MidBritain and the Environment
Introduction
Issues surrounding environmental and ethical consumerism make news headlines on a daily basis and are high on the agenda both for government and industry. Recycling, in particular, has become a focus for government, consumers and business alike.
In 2005, the government launched a week long campaign called the Big Recycle which was a week of promotional events aimed at raising awareness and increasing the amount of waste being recycled. This has been further enforced by the Household Recycling Act which will ensure all local councils have to provide kerbside recycling facilities for at least two materials by 2010. These initiatives have led to some radical schemes – the proposed two weekly bin collections ostensibly put in place to ‘encourage’ recycling have met with very strong resistance from the media and communities for obvious reasons.
In August 2006, Tesco started offering clubcard points for recycling and installed recycling facilities at many of its sites. Asda are running a pilot scheme to scrap plastic carrier bags altogether which is receiving favourable response from its customers. If successful, they plan to roll out this initiative to their remainder store base.
MidBritons and the Environment
MidBritons are not bucking the trend - 82% of all MidBritains agree that people have a duty to recycle products.
MidBritain's importance to the Environment
MidBritons are 34% more likely to be classified as an AB, 68% of all those who earn over £47,000 are MidBritons. Therefore, not only are they more likely to be well educated and well read about environmental issues, they have the disposable income to spend on environmentally friendly/organic/fair trade products.
54% of those that are happy to pay more for organic food are MidBritons. They are also 8% more likely than average to pay more for environmentally friendly products and 9% more likely than average to buy free range products than the average person.
The MidBritain Opportunity
The last two years has seen heightened interest in carbon emissions, recycling, organic food and fair trade products. Businesses and brands have been quick to act and most of them have a two- fold element to their communications – their brand values and their social responsibility initiatives.
MidBritain opinion is in line with mainstream opinion. They are willing and, more importantly, able to pay – harnessing their green/environmental credentials is paramount for many brands.
They should be considered as valuable audience for any communication with ‘green’ aims.
Sources: Premier Mintel – Food Packaging (May 2006) Green and Ethical Consumers (Jan 2007), TGI GB 2007 Q2 (Jan06 – Dec06).
