Jill thinks all dishwashing soaps are alike, so she buys the cheapest brand. Jack buys the brand of laundry detergent his mom always bought. Consumers typically have low involvement with the decision to buy household cleaning products and make quick choices. But Elena researches nontoxic cleaning supplies in detail before her baby is born. The market for green cleaning products was pioneered by small firms like Seventh Generation, Inc., which, in 1988, started selling environmentally friendly household products in health food stores and specialty stores. Two decades later, in 2007, green cleaners still accounted for less than 1% of cleaning product sales, even though surveys found that 60% of consumers were “concerned about the impact cleaning products have on the environment.” Only truly committed green consumers will make an extra trip to a specialty store to pay more for utilitarian looking products that are perceived to be less effective because they are environmentally safer. Even though mainstream consumers aren’t willing to sacrifice price, convenience, quality, and other product benefits for the sake of greener products, they will use green features to break a tie between otherwise comparable brands. Marketers have used this knowledge to introduce a host of new green cleaners. Two young entrepreneurs launched Method, an environmentally friendly line of cleaning products that differentiates itself from other brands—green and non-green alike—by innovative, stylish packaging. For example, Method’s Le Scrub bathroom cleaner has a built-in sponge holder. Method is sold at specialty stores and mass market retailers like Target, at about twice the price of traditional brands. The cofounders believe that style “creates mass market relevance for a green product” and that consumers discover Method because of its trendy designer look, find that they love the fragrance, and then “discover it’s good for you—it’s that third piece that drives loyalty.” Perhaps that explains the company’s sales growth from about $90,000 What type of purchase decision-making does Elena make? Explain. How does product categorization explain Method’s decision to initially deemphasize green features when the product was launched? How do perceptual attributes and packaging characteristics of the brands in this case study signal product quality in terms of the underlying environmental and health benefits?