Green Marketing Consumer Segments Green marketing has not been a successful concept for most of the organizations as told by their business executives but in public opinion it has been found that most of the costumers seek green alternatives of the existing products and solutions over the one which are less eco-friendly provided the condition that all the attributes of the product remains the same to non-green ones. Going for green products means a customer has to compromise with the attributes of the products and most of such eco-friendly products cost even more than there less eco-friendly companions. And this is what makes consumers to not go for the eco-friendly products. For example let’s consider an electric automobile from Ford, Think, a two-seater car that ford expected to be a huge hit, but later, in year 202 the company stopped production line of the vehicle and scrapped the stock it had. Think needed 6 hours to charge to run for only 50 miles, you can understand why it failed. Upload Your Assignment Here Another problem that emerged with the green concept was the development of perception that the product belonging to the green cadre had diminished quality. According to a 2002 report almost 41% of the consumers did not wanted to use the green products just because they thought that the products had poor quality. According to another news, a number of consumers of organic food believed that the organic eatables are a healthier choice despite the fact that the organic food comes at a premium price tag. Similarly according to another report, consumers are willing to buy washing machine that consumes less water, though priced higher than the usual ones, thinking that it will save water and electricity bills in a long run. Thus we have two stories a successful and a failure, both concerned with electric appliances. So the question arises how a company should promote green products over the traditional ones? A company should focus on the consumer demands and should design green alternatives such that they have comparable attributes, convenience, pricing, quality and performance to the traditional ones. It means that the green alternative should have almost same features and most importantly quality of its traditional companion. To be clear there is no single green strategy to follow. Different green strategies range from the passive or silent green approach to a more active or aggressive green approach. Green Consumer Segment:
There are few costumers in the market that believe in buying green products, as not everyone adore green concept. According to an American survey 58% consumers save electricity at home, 46% believe in paper recycle, 45% believe in bottles and cans recycle and nearly 23% of the consumers buy products made of recycled materials. As the survey shows that different people have different opinions consumers are classified into following segments:
True Blue Greens (about 9%): According to a report, such consumers are nearly four times conscious compared to a normal consumer who is less bothered about buying ecofriendly products (Grousers). Blue greens are nature lovers and believe in promoting a healthy and eco-friendly lifestyle.
Greenback Greens (nearly 6%): Greenbacks are active green consumers but they avoid political involvement when it comes to promoting eco-friendly products. They support green concept more than an average consumer but don’t hesitate to use few non-green products as well.
Sprouts (approx. 31%): Sprouts are the consumers who are concerned about the positive impact of using green products on environment, but they hardly go for a product if its traditional companion costs cheap. Though sprouts can be drawn to buy few green products if persuaded to do so.
Grousers (close to 19%): The consumers who are not fully aware of the green concept, its intensity of positive impact on environment, fall under the category of grousers. Such consumers are performance lovers who prefer traditional products over green just because of their better attributes and low price.
Basic Browns (near about 33%): Basic Browns are less bothered about using a green product as they are caught up in there busy lifestyles and are less concerned about nature.