GrowthSurvey2008

GreenfluencersPORTER NOVELLI PROFILE:

contents

3 Introduction: Thinking Greenfluence

4 Identifying Greenfluencers

5 The Demographics of Greenfluencers

7 Politics, Activism and Involvement

8 Personal Activities

9 Brands and Consumerism

10 Media Consumption

12 What It Means

13 Appendix

For more information, please contact David Zucker, Partner, Porter Novelli, 75 Varick Street, New York, New York 10013; [email protected]; 212-601-8249

PORTER NOVELLI PROFILE: Greenfluencers

Now ordinary consumers are looking for products that areenvironmentally responsible. And sure enough, even thetardiest marketers are scrambling to make green claims,retool existing products with greener attributes and launchnew products and services positioned as more responsiblealternatives.

Consumers who want to do the right thing face a dauntingset of choices. Not only are they dealing with all theestablished dimensions of choice, which are bewilderingenough; now there are also confusing, sometimesunfounded, claims of greenness and many complex issuesthat must be factored into any assessment of a brand’sgreen credentials.

Most consumers don’t have enough time or motivation toassess brands’ greenness thoroughly. As in other productareas, they’ve become marketing-savvy and tend to take whatbrands and organizations say about themselves with a bushelof salt. And also as in other product areas, they tend to paymore attention to friends, relatives and third parties who takean active interest in the environment: Porter Novelli calls them“Greenfluencers.” They may be bloggers, they may representenvironmental activist organizations, or they may be

journalists. But the majority of them are simply the friend whothrows great parties and installed solar panels on his roof, orthe woman you met on Facebook with 2,000 friends and apassion for organics, or your coworker who got the wholeoffice to sign a pledge to reduce their carbon footprint. They’rethe individuals to whom we turn for advice as we’re trying todetermine exactly how we can be greener consumers.

Of course, there are conflicting claims and disagreementsamong Greenfluencers, too. But consumers can rely onGreenfluencers to sniff things out in a way that they may nottrust brands and organizations to do—not just the issues butalso the issues behind the issues; not just what corporationsare saying, but also what they’re not saying.

Just as consumers pay attention to what Greenfluencers aresaying, so should brands and organizations. In the map ofIntelligent Influence, Greenfluencers are crucial stakeholders.Their opinions can help brands and organizations understandwhat they need to be doing and saying. They have thepower to promote or skewer a product or company’s claimof environmental responsibility. They have a significantimpact because of their connectedness to much larger groupsof consumers.

PROFILE: GREENFLUENCERS3

Main Street is going green. So are the mall, the office and the home. Even the highways areshading a little greener. The tide of events has lifted environmental issues toward the top ofAmericans’ agendas: extreme weather such as Hurricane Katrina, the “Inconvenient Truth” of

global warming, rising gas and food prices and growing water supply problems. Green concerns areno longer the sole preserve of “owl lovers” and “tree huggers”; they’re increasingly making headlines.They’ve become thoroughly mainstream.

thinking greenfluence

INTRODUCTION

“Just as consumers pay attention to what Greenfluencers are saying, so should brands and organizations.In the map of Intelligent Influence, Greenfluencers are crucial stakeholders.”

To track down and profile Greenfluencers, we tappedinto Porter Novelli’s Styles database, a sample of11,758 Americans, and asked a lot of probingquestions. We identified a small core of 484respondents who deliberately factor environmentalawareness into their behavior and are influential in anactive social network. That works out to 4.1% of thetotal. (See the appendix for details.)

Demographically, Greenfluencers are more educated,more prevalent in the under-35 age bracket and have ahigher income. They don’t skew significantly more maleor female, but they do have slightly higher proportionsof Hispanics and “other” ethnicities (non-whites andnon-blacks) in their ranks.

As consumers, they’re more likely to researchproducts thoroughly before they buy them and morewilling to pay more for environmentally friendlyproducts. They’re more likely to be positively influenced

by a company’s charitable work, more likely to rewardand punish companies for their behavior and muchmore likely to advocate their position on a company’sactions with their friends and networks—they activelyspread their opinions.

