People want to act and not buy ethically

Sticking to the subject of optimism, I want to write a post that I've had in mind since I first started this blog...

Research into what motivates people to buy the things that they do makes for pretty depressing results. I know this from first-hand experience but it's a picture that's also now emerging more widely.

For example, according to the Journal of Marketing in September 2010: 40% of consumers say they are willing to purchase green products but only 4% of consumers actually do when given the choice.

So all the claims that people have been making about buying more ethical or greener products have turned out to be exactly that. Just claims. Good intentions, high ideals, trumped at the check out by more pragmatic motivations.

And before I start sounding holier than thou, I definitely include myself in this. I've tried buying ethically, I've tried to only buy what I need, I've tried to buy everything second hand. Some of these behaviours have stuck, some have partially stuck. But after occasional bursts of idealism I always fall back to a pragmatic default, driven by more immediate concerns: price, convenience, quality, acquiring nice new shiny stuff.

It's not that people don't care about the issues. They do generally want to feel that they're doing their bit. But it's bloody hard to buy ethically all the time!

And our shopping habits feel like such a small part compared to other aspects of our life. Like work, where we seem to spend more and more of our waking hours.

Some of the marketing people we talked to seemed surprised when we told them this. They thought our research was painting a negative picture. But their optimism was more reflective of their own desires than those of everyday people.

People working in marketing - like other people - want to feel that they are doing their bit to help. They want to feel good about the work that they are doing. They want to lead the brands they are working with in a more ethical direction. Deep down they probably don't feel too great about creating more adverts to just sell more stuff.

But at the moment, they sometimes seem to feel that they can only push their company in a more ethical direction if it directly appeals to their target consumer. If it is going to sell more stuff. So they're sometimes quite happy to assume that this is the case.

But people don't really care what brands are doing. By and large, they don't really feel that it's their responsibility. It's something that brands and corporations should be doing anyway.

Marketers, like everybody else, want to feel that they're doing valuable work. It's work where we spend most of our time and it's at work where we feel we can really make a difference. It's also at work that we can potentially get the most personal value out of feeling that we're making a difference, as drudgery transforms into a genuine cause to get behind.

Instead of looking to their customers to give the go-ahead for more ethical behaviour, companies should be taking the lead. Because these intrinsic motivations will attract and get the best out of their employees. And this will eventually lead to a better product, more loyal customers and yes, even better marketing.