If you have read some of my other blogs, you are probably aware that I have a passion for consumer opinions about clean technologies. When given the opportunity to choose a topic for blog entries, I often find myself perusing the results of Pike Research’s consumer surveys to find something noteworthy in how consumers view the various clean technology sectors that we cover. On more than one occasion, I have been fascinated by the differences in opinions that are revealed when results are segmented based on the various traits of the respondents. For example, why do older consumers favor nuclear energy so much more than younger consumers? Segmenting the responses to our survey questions by age, income, gender, and education level has provided us with some interesting insights into what factors are driving consumer attitudes toward clean technologies.

However, demographic segmentation does not always provide a compelling story. Increasingly, marketers are looking to behavior segmentation in order to define their target markets and tailor advertising messages. To bolster our own analysis of consumer opinions, Pike Research examined if certain behaviors could be indicators of attitudes towards clean technologies and other environmental concepts. Our survey was completed by a nationally representative and demographically balanced sample of 1,042 U.S. adults. Respondents were asked to provide their impression of each technology and concept using a scale of responses from “strongly unfavorable” to “very favorable” including options for “neutral” or “not sure / not familiar.”

Our theory was that a consumer’s willingness to invest in a new technology could be an indicator of how he or she viewed clean technologies. Therefore, we included the following questions and responses in our survey:

Please choose the statement that best fits you when it comes to technology products and services.

• I’m an “early adopter” of new technologies – I always like to have the latest thing
• I’m not on the leading edge, but I generally use new technologies before the majority of people I know
• I usually wait until a technology is more mature and widespread before starting to use it
• I’m generally one of the last people to start using a new technology

After segmenting the results based on the respondent’s answer to this question, our findings were mixed. For some of the technologies and concepts, there was no significant difference between the percentage of favorable responses from the total sample and from those identifying themselves as early adopters of technologies. These concepts included solar energy, wind energy, hybrid vehicles and electric cars, all of which were favored by a majority of the total sample. For many of the topics that did not receive a high percentage of favorable responses, early adopters of technology showed a significantly more positive opinion. The chart below shows the percentage of favorable responses for the total sample and for the “tech early adopters” segment for the topics where a significant difference was found.

While our theory did not prove true for all the topics we examined, it is worth illustrating how early adopters are more favorable on topics that are less favorable to the overall group of respondents. For many of these topics, the percentage of “not sure / not familiar” responses was greater among respondents other than early adopters. This indicates that this behavior segment tends to be more informed about clean technologies and environmental topics. The clean technology industry should take note of these results and look to this segment for input on consumer applications. In particular, utilities looking to implement smart meters and smart grid technologies would benefit from targeting these consumers for pilot projects and testing. Early adopters of technology represent a goldmine of opportunity for consumer-focused cleantech companies.