Girls Going Green

Marketing green means targeting women. The importance of women as green market movers needs to be understood—they buy 85% of all goods and services,* are concerned about environmental issues and are demanding action.

A Natural Target

Earthsense’s survey Eco-Insights sheds light on women and green marketing opportunities:

• 46% of women believe the environment will be worse in five years.
• 70% of these pessimists (realists?) are calling for manufacturers to step up to the plate and take more responsibility.
• 66% want more government regulations to protect natural resources and protect our population from contaminants, harmful ingredients and additives.

Women can be a green marketer’s best friend:

• They are passionate about sustainability — they care about the planet.
• They strongly believe that individuals can make a difference in the environment.
• They listen, if your message matches their motivations.
• Barriers to buying green aren’t insurmountable to them.
• They are natural promoters of products they like.

Women are more likely than men to take actions such as donating money or time to an environmental group and boycotting products/brands with poor environmental reputations. They also are more likely to “buycott” (“girlcott”?) and go out of their way to buy brands they believe in.

Asked to rank their top priorities, economic conditions, not surprisingly, get mentioned first. The environment, however ranks higher on their list of concerns than energy costs, political leadership, terrorism and immigration — all very complex issues.

Women also are more likely to believe that individuals can change the environment. However, they are less likely to believe they are doing enough to protect it. This gap between “what should be” and “what is” represents an opportunity for sustainability marketers: teach her how to evaluate your product against others to assure her that you are worth the price she’ll pay.

Women want to know, “What’s in it for me?” Position your product so you address issues important to them. For example:

Top reasons for buying green food products:

1. Taste (49%)
2. Ingredients (40%) (What’s in and what’s not inside!)
3. Lifestyle (35%)

Top reasons for buying green personal care or household products:

1. Ingredients (22%)
2. Health concerns (20%)
3. Quality (17%)

Breaking Down the Green Barrier

If we know why women buy green, why aren’t more of them doing so? Barriers to purchase are not insurmountable when we understand what’s holding them back. Here are their top 10 green deal breakers (across all product categories):

1. Costs too much
2. Not labeled
3. Not available
4. Not advertised as green
5. Not important
6. Preferred brand isn’t green
7. Doesn’t exist
8. What makes it green?
9. Quality not as good
10. Not as easy to use as conventional

These barriers are easy to overcome—fix them, tell her and give her clearly defined, pragmatic reasons for buying your product.

Word-of-Mouth Promoters

Women are natural promoters; they like to share what they know, so give them something to talk about.

Sources Women Trust for Green Info
Friends, family, or colleagues	55%
Online search engines	50%
Television	41%
Consumer ratings and reviews	35%
Newspapers	32%
Reference websites	32%
Magazines	30%
Radio	27%
Information displayed where I shop	25%
Social media	19%
(Source: Green Confidence Index, October 2009)

These are among the insights presented with our partners Margaret McAllister and Evelyn Lamden of Red Kite Business Advisors last month at the 2009 Good and Green Conference. If you’d like a copy of our white paper, Girls Gone Green, let us know.

* Source: Marketing to Women: How to Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market by Marti Barletta (2006)

Want to learn how to subscribe to the Green Confidence Index and/or Eco-Insights? Head to earthsense.com or give us a call at 866.237.9108 / 315.579.0015.

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	Amid a few bright lights, Americans' perspective seems to darken In its fourth month, the Green Confidence Index returned to its starting place, landing at 99.5, a hair below the July benchmark of 100.0. The slight uptick in August and September was not sustained. What changed?
(Go to GreenConfidenceIndex.com to subscribe to the Green Confidence Index monthly report.)