Regardless of motivation, auto manufacturers and dealers need to consider current hybrid owners looking to replace their current vehicle as well as potential, first-time hybrid buyers when developing marketing campaigns. Experian’s GreenAware is an excellent marketing tool to identify green consumers however; not all may be in the market to purchase a new vehicle.

 Experian’s Auto Purchase Models  predict which consumers are more likely to purchase a new vehicle in the next six months including the likelihood of purchasing a new hybrid car or truck.

 The models are part of a prospecting system that supports outreach efforts by auto online portals, manufactures, agencies, and dealers which typically require very quick turnaround. The Auto Purchase Models are designed to help you clearly identify and market to households that are up to 15 times more likely than average to purchase a particular a new vehicle model or within a certain vehicle segment in the next six months.

 More information can be found on Experian GreenAware and the new Experian Auto Prospect Models.

Flash forward to 2009 where we are seeing financial services companies getting more creative and making large investments to not only be greener, but to reward their customers for making smarter and greener decisions. One example of this is the new Gconomy Visa card (made with recycled plastic) which donates a portion of each purchase the consumer makes to a “green” schools program, and rewards consumers who recycle.

Green consumers are a niche market and a challenging group to accurately target. A consumer segment that can be filled with consumers who give off mixed messages with their behaviors. You know, the consumer who drives a hybrid but gets their favorite coffee “double-cupped”? Financial services green marketers have an added challenge of trying to generate a response for a reward card offer that doesn’t give the consumer cash back or airline miles which consumers have grown to expect.

Look for credit card marketers to get even smarter in the future by segmenting the different degrees of green consumers and offering different types of green reward cards based on the strength of the consumer’s green behaviors.

• Behavioral Greens – great prospects for rewards cards like Geconomy Visa for consumers with the strongest green affinity.
• Think Greens – good prospects for a green card that rewards them back for making green purchase decisions.
• Potential Greens – less likely to be strong responders without a compelling case.  These consumers neither behave nor think particularly about the environment. They are into high tech devices so a green reward card tied to electronics might be appealing.
• True Browns – best to target these consumers with other types of card offers tied to travel and entertainment, and suppress them from your green campaigns for now.

The lowest ranking segment for women is the Potential Greens showing that women do not have an issue making up their minds on being green while the men are in the middle still evaluating.  When using this data for marketing and you are targeting women, you’ll want to apply green segmentation to create relevant messaging.  While men since they sit in the middle won’t be a sensitive to the message yet offer the opportunity to build a relationship and influence them as they are still thinking about being green.

How do Baby Boomers choose to flex these powerful consumer muscles? And how, if at all, do their behaviors and buying trends translate into a green lifestyle? Consider these interesting facts:

• Baby Boomers are 13 percent more likely today to say they prefer to buy things that their friends or neighbors would approve of
• Boomer are 13 percent more likely today to say that a coupon would attract them to a store in which they don’t normally shop
• They are 25 percent more likely today to say they use the Internet to plan shopping
• Visits to the top 500 online retail sites has increased 7 percent in the past year, as a result in Boomers have replaced Millennials as the largest segment of visitors of these sites.

Beyond shopping behaviors, Boomers are increasing their participation in social networking sites up 77 percent year over year. More than 30% turn to online media sources for their daily news fix.

Let’s overlay this information with what we know about environmentally-conscious Boomers. Today slightly more than 65 percent of Baby Boomers are classified as “Greenies” … falling into one of the top two green segments … Behavioral Green or Think Green.

So 65 percent Baby Boomers are classified as “Greenies” and their online behaviors are growing at a rapid pace. For existing and future product and service promotions, messaging around the environment will be crucial. But it’s only half the battle. Contact strategies will be important to evaluate as well. I found the social networking increase (77%) quite shocking and tapping into that should be part of your contact strategies.

We do see a differentiation by region in the indexing for Behavioral Greens or True Browns.  New England, Mid-Atlantic and Pacific regions index highest for Behavioral Greens, while Central regions and South Atlantic index highest for the True Browns.  When you drill down a little deeper, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts perform the highest for Behavioral Greens followed by California, New Jersey and Rhode Island.   On the opposite extreme, Idaho, Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah and Tennessee index high for True Browns.

What is true is that there is a differentiation in the number of consumers with green behaviors and attitudes living in certain geographical regions.  However, what you hear and read about the geographical region and their political direction toward green governance and regulation, is not the best indicator of the attitudes of the constituencies.  A better indicator of consumer green behavior is demographics, past behavior and reported attitudes.

 Millennials are defined as anyone born between the years of 1977–1996, and are quickly becoming the largest age group in the United States. Expectations are they will become the majority population in 2011 (54% of the population) replacing the Baby Boomer generation. 

