Factors Influencing Home Lawn Fertilizer Choice in the United States

Abstract

<jats:p>Home lawn fertilizer use throughout the United States is coming under increased scrutiny due to potential negative environmental impacts. A better understanding of how consumer perceptions and socio-demographics impact their choices of types of lawn fertilizers can aid industry stakeholders when marketing products. This research uses a nationwide survey to evaluate factors that impact respondents’ choice of lawn fertilizer brands. Respondents with home lawns selected the lawn fertilizer brands they purchased the most frequently and rated the importance of various fertilizer attributes (e.g., nitrogen–phosphorus–potassium ratio, brand, price, etc.) when selecting lawn fertilizers. Given many lawn fertilizer brands share commonalities, respondents’ answers were grouped into five categories: most popular brand, primarily turf brands, sustainable/organic brands, other brands, and “I don’t remember the brand.” The most popular brand of fertilizer was chosen by 69% of respondents, with the primarily turf brands and other fertilizers being chosen by 25% and 23% of respondents, respectively. This study finds that brand selection is impacted by important fertilizer features, frequented retail outlets, geographical region of residence, and demographic variables. For example, brand importance and purchasing from mass merchandisers or wholesale clubs increased respondents’ selection likelihood of the most popular brand by 6.9% and 20.5% points, respectively. Marketing implications are discussed.</jats:p>

Outdoor Home Gardener Preferences for Environmental Attributes in Gardening Supplies and Use of Ecofriendly Gardening Practices

“…Several of the estimated coefficients on demographic and other causal variables (defined in Table 1) are significant in the structural equation for Ecopract (Table 2). Contrary to findings by Behe et al (2010) and Grebitus et al (2017), but similar to those by Campbell et al (2020), female gender has a negative influence on propensity to use ecofriendly gardening practices (Ecopract). As with several prior studies' findings (Behe et al, 2010;Yue et al, 2010Yue et al, , 2016, higher educational attainment (College) was found to have a positive influence on Ecopract.…”

“…Khachatryan et al (2017) showed that households with relatively higher income were less likely to purchase conventionally grown florals when environmentally friendly alternatives were available. In addition, other studies found a positive correlation between income and preferences for sustainable plant options (Rihn et al, 2016) and packaging (Yue et al, 2010); however, Campbell et al (2020) found that income had a negative effect on probability that consumers would choose a sustainable/organic brand of fertilizer. Note, in this study we use gardening supplies expenditures as a proxy for income.…”

“…Prior research finds that demographic variables influence willingness to adopt ecofriendly gardening practices and prefer environmentally friendly attributes in gardening products. For example, some prior research suggests women are more likely than men to participate in environmentally friendly gardening practices (Behe et al, 2010;Grebitus et al, 2017) and to prefer ecofriendly products (Fan and McCann, 2015;Yue et al, 2010); however, Campbell et al (2020) found that, among U.S. consumers, being female had a negative effect on probability of choosing sustainable/organic fertilizer brands. Results by Yue et al (2010) showed that age and willingness to pay for products with biodegradable packaging were positively correlated.…”

“…In contrast, findings by Behe et al (2013) were that the gardener group gaining the most utility from an energy savings attribute in garden plants tended to be younger in age. Furthermore, Campbell et al (2020) found age to have a negative effect on probability of choosing a sustainable/organic fertilizer brand. Prior research findings suggest that education and adoption of environmentally friendly behaviors and habits are positively related (Behe et al, 2010;Yue et al, 2010Yue et al, , 2016.…”

Consumer Willingness To Pay for Proenvironmental Attributes of Biogas Digestate-Based Potting Soil

“…Also, the importance of digestate-specific proenvironmental levels of attributes [25] is mirrored in the WTP results. The importance of the attribute "organic" and differences between consumer segments has also been shown in a study on how U.S. consumers make their choices on home lawn fertilizers [82]. However, the mixed results for guano show that, for some attributes, it might be less than clear which level is best from an environmental point of view.…”