WAKE-UP CALL
Welcome to the February 2010 Wake-Up Call, Awake’s monthly
newsletter for research and news about behaviour change for sustainability.
To view this newsletter as a webpage, click here
In this edition of Wake-up Call…
·
Feature Article – How Green?
·
Upcoming Presentation - Awake at the Sustainable Living
Festival
·
Upcoming Workshop - Behaviour Change Techniques to
Encourage Green Purchasing
·
Future Workshops – Cultivating Sustainability in
Australia and New Zealand
·
Interesting Article of the Month – Premium Customers Hold Key To
Success In Electric Cars
·
Exercise of the Month – Giving Ourselves Free License
Feature Article
– How
Green?
Marketers love it
when they can slice their audience into “segments”. This means that they can identify different
groups according to their purchasing patterns, and target them with specific
offers which are likely to appeal to their particular characteristics, values
and tastes.
Not surprisingly,
given the growth in general environmental concern, attention has been turned to
identifying segments within the population when it comes to green issues. While much of this focus has been driven by a
desire to capture a bigger slice of the “green dollar”, there are some useful insights
to be gained for those wishing to influence not only purchasing preference, but
also other types of environmentally significant behaviour.
In an attempt to
define these green segments, a number of models have been proposed over the
years. In the early 1990’s Mintel, a leading market research group,
divided people into Dark Green, Light Green, Pale Green, Armchair Green, and
Unconcerned. The highly active Deep
Greens tended to be females, with children, while the Armchair Greens were
those who espoused concern but had not changed their behaviour much accordingly. 1 in 10 people were Unconcerned, with 2%
actively “anti-green”. This work was replicated
in a 1996
study in Northern Ireland, who found a similar set of segments, which they
called Super-Green, Emerging Green, Experimental Green, Potential Green and Anti-Green.
More recently,
the term LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) has gained popularity.
LOHAS is described as “a market segment focused on health and fitness, the
environment, personal development, sustainable living, and social justice”
(from www.lohas.com). Since the LOHAS
market was identified and named in 2000, various studies have estimated the
market to be worth over $200b in the United States and as much as $19b in
Australia. So it is no surprise that
identifying and capturing these people has become a big deal for business.
Although these
and other studies have given various names to the segments which they have
identified, there seems to be a consistent pattern in the size and makeup of the
groups. Roughly 15-20% fit into the
highly committed/deep green/supergreen segment.
Then comes a cluster of around 50-70% of the population who are
moderates – they are concerned about the environment, and will undertake some
green behaviours, but do not always make it a priority. Finally, a hard core of 10-20% of people are
either unconcerned with environmental issues, or actively hostile towards
them.
One of the key
reasons for focusing on these segments is to identify what it is that defines
them. One of the main factors appears to
be the degree to which they are prepared to make sacrifices to be
environmentally responsible. While
highly “Committed”s are prepared to pay a higher price and suffer a certain
amount of inconvenience to choose the green option, more moderate segments will
only choose the green option if all other things are equal. Convenience and price are major
considerations for this group.
The segments also
appear to differ in their view of where responsibility for environmental matters
should lie. Australian
research, for instance, found that only the highly committed group believed
on average that individuals should do more to protect the environment. Indeed personal responsibility appears to go
hand in hand with the degree of power which people feel they have to make a
difference. Stewart
Barr, a leading UK researcher, found in a series of focus groups that many
less committed people cite distrust in government and business as a reason for
not making an effort themselves. The attitude
that emerges is that “if the big institutions are not going to make serious
changes, what difference can I make”.
The
identification of such segments can assist us in tailoring our approach to
behaviour change programs. As Barr
points out, different barriers for action exist for different segments. If we know what drives people, it makes it
easier to influence them. Here are a few
tips for influencing the different green segments.
Committed’s are prepared to
place environmental considerations as a high priority, therefore the green credentials
of a behaviour or product need to be emphasised to this group. They are likely to be well-informed and
shrewd in their evaluation of such things, and therefore a pretty holeproof
case needs to be made.
Moderates are more
sensitive to price and convenience, therefore any perceived barriers to these
considerations need to be removed where possible, and the net benefits
emphasised. They also want to be seen to
be doing the right thing, as they are not radicals, so any effort to draw their
attention to the social desirability of the target behaviour is likely to
assist.
Finally, those
who are Unconcerned or actively anti-green, as outlined above, often
express a view that it is not their responsibility, and therefore any attempt
to influence these people needs to start at an attitudinal level. Beginning at the right level and aiming for
incremental shifts is an underlying principle promoted by many of the
researchers cited above.
WANT TO USE THIS
ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with
it:
Awake provides psychology-based
services to support the development of sustainable behaviour in individuals,
groups and organisations. Visit www.awake.com.au
for more info
Upcoming
Presentation – Awake at the Sustainable Living Festival, Melbourne, February 21, 2010
The
always-excellent Sustainable Living Festival
is on again this weekend, at Federation Square in Melbourne. This annual event is a great showcase of all
things sustainable, including talks, workshops, performances and exhibits.
I’ll be
presenting Psychology
and Sustainability on Sunday Feb 21 at 12pm, in the “Feel Tent”. We’ll explore why some people behave in an
eco-friendly way and others don’t, and also look at some ways to get people on
board with sustainability.
