Findings for consumer
Findings for consumer communication strategies An important finding from the in-depth interviews was that respondents were not per se curious about the origin of the feedstock: it’s NOT top of mind. This has as a consequence that communication of feedstock basis of a product can bear considerable risks – or good potential if played well. When the feedstock topic came up during the interviews, the respondents raised many further questions: • Which plant is it? How does this influence the product? How green is the feedstock? How valuable? How tasty? • The good image of the umbrella term plant-based can then even turn around when it comes to the images of the different feedstocks. • As a consequence, “the holy leaf loses its sanctity”, meaning that the good image of something natural is questioned more and more. Bio-based shopping bags – the market introduction and consumer campaigns for biodegradable shopping bags in in Italy a few years ago apparently had a positive impact on the public awareness. It can therefore be concluded that experience and education of consumers eventually pays off. Another interesting difference between the three countries (see below) was that potential health issues due to mineraloil based plasticisers (e.g. in plastic bottles) were only mentioned by interviewees in Germany. Again, this may be attributable to correspondingly higher media coverage of the topic in Germany. The respondents in Italy, Germany and Poland had serious difficulties differentiating each feedstock. Therefore, a communication of the feedstock basis should bear in mind the following: • They don’t know the pros and cons of each feedstock, so they struggle assigning the products to their feedstock of origin. • The plant-based feedstocks need to be examined carefully. It only makes sense if the feedstock adds a positive value, like resistance or duration. • The feedstock should only be communicated, if it fits to the end product and adds a value. Apart from these general observations, a coarse typology of consumers can further help in developing a communication strategy. Consumers can be roughly divided into following four types: • Healthy optimisers, • Lifestyle posers, • Ascetic moralists and • Pragmatists. All four groups may have different kinds of motives to decide for the so called good alternative. The results were obtained in the framework of the European research project “Bioforever” which has received funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agree-ment No. 720710. www.bioforever.org “Bio-based products: Green premium prices and consumer perception of different biomass feedstocks”; nova paper #13 on http://bio-based.eu/nova-papers/ [1] European project BIOFOREVER (www.bioforever.org); This project has received funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 720710. www.nova-Institute.eu Communicate healthiness and high quality • Descriptions on packaging like „without XY“ or „contains no XY“ are very appealing for this type • Is is important to this type to alwys get the best quality for himself • This type is willing to pay a higher price Deep knowledge Healthy optimizer Ascetic moralist Self improvement Lifestyle poser Pragmatist Positioning should be „modern trend product“ • The new aspects of this product should be very visible, so that other people can see what a great product was bought • Environmental- and health-topics are only used to show off • This type is willing to pay higher price for products with poser potential Easy choice Communicate environment friendliness and reduction • Packaging and product should be rather reduced and should communicate sustainability • 100 % plant-based is important to this type, since he/she will try to buy as environment friendly as possible • This type is willing to pay a higher price Environmental conscience Communicate with, most important, an easyto-understand, visible label • Labels are very important to this type • This type has to see a USP, or the product has an attractive price • Wants good quality at alow price • Willingness to pay more is low 40 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/20] Vol. 15
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