Green Marketing Youth Culture Perceptions:”Do you feel that companies are actually making a change by saying they are”Green” or do you think it’s just advertising?” Fresh Results from Label Networks Provides Insight

Each year”, Label Networks asks a series of questions to a representative sample of thousands of young people ages 13-25 about their perceptions, influences, and concerns as it pertains to humanitarian issues, green marketing, the environment, “green” sponsorship effectiveness, volunteerism, among other similar topics. Together, the results are packaged into our Humanitarian Youth Culture Profile Report, also known as the Green Marketing Report. As more brands use this method to reach a larger demographic, what’s interesting to note is that the savvy youth marketplace already suspects that most brands go “green” as an advertising ploy. In this story we take a look at results based on a new question that measures what young people think about brands going “green.”

Overall, when asked, “Do you feel that companies are actually making a change by saying they are green, or do you think it’s just advertising?” 61.3% of 13-25-year-olds in North America believe its Just Advertising. As many young people elaborate, they want to see or understand the initiative to determine for themselves if the brand is being authentic or just jumping on the green marketing bandwagon.

By gender males have higher percentages at 64.8% that believe it’s just advertising compared with females at 59.8%. However, even though the majority of young people believe that in many cases, it’s just advertising, they also look for brands that are trying to make a difference and as we’ve pointed out in our previous story on brand perception, 58% are more aware of eco-friendly brands than 1 year ago and would like to learn more.

By age groups, what’s interesting is that the oldest demographic of 21-25-year-olds have the highest percentages that believe a brand is making a different or change by going green at 41.1% compared with only 37.8% of 18-20-year-olds, 38.4% of 15-17-year-olds, and 38.2% of 13-14-year-olds. What this points out is that while many people believe younger demographics are more gullible to various advertising tactics, when it comes to the green movement, they are very aware that it could simply be an advertising ploy than actually making a change.