How attitudes and values can drive segmentation
Environmental and social issues are very different
We might assume that everyone who cares about the planet also cares about social issues. The truth is that while there is some overlap we can’t assume that this is the case.
The term sustainability means many things to different people. So just because someone thinks environmental, or social sustainability issues are the most important issues doesn’t mean that they think social or environmental sustainability issues are the second most important.
In other words, people can care about one and not the other, or at least give it a lower priority. The intersectionality of the issues that those of us working in sustainability understand simply isn’t common knowledge at a general population level.
Of course, many people think that other issues – mostly the economy – matter more.
In this research we asked people about issues in the world that need solving – firstly unprompted, then by prompting issues ranging from environmental issues to social issues such as health, the economy, immigration, migration and displacement issues.
The important thing for our future segmentation is to understand that different people are motivated by, and prioritise, different issues within the broad sustainability umbrella.
Always look on the bright side
People are more likely to take action if they believe it will have an impact. Optimism that there are solutions to the world’s biggest issues is a key ingredient in unlocking action.
Without it, there is little motivation for individuals to overcome the barriers to change, even if they care deeply about the issues. This puts marketers in a good position to inject hope and drive positive behaviour change.
The good news is that very few people have no hope. When asked about their feelings about the possibility of making real progress to solve environmental issues like climate change, damage to nature, water scarcity or pollution, only 1 in 10 people used 1-4 on a 10-point scale.
For future segmentation we need to understand that, within individual markets, levels of optimism will vary dramatically across consumer segments. That means the business actions required to encourage behaviour change will also vary.
Because my neighbours do it
Peer pressure and virtue signalling are powerful motivators for action. Everyone wants to look good among their group so many will feel social pressure to signal that they care about sustainability issues even if they take little action to back it up.
There are negative perceptions from appearing to not care about sustainability, and therefore social pressure to signal that you do.
The result is ‘virtue signalling’ that can involve posturing, often online to have more scale, but lacks deeper real engagement in the issue and, importantly, any substantial action beyond what is being demonstrated.
Consistently, across all cultures we covered, there is a segment of people that are sceptical about their friends and family’s deeper motivations. It is logical that their friends and family would say the same about them and could potentially be used as a motivator for the respondent’s own behaviour and expressed attitudes.
Social pressure is clearly a motivator for a key segment of people, so this is important to include in sustainability segmentations, especially when using segments to encourage behaviour change.
Everywhere's different and the cult of denial
Two other attitudinal factors to take into account when it comes to segmentation are location and denial.
Different issues have a different impact, depending on how close to home they feel. Issues that only impact on the wider world are treated very differently to those impacting an individual’s wider community or country and especially when compared to those very close to an individual and directly impacting them.
We also hear a lot about Eco-Deniers. They do exist but they are small in number compared to the majority who care about sustainability and want to act.
This group are less likely to be responsive to sustainable behaviour change communications, which they may interpret as an attempt to control them. They do follow behaviours that are more normalised so focus must be on more mass adoption of sustainable behaviours. And the truth is that far more people around the world see environmental and social sustainability issues as among the most
important issues in the world that need solving. Most people agree that they have a role to play in solving sustainability issues.
