Unlocking Trends: Quarterly Survey of GreenPal on Electric Mowers

Unlocking Trends: GreenPal's Q2 Survey on Electric Mowers

Purpose, Scope, & Reward

The purpose of the Q2 Survey is to conduct research into what considerations current owners of gas-powered mowers, who currently mow their own lawns, have made toward purchasing an electric mower. There is wide interest in electric mowers from major news outlets for their environmental friendliness, quietness, ease of use, and market growth. The desired reward of the survey is to win high-quality backlinks. 

Challenges & Considerations

In no particular order, GreenPal has identified potential limitations and potential public relations considerations. These are not exhaustive.

 • Public relations risks 

The mass media channels wanting this survey information will, most likely, use it to craft narratives in the climate change vertical. Some may use the data within their markets reporting. 

However, any time an eco-friendly product is mentioned, especially in a contrast with a gas-powered machine, it creates an environment of debate in the current media landscape. Boykoff and Rajan (2007) note this well: “Consequently, the intersection of mass media, science and policy is a particularly dynamic arena of communication, in which all sides have high stakes.”

For the GreenPal team, though, the risk is low to do harm within this survey. How? There is already an audience segmentation between the editorial operations of the blog and GreenPal Pro verticals. In addition, the survey is simply an information gathering effort. 

The market demand for electrical products is high and is a much more reasonable explanation for why “the Uber for lawn care” would want to share such information. 

Any backlinks tied to environmentally-based pieces (regardless of their scope of coverage) should have a net-positive effect on the GreenPal site and brand — the survey questions themselves will show the intent of GreenPal and should limit any minor questioning negligible. 

 • A first go and growing pains 

As the GreenPal team enters into the world of mass survey-taking, the dynamics of this world are much more vast than the surface shows. A high-level view of survey-taking assumes choosing the right topic and achieving the right numbers should amount to response from outlets with high domain authority. 

These two must certainly be met first. This topic and the number of respondents (1,2500 as detailed in “Survey Logistics”) meet the requirements of a sensical survey that has yet to be administered. This data asks relevant questions outlets can use in several contents. That much GreenPal knows. What we don’t know is: 

These considerations are not all within GreenPal’s control. The best plans often face challenges, and it is the GreenPal’s team's assumption that this will be the case. However, any data gathered on this topic will be invaluable in crafting content and will be a great step toward earning backlinks and engaging with the powers that be within the editorial decisions of high-ranked media outlets.

 • Perceived surveyor bias  

The first hurdle to jump in the Q2 Survey will be perceived surveyor bias. We will be asking owners of gas mowers about their intention to switch to an electrical mower. For many gas mower owners, it’s probably pretty simple: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” (a good motto to live by). 

The GreenPal team must clearly communicate the survey purpose, see “Communicating Purpose” on page 10.

 • Previous studies 

As the GreenPal team has searched for previous surveys to make sure there is no overlap, and to qualify the needs and likelihood that the survey will have value for editorial teams and a shelf life of more than two years, we present those surveys here and provide commentary on differentials: 

The Farnsworth Group 

A 2022 study conducted by The Farnsworth Group was poorly cited and received little in return from sites with high-ranking domain authority. However, the research itself seems to be much less focused on building backlinks and doing digital PR. It seems much more tailored to the public policy sector and think tanks. 

This is good news for our team. We can pull good insights into how they are conducting their research and make ours more palatable for the media at large. However, the group will most likely continue analysing these trends, so there may be some competition between our survey data sets — meaning our delivery and angles must be thought through. 

How can we differentiate our data? One of the main points to focus on is buyer intent. While this data shows similar findings, and breaks it down by demographic data, we can take the unique angle of logistics around yard size and type of terrain as well. This is currently not answered in The Farnsworth Group’s data sets. 

Survey Logistics 

The following section outlines the survey logistics. In this section, the GreenPal team has documented the respondent number, demographics,  specificity, and exclusion of the survey respondents in an attempt to ensure questionnaire relevance and validity. 

 1. Respondent Number 

The total number of respondents desired for this survey is 1,250 individuals. 

 2. Demographics 

Location

We will survey 25 individuals from all 50 states (1,250 total). One outstanding consideration is whether the GreenPal team should consider excluding California respondents since the state passed legislation banning the sale of new gasoline-powered lawn equipment. What effect might that have on survey responses from California residents? 

