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E: Spotlight on conscious consumers

Looking at how customer preferences and behaviours are changing.

Key takeaways for conscious consumers

In a nutshell

  • Take a moment to review how your customer preferences are changing.

  • Try plotting your different customer types on a chart based on their motivations.

The rise of conscious consumers

Not long ago the term ‘green consumer’ would probably have been associated with a more bohemian lifestyle. But these days, it means much more than 'eco-warriors'.

There is a marked increase in the number of responsible or ‘conscious’ consumers – those who want to balance the negative impacts that consumerism has on the planet and society, and to use their individual actions to make a difference.

  • When it comes to tourism, 78% of travellers say that they intend to stay in a more sustainable property in the coming year, but 29% don’t know how to find sustainable travel options. (Booking.com) 
  • Meanwhile 53% of US companies have sustainability policies that affect their decision to contract with a travel supplier.(Global Business Travel Association) 

So, a higher level of consciousness has now reached individuals and is influencing company policies. But the rise of the increasingly conscious consumer comes in a range of shades.

Shades of green consumerism

So what are the shades of green that mark the growth of the ‘increasingly conscious’ consumer?

So-called light green consumers want to satisfy their moral conscience by receiving just enough reassurance about the sustainability credentials of a product, service or brand. They can be relatively easy to assuage with broad claims such as eco, green, natural, environmentally friendly and so on, and can easily fall for greenwashing (see 5.3. Keeping it real). 

But darker green consumers will avoid brands that they perceive to be unethical and sometimes actively boycott them. This kind of activity is often actively encouraged on social media platforms through the sharing and shaming of unethical brand behaviour. 

In the middle, we have the ‘increasingly conscious’ consumer who feels guilty about using a product or service that is not very sustainable, but they do so because there is currently no better alternative. As soon as there is, they will probably move to it. 

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Attracting green consumers

As conscious consumerism increases, businesses that fall short on sustainable criteria are at risk of losing more and more customers.

To attract this growing market of conscious consumers, your business needs to consider strategies that resonate with them. Understanding just how green your audience is, is therefore crucial. 

And it isn’t only about attracting individual consumers. When it comes to doing business to business (B2B), tenders and contracts are now often won and lost on highly specific sustainability criteria. In many cases, without credible sustainability data and/or certification, a business may not even be able to tender for business, let alone win it. 

So doing it right has important commercial, as well as moral, implications.