New York, April 29, 2008 – TNS, a world leader in market insight and information, today released results of a groundbreaking global study assessing how consumers around the globe are responding to the challenge to “go green.” “The Green Life” takes an in-depth look at the different lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors of consumers and explores the steps they are willing to take to become more environmentally friendly.
TNS experts identified eight distinct segments amongst US consumers under the umbrella, “Global Shades of Green.” This segmentation helps marketers to better understand the different ways consumers respond to issues around the environment, enabling advertisers to create a more meaningful connection with them. The Respectful Stewards (Madre de Tierra Verde),the segment most heavily populated with Hispanic respondents (eighty six percent), comprised seven percent of the consumers surveyed and stood out as an excellent target for marketers promoting “green.” Members of this segment shared the following characteristics:
- Though lower income and living in large urban households, respondents in this segment were willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products
- This group is twice as likely to be influenced in their day to day purchasing decisions by environmental issues than the general US population, the same holds true for their choice of vendor companies
- When asked about the environment, earth and nature, this segment has a distinct emphasis on deforestation, water pollution and “fouling” of the earth, while most other groups only emphasized overdevelopment
“The responsiveness to environmental issues of this strongly Hispanic segment was one of the standout findings of the study,” said Robert Tomei, President of the U.S. Areas of Expertise & Marketing and Global Head of TNS’ 6th Dimension Access Panels. “This research uncovers a huge opportunity for the environmental movement and companies marketing green products. However, these marketers will need to develop products and messaging that resonate specifically with this segment.”
In global results, the Latin American countries surveyed trended with the US based Hispanics. A comparison of the 17 countries represented in the research found that the Latin American countries (Mexico, Brazil and Argentina) scored overwhelmingly higher in their concern for the environment when compared to the rest of the world. When compared specifically to the United States, the key findings were as follows:
- More than sixty percent of Latin Americans polled said they have changed their behavior significantly to benefit the environment, compared with only 36 percent of Americans
- Latin Americans purchase decisions are more highly influenced by a product’s green credentials at 62 percent compared to US consumers at only 26 percent
- Similar results were found where Latin Americans were influenced by companies that have environmentally friendly reputations at 53 percent versus 19 percent for the US
Emil Morales, Senior Vice President of Multicultural, TNS North America, commented, “Latin American countries were rated above the rest of respondents in terms of their concern for and willingness to help the environment. What we see in this data is a relatively unified and focused direction related to feelings about protection and preservation of the environment. This is manifested not only in their responses to the questions, but in their clustering into this segment.”
Methodology
The Green Life study was conducted amongst 23,000 consumers over the course of two months in Q1 2008. The study was administered using an online survey of the TNS 6th dimension Access Panel in 17 countries.
TNS's proprietary Multidomain Segmentation approach identifies groups that differ on needs, attitudes, and behaviors, as well as lifestyle and demographic characteristics.
About TNS Online Access Panels
TNS operates online access panels in 26 countries capturing insights from over 3.5 million consumers and business customers. Additionally, TNS recently announced an alliance with the third party company – Livra – that operates online access panels throughout Latin America. This provides TNS with the most extensive global network of online access panels in the industry.
About TNS
TNS is a global market insight and information group.
Our strategic goal is to be recognized as the global leader in delivering value-added information and insights that help our clients to make more effective decisions.
As industry thought leaders, our people deliver innovative thinking and excellent service to global organizations and local clients worldwide. We work in partnership with our clients, meeting their needs for high-quality information, analysis and foresight across our network of over 70 countries.
We are the world's foremost provider of custom research and analysis, combining in-depth industry sector understanding with world-class expertise in the areas of Retail and Shopper Insights, Stakeholder Management, New Product Development, and Brand and Communications. We are a major supplier of consumer panel, media intelligence and internet, TV and radio audience measurement services.
TNS is the sixth sense of business.
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