Using “Contacts” to Grow Green

Lessons for Toy Makers from Green Household “Contact” Industry

By Amy Hebard, Earthsense Chief Research Officer

Bloomberg News asked Earthsense a simple question: Do we think toy retailers should increase shelf space for “green” toys?

The question was raised during a conversation that followed the 2010 Toy Industry Association trade show. This year — for the first time — exhibitors with eco-friendly toys had space in the Earth Friendly Product Zone, giving retailers interested in green toys concentrated access to the newest innovations.

The answer: Yes, of course retailers should. But to make them fly off the shelves, toy makers might want to learn a thing or two from other industries where green is a bigger part of the scene.

3-2-1 Contact! Green or not green, toys are “contact” products — goods where physical interaction is key to the consumer experience. Kids clutch, mouth, chew, sleep with and hug their toys. And with safety being both a concern and a selling point in other contact industries, toy makers can take a lesson from how the other guys succeed in selling green.

When we look at other contact product categories, we see common threads in the forces that underlie consumers’ increasing propensity to buy green. The top two motivations are always health/safety and ingredients.

Buying Green "Contact" Products
Top 3 Motivations		Top 3 Barriers
Baby Care
Health / Safety	34%	They cost too much	38%
Ingredients	34%	Preferred brand isn’t green	22%
Quality	31%	Not important to me	22%
Cleaning Supplies
Health / Safety	45%	They cost too much	47%
Ingredients	44%	Preferred brand isn’t green	28%
Brand	29%	Not important to me	26%
Personal Care
Ingredients	45%	They cost too much	43%
Health / Safety	42%	Preferred brand isn’t green	33%
Quality	35%	Not important to me	28%
Source: Eco-Insights 2009 *13 contact products are covered: Baby Care — diapers, wipes; Household Cleaners — dish soap/detergent, laundry detergent, household cleaners; Hygiene/Personal Care

The concerns, however, translate into a relatively small percentage of consumers buying contact products in green forms. Consumers are at least three times more likely to stick with conventional versions of these products rather than go green:

• 16% of baby care purchasers buy green
• 23% of personal care products are bought green
• 30% of cleaning supply products are purchased in a green form

What’s in the way? Price and loyalty. Consumers don’t think they can afford green versions, assuming — often rightfully so — that green commands a premium and they don’t see the value. Also, many have a preferred brand that they think is not available in a green form. Buying “green” for others is simply not on their radar.

But wait — green has a silver lining for toy makers. The contact product category is one of the few industry sectors sustaining it, even growing in some cases. The Green Confidence Index, the monthly tracking study conducted by Earthsense in partnership with Greenbiz.com and SSI, shows that — consistently — about half of U.S. adults are green buyers and four in five of them are maintaining the same level of purchasing or increasing it. One-quarter have not bought green yet, but say they will do so when they can.

Cleaning supplies, for example, may be harbingers of greener things to come. Even though only about one-third of people buy them in a green form, they are in the one category where brand loyalty is among the top reasons for doing so. They have also managed to overcome price issues in some cases, mainly through gaining shelf space in major retail outlets.

Compared to baby and personal care products, cleaning supplies have enjoyed major green inroads, and in some cases meteoric increases for selected brands. Examples include:

• The big brand power of Clorox behind GreenWorks
• The change-the-message, tongue-in-cheek approach of Method (whose tagline is “People against dirty”)
• The steady growth of mission brand Seventh Generation, arguably the grandfather of the category.

Four lessons for toy makers

1. Safety First. Make them and market them safe — with recent product recalls for toys, consumer awareness about safety is heightened. Nobody wants to give a kid a toy that can cause injury or impact health.
2. Give them brand power and price them right. Follow the GreenWorks path — toys priced competitively that have brand power behind them could march up the green aisle of major retailers, commanding market share along the way. (Listen up, Hasbro and Mattel.)
3. Push the envelope if you are going beyond the green niche. Smaller brands founded with a green mission need to decide if they want to stay in a high-priced green niche, distributed through independents, small chains, or their own websites. Seventh Generation, which began its journey in natural foods stores and Whole Foods, now takes the big guys head on with increased mass market retail presence (e.g., Target), and has launched its first national ad campaign, “Protect Planet Home.”
4. Be different, have a good time. Capture consumers’ hearts with a unique way of delivering fun. Think about Method: with their strikingly different packaging and irreverent tone, their cleaning products have seen sustained double-digit growth.
   

These are just a few of the insights Earthsense has to share. Wanna come play ... er, learn more? Let us know!

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