• Brandweek, Thursday, August 27, 2009 10:48 AM

A new study finds that 59% of green consumers say economic considerations are their top concern in making purchases; only 8% cite the environment, Alex Palmer reports. The Shelton Group issued the report, pulling from Earthsense data about 1,000 U.S. consumers who buy green products at least occasionally.

"It's the guy who buys one compact fluorescent light bulb a year all the way out to the girl in her Birkenstocks living in a yurt in Idaho," says Suzanne Shelton, Shelton Group president and CEO. Most respondents (54%) say they try to balance energy conservation and their personal comfort, while 10% said they always choose their comfort over energy conservation.

Given the range of responses, Shelton believes consumers will only be engaged by a variety of marketing approaches. "We're still in that sort of cheeky, assumptive, one-size-fits-all approach to green marketing, but we need to do with green advertising what we've done with every other kind of advertising," she says.

Read the whole story at Brandweek »