Whose responsibility is it? - 16 Jun 2007
At a conference not long ago, a Director at one of the Outdoor Sports most admired companies in the world, spoke some solemn words into his microphone that have stayed with me ever since. Someone in the audience had poked at him stating that his company had not done enough for environmental protection. He said something along the lines that, regardless of the efforts that his company made to produce and sell biological friendly equipment, people just kept buying the cheapest stuff made from the not-so friendly material. I wanted to jump in and defend this guy (whom I actually admire), but something inside me was saying that I didn’t really have an answer at the time.
On the one side, society blames industry for not doing their part and for producing stuff people really don’t need made from highly toxic substances – shame on them. On the other side, these companies are made up of the same people that are doing what their customers “tell” them, – making more of that weird day glow orange synthetic highly technical fabric. If the sales statistics say so, it must be what the consumers want right? My view is the following. What if the people who buy the stuff didn’t really know how to get their point across, and the people who make the stuff, didn’t really ask the right questions?
If you look at some pretty easy statistics that most anyone can get their hands on; roughly 40% of any outdoor sports gear purchases are made based on “price” alone, 25% based on the technical aspects of the product and 25% on looks, which leaves us with 10% in which you find things like – referrals (from friends), popularity of the product (fashion) and somewhere in there, the eco footprint of that product.
That’s where Laneo comes in. We want to bridge the divide in this world of misinterpretation. After all, when products reach maturity (which this very general analysis tells us), differentiation naturally concentrates itself on the very small denominators that don’t come across in run-of-the mill market research. So, please support our upcoming events and surveys. Your participation will help level out the playing field and in the end, contribute to a durable way for us to enjoy our sports in a more pristine nature.
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