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Monday 10 November 2008
Premium green goods become status symbols
Research among mainland consumers repeatedly indicates a concern for the environment - consumers’ good intentions to adopt products that are kinder to the environment, even if they are harsher to their wallets.
Research among mainland consumers repeatedly indicates a concern for the environment - consumers’ good intentions to adopt products that are kinder to the environment, even if they are harsher to their wallets.
However, if one scans the mainland market, it is hard to detect any evidence of roaring sales of green products. Even hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius, which have a significant following in the west, have so far not stimulated enthusiastic interest from the mainland consumer.
Green-goods opportunities exist in energy solutions, green homes, green holidays as well as a range of products and services that use environmentally friendly production and distribution methods. However, for these products and services (most of which are significantly more expensive to produce than their more conventional alternatives) to appeal to the mainland consumer, they need to be positioned and sold in a particular way.
Inspiration for green goods marketing can be derived from studying the mainland luxury goods market. Luxury goods try to entice the consumer and encourage generous spending through strong emotional appeals.
Undoubtedly, in most cases the product itself offers the best possible quality. However, the functional or material superiority by itself is inadequate to justify the large price premium, and strong emotional gratification is offered to balance the price-value equation.
Luxury goods manufacturers on the mainland successfully exploit emotions such as prestige and the need to display class and exclusivity. Luxury goods advertising often portrays its users as being unique, belonging to an exclusive clique and admired and fawned upon by others.
Extending this idea of supplementing functional satisfaction with emotional gratification, we need to explore whether it is possible to expand the range of emotive benefits that the consumer may get from spending a large sum of money, to create an attraction for green products.
Psychological needs for prestige and admiration are well established, and it is also known that the consumer is willing to pay to satisfy these needs. Most marketing pundits will agree that status is a strong driver of luxury consumption in China. Through usage of these products, consumers want to proclaim their success and hope to command respect and adulation from their peers and associates.
Green products such as hybrid cars, low-energy consumption homes, solar energy solutions for homes all have the potential of satisfying the same need for status as a Louis Vuitton bag or Patek Philippe watch. Just as a luxury watch aids in raising the user’s status in the eyes of the world, usage of green products or even espousal of green causes enhances his image.
In the case of the former, the respect and admiration comes from the user’s material success and his presumed bank balance, while in the latter it is triggered by the user’s conscientiousness and commendable sense of responsibility.
Many mainland consumers will possibly value this more than a mere lucre-based reverence. High-end green products in China need to be sold as “intelligent luxury” products - a symbol of the consumer’s conscientiousness and sense of responsibility.
On the mainland, sales of hybrid cars can be fuelled by a need to prove to oneself and others that one is a responsible consumer. Premium green products have the opportunity to be positioned and sold as environmental status symbols.
Ashok Sethi is regional director of methodology at TNS ALM
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Premium green goods become status symbols
Ashok Sethi
10 November 2008
Research among mainland consumers repeatedly indicates a concern for the environment - consumers’ good intentions to adopt products that are kinder to the environment, even if they are harsher to their wallets.
However, if one scans the mainland market, it is hard to detect any evidence of roaring sales of green products. Even hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius, which have a significant following in the west, have so far not stimulated enthusiastic interest from the mainland consumer.
Green-goods opportunities exist in energy solutions, green homes, green holidays as well as a range of products and services that use environmentally friendly production and distribution methods. However, for these products and services (most of which are significantly more expensive to produce than their more conventional alternatives) to appeal to the mainland consumer, they need to be positioned and sold in a particular way.
Inspiration for green goods marketing can be derived from studying the mainland luxury goods market. Luxury goods try to entice the consumer and encourage generous spending through strong emotional appeals.
Undoubtedly, in most cases the product itself offers the best possible quality. However, the functional or material superiority by itself is inadequate to justify the large price premium, and strong emotional gratification is offered to balance the price-value equation.
Luxury goods manufacturers on the mainland successfully exploit emotions such as prestige and the need to display class and exclusivity. Luxury goods advertising often portrays its users as being unique, belonging to an exclusive clique and admired and fawned upon by others.
Extending this idea of supplementing functional satisfaction with emotional gratification, we need to explore whether it is possible to expand the range of emotive benefits that the consumer may get from spending a large sum of money, to create an attraction for green products.
Psychological needs for prestige and admiration are well established, and it is also known that the consumer is willing to pay to satisfy these needs. Most marketing pundits will agree that status is a strong driver of luxury consumption in China. Through usage of these products, consumers want to proclaim their success and hope to command respect and adulation from their peers and associates.
Green products such as hybrid cars, low-energy consumption homes, solar energy solutions for homes all have the potential of satisfying the same need for status as a Louis Vuitton bag or Patek Philippe watch. Just as a luxury watch aids in raising the user’s status in the eyes of the world, usage of green products or even espousal of green causes enhances his image.
In the case of the former, the respect and admiration comes from the user’s material success and his presumed bank balance, while in the latter it is triggered by the user’s conscientiousness and commendable sense of responsibility.
Many mainland consumers will possibly value this more than a mere lucre-based reverence. High-end green products in China need to be sold as “intelligent luxury” products - a symbol of the consumer’s conscientiousness and sense of responsibility.
On the mainland, sales of hybrid cars can be fuelled by a need to prove to oneself and others that one is a responsible consumer. Premium green products have the opportunity to be positioned and sold as environmental status symbols.
Ashok Sethi is regional director of methodology at TNS ALM
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