“It’s Better for Whose Environment?”
Posted by joe
Consumer interest in making sustainable choices may be limited. Sun Chip is ditching its environmentally-friendly compostable (but apparently much noiser) bag. Sales of the snack dropped after the new bag was introduced (“It’s Better for Whose Environment?“, Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2010 – note this link takes you to a back door for non-subscribers). This sentiment is also expressed at Adweek, “Consumers Don’t Warm to Eco-Friendly Products” (October 12, 2010).
Is there only a small segment of consumers interested in sustainability? Is the “price” for making socially responsibly purchase too high? What can firms do to make sustainable products more appealing? Should the government get involved to help promote this behavior?
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 17th, 2010 at 11:09 am and is filed under Ethics, Legal, Social responsibility, Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I think that sun chips effort with their new environment friendly bag was an awesome idea. However, there is only a small group of individuals interested in sustainability. Most consumers want the cheapest product at the best price and there are a lot of consumers that don’t adjust to changes even if it is for the better. there should be no price for making socially responsible purchasing. Consumers need to sit down and think about the future not the present when they consumer. the future is where their children and grand children and so forth will have to live and if consumers don’t start to adjust now then the future has more environmental problems ahead. If the price is the protection of the environment and consumers aren’t willing to help their future generations then they should be the ones to sit down and explain to their family how they just didn’t care about the future that their family would live. I think firms should do more advertising and more benefit awareness in order to make the more sustainable products appealing to consumers. Firms need to reassure the consumer that the product quality is still the same with an extra bonus of helping the environment as well. I think the government should help in some ways but once they step in and make a standard it would have to apply to all similar products to eliminate any ethical issues which could cause other firms problem so the government stepping in would have to be carefully thought out and planned before they take involvement.
October 19th, 2010 at 9:23 pmSun Chips compostable bag was an excellent idea, however the product itself was lacking. Reading the statistics in this article show people do look for and notice green products. The article also shows consumers are not willing to pay a premium. This basically means a company who makes the decision to go green must offer the green products at the nearly identical prices. Beyond that, the green products cannot be obtrusive to the regular use of the product, such as an extremely noisy bag.
October 20th, 2010 at 4:25 pmThis proves it. People are obviously more concerned about personal comforts that they are environmentally friendly goods. This doesn’t exactly come as a shock to me as humans are “creatures of habit.” If one thing is thrown off in our envirnment, we are simply at a loss. People will not simply change their preferences because a product is eco-friendly. The product must satify the need of the individual FIRST and then provide a good alternative. Are Americans picky about their products and packaging?–Yes. But the principle of the matter is that people won’t but products that are uncomfortable to consume and out of the norm.
October 22nd, 2010 at 10:53 amI think that this article points out a good observation about eco friendly products, that consumers are unlikely to adopt these products unless they are easy to adjust to and affordable. Unfortunately, Sun Chips did not meet either of those criteria because of their increased price tag and noisy bag. Although Ms. Sheppard’s from Mother Jones is correct, consumers do need to make some basic level sacrifices for the betterment of our world, when it comes down to it consumers will never adopt eco friendly products unless companies make it easy.
October 24th, 2010 at 11:54 amI have purchased the eco-friendly sun chips in the past and noticed how noisy and obnoxious the bags can be, however this did not deter me for purchasing them again. My roommates and I would actually make a joke out of the bag crinkling it excessively on purpose just too annoy each other. Although it does not bother me I can see how the noisy bag may bother others to the point where they do not want to purchase the bag. I believe that at this point in time there is only a small segment of consumers that care about sustainability. In the case of sun chips I don’t think the price of making a socially responsible purchase is to high because a little extra noise is not a big deal to a college student, However when I comes to more expensive products such as hybrid cars the price increases. The best thing producers can do is listen to their customers and try to make their product better with the feedback they receive. I also believe that the government should mainly let the markets take their natural course, but maybe subsidize eco-friendly products a little when necessary.
October 27th, 2010 at 1:04 amI was appalled to hear that Frito-Lay was discontinuing the use of their breakthrough compostable bags. My irratation was not directed at the potato chip company given that a 30% drop in sales was directly corelated to the introduction of new packaging. They made the decision in the best interests of their profitablility. I was agitated by the idea that consumers would let an admittedly ( “The European Union requires workers to wear ear-protection when exposed to such noise”) loud bag turn them away from a product so easily. Frito-Lay spend time and money developing a new package that was more sustainable and envrionmentally friendly. From my understanding, Frito-Lay did not raise the price of Sun-Chips as result of the new packaging. If anything, they were discounted more often in recent months (higher price is a common objection to green products). It seems that noise is the sole reason for the bags demise. I am guessing the same demographic of customers who stopped purchasing sun-chips also complain about hybrid vehicles being too quiet and lobby for an artificial sound to be emitted.