On the technology front, they’re highly involved innew media and are early adopters of new technologyand gadgets. They are active, not passive. They join,rally, lobby, write letters and generally believe stronglythat collective and personal actions can impact globalwarming.

They stand out not just for their interest in the environmentbut also for their overall up-and-at-‘em attitude to life.They’re more physically active, and they want to be up-to-date on news events and the latest trends.

In short, what they lack in numbers they more thanmake up for in energy and presence.


IDENTIFYINGGREENFLUENCERS

“When the ability to influence others is factored into the mix, Greenfluencers turn out to be younger. ”

They’re younger. Today’s green thinkinghas roots that go back to the ’60s (hippies)and earlier (e.g., the Sierra Club). And sureenough, in the sample, greenness darkenswith age: The mean age for “Non-Greens” is44.5, for “Light Greens” it’s 44.9, for“Medium Greens” it’s 48.4, and for “DarkGreens” it’s 49.4.

However, when the ability to influence othersis factored into the mix, Greenfluencers turn outto be younger. Their mean age is 44.4,compared with 46.1 for the overall sample—asignificant demographic difference. Compared withthe overall population, they’re more present in the18–24 bracket (16% vs. 13%) and the 25–34 bracket(21% vs. 18%).

They’re more ethnically diverse. In terms of self-described ethnicity, a clear majority of the sample is white(69%), but a smaller percentage of Greenfluencers are white(66%). Blacks account for 12% of the sample but just 7% ofGreenfluencers. Hispanics make up 13% of the sample but 16%of Greenfluencers and “other” ethnicities (including Asian) are7% of the sample but 11% of Greenfluencers.

They’re more highly educated and earn more. In the overallsample, 30% are educated to college or higher, whereas 42% ofGreenfluencers have attained that level. A higher proportion isemployed (78% vs. 70%), and Greenfluencers have significantlyhigher household incomes; 44% have a household income of$75,000 or higher, compared with 30% of the overall population.

They’re similar in other ways. There’s very little difference in theproportions of the overall sample and the Greenfluencers who aremarried (63% and 64%) or have children under the age of 19 (34%vs. 30%). There’s little difference in their regional distribution; thebiggest regional differences are in the North (overallsample, 18%; Greenfluencers, 20%) and CentralU.S. (overall sample, 24%;Greenfluencers, 21%).


THE DEMOGRAPHICS OFGREENFLUENCERS

The survey gave respondents a list of 15self-descriptors and asked them to check theones they identified with. On each of the15, a higher percentage of Greenfluencersthan of the overall sample (henceforth calledthe Rest) checked the box. Greenfluencers’pattern of response is arguably typical ofpeople who are energetically andproactively engaged with their lives. It’simportant to remember that the answersreflect respondents’ self-images, not others’perceptions of them. The descriptors maynot correspond to observable behavior, butthey are very likely to influence aspirationsand choices.

These three descriptors revealed thebiggest gap between Greenfluencers andthe Rest:

“Trendsetter” is owned by more than twiceas many Greenfluencers as the Rest—morethan a quarter of them (26% vs. 11%).

“Adventurous” gets a yes from almost halfof Greenfluencers (49%), compared with justunder a quarter (24%) of the Rest.

“Stylish” is a big differentiator. A substantial42% of Greenfluencers identify with it,compared with just 22% of the Rest.

The gap between Greenfluencers and theRest is narrower on the remaining 12 self-descriptors, although the absolutepercentages for some are higher. Followingare the highest-scoring descriptors.

“Family-oriented” is the top descriptor for both Greenfluencers and the Rest (83%and 73%).

“Practical” is owned by manyGreenfluencers and many of the Rest, but it’s much more part of Greenfluencers’ self-image (79% vs. 63%).

“Intellectual” isn’t always regarded as acompliment or a positive attribute, butalmost three-quarters of Greenfluencersclaim it, as do almost half the overallsample (71% vs. 47%).

“Leader” is owned by a lot moreGreenfluencers than the Rest (68% vs. 42%),which befits influencers.


