The Conflicted Consumer

I came across this article a couple of days ago. It's about the "conflicted consumer."

There are those consumers who don't care about company ethics or where products come from. They just want stuff. Then there are those who will buy "green" no matter what. Then there are those in the middle who are actually concerned about incorporating ethics into their consumer choices, although they may not always be able to do so. This is the "conflicted consumer" and this is the group that could have impacts on businesses who choose to ignore ethics in their company practices. According to the author,

...some good data from the marketing agency BBMG gave us some more guidance on what this conflict is really about. In their survey of U.S. consumers, they discovered something really interesting about what attributes of products are "very important" to people when they shop. Ranking the attributes, quality and price were #1 and #2. No surprise there. But convenience and other sure-thing attributes had dropped from 3, 4, and 5, to be replaced by three aspects:

- Where was the product made?
- How energy efficient is it?
- What are the health benefits?

These three attributes explain a great deal about the rapid rise of some products, such as organic food.

While the article focuses on "green issues," animal rights should definitely benefit from these trends. We just need to keep the issue in the consumer's mind.