Green products are in high demand these days as many consumers seek, in ways big and small, to use their purchasing power to make the world a cleaner and healthier place to live.
According to a study by Mintel, the number of green products rolled out in 2007 was more than double the launches of similar items in 2005. Mintel is looking for 2008 to produce roughly 1,000 additional green items over last year's total of 5,933.
Mintel found that 36 percent of adults claim to regularly buy green products, triple the number from 16 months ago. At the same time, the numbers of Americans who never buy green products went from 20 percent to 10 percent.
"We're seeing the green movement rapidly transition from niche to mainstream," said Colleen Ryan, senior analyst at Mintel, in a company press release. "Major companies have jumped onboard, promotional messages have changed, and the American public is increasingly looking at green products as a normal part of everyday life."
Ms. Ryan said younger consumers are pushing the green numbers higher. Fifty-one percent of 18- to 24-year-olds report "regularly" purchasing green products. As a point of comparison, only about one-third of older adults said the same was true for them.
In another survey, this time by the research firm BuzzBack, consumers expressed a deep interest in environmental issues. More than half of U.S. residents agreed "the environment is the most important issue."
Interestingly, even though consumers saw the environment as one of the day's most important issues, only about one-third interviewed by BuzzBack were "familiar" or "very familiar" with the term sustainable.
"It's this huge buzz term, but it's such a client term," Carol Fitzgerald, president of BuzzBack, told Brandweek. "So maybe there's a disconnect with consumers."
Lynn Dornblaser, director of CPG trend insight at Mintel, said consumers' desire for green products and their lack of knowledge left them vulnerable to fraud. She told Brandweek about a paper towel that promoted itself as "100 percent cellulose." All paper towels are 100 percent cellulose, she said and then added, "That's like an orange juice saying '100% orange juice.'"
Discussion Questions: Is consumers' apparent lack of understanding of terms such as sustainability an impediment to sales or does this lack of understanding actually enable marketers to more effectively move products branded as green? Do you see consumers becoming more savvy about green issues and conversely greenwashing activities or are they largely waiting on some other party (the media, government agency, etc.) to alert them when a marketer's claims do not pass the smell test?