SELF-DESCRIPTORS

Environmental concern in America is typically identifiedmore with liberals than with conservatives, but the surveyfound that the differences were surprisingly small.

There are fewer Republican Greenfluencers—but not asfew as one might think. Five percent of Greenfluencers“always vote Republican,” compared with 7% of the Rest;there’s a similar skew for “usually vote Republican,” with16% of Greenfluencers compared with 19% of the Rest.

There are slightly more Democrat Greenfluencers, butagain it’s not a heavy skew. More Greenfluencers thanthe Rest “always vote Democrat” (15% vs. 13%), and“usually vote Democrat” (26% vs. 21%).

Greenfluencers are more (civically) active and involved.On almost all of the 11 points of activism and involvementlisted in the survey, more Greenfluencers than the Restreport they have done something in the past 12 months.The exception was “held or ran for office,” for which theresponse of both Greenfluencers and the Rest was thesame—only 1%. Greenfluencers appear to be more active

overall than the Rest. Just over a quarter of the Greenfluencershave done none of the activities (27%), compared withmore than half (51%) of the Rest.

A very large minority of Greenfluencers have contactedtheir congressman or senator (41% vs. 20%); almost athird of them have attended a public meeting on a town orschool affair (32% vs. 19%); well over a quarter haveserved on a committee for some local organization (28%vs. 14%); just over a quarter have served as an officer ofsome club or organization (26% vs. 13%). Greenfluencersare much more likely than the Rest to have conquered thewidespread fear of public speaking; 18% have made apublic speech, compared with 7% of the Rest.

Membership in organizations is higher amongGreenfluencers. The biggest membership percentages arefor the AARP (26% of Greenfluencers and 24% of theRest). The next-highest percentage of membership amongGreenfluencers is for an environmental organization (15%vs. 5%). Greenfluencers are also much more inclined than theRest to belong to a human rights organization (11% vs. 3%).


POLITICS, ACTIVISM

AND

INVOLVEMENT

“Greenfluencers’ pattern of response is arguably typical of people who are energetically and proactivelyengaged with their lives.”

SPORTS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITIESMore Greenfluencers exercise regularly: Almost half of them (46%) get at least 30 minutes of exercise every day,compared with less than one-third (32%) of the Rest. The survey asked respondents to indicate which of 17 physicalactivities and sports they do regularly. As with many other listed activities, consistently higher percentages ofGreenfluencers do them.

As one might expect, more Greenfluencers than the Rest do outdoorsy activities such as walking (77% vs. 63%), andbiking (32% vs. 15%). Less predictably, more Greenfluencers than the Rest lift weights (23% vs. 16%), go hunting andfishing (18% vs. 15%) and practice martial arts (3% vs. 2%).

The activities for which there was the greatest relative difference between Greenfluencers and the Rest are not just “elitist”activities like hiking (20% vs. 10%), jogging/running (21% vs. 12%) and skiing/snowboarding (6% vs. 3%) but also moremainstream sports such as baseball/softball (13% vs. 6%) and bowling (14% vs. 8%).

All told, Greenfluencers emerge as more physically active than the Rest. Fewer Greenfluencers engaged in none of thelisted activities (11% vs. 20%).


PERSONAL ACTIVITIES

LEISURE ACTIVITIESHigher percentages of Greenfluencers than the Rest report thatthey regularly enjoy each of 26 leisure activities listed in the survey.

Listening to music is the most widely enjoyed activity amongboth Greenfluencers and the Rest (86% vs. 77%). Reading is alsopopular (64% vs. 53%).

Going to the theater/symphony is the biggest differentiatorbetween Greenfluencers and the Rest (35% vs. 17%), butGreenfluencers aren’t just into highbrow activities. More of themattend sports events (38% vs. 23%) and go to nightclubs andbars (27% vs. 15%).

One might suspect that Greenfluencers are more “virtuous” thanother people, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Significantlymore of them engage in shopping for fun (50% vs. 37%) andgoing to the beach/lake (43% vs. 28%). They’re even a little moreinclined than the Rest to play computer games (36% vs. 32%).