 Other traits of the millennial generation include being spontaneous and the desire for instant gratification.  Though this group has been educated on the need to protect the environment, a strong portion of their vary nature goes against that grain.  The top two GreenAware segments tend to be older with higher incomes and educations.  They have traditional and liberal values.  They have the wherewithal and desire to purchase potentially higher-priced products knowing they are conserving the planet.

 All is not lost for the millennial generation.  The internet, instant messaging, iPods and cell phones have made this consumer group extremely reliant on online methods for communicating.  Because they desire instant gratification, they’re not willing to wait for information or to communicate to someone.  This behavior has lead companies to implement technology according to their desires which has lead to a more paper-less society. 

 So is it fact or fiction that the millennials are a group of green consumers?  I say both.  There is still a lot of work to do to make it easier and more cost effective for them to purchase green products and to reduce and reuse.  However, they are the leaders in making the older generations adapt to new behaviors.  As this group of consumers age and become the majority of the U.S. population, green marketers have to focus on their behaviors and meet their demands, if they want to capture this market.

During the last three years, the number of Hispanic households that own two or more computers has grown by 50 percent. Compared to 2006 there are now 42 percent more Hispanic Americans who shop online and made an online purchase in the last seven days. Further, 23 percent more Hispanics today say they use the Internet to help plan their shopping trips compared to 2006. So as expected with increased purchase power the Hispanic population is more engaged in buying online, which could be a correlation to their green attitudes. While today fewer than 50 percent of non-Hispanic adults feel it’s important that others see them as being environmentally-conscious, this attitude among Hispanic adults has increased to more than 55 percent in recent months. Consider these also:

• 51 percent of Hispanics are Behavioral or Think Greens
• 25 percent of the 25-34 year old Hispanics are Behavioral or Think Green compared to the total population in this age group is about 15%

As you can see the 25-34 year old Hispanic population is more concerned about green attitudes than the total US population. This information should be incorporated into your green marketing campaign when targeting this age group of the Hispanic population.

It’s reasonable to expect that as the Hispanic population continues to grow and become even more influential as consumers, they will continue to trend toward environmentally-relevant issues and products. As your organization evaluates the most effective way to reach this ever-important consumer segment, it will be critical to maintain a real-time understanding of the green attitudes and behaviors of the Hispanic community.

Consumers are looking for companies to help them get the best value out of their purchase. You may not always have to have the lowest sale price to win their business if you make it easier for them to recover some of their expense in other ways. The “Stimulus Bill” (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) provided $300 million to states for consumer rebates on the following ENERGY STAR qualified appliances: central air conditioners heat pumps (air source and geothermal) boilers furnaces (oil and gas) room air conditioners clothes washers dishwashers refrigerators/freezers water heaters Each state will develop its own rebate program, and has the flexibility to select which appliances to include and what rebate amounts to offer, so familiarize yourself with the plan in your state. The rebate amounts range from $50 to $250, depending upon the product being purchased, purchase price, and other market factors. More information can be found on the Department of Energy’s website.

Don’t forget to talk to your customers about recycling their old used appliances. They should be disposed of properly as they contain substances such as lead, mercury, and cadmium which can harm the environment. Educating your customers on the overall benefits of energy efficient appliances should be only the first step in your sales process. The company that goes the extra distance to educate their customers on the additional programs that are available and then also makes it easy for them to take advantage of them will be rewarded.

According to DMAchoice.org, “direct mail is a green way to shop. If Americans replaced two trips to the mall each year with shopping by catalog, we’d reduce our number of miles driven by 3.3 billion—a 3 billion pound reduction in carbon dioxide and a savings of $650 million on gas alone.” This highlights the intersection between green attitudes and behaviors. Behavioral Green consumers regularly buy through catalogs most likely because they know catalogs provide benefit to the environment. Catalogers who make this connection with their best clients and prospects will likely improve brand loyalty and increase response rates. By mailing catalogs you help consumers save money on gas, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and provide products that are relevant to your consumers needs and interests.

Beyond the obvious benefits to the catalogers themselves, there are specific environmental benefits. Those who lobby against the direct marketing industry portend that direct mail – including catalogs – is a waste of resources and harmful to the environment. In fact the opposite is true. It’s estimated that the production of household-level advertising, such as catalogs, consumes only 0.19 percent of the energy used in the United States.

Additionally, DMAchoice.org notes, “mail is made from a renewable resource. The vast majority of paper produced in America today comes from trees grown for that specific purpose. The forest industry ensures that the number of trees each year is increasing, so trees are not a depleting resource. In fact, forest land in the United States has increased by 5.3 million acres in the past three decades.”

In short, the answer is a whole-hearted “yes!” Catalogs are a benefit to retailers, consumers and the environment. Great news as we head into the catalog-heavy holiday season.