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As government intervention in local environmental issues declines with the downsizing of big government, the American people are beginning to expect business to step in and take responsibility for local environmental initiatives, according to Edward B. Keller, president of Roper Starch Worldwide. Roper is the well-known marketing and public-opinion research firm known for its famous Roper Polls. Keller made his remarks in a speech on Feb. 28, 1998 at an International Leadership Council meeting sponsored by The Nature Conservancy. A recap of his remarks is reproduced at the Roper Starch web site.
Keller said that this growing public attitude about local business' environmental responsibility is reflected in what he called "cause-related marketing," which "is increasingly popular with the American people (76% in 1996, up 10 points since 1993)." Cause-related marketing involves linking products to issues of public concern. This attitude trend is likely to continue or grow for at least four reasons, only two of which were mentioned by Keller. First, as Keller noted, there is an "upcoming 'boom' of teenagers who have grown up feeling concerned about the state of the environment." These are the teenagers who are growing up behind the twenty-somethings who as teens were somewhat apathetic about the environment because they thought everyone would die in a nuclear holocaust. The new teenagers have shifted attitudes, a common occurrence among teens, and teens as we know are the ones who soon will become, perhaps, politically active college students. Meanwhile (reason No. 2), at the same time today's teens are getting interested in the environment, their parents "are focusing more on the environment as an issue that will affect their children," Keller said. If we're lucky, parental interest in environment won't drive their kids to anti-environmentalism-teenagers often do the opposite of what their parents want. Keller neglected to mention that there is an age group (reason No. 3), perhaps older twenty-somethings and early thirty-somethings, that includes enough people concerned with fitness and health to support a broad range of economic enterprises that cater to their interests- fitness centers; health, fitness and nutrition magazines; sports equipment; nutrition supplements and the like. Could this group cross over to support environment if the opportunity arose? Something else Keller didn't mention and perhaps should have (reason No. 4), is that while teens and their parents are warming to environmental issues, still older Americans who grew up with an environmental ethic and concern are or will soon be of retirement age. They'll have even more time on their hands to pay attention to environmental issues, which could lead them to increase their activism. They'll have more time to walk in the park, watch birds, travel in their recreation vehicles, play golf, fish, donate to their favorite environmental charities, and vote for the candidate of their choice. They also could voice their concern for the quality of their local environment. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Public Holds Local Industry Responsible for Environment in Environment is owned by Kenneth Friedman. Permission to republish Public Holds Local Industry Responsible for Environment in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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