How to Encourage Consumers to Buy "Green"

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What is green consumerism? In short, it describes consumers who buy products that are better for the environment, such as energy-saving, ecological or organic products, and by doing so, consume fewer natural resources. Whilst people are globally reporting that they think sustainable consumption is important and that they would pay more for a product with sustainable packaging, sales figures are not consistent with such reporting. In fact, the market share for sustainable products is only around 17 percent. Many calls are made for consumers to reduce and engage in responsible consumption so why is it that green products are not outselling non-sustainable products?

There are many possible reasons for the low market share of sustainable products, including higher prices and the fact that they are often not readily available everywhere. However, those explanations cannot alone explain the lack of success in many product categories. So, the question is: What can be done to try and understand why they are not bought as well as further the sales of green products?

Consumers don’t do what they say

If psychology has taught us anything, it is that attitudes and behaviours often don’t go hand in hand. A positive attitude towards a sustainable product does not mean consumers will buy it, even though it can act as a starting point to stimulate green consumption. Therefore, asking people about their attitudes may not be the best measure of whether they will engage in green consumption. This means that surveys should not be taken as gospel but rather as just a measure of what attitudes people hold.

So how can consumers be encouraged to become green? There are some useful techniques that can be drawn upon to advance sales of sustainable products and services.

The influence of others. What others say and do can have an impact on our own behaviour, so make sure that people know. Something as simple as telling shoppers that other people are buying eco-friendly products can significantly increase the number of people who make sustainable purchases. Similarly, people are more likely to install solar panels if their neighbours have them, and telling university students that their peers are cycling makes them more likely to follow suit. In fact, students used sustainable transport five times as often after they had been told that others did, too.

However, other people’s behaviours do not need to be explicitly stated for others to follow suit. For example, it has been found that people are more likely to turn off the lights when exiting public bathrooms if the lights were off when they entered.

Because consumers are affected by what others do, marketers of green products need to make sure that their products are presented within a context whereby it is clear that other people are using them.

Align information with consumer expectations. Consumers commonly have preconceived ideas about green products and the companies that manufacture them. One problem is that many consumers think of green products as being inferior to non-green products, in terms of quality or aesthetic appeal. For example, when assessing a car cleaner, people have been found to be less likely to pick the sustainable option simply because the cleaner was deemed to lack strength. To overcome such problems, it is key to emphasise a product’s positive attributes rather than focusing its the green attributes.

If the price of the green product is higher than a well-known counterpart, the company should explain why this is as the product may otherwise be dismissed based on a perceived inflated price.

It is also worth pointing out specifically how the use of a green product helps to make a difference in solving environmental problems. When people believe that their own personal efforts can contribute to the environment, they are much more likely to buy the product.

Clearly, promoting and encouraging purchasing of green products is complicated. However, if it can be done effectively, it can go a fair way to help reducing the overuse of natural resources.