All in all, Greenfluencers appear to be pretty much like otherAmericans—but more so.

“All in all, Greenfluencers appear to be pretty much like other Americans—but more so.”


NOVELTY AND INNOVATIONGreenfluencers tend to see themselves as adventurous.

Significantly more of them say they’re usually among the firstof their friends to try new food/nutrition products (44% vs.23%). Well over twice as many say they’re usually among thefirst to buy new technology products (40% vs. 16%). Far moreGreenfluencers than the Rest consider it important to be up-to-date on the latest styles and trends (44% vs. 24%), and morethan half like to own state-of-the-art electronics (51% vs. 30%).

SHOPPING AND BRANDSWith their above-average income, more Greenfluencers

than the Rest can afford to buy the highest-quality products nomatter what they cost, although even among Greenfluencersthis is a minority attitude (28% vs.18%). In fact,Greenfluencers are more likely to track down the best deals.Well over half of Greenfluencers thoroughly research productsbefore they purchase them (59% vs. 31%), and almost asmany compare prices at two or more stores before makingmost purchases (54% vs. 38%).

This doesn’t mean they’re looking for the lowest-possibleprices. They’re slightly less likely to buy the product with thelowest price, regardless of the brand (30% vs. 33%), butslightly more inclined to hold the view that generic productsare just as good as brand-name products (65% vs. 61%).

Paradoxically, although they’re keen on trying out newproducts, Greenfluencers seem significantly more brand loyal.More than three-quarters agree that once they find a brandthey like, they stick with it (78% vs. 71%).

WHERE THEY SHOPGreenfluencers shop pretty much where everyone else shops.

The survey included a list of 31 stores, and respondents wereasked to check the ones they have shopped at in the past threemonths. Consistently higher percentages of Greenfluencershad shopped at 28 of the 31. Relatively fewer have shoppedat the most-shopped store of all: Wal-Mart, where 79% ofGreenfluencers have shopped, compared with 82% of the Rest.

The other most-shopped stores are Target (69% ofGreenfluencers vs. 55% of the Rest), the Home Depot (64%vs. 49%) and Lowe’s (50% vs. 38%). In the next tier areKMart (39% vs. 33%), JCPenney (37% vs. 32%) and DollarGeneral (37% of both).

The stores where there was the biggest gap betweenGreenfluencers and the Rest are an odd collection. Staplesattracts more than double the proportion of Greenfluencers(33% vs. 16%). Radio Shack draws an even moredisproportionate ratio of Greenfluencers (24% vs. 11%), asdo Comp USA (9% vs. 3%) and QVC (7% vs. 3%). Alsomuch bigger with Greenfluencers than the Rest are Gap (15%vs. 6%) and Nordstrom (11% vs. 4%).

BRANDS AND CONSUMERISM

“Far more Greenfluencers than the Rest consider it important to be up-to-date on the latest styles and trends.”


MEDIA SOURCES FOR INFORMATIONConsistently higher proportions of Greenfluencers than the Rest use the Internet as their primary media source forinformation. TV is the medium used most widely across the board for keeping up with current news and world events,although the proportion of Greenfluencers is lower than that of the Rest (60% vs. 64%). Among Greenfluencers, the Internetscores second highest (18% vs. 13%). Identical proportions rely on print newspapers (16%), and slightly fewerGreenfluencers use radio (5% vs. 6%). Magazines are not in the running.

TV is also the medium most widely used for keeping up with entertainment news and trends. Slightlyfewer Greenfluencers than the Rest use it (50% vs. 53%). Significantly more Greenfluencers than theRest use the Internet for this purpose (20% vs. 14%). Identical percentages use print newspapers(13%), slightly more Greenfluencers use magazines (14% vs. 13%), and slightly fewer useradio (5% vs. 6%).

However, for seeking out information rather than keeping up with events, the Internet isthe top preference, especially among Greenfluencers. Finding out about products youare planning to buy gets 55% of Greenfluencers and 47% of the Rest turning straightto the Internet. Lower numbers of Greenfluencers than the Rest use printnewspapers (17% vs. 20%), magazines (15% vs. 16%) and radio (2% vs. 1%).

