The Green Shift and Consumer Behaviour

Abstract

The increased attention to the word ‘green’ has not only caused a shift in consumers behavior but has rippled its way into the business world as well. This can not only be seen in new marketing messages, from many world known companies and brands, but in consumers buying habits and opinionated media content. How have buying habits possibly changed in consumers because of this green shift? Past research has looked at a wide specter of topics within the ‘going green’ movement. Going through previous research there were reoccurring topics that would be interesting to test in the aspect of change in behavior. Evaluating the topics green marketing, green consumers, individual & purchasing power, it would allow better insight to how the green shift possibly affect changes in consumer behavior. Using theories such as ELM, TRA, PMO and motivators gave insight into how to formulate hypotheses that could give telling results as well as allowing reasoning to the results. Gathering data through a questionnaire allowed the hypotheses belonging to the topics of green marketing, green consumer, individual & purchasing power, women vs. men, age and media to be tested and to be later analyzed. These tests led to finding conclusions for each of the topics. The conclusions found, seem match those of previous research on these topics. The conclusions are, that people don’t, in general, value green marketing. Consumers who feel that they can contribute and feel that their contribution helps the environment, will affect their buying habits. An individual that sees themselves as sustainable, will want to purchase green products, as well as be willing to alter their current buying behavior. Women are more willing to pay more for green products. The younger generations are concerned about their environmental impact. Consumers who spend more time on social media are more aware of the ongoing climate discussions.