While light green consumers make purchasing decisions based on impulse and curiosity, dark green consumers generally plan purchases in advance, according to a survey from Grail Research. Marketers would do well to pay attention to the light green consumers (above), who make up 89 percent of those that say they purchase green items.
The dark green consumers, on the other hand, make up just 9 percent, according to The Green Revolution report (PDF).
One of the most illustrative differences has to with the key decision behind making a first green purchase.
About 39 percent of light green consumers say they simply happened to be at a store and noticed the product, and just 13 percent took action after hearing the product was available.
For dark green consumers (below), about 29 percent decided on the purchase after hearing the product was available, and 20 percent of them made a decision when they were at a store and noticed the product.
Greenfluencers Are Small But Powerful Group Of Consumers
A peer set of small (4%) but powerful group of consumers, or Greenfluencers, are driving trends and shaping purchasing decisions in the mass market, according to a study (PDF) of nearly 12,000 U.S. adults conducted by Porter Novelli.
Unlike their counterparts in earlier environmental movements, Greenfluencers are not third-party experts or full-time advocates with a laser-like focus on advancing a specific agenda. Rather, this new highly influential group, which amounts to roughly four percent of the U.S. population, is young, racially diverse and outspoken on a variety of social and political issues.
Based on seven different types of behaviors and product/service usage patterns, such as buying energy efficient appliances and punishing companies with poor environmental records by not buying their products, Porter Novelli developed a Green Gauge to categorize respondents into four levels of greenness.
Four levels of greenness were identified during the research. Just 16 percent of the population are Non-Green and do none of these activities; almost half qualify as Light Green, doing between one and four of the activities; more than a quarter (27%) quality as Medium Green, doing five or six of them; and just 7 percent do all seven activities and qualify as Dark Green.
Porter Novelli then narrowed down the respondents to find Medium and Dark Green environmentally-engaged people who are likely to be influential in changing the attitudes and behaviors of their peers with regard to the environment, the Greenfluencers.