Looking for health and nutrition information also drives the highestproportions of Greenfluencers and the Rest to the Internet (49% vs. 45%).Magazines are the second-most popular source for health information,and they score higher with Greenfluencers than the Rest (33% vs.31%). TV is used by fewer Greenfluencers than the Rest (9% vs.14%). Print newspapers are used by far fewer (8% vs. 9%), andradio hardly at all.

THE INTERNETWhile Greenfluencers use the Internet more

than the Rest as their primary medium for keeping up with events and seeking information, that doesn’t mean that all Greenfluencers are avid Internet users. In fact, 9% of them do not use the Internet for personal purposes, but that’s a lower percentage than among the Rest (15%).

Still, they also use the Internet more than the rest do. For every listed purpose, far more Greenfluencers use the Internet.

The most widespread purposes are reading and writinge-mail (80% of Greenfluencers and 70% of the Rest),followed by shopping online (53% vs. 40%) and lookingfor health/nutrition information (41% vs. 25%).

MEDIA CONSUMPTION

“Finding out about products you are planning to buy gets 55% ofGreenfluencers and 47% of the Rest turning straight to the Internet.”

Greenfluencers also play online games more than the Rest (25%vs. 22%) and listen to music and download it more (29% vs. 18%).

The most differentiating purposes have to do withinteraction. They’re minority activities, but they engagerelatively higher proportions of Greenfluencers than of theRest: read or add a comment to a blog (20% vs. 7%),participate in chats/online discussions (14% vs. 5%),create/write a blog (13% vs. 4%) and place Internet phonecalls (4% vs. 1%).

TELEVISION CHANNELSGreenfluencers watch at least

as many different TV channelsas the Rest do. None of the46 TV channels listed inthe survey is watched atleast once a week byfewer Greenfluencersthan the Rest. In fact, 40channels are watched byhigher proportions ofGreenfluencers.

The proportions ofGreenfluencers and the Rest arethe same for USA (30%), TBS(27%), Court TV (18%), Nickelodeon(15%), BET (10%) and CW (7%). Theproportions are also fairly close for the most-watched channels. The big threenetworks still rack up the highestnumbers of viewers every week. CBSgets 68% of Greenfluencers and 63% ofthe Rest; ABC (67% vs. 62%) andNBC (63% vs. 58%) are veryclose behind. Fox is watchedat least once a week bymore than half of bothGreenfluencers and the Rest(56% vs. 55%). Discoveryis close behind but iswatched by a higherproportion of Greenfluencers(55% vs. 42%).

The channels thatshowed the biggestdisparities are notmainstream. The mostdifferentiating are theSpanish-language channelsTelemundo (5% vs. 2%) andUnivision (6% vs. 3%). A far higher proportion ofGreenfluencers watch the Travel Channel (25% vs. 14%),the Movie Channel (21% vs.12%) and Comedy Central (28% vs. 19%). Educational and

“serious” channels also get significantly higher proportions ofGreenfluencers than of the Rest: PBS (39% vs. 28%), theHistory Channel (40% vs. 30%) and CNBC (18% vs. 11%).

TELEVISION SHOW TYPESGreenfluencers watch at least as many different types of TV

shows as the Rest. More Greenfluencers than the Rest watch17 of the program types at least once a week. For the other threetypes, Greenfluencers’ percentages were the same as the Rest:game shows (35%), sports (33%) and reality TV (30%).

The most-watched types by both Greenfluencers and the Rest are local/national news (87% vs. 79%). Following some

way behind are crime/law dramas (59% vs.54%), the weather (56% vs. 47%) andsitcoms (53% vs. 46%).

The most differentiating types are morespecial-interest subjects, where the Greenfluencer

minorities are relatively much larger. For example,travel shows are regularly watched by almost twice theproportion of Greenfluencers (29% vs. 15%). Healthshows are weekly viewing for 17% of Greenfluencersbut only 9% of the Rest. Late-night talk shows are staplefare for well over a quarter of Greenfluencers but lessthan a fifth of the Rest (29% vs. 18%).