October 27th, 2010 at 3:30 pmI think it is really sad that consumers stopped buying a compostable bag because it was ‘too noisy.’ All the consumer had to do was pour a portion of the chips onto a plate and eat them that way (this would probably help solve North America’s obesity problem too). There are trade-offs when it comes to living a ‘greener’ and more sustainable life. Electric cars need to be charged, local fruits, vegetables, and meats are often more expensive, and it is hard to get used to turning off the lights and using cold water more often. The benefits of doing these things often don’t outweight the convenience of living a less sustainable life for most consumers. I think that most everyone wants to be ‘green’ and help our planet but are not quite sure where to start. The price is definitely a downfall for sustainability and consumers are not sure if it is worth it. Because competition is so fierce it is hard to appeal to consumers when you are more green because your price is higher and might not be as conveniently located. You almost have to create two different target markets, those who are green and those who are not. That would not be effienct and would most likely raise costs all around. The only way I think it will work is if the governments mandate the initative to be more green. Then all companies would be forced to reevalute their practices and everyones price would rise and then so would inflation so your dollar would still buy the same amount of stuff it did before. I think everyone wishes it was as easy as snapping your fingers together and everything is sustainable, but that is not the case. We are going to have to work hard at this and it wont be easy. We will have to make trade offs, but it will be totally worth it when one day we won’t ever have to worry about us depleting our home again!
November 2nd, 2010 at 7:42 pmThis is a really interesting example of a very good idea that failed. Firms have to be really careful in today’s society when making their products different from other product positions. In this example Sun Chips tried to make their product different by being more environmentally friendly with their compostable bag. In our society, one would be led to believe that consumers would appreciate the environmentally friendly package. This seemingly good packaging idea failed because it was too noisy. The way it could have made this more appealing is maybe researching the customers reaction to the bags and/or reducing the noise in the package before release to public. If the price was reasonable and the package was improved I think that a large market of socially responsible people that would hold value to this product. It is a good enough of an idea to improve on because larger portion of people ecologically friendly. I don’t think the government should get involved as there are numerous ecologically friendly campaigns out that should have people aware about going green.
November 16th, 2010 at 12:15 amThe only reason I disliked the chip bag from Sun Chips was because I could no longer steal my roommate’s Garden Salsa flavored chips without her hearing me open the bag from upstairs with the water running! Slight joke, but let’s face it, the bag was obnoxious, although for a good cause, I am all in.
However, we do have to remember that for a big corporate company to make an effort to manufacture a product that is environmentally friendly is slightly hypocritical depending on what other measures they are using to transport and make the goods.
I liked that the end of the article discussed the “locavores” and buying locally. Although an expensive one, that is a lifestyle change that will make a difference–not buying a bag of chips from a large corporate company. I was in Whole Foods today and in each aisle of the store they advertised how many products were made locally which I believe to be a great incentive to buyers, while also benefiting the store. If Sun Chips really wanted to get a catch with their bag, they’d have stocked up the shelves at Whole Foods and stores like it, where the customers are obviously more environmentally aware of the products they are buying.
I applaud Sun Chips attempt at being environmentally friendly, but it has got to start from the core of the company and work outwards in order to benefit everyone involved.
November 22nd, 2010 at 8:04 pmI found this article extraordinarily interesting. First, it is intersting that so many companies and consumers seem to be all for the “go green” trend until it disrupts their comfort or habits. For consumers, aesthetic changes or other small differences seem to have a say in whether or not a product will succeed, and for companies, the sales is usually the determining factor in whether or not a product will continue- not necessairly how good for the environment it is. While there is little doubt sustainiblity has become an issue,unfortunately business willl continue to do only what will raise their sales-which often means”sacking” the eco-friendly products.I also really enjoyed the part about how some changes (such as the paper-reducing kindle) are not truly because of environmental concerns, but for convenience. Overall, it is just funny how businessess and customers act concerned, but in the end will continue to do what is most convenient and best for them
November 30th, 2010 at 2:28 pmWell its plain and simple now adays alot of company’s are going for the “go green” moto under a few laws of course, but i dont know whatever department decided not to follow that trend when they obviously saw plenty of companies reaching profit maximization by going green and staying quiet. But thats why this is a risky business because all it takes is one little varible like noise that will not sell your product. So this was a really interesting blog.
November 30th, 2010 at 9:15 pmGoing green has been growing trend among producers and consumers in effort to sustain our environment. Although the Sun Chip compostable bag may have failed, the idea behind it was promising. It’s understandable that consumers disliked the extremely noisy bag, however it shows that maybe we aren’t as committed as we thought to the idea of going green. For example, if many other chip producers had also adopted the same idea for a bag, they’d all be noisy and probably more accepted. As of now, consumers are only partial to what is convenient and affordable and sometimes what actually is best for the environment. I hope that markets and engineers will continue to come up with innovative ideas to promote a more sustainable way of living. And although the idea of this Sun Chip bag didn’t catch on, it is defiantly a step in the right direction. Can you imagine if plastic bags actually became decomposable?
October 7th, 2011 at 10:08 amI think that it is rediculus that somone would stop purchasing a great product (that only got better when it went green) because the bag is too loud. Sustainability is a growing trend around the world, and should be not taken lightly. It’s humorous that a change in packaging could have that kind of effect on a consumers purchase. Usually its because of an increased price. I agree with Sheppord in calling them selfish bruts!
November 29th, 2011 at 4:42 pm