Tough times have shifted consumers’ priorities from the environment to energy and economic issues. Results from the 2008 ImagePower® Green Brands Survey indicate the environment has taken a back seat to the economy for 75% of Americans and 66% of Britons surveyed.
Released by WPP's Landor Associates, Penn, Schoen & Berland (PSB) Associates and Cohn & Wolfe (C&W), the research reveals that two out of three Americans think the environment is in worse shape than it was five years ago, and lower-income consumers are more concerned about the direction of the environment than wealthier consumers.
Additional findings indicate that despite the abundance of "green" marketing in the last 12 months, consumers still view baseline activities, such as recycling, to be the most powerful contribution to environmental improvement. Further, though 95 percent of consumers think too much packaging is used on consumer goods, only 38 percent include packaging criteria in purchase decisions.
Based on the study results, U.S. consumers believe Body Care and Grocery are the “greenest” product categories, while Travel and Energy fall at the bottom of the list. While in 2007, consumers were most concerned about global warming, this year’s survey indicates energy and resource issues have increased in importance.
The survey asked participants to rank their greenest brands. In the U.S., personal care products comprise the majority of the Top 10, while supermarkets top the list in the U.K.
U.S. TOP GREEN BRANDS |
U.K. TOP GREEN BRANDS |
1. Whole Foods |
1. Body Shop |
2. Burt’s Bees |
2. Marks & Spencer |
3. Trader Joe’s |
3. Waitrose |
4. Tom’s of Maine |
4. Tesco, Sainsbury’s (tied) |
5. Toyota |
5. Asda |
6. Seventh Generation |
6. Dove and Google (tied) |
7. Honda and GE (tied) |
7. Co-Operative Bank |
8. Whirlpool |
8. E.ON |
9. Aveda |
9. Morrisons |
10. Method |
10. Nivea and Toyota (tied) |
"In 2008, the top brands in the US were the ones that you put on or in your body, and in the UK the places
where you buy those types of products," said Scott Siff, Executive Vice President at Penn, Schoen & Berland
Associates (PSB), a market research and strategic communications consultancy. "Despite consumers' high
interest in cutting energy consumption, the brands with real potential to reduce energy usage, though high in
the green rankings, could still do a better job of connecting to people's energy-saving impulses more directly,
more personally. Doing that would take those brands' green-ness to the next level of consumer relevance."
Other key findings of the research include:
●Environmental pessimism. Sixty-seven percent of American consumers and 69% of Britons think we are in
worse environmental shape now than we were five years ago
●Responsibility and accountability. In the U.S., industry is perceived the most responsible for environmental
problems with 36% of American consumers look to government to provide the policies and standards to
advance environmental change. Conversely, U.K. consumers are more likely to accept their part of the blame.
●Impact of income level and political affiliation. Wealthy Americans and Republicans are less concerned than
others: 34 % of Americans earning over $100K annually and 43 percent of Republicans think the country is
moving in the right direction. However, 59 % of Americans earning less than $35K annually and 70 percent of
Democrats think we're moving in the wrong direction.
For more information, please visit http://www.landor.com
.