See Through Anti-Waste Consumers

A great many customers and prospective customers in a range of developed countries are saying they want to take increasingly decisive actions to sustain the environment. It's an idea captured in comedian Sean Lock’s quip that limiting yourself to recycling your jam jars feels about as helpful as turning up at the aftermath of hurricane Katrina with a dustpan and brush.
     However, an important qualifier in understanding these anti-waste consumers is the phrase “are saying.” Research finds that in most of the settings studied, consumers say they want to protect the environment by purchasing less wasteful products, but devise many reasons not to do so.
     It’s true that in a study of East German consumers, researchers based at Appalachian State University, University of Southern Mississippi, and University of Wisconsin found deeply-felt aversions to throwaway products and solid commitments to frugality. But researchers at Suffolk University in the U.S. and York University in Canada say that consumers by and large use three sorts of justifications to indulge in purchasing wasteful products while saying they object to waste.
     Here are my adaptations of those three to incorporate other research findings:

• Finances. “Especially now, when money is so tight, I want to get the most for what funds I have. If a product is manufactured or packaged in a way that produces waste, but gives me more value for my money, I deserve to be able to purchase it.”
• Institutional dependency. “The government and the industry leaders should be setting the standards that will minimize waste. If I go it alone, my individual actions won’t make any noticeable difference. In addition, if I reduce waste, but others don’t, that’s unfair to me.” Researchers at University of Kentucky found that Swedish consumers went a step beyond this to say that if they alone aimed to reduce waste, this would challenge the expectations of conformity important in their culture.
• Cynicism. “To succeed in the competitive marketplace, every business has to engage in wasteful practices at least occasionally.”

     Recognizing the true nature of our target markets, take into account these sorts of justifications at the same time that we conscientiously look for ways to reduce waste in what we sell.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more:
Be Clear What You Mean by Going Green
Know How Customers Dispose of Products
Attract with Social Consciousness
Acknowledge Customers’ Willful Ignorance