736 The Marketing Book
aftermath of the Exxon-Valdezdisaster, which
also left 41 per cent of Americans describing
themselves as ‘angry enough to boycott Exxon
products’ (Kirkpatrick, 1990).
For the marketing strategist it is vital to
understand the potential impact of the green
agenda on their business and its customers. It is
important to understand the relative strengths
and weaknesses of the company’s eco-perform-
ance. Good eco-performance is important in
many markets because it can provide:
New market opportunities. Through access to
growing green markets. In markets such as
financial services and tourism, green products
represent the fastest growing area for new
business.
Differentiation opportunities. AEG increased their
sales by 30 per cent within an otherwise static
white goods market, following an advertising
campaign stressing the relative energy and
water efficiency of their products.
Opportunities for cost advantages. Although
conventional wisdom associates good
eco-performance with investment and
increased costs, this is partly a reflection of
the ‘end-of-pipe’ methods used (since adding a
catalytic converter onto a car can only
increase its costs). Investments using a more
radical, clean technology approach are being
shown to be capable of reducing material and
energy inputs, and cutting inefficient pollution
and waste. Among 181 waste reduction
projects within 29 chemical industry plants
studies by Porter and van der Linde (1995),
only one led to a net cost increase and the
average annual savings (on the projects where
this could be meaningfully measured) was
$3.49 per dollar spent.
Niche opportunities. In the short term, greener
products such as organic food and cruelty-free
cosmetics have succeeded within market
niches comprised of the most environmentally
aware consumers and marketed at premium
prices. However, when such products catch
the imagination of the mass market, the niche
can rapidly expand to encompass the bulk of
the market. Phosphate-free detergents
captured around 80 per cent of the German
detergent market within three years of their
launch. There is, however, a danger that the
success of green niche products could
effectively hold back the greening of markets.
This would occur if, by satisfying the most
environmentally aware consumers, pressure to
green the market becomes diluted and the
momentum of change falters. In many
industries it will require the greening of the
mass market to make a substantive
contribution to sustainability.The green consumer
It seems logical for marketers, when faced with
a population professing increased environmen-
tal concern, to respond by trying to identify
‘green consumers’ and finding out what moti-
vates purchases of environmentally marketed
products. If this can be done, and appropriate
market offerings created, then the competitive
advantage outlined by Porter and others can be
achieved.
Academic researchers and market research
agencies have striven to define and understand
the relationship between peoples’ environmen-
tal concern and their purchasing behaviour.
Many factors have been proposed as influences
on green consumer behaviour such as changing
consumer values, demographic factors, knowl-
edge of environmental problems and alter-
native products, perceived personal relevance,
and the ability of the individual to make an
effective contribution (for a model which inte-
grates the majority of these, see Dembkowski
and Hanmer-Lloyd, 1994). All of these efforts
have sought to discover a reliable basis upon
which green consumer segments can be defined
and targeted. Socio-demographic criteria such
as gender, age and income were often used, but
as Wagner (1997) comments: ‘Socio-demo-
graphic attempts to profile the green consumer
have not always yielded strongly indicative