No such thing as a green consumer? No such thing as a green consumer? |
Consumer Typology
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Typology of Green ConsumersThrough our research we have found that there is no such thing as a completely green or ethical consumer. Even the greenest people we interviewed only considered green or ethical criteria for some of their purchases, some of the time. This is a very surprising result which has led us to realise that everyone who is trying to lead a greener or more ethical life is caught in a balance between green and grey consumption. We have discovered that there are three different ways in which people approach the problem of greening their lives. These three approaches are described in our typology of green consumers below: Move the mouse over each image for profiles
of each group
These groups can be distinguished by:
Of course, it’s not that simple…Despite the fact that someone might want to buy green products, they might be constrained in what they actually buy by practical things like:
Purchases are often the outcome of a decision taken by a whole household
and so the wishes of an individual can also be constrained by what their
partners or other people that they live with want to buy. Moving between groupsNow that we have established that there are three different ways of being a greener consumer, we have become interested in the question of how people get into these groups in the first place.
We also wonder whether it is possible for people to move between the groups over time.
These are important questions for marketers and policy makers. We have done some exploratory research into this using focus groups and we have found that many people talk about greening their lifestyle in incremental ways. We have also found evidence from our interviews that people can be ‘multiple Selectors’ or ‘multiple Exceptors’ This has led us to ask whether Selectors and Exceptors could be at two
ends of a continuum. Could someone start out as a Selector and slowly
begin to add unrelated activities, as shown in the diagram below, until
they become a multiple Exceptor and then gradually reduce their grey consumption
until they could be considered to be classic Exceptors?
Different consumers have different ways of seeking and evaluating information. This may be key to which group they belong to and may also determine whether they are likely to change group. We have also found that some people worry about the fact that parts of their lifestyle are green, whilst other parts remain grey. Others seem to accept this without any problem. Some people don’t notice it at all. We think that the people who notice and worry about inconsistency in their lifestyles might be more likely to change than the others. We aim to tackle these questions with further research. |
The Robert Gordon University, June 2006 | web site by Iain Middleton www.imiddleton.com
