Awareness of Eco-Friendly Practices / Products

The indicator assesses the proportion of the target group members who are aware of the promoted environmentally friendly products or practices and the benefits they provide. Such data helps you design your promotion activities and evaluate their effectiveness and reach.

Collect the following data by conducting individual interviews with a representative sample of your target group members:

RECOMMENDED SURVEY QUESTIONS (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWERS (A)

The phrasing of the survey questions depends on what you are asking about:

1) If you are asking about a specific product, you can use the same methodology as described under this indicator.

2) If you are asking about one or more specific practices (e.g. using various water-saving methods at home), you need to ask questions that are specific enough but at the same time do not influence what the respondent will answer (e.g. leading her/him to a certain answer).

For example, if you ask: “Do you know that watering gardens in the evening is good for saving water?”, you are leading the respondent to a certain answer. Therefore, it is better if you ask, for example: “What can people like you do to reduce the amount of water they use for their gardens?” (keep probing: “What other practices do you know?”).

Such a question needs to be specific enough, otherwise, the respondent might not mention the desired practice even if s/he is aware of it. This might happen, for example, if you ask too generally: “What can you do to save water?”

To assess the extent to which people are aware of the benefits the promoted products or practices provide, ask people who know the given product / practices the following question:

Q: What would you say are the most important benefits of [specify the product / practice]?

A: use multiple answers listing all the benefits your intervention promotes

Note: It is VERY important that you keep probing: “What other benefits do you see?“; “Anything else?”

To calculate the indicator’s value:

  - decide on the number (or type) of promoted benefits a respondent needs to know to be considered as “aware of the benefits” (be realistic and do not put the benchmark too high)

  - count the number of respondents who were aware of the product / practice and could state at least the minimum number of promoted benefits

  - divide this by the total number of respondents (including those who did not know the promoted product / practice)

  - multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage

Disaggregate the data by gender, location, wealth category and other criteria relevant to the context and focus of your intervention.

1) If you need to assess awareness of several different products / practices, decide how many technologies (and their benefits) a respondent needs to be aware of in order to be considered ‘aware of the promoted products / practices and their main benefits’ (e.g. at least 3 out of 5 products / practices). When preparing the survey, use Q1 – Q4 for each of the assessed products / practices. During the analysis stage, count the percentage of respondents who were aware of the minimum number of products / practices and their benefits.

2) It is recommended that you report separately on the percentage of respondents who:

  - are aware of the product / practice but not of its benefits

  - are aware of the product / practice and at the same time are aware of the minimum number of key benefits

  - are aware of each of the different promoted benefits (for example, how many said that a certain product / practice saves a given natural resource, how many said that it saves them money, how many said that it is more convenient to use, etc.)

Using such data can increase the effectiveness of any promotion activities.

3) It is very important that the enumerators are well-trained in probing methods, so that the respondents mention all the benefits they are aware of. Without proper probing, it is likely that they might forget to mention some of the benefits they know. At the same time, the probing must be done sensitively, so that respondents do not feel pushed to mention more benefits. 

4) Consider also collecting and analysing data on who people heard about the product / practice from. This might help you understand whether any changes in people's awareness can be attributed to your intervention.

5) Coordinating the collection of this data with any promotion campaigns or initiatives will help you assess their effectiveness.