replies of the four segments to virtually all of the questions are dramatically different. The “most green” segment, 22% of all adults, are far more likely to adopt all of the environmentally-friendly activities. The “least green” are extremely unlikely to adopt any of them.

For example, fully 68% of the “most green” segment are willing to pay at least a little more for green products. Only 3% of the “least green” are willing to do so.

So what?

The most important conclusion to be drawn from these findings is that “green marketing” surely appeals to substantial numbers of consumers. Everything else being equal, many millions of people would prefer to buy products and services that are “green” or are produced by environmentally-friendly companies. However, if “green” products cost significantly more than less “green” products, relatively few people will buy them. When push comes to shove, in these economic times especially, price usually trumps environmental factors.

See the original post, with tables and more details at http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS87759+23-Oct-2009+BW20091023