This is the third
year in a row I’ve had the pleasure of presenting at the SLF and it’s always a
highlight of the year. So if you are in the Melbourne area, I look forward to
seeing you there!
Upcoming Workshop - Behaviour Change Techniques to Encourage Green
Purchasing
Awake will be
partnering with ECO-Buy to present a
half-day workshop on behaviour change techniques to encourage green purchasing.
By attending this
workshop you will gain valuable insights and skills for
• Understanding the psychological drivers of
green behaviour
• Recognising what people need in order to
engage in behaviour change
• Identifying the biggest barriers to making
green factors a priority
• Changing old habits and creating new ones
• How to influence people and gain their buy-in
• How to appeal to values and use them to
engage people in change
This workshop
will benefit anybody who is involved with promoting green purchasing through
their organisation, and trying to embed a culture of sustainable
purchasing.
Date:
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010. 8.30am - 12.30pm
Location: 60L Green Building, 60 Leicester St, Carlton,
Melbourne.
Registrations: Please go to the ECO-Buy
website to register for the workshop or call ECO-Buy on 9349 0400 for
further details.
Future Workshops – Cultivating Sustainability in Australia and New Zealand
The training calendar for 2010 is currently being
developed. The following are tentative
dates for Cultivating Sustainability workshops in Australia.
Canberra, April
14
Newcastle, April
19
Sydney, April 21
Perth, June 2
Brisbane, June 21
Byron Bay, June
23
Hobart, July 13
A series of workshops in New Zealand are also being
planned for early May (dates locations to be confirmed).
To register interest for workshops in New Zealand or
Australia, please
email timc@awake.com.au
More information, including online registration details,
will be up soon at www.awake.com.au/cultivating.html
Cultivating Sustainability is a 1-day workshop which provides
sustainability advocates with insights, models and practical tools to support
their behaviour change efforts. Anybody
who has taken on the challenge of influencing others to live and work more
sustainably will find this workshop a valuable addition to their skills.
Cost: For-profits $250pp
Not-for-profit/Government
$200pp
Individuals/Community
Groups $120pp
Feedback from attendees of the most recent
Cultivating Sustainability workshops included…
“Great framework for encouraging behavioural change within
organisations”
“Provided me with tools and insights to challenge me to review
how I am approaching my sustainability project”
”This workshop has given me good insight into the motivating
factors in people’s behaviour and ways to get lasting change”
“I found the workshop useful to help me learn practical and
positive/inspirational ways to change peoples attitudes and behaviours towards
sustainability”
For more
information about the Cultivating Sustainability workshop, see www.awake.com.au/cultivating.html
Interesting
Article of the Month – Premium Customers
Hold Key To Success In Electric Cars
Where?
Premium Customers
Hold Key To Success In Electric Cars
By John Smith
What is it about?
Business
consultants Bain Company have extensively studied the global market for
electric cars, and in this study they compare the readiness of 4 consumer
segments – “Green Innovators”, “Cost-shoppers”, “Laggards” and “Eco-prestige
Premium 2.0” – to purchase electric cars.
What did they
find?
The study reveals
that the most interest in electric cars exists among the “Premium 2.0”
segment. These people are willing to pay
the extra price, with a primary motive of being seen as prestigious, trendy and
ahead of the game.
What can we take
from this?
This research is
a good illustration of the importance of recognising the varying motives of
different segments of the population, as outlined in the feature article
above. While car designers may
initially be tempted to create vehicles which appeal to highly committed
greens, with a focus on practicality and simplicity, research such as this may
cause a change in thinking. If their
primary market is going to come from those who value prestige and trendiness,
then features which emphasise these values will need to be developed. Love them or loathe them, that segment of
the population which seeks to gain recognition and status through the car they
drive may just be the catalyst to speed up the development of more eco-friendly
cars.
Exercise of the Month –
Giving Ourselves Free License
Various studies
have observed an effect whereby, having made the decision to undertake one
green behaviour, we then give ourselves license to indulge in other behaviours
which are not eco-friendly. For
example, once we have changed to a low-flow showerhead we might feel justified
in taking longer showers. Or, having
purchased a hybrid car, we may find ourselves driving more places.
Recent research
at the University of
Toronto may shed some
light on this phenomenon, whereby people who had made a green purchase
subsequently behaved less ethically in a laboratory game.
This month’s
exercise is an opportunity to see if this effect can be applied to our own
behaviour.
The simple
question to ask yourself is…
“Are there
unsustainable behaviours which I justify to myself because I am doing the right
thing in other areas?”.
The exercise of the month provides
a tool to help you get engaged, inspired, aware and in action around
sustainability. Feel free to use it on your own, with a friend, or in
your work. If you do use it with others, please tell them where you got
it!
About Awake
Awake provides psychology-based services to support the
development of sustainable behaviour in individuals, groups and
organisations. Visit www.awake.com.au for
more info
Subscribing to Wake-Up Call
If you know someone who is interested in behaviour change for
sustainability, please forward Wake-Up Call to them so they can subscribe.
To subscribe to Wake-Up call, email subscribe@awake.com.au
If you do not wish to receive this newsletter in
future, please email unsubscribe@awake.com.au
with “unsubscribe” in the subject field.
© Awake 2010