How Climate Change Concern Can Motivate People To Be Interested In Your Offering

Peter Winters, President, Haddock Research & Branding

Climate change is stimulating unmet emotional desires within consumer society. In this study, a simple factual description of a new microgeneration product was presented to respondents - and the best predictor of enthusiasm for the product was whether the individual was very concerned about climate change, or not. As cleantech companies gear up for mass-market roll-out of their low-carbon products, we should expect those most concerned about climate change to be driving early adoption.

Cleantech companies might be forgiven for thinking that they need to concentrate on the performance and price of their products when marketing to consumers rather than placing much emphasis on their ‘low-carbon appeal’. Do people really get excited about the environmental performance of a gas boiler, or of installing low-energy light bulbs? After all, a recent survey by the department of transport in the UK[1] seems to suggest that climate change is low down the list of the public’s priorities. And in the US, the Pew Centre[2] recently concluded that “dealing with global warming ranks at the bottom of the public’s list of priorities.”

But by taking a consumer viewpoint, it is possible to conceptualise the low-carbon marketing environment in a rather different way.

The research data we have seen, including our own Environmental Choices^TM survey, indicates that the public is divided about climate change. In this context, it is entirely misleading to think of the public as a single entity that is ‘modestly concerned about climate change’. In short, some people are extremely concerned about climate change, and others, not at all.

Taking a metaphor from sport, our Environmental Choices^TM data also shows that 37% of English people are passionate about football, 30% are passionate about gardening, and 20% are passionate about rugby. If you think this means that English people are enthusiastic about football and gardening but are only modestly interested in rugby, you ought to get out more and buy tickets to a Six Nations international at Twickenham. Instead, we should be considering climate change, like rugby, as being a relatively minor ‘brand’. While minor brands typically suffer the double jeopardy of both smaller numbers of users who are less exclusively loyal, they can still create valuable franchises, and evoke powerful emotions among their followers.

And emotional connection is essential. Information and good economic arguments about your cleantech product is not enough. Consumers will have to want it and feel good about buying it. As a 2008 study about UK microgeneration stated: “Consumer behaviour towards buying energy efficient or ‘green’ products is found to derive from a mixture of so-called ‘rational’ factors – including economic analysis – and from emotional, societal and cultural factors. Consumer uptake has been slow even for rapid payback investments such as low energy light bulbs and [home] insulation.”[3]

But is it possible to put a value on the lowcarbon enthusiasm that certain people feel for low-carbon products? After all, people are not very good at accurately assigning their motivations for doing things.

The issue underlying this need is to measure ‘causality’ – how to measure the importance of various factors in getting people to act in a certain way. Somewhat akin to medical randomised trials, one approach is to separate people into those who are ‘concerned about climate change’ from those who are ‘unconcerned about climate change’ to see if there is a difference in the test outcome. This is what we did with our Environmental Choices study, using a statistical technique called CHAID.

As part of the study we tested consumer reactions to a simple, factual description of a prototype microgeneration product. The product profile had no brand positioning, no mention of the manufacturer, and did not refer to climate change or carbon emissions. The dependent variable were Enthusiasts for the product or not, defined as those who found the microgeneration product both ‘very appealing’ and who indicated they would be ‘very likely to install one’. The analysis was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 626 English people who fitted appropriate screening criteria.

For the predictor variables, we included a range of demographic variables (age/sex, region, number in household, income, political allegiance), as well as a three-way segmentation about people’s attitudes towards climate change. Climate Citizens (33% of this sample) are the people most concerned about climate change, and Sceptics/Uninvolved (27%) the least. Those who were mildly concerned about climate change we termed Mild Greens (40%).

The CHAID analysis showed that the best predictor for being an Enthusiast was whether someone was concerned about climate change or not. Of Climate Citizens, 25% were Enthusiasts compared with 13% of everyone else. This analysis provides evidence that ‘concern about climate change’ is a valuable motivator for this particular low-carbon product. It is also part of general findings from the Environmental Choices study that Climate Citizens are particularly likely to have interests and behaviours that are more ‘low-carbon’. As cleantech companies gear up for mass-market roll-out of their lowcarbon products, we should expect that Climate Citizens (representing a third of the population) to be driving early adoption.

1. http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/trsnstatsatt/climatechgejan2010report
2. http://people-press.org/report/584/policy-priorities-2010
3. Page 26 (pdf) http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file46003.pdf

This article was originally published in the April 2010 Sustainable Business.

This content was provided by Haddock Research & Branding, Inc. Visit their website at haddock-research.com. 

[Mar 23, 2010]