Green brands, global insight: Findings from the 2009 ImagePower Green Brands Survey

Since 2006, Cohn & Wolfe, Landor Associates, and Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates have partnered to survey consumers on their perceptions of the rapidly evolving “green” space.

This year’s Green Brands Survey is the largest yet: Over 5,000 people in seven countries (Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, the U.K. and U.S.) participated. This year we also collaborated with Esty Environmental Partners, a corporate environmental strategy consulting firm, to develop the survey.

Key findings of the 2009 survey include:

Globally, consumers report that it is important for companies to be green.

At least 77 percent of consumers in all seven countries say it is somewhat or very important for a company to be green. But while many environmental beliefs and behaviors are shared across different consumer cultures, others vary widely. For example, consumers in Brazil, China, and India report being more inclined to seek out green products and to favor companies they consider green, while their counterparts in France, Germany, the U.S., and U.K. are less inclined to do so.

Despite economic concerns, consumers say they will spend more on green products in the coming year.

Although most consumers are more concerned about the economy than the environment, India and Brazil are the only two of the seven countries in which consumers express more concern for the environment. In the U.S., 77 percent of consumers communicated deeper concern for the economy than the environment, which is unchanged from 2008. Meanwhile, China, India, and Brazil showed significant support for additional spend: 73 percent of Chinese consumers say they will spend more, 78 percent of Indians say they’ll spend more, and 73 percent of Brazilians plan to increase their green spend in the in the next year.

“With the global climate change discussion focused on what the major new economic powerhouses like China, India, and Brazil are willing to do to control their emissions, those three countries stood out in our polling as more interested in buying from environmentally friendly companies and more willing to spend more on green products,” says Scott Siff, executive vice president of Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates. “From a political perspective, this turns the assumptions about those countries on their heads, and from a business perspective it says the market for green branding and green products may be even bigger than generally thought.”  

Consumers trust a variety of sources to inform their green purchase decisions.

Worldwide, consumers identify television and the Internet as their primary sources of information for environmental issues. And respondents—especially those in developing countries—say that they trust advertising to inform them about green products.

Internationally, consumer purchase decisions are influenced by various divergent factors: Consumers in France, Germany, and India are influenced by past experiences with a product, while recommendations from friends are effective in the U.S. and China, and editorial content is most persuasive in the U.K. and Brazil. All countries agree that intellectuals (professors, writers) or activists are the most credible spokespeople for environmental change.

“As consumer demand for information and knowledge on green increases, brands also need to become more sophisticated about how they communicate their company and products,” according to Annie Longsworth, sustainability practice leader for Cohn & Wolfe. “Transparency is critical, as are credible spokespeople and authenticity, which can be demonstrated through product labeling and ingredient disclosure, among other strategies.”

No company has established itself as a dominant global green brand, but many are recognized in specific markets.

In order to gauge which companies are communicating their green initiatives or values most effectively, the survey asked participants in each country to rate a predetermined set of brands.

The results provide insight into the categories of most importance to consumers in each country. Interestingly, very few countries identified the same categories as the greenest, although personal care was in the top three for all countries except China.

Consumers expect companies to take comprehensive environmental action.

The survey also indicates that consumers have clear ideas about the steps that companies should take to be viewed as green.

“Reducing toxins leads the list of consumer priorities; the data also show that the public holds companies accountable for good environmental behavior across the board,” says Dan Esty, chairman of Esty Environmental Partners. “Consumers expect companies to recycle, use energy efficiently, reduce packaging, and pursue green innovation. To gain loyalty, a company’s environmental strategy must be comprehensive.”

The growing value of a comprehensive approach to environmental strategy is reflected in a company’s performance on brand attributes.

“This year’s findings in both developed and developing countries reinforce consumers’ desires to be green by using products that are green,” says Russ Meyer, chief strategy officer of Landor Associates. “However, we’re also beginning to see a strong positive correlation between greenness and more traditional brand attributes like honesty and trustworthiness. This creates an incentive for global brands faced with the challenge of expanding the reach of preexisting products while introducing green ones, as the presence of one attribute can have a halo effect on others.”

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The 2009 ImagePower Green Brands Study was sponsored by:

Cohn & Wolfe

is a strategic public relations agency dedicated to creating, building and protecting the world’s most prolific brands. With offices around the world, the agency is committed to breaking new ground in the delivery of cross-channel media strategies, creative programming, and practice area excellence. Cohn & Wolfe is recognized year after year by clients and the industry for excellence in creativity, client service, digital communications, media strategy, senior management, and strategic counsel. Cohn & Wolfe also consistently ranks among the top “Best Agencies to Work For” in an annual, industry-wide employee survey. Cohn & Wolfe is part of WPP, one of the world’s largest communications services groups. www.cohnwolfe.com

Esty Environmental Partners (EEP)

is a management consultancy working with corporate clients to build high-impact environmental strategies that create sustainable business value. EEP serves a range of companies, from Fortune 500 to small business, in diverse industries including apparel, financial services, industrial, and consumer packaged goods. EEP clients are executives whose responsibilities include corporate environmental affairs and sustainability, product line management, facilities management, and the highest levels of company or division general management. They engage EEP’s team of experienced environmental and business professionals to help them build core capabilities, innovate, and differentiate their companies through environmental strategy. www.EstyEP.com

Landor Associates

is one of the world’s leading strategic brand consulting and design firms. Founded in 1941, Landor pioneered many of the research, design, and consulting methods that are now standard in the branding industry. Partnering with clients, Landor drives business transformation and performance by creating brands that are more innovative, progressive, and dynamic than their competitors. Landor is part of WPP, one of the world’s largest communications services groups.

Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates

a unit of the WPP group, is a global research-based consultancy that specializes in messaging and communications strategy for blue-chip political, corporate, and entertainment clients. We have over 30 years of experience in leveraging unique insights about consumer opinion to provide clients with a competitive advantage—what we call Winning Knowledge™. PSB executes polling and message testing services for Fortune 100 corporations and has helped elect more than 30 presidents and prime ministers around the world. www.psbresearch.com