Influencing the Green Shopper

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.Grail Researchs The Green Revolution report revealed that sustainability is here to stay with 84 percent of consumers currently purchase at least some green products and only 1 percent of consumers who purchased green products have abandoned the category.

A high percentage of green consumers expect to convert to green products in new categories, including cleaning products (93 percent), paper products (90 percent), fruits and vegetables (89 percent), electronics/small appliances (88 percent), durables (81 percent), packaged food (79 percent), health and beauty (74 percent) and apparel (59 percent).

The report also revealed that companies green initiatives are important to consumers, but in many cases they have not been effectively communicated. In fact, 85 percent of consumers are unaware or cannot recall the green initiatives of companies like Hewlett-Packard, Estee Lauder and Intel, which are recognized by industry groups as leaders in the green revolution. Consumers rely on product labels (63 percent) and word of mouth (45 percent) as their primary sources of information about green companies and their products. Advertising (38 percent) and company Web sites (18 percent) are not as important to consumers.