Entrepreneurship & Small Business

Do customers really care about environmental protection?

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Deal Addict
Dec 6, 2012
1997 posts
1190 upvotes
Regina

Do customers really care about environmental protection?

I run a small business that mainly transfers video tapes from vhs to camcorder tapes and film. We also scan photos and documents.

What I was thinking is partnering with one tree for every 100 photos scanned we would plant one tree, for every 150 documents scanned we would plant one tree.

In regards to video transfers maybe we could donate a percentage of sales to cleaning up the ocean of micro plastics…

Do customers really care?
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8 replies
Deal Addict
Aug 28, 2007
2167 posts
539 upvotes
Calgary
It depends on your "universe" of customers. Some people care about some things, and other people care about different things. You are merging statistics with human psychology. When you layer that on top what you (as a business) are explicitly trying to achieve, then you have arrived at "marketing"

For statistics, start with the definition of average, meaning 50% of items in a collection are below average. And the collections could comprise playing cards, dice, or our human customers.

For human psychology, start with Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

The average person who might want our services may only be on the base level, so he's fulfilling basic needs at the lowest cost. To find customers who care about planting trees to save the planet, I'd think you would need to be fairly high up the pyramid, so that's statistically reducing your universe. I would guess your business is quite a specific niche as well, with customers fairly high up the pyramid too. Aligning those two populations is your marketing challenge. If you were in the business of selling hiking boots, the alignment would be easier. To finally get to your question, it isn't whether customers care. It is identifying the ones who do care about trees within the general population and getting them to come to your store / website and finally donate some money to support it.
Sr. Member
Jun 22, 2014
559 posts
235 upvotes
Markham, ON
Speaking only from my group of friends and family, environmental actions will not be a deciding factor in our decision to choose a business. It will be one of those "oh cool, they also do that" type of things.

When we recommend business to each other, this is not one of the talking points at all. For example, Firehouse Subs donates to local fire departments. None of my friends go there because of that, but rather because they make damn good subs.
Deal Fanatic
Sep 23, 2007
5654 posts
2168 upvotes
I'd frame the topic differently.

What initiated this line of thought? You yourself care about the environment? Or did you discover through small talk with your clients?

I believe in effective altruism. The question "do customers care?" is a separate question from "does the ocean clean up organization make a difference?" and "are there other organizations that will make more of a difference?" if I donated the same amount of money? Plenty of problems in the world. We got starving children in Afghanistan. Why do you care about the ocean over people literally dying from lack of food and water?

Next you should also consider how much margin you have to afford something like this. If you're a really small business and this initiative only results in $500/year, then of course people don't care. How much people will care depends on how much splash you make.

Next line of reasoning is a more proactive one. From a marketing sense, you can try to use the initiative to attract more customers. If your current base of customers don't care much, maybe if you advertise the topic a bit, you'll draw in more customers. You can also try to make your existing customers care.

With all this said...transferring video tapes to camcorder format doesn't sound like a big business to me. I'm not seeing it make a big difference either way. If anything, your customer base is a declining one as physical media storages continue to die out. Wouldn't a lot of your customers only be one time customers? Like if they have an old collection of media, they'd transfer it once and that's about it.
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Feb 8, 2014
32144 posts
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They care as long as they don't have to do anything differently and are not out more money.
In fact in Rand McNally they wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people
Deal Addict
Dec 6, 2012
1997 posts
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Regina
BananaHunter wrote: I'd frame the topic differently.

What initiated this line of thought? You yourself care about the environment? Or did you discover through small talk with your clients?

I believe in effective altruism. The question "do customers care?" is a separate question from "does the ocean clean up organization make a difference?" and "are there other organizations that will make more of a difference?" if I donated the same amount of money? Plenty of problems in the world. We got starving children in Afghanistan. Why do you care about the ocean over people literally dying from lack of food and water?

Next you should also consider how much margin you have to afford something like this. If you're a really small business and this initiative only results in $500/year, then of course people don't care. How much people will care depends on how much splash you make.

Next line of reasoning is a more proactive one. From a marketing sense, you can try to use the initiative to attract more customers. If your current base of customers don't care much, maybe if you advertise the topic a bit, you'll draw in more customers. You can also try to make your existing customers care.

With all this said...transferring video tapes to camcorder format doesn't sound like a big business to me. I'm not seeing it make a big difference either way. If anything, your customer base is a declining one as physical media storages continue to die out. Wouldn't a lot of your customers only be one time customers? Like if they have an old collection of media, they'd transfer it once and that's about it.
Quentin5 wrote: They care as long as they don't have to do anything differently and are not out more money.
I do care about the environment very much! I love nothing more than to go hiking anywhere from our backyard to visiting Alberta! Nature is very rewarding!
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Deal Expert
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Feb 8, 2014
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waloshin wrote: I do care about the environment very much! I love nothing more than to go hiking anywhere from our backyard to visiting Alberta! Nature is very rewarding!
How much extra would you be willing to spend to protect the Earth?
In fact in Rand McNally they wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people
Deal Addict
Dec 6, 2012
1997 posts
1190 upvotes
Regina
Quentin5 wrote: How much extra would you be willing to spend to protect the Earth?
As a business I need to make money but I believe 10% is very generous.
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Feb 8, 2014
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waloshin wrote: As a business I need to make money but I believe 10% is very generous.
Most people expect about zero. If not less.
The regressives would rather destroy the planet then "allow unnatural progress".
In fact in Rand McNally they wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people

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