At the University of Yale’s School of Management, researchers have found that labeling products as “green” has negatively impacted consumers’ preferences on those products. The verdict to this unpredictable behaviour is due to consumers’ belief that modifying an original product to be more “green” causes the product to suffer from its original quality.
This is an unexpected turn of events for marketers who had the intention of attracting environmentally-conscious consumers to purchase “green” label products, but instead this strategy backfired. I agree with the consumers on this point: if a product were to change its formula to adapt to become more environmentally friendly, I would also believe that the original quality of that trusted product has been tweaked and pampered with, resulting in my decision to choose the next best alternative (probably a non-green alternative). If a product was first introduced on the market as a green-label product, I think that the results would be different. If consumers are satisfied with the originally-green product, they would view that product as a better, greener option to perform the same tasks with the benefit of contributing to a greener community and a smaller ecological footprint. This article brings about the importance of how to effectively market environmentally-friendly products so that consumers will choose the greener option as opposed to the original, more harmful alternative. Further research and application of this topic could influence many new consumers to make better choices with their preference of products with environmental sensitivity in mind.
Resources:
Slapping ‘Green’ on Your Products Makes Shoppers Think It Sucks
When Going Green Backfires: How Firm Intentions Shape the Evaluation of Socially Beneficial
Product Enhancements