Yesterday, I blogged about the reasons marketers are choosing “green” as a marketing strategy. But for companies that pursue this strategy, it becomes clear pretty quickly that just marketing a green product isn’t enough. The company has to be sincere in its own commitment to environmental sustainability and show genuine sensitivity to the needs and concerns of its customer base. This has to be more than lip service. It’s got to be the real deal. 

So who are these green consumers (or LOHAS or lifestyles of health and sustainability consumers) and what are some of their demographics and psychographics that will help marketers to relate to them effectively? Collette Chandler of Keyboard Culture (Green Marketing), describes them this way:

• Leading-edge thinkers
• Higher-than-average education
• Average incomes (this may be a surprise to many who thought their incomes would be higher, but it’s no surprise to people with PhDs!)
• Among the least price sensitive consumers
• Expect good value (they expect green products to perform equal to or even better than equivalent non-green products)
• Extremely brand loyal
• Tend to write blogs
• Influence others, particularly their family and friends
• Early adopters
• Influenced by brand image

What drives LOHAS consumers to make the purchases they do? 

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What’s all the fuss about green marketing? It’s more than just another hook to get people to buy products. It’s about the types of people who purchase green products. They have higher than average incomes, they are willing to pay up to 20% more for products and services (according to Collette Chandler, an author and consultant specializing in green marketing), and they are extremely brand loyal. It’s a marketer’s dream.

It’s no wonder that companies are targeting this marketplace.

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New Belgium Brewing Company already topped lists of sustainable beers.  Its reputation and practices earned Chief Branding Officer Greg Owsley a talk at last June’s Sustainable Brands Conference.  And now, the Colorado-based company has released its first sustainability report, which includes a life cycle analysis of a Fat Tire six-pack.

Triple Bottom Line

New Belgium’s sustainability report highlights what sustainable businesses call their “triple bottom line” - people, planets, and profits.  With companies from different sectors starting to embrace sustainability (e.g., Toyota and GE), New Belgium’s market share success provides more evidence for green business as good business.  The new report describes New Belgium’s ongoing and planned environmental and social initiatives, including renewable energy use, green building design, increased brewing efficiency, and a philanthropic bike festival (Tour de Fat).

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Well, it turns out that the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) were curious as well. So, they went ahead and hired a few consulting companies (SustainAbility and KPMG) to go ahead and survey sustainability report readers.

While some of the responses were not all that surprising, the survey’s results did speak to the trends within the reporting industry.

SustainAbility Chairperson Sophia Tickell discussed the strategic use of sustainability reports.

Reporting was once a way to get sustainability issues onto the corporate agenda. Today the situation is reversing as a growing number of companies make ambitious commitments to sustainability. There is much business as usual but these targets matter because what gets measured gets done and — hopefully — reported against. This shift in where the agenda is set holds real potential to influence products and services — and eventually to shape business models of the future.

Reporting will be important but will need, explicitly, to make clearer links between sustainability issues and core business strategy — something that all stakeholders (including the mainstream investment community) seem to agree upon.

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]]> http://inspiredeconomist.com/2008/10/28/sustainability-reports-who-reads-them-and-why/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/10/27/sustainability-reports-who-actually-reads-them/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/10/27/sustainability-reports-who-actually-reads-them/#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:37:34 +0000 Amiel Blajchman http://sustainablog.org/2008/10/27/sustainability-reports-who-actually-reads-them/ Global sustainable development consulting company SustainAbility and KPMG released a report earlier this year detailing the results from a survey conducted of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Readers’ Choice members.

Conducted from October 2007 through the end of January 2008, the Readers’ Choice Survey looks for the first time at the readers, their preferences and behaviour. Nearly 2300 readers and non readers from around the world answered the survey questions.

And some of their answers may surprise you.

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