EarthsenseC A S E S T U D Y
“LEVERAGING LOCATION INTELLIGENCE DATA AND ANALYSIS,
EARTHSENSE HELPS COMPANIES UNDERSTAND THE
MOTIVATIONS AND BARRIERS TO BUYING GREEN.”
Wendy Cobrda, Earthsense CEO/Founder
EARTHSENSE TEAMS WITH PITNEY
BOWES BUSINESS INSIGHT TO CREATE
ACTIONABLE GREEN DATA
Challenge
While the unprecedented
size (30,000 surveys every
six months) and depth of
Earthsense’s Eco-Insights
Survey produces a wealth of
important, usable information,
the surveys were designed
with a goal in mind: a mandate
to make the data truly dynamic
and actionable for clients,
by putting the results “
on the ground.”
Solution
With Pitney Bowes Business
Insight location intelligence,
Earthsense integrates location
intelligence into the survey
data, enabling clients to gain
vital insights: who their ideal
green customers are, where
they live, work and play,
and the most effective method
of marketing to them.
SUMMARY
“Green” has taken center stage around the
globe, from media reports to celebrity
endorsements to an essential component of
the new president’s energy and job policies.
This environmentally conscience attitude is
far more than just an idea—it is a personal
lifestyle choice, a governmental concern and
a critical business vision—not to mention
a critical strategy for the health of the planet.
It takes different forms for different people,
communities and companies.
With more and more companies introducing
green products to the mainstream market,
not just the niche green market, companies
are being forced to re-think their go-to-
market strategies. While green suddenly
seems ubiquitous, the focus on green is
actually a relatively new area for many, and
manufacturers and retailers are grappling
both to define what it means for them as
well as identify the target customers for
whom it has appeal. Companies in a wide
variety of industries, including retail, grocery,
manufacturing and media, need a way to
identify consumers accurately. Companies
need this tool to create viable marketing
plans and tactics that not only entice
prospects but boost long-term loyalty
among customers.
Incorporated in 2007, Earthsense, LLC is an
applied marketing company headquartered
in Syracuse, New York. The brainchild of
marketing professionals Wendy Cobrda and
Amy Hebard (Chief Research Officer and
Founder), Earthsense combines extensive
market research with database marketing
principles to create actionable consumer
insights. Their information provides marketers
with business acumen and confidence to
execute marketing strategies effectively
and efficiently for a wide range of green
consumer products, such as organic, “natural”
ingredients and products that require minimal
packaging and do minimal to no damage
to the environment.
Earthsense fills a need for a green customer-
centric, location-based identification tool,
as none exists today. This critical gap makes
it difficult for manufacturers and retailers
to maximize their ROI when marketing
their green products to what can be highly
targeted audiences. Until now, there has
been no way for companies to determine
the who, what and where of their potential
customer base.
“We knew that an in-depth customer survey
at the product level was crucial for providing
profiles of green buyers of specific products,
which is why we created Eco-Insights,” says
Amy Hebard.
“Location-based data was the missing piece
of the puzzle.” As a result, Earthsense turned
to Pitney Bowes Business Insight to provide
location intelligence data and analysis to
integrate with the survey data.
©2009 Pitney Bowes Software. All rights reserved. 92144-901Pitney Bowes Business Insight, MapInfo and Group 1 Software are trademarks of Pitney Bowes Business Insight, a division of Pitney Bowes Software and/or its affiliates.
UNITED STATES
One Global View
Troy, NY 12180-8399
main: 518.285.6000
1.800.327.8627
fax: 518.285.6070
www.pbbusinessinsight.com
CANADA
26 Wellington Street East
Suite 500
Toronto, Ontario
M5E 1S2
main: 416.594.5200
fax: 416.594.5201
“LOCATION INTELLIGENCE ENABLES EARTHSENSE CLIENTS TO PINPOINT BY ZIP
CODE (AND DOWN TO BLOCK GROUP) WHICH NEIGHBORHOODS HAVE RESIDENTS
MOST LIKELY TO SHOP AT A PARTICULAR STORE.”
Wendy Cobrda, Earthsense CEO/Founder
RESULT
To assemble the data needed to ensure
actionable insight into consumer behavior,
Earthsense created their extensive, one-of-a-
kind, green survey. What (among 75 products)
do people buy green? What are their reasons
for doing so? What are the barriers? Who are
the green price premium payers? Earthsense’s
“Eco-Insights Survey,” first conducted in
October 2007 covers these topics and
more—including demographics, media
consumption, etc.—to paint the picture of
current and potential green buyers.
To gauge a consumer’s green potential,
Earthsense asked people not only about their
definition of a green lifestyle but also about
many of the products they used—in their
bodies (food and consumables), on their
bodies (cosmetics and skin care), around
their homes (durables and cleaning) and for
transportation. “Understanding motivations,
barriers and price premium sensitivity is
important for all products, especially new
green offerings,” said Wendy Cobrda,
Earthsense CEO and founder.
Although the size and depth of the survey is
impressive and produces extremely relevant
and usable results, Earthsense knew that
making their data absolutely actionable
required an additional capability—location
intelligence. The ability to integrate location
intelligence into the survey data enables
Earthsense to take their data from the 50,000
foot level, down to the ground.
Using PSYTE® U.S. Advantage, Pitney Bowes
Business Insight’s neighborhood segmentation
system, Earthsense can now identify which
clusters people fit into, thereby gaining
additional insights into customers’
demographics, psychographics and lifestyles.
Using MapInfo Professional®, Earthsense
is also able to visualize and analyze the data
and identify patterns and trends that would
otherwise be overlooked. When PSYTE and
MapInfo Professional are combined with
the Eco-Insights data in this way, it creates
a location intelligence powerhouse that
is immediately actionable for a variety of
applications including site prioritization
and location, customer profiling and list
generation. “Pitney Bowes Business Insight
location intelligence solutions help us
organize our data in a way that makes it very
easy to execute,” says Cobrda.
Earthsense can now describe which consumers
lean green—or not—along with their
environmental and purchase behaviors,
as well as the most effective ways to reach
and market to them using different media.
In fact, every person surveyed is geo-coded,
which provides the critical location link to
the survey data. Cobrda states, “It is critical
for marketers to combine research with
location intelligence. It completely brings
the data to life.
THE PITNEY BOWES BUSINESS INSIGHT ADVANTAGE
Many companies are finding that thinking about being green is easier than doing it. By integrating
Pitney Bowes Business Insight location intelligence solutions into the information gleaned
through Earthsense’s Eco-Insights survey, the data becomes more dynamic and actionable.
This valuable information provides manufacturers and retailers with the insight and tools they need
to confidently and strategically market green products to the right customer in the right location.