The emergence of real Greenfluencers gives PorterNovelli (and its clients) another opportunity to enrichIntelligent Influence—our method of mapping the mosteffective interactions, making them happen andmeasuring the outcome—as we map out importantstakeholders. In deepening our understanding of thebroader Greenfluencer group, we’re seeing the overlapof the environmental activist community, bloggers andjournalists and leading environmental spokespeople.

These organizations and individuals are particularlyinfluential among Medium Green and Dark Greenconsumers. Our relationships with environmentalstakeholders allow us to anticipate the ways they will

react to a new product or claim and how best toengage with them to build constructive relationships. Theessence of those relationships is Intelligent Dialogue—ourapproach to influencing key stakeholders—with informationand opinions flowing in both directions.

Although core Greenfluencers are still a relativelysmall proportion of the population, Porter Novelli canrely on having unique access to substantial numbers ofindividual Greenfluencers via consumer panels that wecan organize from our Styles database. We can usethese panels to test and explore product concepts,marketing claims and reactions to a variety of greenproduct or service attributes.

what it means

APPENDIX

For the purposes of segmentation, we looked at Americans’ reported actions on sevenenvironmental points:

• Buying environmentally friendly products

• Buying products that use less packaging

• Using less energy at home

• Buying energy-efficient appliances/insulation

• Punishing companies with bad environmental records by not buying theirproducts

• Buying products made from recycled paper/plastic

• Recycling at home. Based on responses to these actions, we identified four levels of greenness. Just 16% of

the population are “Non-Green” and do none of these activities; almost half qualify as“Light Green,” doing between one and four of the activities; more than a quarter (27%)qualify as “Medium Green,” doing five or six of them; and just 7% do all seven activitiesand qualify as “Dark Green.”

While events prompt Americans to become more environmentally oriented, the velocityand trajectory of this environmental trend will depend on people influencing each other.Therefore, we narrowed the segmentation to find people who are likely to be particularlyinfluential in changing the attitudes and behaviors of others. We defined networkedinfluencers (“Netfluencers”) as people with social networks of ten or more friends who areregularly (almost every day) asked by their peers for advice on some topic. We refinedNetfluencers into Greenfluencers by singling out Netfluencers who qualified as Medium orDark Green.

Throughout this paper, Greenfluencers’ characteristics are contrasted with those of theoverall sample, also referred to as the Rest. Strictly speaking, the Rest is the total sampleand includes all Greenfluencers. However, the percentage of Greenfluencers in the sampleis so small (4.1%) that stripping them out of the overall sample scores makes only aminimal difference to the percentages.


About Porter Novelli Styles

STYLES is Porter Novelli’s communication-centered database thatcaptures the demographics, psychographics, attitudes andbehaviors of a large, nationally representative sample of thepopulation. The proprietary information from Styles along withour analytical capabilities offers clients a cost-effective way togain perspective into target audiences and informcommunications planning. It’s also often leveraged as input toour proprietary insight development approach, PNPointInsightsSM. The power of Styles is that it’s a single source thatgives us a unique vehicle to understand target U.S. and WesternEuropean audiences from the point of view of their behavior,lifestyle, attitudes and demographics.

Styles consists of multiple survey elements. The findings in thispaper were drawn from ConsumerStyles, a comprehensive lookat what the American public is currently buying, where they areshopping, what they are eating, how they are living, where theystand on social issues, how they feel about products and servicesand how to reach them.

PORTER NOVELLI was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1972 and is a part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com).With 100 offices in 60 countries, we take a 360-degree view of clients’ business to build powerful communications programs that resonate with criticalstakeholders. Our reputation is built on our foundation in strategic planning and insights generation and our ability to adopt a media-neutral approach. We ensure our clients achieve Intelligent Influence, systematically mapping the most effective interactions, making them happen and measuring the outcome.Many minds. Singular results.

Porter Novelli Worldwide75 Varick Street, 6th floorNew York, NY 10013

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