London’s Economist magazine released a new study, which found that:

31 percent of Chinese consumers identify the environmental as a higher priority than the economy    versus 17 percent of U.S. consumers and 28 percent of UK consumers. The study was conducted by one of the world’s largest global communications services companies WPP’s agencies Landor Associates, Cohn & Wolfe and Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB).

Chinese consumers say that their environmental concerns influence their purchasing intent: 69 percent expect to spend more money on green products in the coming year. This contrasts markedly with the US, where only 38 percent of consumers expect to increase their spending on green products in 2009, and the UK where just 33 percent will spend more.

www.china.org.cn

I must say that I am a little skeptical of this article as it tries to paint a slightly rosier picture than I find day-to-day. First question I must ask is which consumers in China were surveyed exactly? I could see this being the case in bigger cities like Beijing and Shanghai since they have focused more on the environment due to the Olympics and the upcoming Expo; but as a representative sample of the Chinese population? ? I’m not sure that I trust that 31 percent statistic.

Second, yes, maybe more Chinese consumers will alter their purchasing toward green products; but we have to remember simple statistics here. China has many more consumers new to buying green, so the pool is much greater for people to spend more money on green products if they never have before. In the U.S./U.K. consumers have been exposed to green products for quite some time, thus, the pool for buying more green products is not as great. Thus, I don’t necessarily agree that Chinese consumers are more green than UK/US consumers.

If anyone else is curious or can give me more statistical analysis lessons, let me know. The full article is here: http://www.china.org.cn/environment/opinions/2008-10/06/content_16568827.htm