My colleagues and I started Earthsense, a new applied marketing company. Our mission is to help companies go beyond the traditional market segmentation products — providing confidence for those companies promoting sustainable products with both strategic and tactical research.

We fielded a 30,000 person survey in Fall of ’07 and are now in the field collecting our second wave of data (another 30,000 US Adults, 18+). This is a huge endeavor as one might imagine — (ours is the most comprehensive survey of its kind) and our results have proven that you do have to go above and beyond the tried and true methodologies to get your message exposed to ears and eyes that open to a new way of thinking.

Let’s face it. Who — being human — doesn’t want to be “green”. Everyone wants to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and eat food that isn’t filled with pesticides and poisons. But individuals are motivated by different reasons depending on whether we talking about things we put in our bodies, on our bodies, in our homes or offices, or means of getting around. Motivations span the gamut from health to convenience, from brand loyalty to concern about the earth – and price is absolutely something that even the most committed take into consideration. We’ve noticed a huge disconnect between what people aspire to do — and what they actually can do — based on their location and resources.

Now, specifically thinking about the differences between demographics and psychographics. It is true that the LOHAS system doesn’t have much of a demographic skew. And the same goes for most of the other surveys/segmentations out there. Divide the whole US population into 6 big groups and what do you expect?

Additionally, while values and lifestyles (psychographics) are incredibly important for positioning and messaging, they very difficult to make actionable. After all, good “clone” models require similar data on both those whose behaviors you wish to replicate and those prospects you are ranking. Its impossible to get *real* lifestyle data on all prospects, so you default to working with data that you can get on everyone.

So, we’ve taken a holistic, hybrid approach. In our surveys, we ask all the usual stuff like age, income, gender, race – and attitudes and behaviors and media habits. Then we’ve added things like religion and politics. And a seminal part of our research focuses on those things that go above and beyond the individual. Everything from who you are, how you vote, how big your family is, your income, your race, your religion, your locale — all of it has to be taken into consideration by marketers looking for an opportunity to educate about the benefits of their products. (And that’s what it is, really. We’re not “selling” but rather, we’re offering smart consumers the information they need to make an educated decision at the Point of Choice.)

For example, if you’re living in an area where farmers’ markets are plentiful— you are more likely to be a locavore. If you have lots of laundry to do , you might buy front loading washers and dryers (which happen to be ecofriendly) because you are trying to cut down on your housework (and saving energy and the planet is a side benefit). When you think about it, it makes so much sense when you consider that local community attributes and regulations can affect your ability to do things like recycle or carpool.

So, what have we learned? Weather, taxes, location of stores, demand for products, transportation alternatives, traffic, and pollution — all of these things can help us zero in on those people whose living conditions and lifestyles create greater awareness of the issues. Bottom line? It is still true that birds of a feather flock together. They just happen to be in smaller flocks, and they use word-of-mouth, the internet, and other social systems to spread influence.

We like to think that over time — green will become colorless. If companies truly integrate sustainable manufacturing practices — the consumer won’t have to think twice. In the meantime, we’re like mad social scientists, analyzing tons of data, isolating pockets of attitude, motivation, behavior and adoption, helping businesses prioritize markets, stores, media choices to stay green while going green.

Yes, I have heard of folks using a motivational approach to further define a segment…I’m not sure who is using it in the green segment.

As Modern Metric mentioned, different groups are slicing the market different ways. My concern in developing a segmenting strategy is always is; do I have “actionable” information. In other words how does the information about the segments relate to media I can buy or programs I can develop -

Motivation is good because it helps to develop the appropriate message for each segment. More detailed lifestyle information and hobbies helps define the media mix. I think both are important.