Green segmentation

For most arts organisations, chasing the green pound should have some relevance. We finally have some evidence that would suggest that there is a link between cultural audiences and a positive pre-disposition towards sustainability and green issues. London Calling has had a contract to supply the ‘Mosaic’ audience segmentation analysis produced by Experian for a number of years. Therefore our understanding of who attends which types of event is very sophisticated, and we can map out, to individual postcodes, the types of people who attend arts events throughout London. Now Experian has created a new segmentation analysis called ‘Green Aware’, which segments the population by virtue of their behaviour and attitude towards green issues and even monitors individual household’s carbon footprints.
As public consciousness of global warming has increased, so has the complexity of the issues surrounding the key drivers that influence people’s behaviour. This research identifies the influences and barriers in current household behaviours, including consumer’s understanding of green initiatives, sense of risk, accountability, and an understanding of the terminology associated with carbon footprints and an organisation’s claims to be green. Green Aware enables you to identify and target households in relation to their attitudes towards environmental issues. This means that we can identify environmental attitudes of Mosaic groups as part of our existing strategy for segmenting customer behaviour. Initial analysis has shown that there are patterns suggesting that those who are well educated, affluent and are generally switched-on are more likely to take on an environmental focus in their daily lives. It would appear that ‘Symbols of Success’ and ‘Urban Intelligence’, the two most prevalent Mosaic segmentations at arts venues and cultural events, have a high correlation with ‘Eco-evangelists‘ and ‘Convinced Consumers‘, the two most environmentally aware and actively supporting groups within the population.

Eco-evangelists have the greenest attitudes of all, and are major consumers of green products. They are trying to cut down on buying stuff, and are mistrustful of companies. They tend to use public transport and many cycle, but on the negative side they tend to be frequent flyers and are not good at saving energy in the home.
Convinced Consumers are highly aware of green issues and are very keen to improve their behaviour. They are worried about other people not doing their bit and support Government compulsion. They have cut down on car use and some have even bought hybrid cars, but they do fly often. The other types are ‘Green But Doubtful’, ‘Confused but Well Behaved’, ‘Doing Their Best’, ‘Sceptical Libertarians’, ‘Too Busy to Change’, ‘Why Should I Bother’, ‘Constrained by Price’ and, finally, ‘Wasteful and Unconvinced’. Understanding the attitude of your audiences towards these issues can help you tailor the messages you give them, as well as identify similar segments of the population who currently don’t attend your performances or events. Taking simple steps to ‘green’ your marketing could have a significantly positive effect of the empathy and support you receive. Recycled paper, vegetable-based inks and environmentally friendly messages, such as “Please recycle this leaflet when you have finished with it”, can help organisations to contribute to improving sustainability and at the same time enhance the relationship with your audiences and visitors.