By Matthew Spieler
Green ads and eco-friendly messages are proliferating everywhere one looks— from magazines to television, from the board room to the home decorating store.

Adding to this are stories saying if you are a small business owner you need to jump on this green bandwagon because selling to today’s eco-minded shopper— whether a concerned mother wanting a safer home for her children or a building developer seeking to earn as many environmental credits as possible—is a profitable business. And, since the recession, the pundits have stressed this is the one area that will continue to see growing sales and will be the way to help pull the world out of the doldrums.

While this sounds well and good, the problem is trying to understand just exactly who this green shopper is in order to be able to better market to her and let her know you carry the types of products she desires. One reason for the difficulty lies with the fact that, like everything else in life, there are varying degrees by which a person/company is classified as being green. Just as there are different levels—tiers—of a product being green, i.e. silver, gold, platinum, there are multiple levels in which end users express themselves when it comes to their green shopping habits.

Research shows that 90% of all consumers purchase green products. So, in essence, these are mainly the same people you have been doing business with all along but now, you need to understand their interests and needs in the area of green.

When it comes to flooring, industry experts say there are generally three types of environmentally conscious shoppers. First, there is the green shopper who wants the fundamentals about a floor explained. Natural, easy to maintain, healthy and longevity is key. he greener group is the intermediate shopper. While informed on a surface level—they’ve read the latest green blog—the fact is, this group is confused as to what is truth and what is greenwash. In effect, these people influenced by the latest press release about health concerns and want to avoid any potentially harmful product. The third type is the hyper-informed, greenest customer. This is the person who comes in equipped with spreadsheets and the dream of building an eco-paradise.

While each of these shoppers presents a challenge, for the retailer/contractor it comes back to the basics of finding out what your customer wants from the floor.

As Ted Levitt of the Harvard Business School, notes, there is a tendency to focus on products and not on needs—that is a fundamental flaw. Every client, whether a person walking into your store or an architect working on the latest skyscraper, is seeking a solution to their specific flooring problem. Green consumers are simply looking for a solution that suits the environment as well.

The process is very simple: Assess the client’s needs and show her everything you have to meet that need. You simply have one new thing to consider: environmentally preferred products. It also helps if you work with your suppliers to make sure they do not just give you a bunch of green information that you have no use for. Rather, make sure their materials are tied to real client needs and desires for the majority of shoppers.

In the end, the green consumer is not very complex. So, continue to do what you do best: Talk to your customers, determine what they need and present them with the best possible solutions, including the environmentally preferable ones.