Consumers go for environmental and ethical claims

The demands for more environmentally-friendly products have forced manufacturers to rethink their communication strategy and develop products, which will satisfy consumer interest in greener products. This has resulted in a sharp rise in the number of products with an environmentally-friendly claim over the last five years, evinced by the big trend towards greener cosmetic products containing natural or organic ingredients. Environmentally-friendly trend is global ​ The trend is clear globally. In 2002, Mintel's global database recorded only five environmentally-friendly product launches across all sectors of industry. In 2007, 328 new products carried this claim, representing a 200 per cent increase, compared with 2006. Consumers particularly look for eco-friendliness in certain sectors, including household paper products (66 per cent) and energy efficient appliances (48 per cent). But GNPD's global results show that it is in the food and drink industry where the trend has thus far proven to be the most popular, as 57 per cent of consumers are now said to look for eco-friendliness when shopping for these kind of products. Cosmetic buyers hunting for ethical products ​ Another recent report by Mintel pointed to the fact that personal care consumers are also going for products that are labelled or marketed as being ethically sourced or produced. The report highlighted the fact that in Europe, both France and UK consumers have shown the most interest in buying products that are marketed as being ethical. The number of ethical cosmetics and skin care launches increased five fold last year to 2,260 with the UK and France accounting for 74 per cent of the market, according to the Mintel GNPD database. Further to this, the trend looks set to continue in 2008 as more than 420 new ethical products have already hit European beauty counters.