Arnold on ethical marketing

CHRIS ARNOLD

According to a new survey carried out for the Ideal Home Show, it suggests that the public are suffering from green fatigue – we are getting bored with green and becoming ‘ethical cynics’. I wonder if anyone has researched if we are suffering from poll fatigue yet? Everyday we read yet another one claiming new insights, or am I becoming a ‘survey cynic’?

Typically, these polls tend to be conducted by phone across a sample size of about 1000. (We have a population of approx 60 million, so that’s 0.02% or something like that - never can find the calculator when you need one.)

If you’ve been reading headlines like “Britons tired of green issues” you may well think we are talking big numbers. Actually, the number that are bored with green issues are just 23%. Now, maybe I‘m missing something but that’s not a mass movement. And based on as small a sample as 1000 people, who may have been more bored by the researcher calling them, I think this is just typical of how stats distort public. But put another way, “77% of Britons think green issue are interesting.”

My own survey reveals that 25% of the 4 people I interviewed in the office are more bored with Brittany Spears or Victoria Beckham. Surely that should get a headline like “Britons Brittany Bored” or “Victoria Boredom”?

There’s little doubt that green is all over the media and there has been a big increase in green wash ads, but are people really bored? Or just confused?

One paper has christened the term ‘eco centrics’ because 18% admit to over claiming their green credentials to be fashionable. That few? I think the truth may reveal far more ‘seen to be greens’. And when haven’t we all exaggerated our salaries, our sporting achievements, exam results or how great that holiday was (that was a total disaster). We are all human and a little dramatisation is permitted.

57% believe that if we all do a bit it’d make a difference but 78% think we aren’t doing enough. As I watch another YouTube film of the ice caps melting into the sea I am inclined to agree.

Over 80% said they used energy saving light bulbs, 90% only filled the kettle with the right amount of water... that would be the 18% who over claim green credentials then.

However, one fact that amazed me was that only 20% of people don’t trust energy company claims. Seems the green wash is working then.

By now 90% of readers are suffering from statistics fatigue. While 65% think most surveys are only 50% accurate. An amazing 100% of people I interviewed at the bus stop agreed that flying saucers exist (sample of 2). Did you know that 22% of people are so bad at maths they don’t know what a percentage is? And 5% of all news stories on Mondays feature surveys.

It seems that every day we read another poll that reveals amazing statistics that within hours have become facts. Days later some politician is quoting them and we are all told that we must change this or that. Soon a pressure group appears and demands a big change and Parliament creates some knee jerk legislation. Meanwhile, no one has asked the simple question, “has anyone actually checked out the facts?” And that’s something that few consumers are getting.

Now I’m not putting surveys down, many are useful but many are also misleading. And once in the tabloids get them objectivity vanishes and the results get twisted to make a better headline. Suddenly minorities become majorities. Looking at this story across a number of websites, each one gives it their own spin.

One of the biggest problems is that while a minority of the public may well be coming bored with eco news I think far more will tell you that they are just ‘green confused’. Conflicting facts mixed up with myths, spin, green wash and assumptions. Plus the odd lie.

In the age of the ‘honest economy’, what 100% of the public really needs is the simple truth, that way they will know how they can make a real difference. And according to my research, there’s nothing boring about that.