Consumers' Impact on Environmental Marketing

Consumers, as well as industries, have indicated increased interest in environmental concerns in recent years. Consumers have demonstrated a willingness to buy products and packaging with recycled content and pay more for more environmentally conscious choices. Yet, they are ill-equipped to sort through the maze of advertising claims to determine an appropriate choice. Standardization of terms and claims could help consumers make decisions. Government regulators are ready to help industry and consumers develop standards. Yet, little or no information is available to enable regulators to base their guidelines on consumer concerns and perceptions.

In 1991, the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service initiated a project designed to convey consumer concerns about environmental marketing claims to government regulators. We hoped not only to facilitate the policymakers' decision making, but also to ensure that as regulators evaluated options, they had available to them information about what consumers know and think.

We began by reviewing the requests for comments on proposed environmental labeling regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Next, we designed surveys to assess consumer knowledge of environmental terms such as recycled and recyclable and to ask consumers for their recommendations on guidelines for environmental marketing. Each of the six surveys included no more than five questions to minimize the time commitment of both field staff and clientele. Since we didn't duplicate questions across surveys, we were able to ask 29 different questions. Each question was open-ended.

I wrote to the FTC and the EPA and indicated our interest in preparing testimony. To reduce travel costs, I asked to submit only written testimony to the FTC, but secured an invitation to present both oral and written testimony to the EPA.

Field staff were asked to participate by identifying audiences to complete the surveys and by duplicating, distributing, and returning the surveys. Each staff member chose which surveys to distribute to which audiences. Most often, the surveys were distributed at the beginning of a regularly scheduled meeting; however, some staff asked all visitors to the office to complete one. The only limitations were that the surveys shouldn't be distributed at meetings where the topic was related to environmental marketing and that only adults, not youth, should participate. Field staff received information to share with clientele about the issues related to environmental marketing claims and the role of federal regulation. A fact sheet on environmental marketing claims was also prepared for distribution.

More than 2,300 Illinois consumers completed surveys distributed by 47 field staff. The sample sizes in the six surveys ranged from 199 to 650. Informal feedback from consumers was extremely positive. Many were grateful to have this opportunity to convey their opinions to government regulators. Participation in the project also increased their interest in environmental marketing issues. Field staff also participated enthusiastically in the project, completing data collection in less than two months.

Analysis of the survey indicated consumers have limited understanding of commonly used environmental terms such as "recycled" and "recyclable." While most of the consumers surveyed gave definitions that would be considered correct, 50% or more used some form of the word recycle to define both recycled and recyclable. Some consumers used the words interchangeably. The results also indicated consumers have virtually no understanding of industry lingo such as "pre-consumer waste." Two-thirds of consumers didn't know the meaning of pre-consumer waste and 75% couldn't define post-consumer waste. However, consumers did indicate a strong interest in seeing general information about the environmental characteristics of products on product labels.

Written testimony was submitted to the Federal Trade Commission's July 1991 hearings on regulation of environmental claims. I gave both oral and written testimony at the November 1991 Environmental Protection Agency hearings. In each case, our testimony was the only testimony based on data from large sample consumer surveys. It also represented the only testimony that analyzed the relative merits of the proposed guidelines from the perspective of consumer education. Agency officials have indicated great interest in the research and have considered it in their deliberations.

Field staff received a summary of the research results as well as written reports prepared after each hearing. News releases were also distributed about the project for use in local newspapers. The research was featured in at least two national newsletters and several major organizations and trade associations, including AT&T and the Grocery Manufacturers of America, have requested a copy of the summary.