Age

For this survey, GreenPal will set the minimum age limit to 21 years old and not cap a maximum age. In this survey, we are looking for homeowners or renters who are mowing their lawns. By setting a minimum limit, we shield ourselves to a certain degree from those who mow but do not have purchasing power (i.e., teenagers using their guardians mower). 

By not capping a maximum age, GreenPal will be able to extract a useful data point about age and those who are mowing, which in itself would make for a nice content piece capable of earning high-quality backlinks. 

Specificity 

The GreenPal team will ask two specific questions to include in the screener. Since we are not collecting large amounts of demographic data, these simple questions should not contribute to survey fatigue. Here are those questions: 

 3. Survey Question and Logic 

To ensure we’ve given ourselves the best results possible, we’ll attempt to cap our questions at 25 to 30. Much more, and we run the risk of respondents dropping out due to boredom. 

The max is 50, so the goal is to be about half way under that line. That said, we will use a simplistic form of skip logic that will allow the GreenPal team to segment responses and maximize content marketing from the survey results. 

Communicating Purpose

One of the main considerations of this survey is the need to clearly communicate the why behind the survey. The following paragraph contains the language that will be used in the survey to communicate to respondents the purpose of the survey: 

“The lawn mower market is expected to reach $38.24 billion by 2027, with electrical mowers and gas-powered mowers nearly splitting the market. Market forecasts show that electric mowers will continue trending upward. The goal of this survey is to find out why, or why not, Americans who own gas-powered mowers may consider purchasing an electric mower. This data could confirm or dispute market trends and provide valuable insights.”

Survey Questions & Choices

Screeners

• Question 1: Do you mow your lawn? Yes or No

• Question 2: Do you currently own an electric lawn mower? Yes or No

• Question 3:  Do you own a lawn care company and own commercial equipment? Yes or No

 First Section 

Q1: Yard Size

• Question: About how big is your yard? 

  • Small (about a ¼ acre)

  • Medium (½ to 1 acre)

  • Large (1.5 to 3 acres)

Q2: Like your mower?

• Question: Do you like your current lawn mower? 

  • Yes

  • No

Q3: SL - Buying intent

• Question: Have you thought about buying an electric mower? 

  • Yes 

  • No  | If no skip to second section

Q4: Buying purpose

• Question: What would be the main reason you’d switch to an electric mower? 

  • Quieter

  • Environmentally-friendly

  • Lighter and easier to move

  • Less maintenance

  • Can use the batteries with other tools

  • A law requires me to

Q5: Buying timeline

• Question: When might you buy an electric mower?

  • Weeks to months

  • The next year or two

  • Two years or more

• Can use the batteries with other tools

• A law requires me to

 Second Section

Q6: Power perceptions

• Question: How do electric mowers compare to gas-powered mowers in terms of power?

  • Much weaker

  • A little less powerful

  • Just as powerful

  • More powerful

  • Much more powerful

Q7: Environment

• Question: How would you describe where you live? 

  • Urban

  • Suburban

  • Rural

Q8: Lawn Size

• Question: How big is your yard?

  • Small (around half an acre or less)

  • Medium (Around an acre to a 1.25 acres)

  • Large (More than an acre)

Q9: Lawn Difficulty

• Question: How hard is your lawn to mow

  • It’s flat and easy

  • It has some challenges

  • The terrain is difficult

Q10: Mower performance

• Question: How do you think an electric mower would perform on your lawn? 

  • It couldn’t handle it at all.

  • Alright,  I just might need to recharge some

  • It would do fine.

  • It would do well with one recharge

  • It would knock it all out easily. 

Q11: Battery longevity

• Question: How reliable are the batteries that power electric lawn mowers? 

Q12: Battery longevity

• Question: How reliable are the batteries that power electric lawn mowers? 

  • Not reliable 

  • Slightly reliable 

  • Reliable 

  • Mostly reliable 

  • Extremely reliable

Q13: Electric mower research

• Question: How much research have you done on electric mowers?

  • None

  • Some

  • A decent amount 

  • A lot

 Third Section 

Q14: Hiring a pro?

• Question: Have you ever considered hiring a professional to mow your lawn?

  • Yes

  • No

Q15: All electric tools

• Question: If a lawn care company used all electric equipment, would that influence your decision to use their services in any way?

  • No, I’m mowing my own yard regardless

  • Yes, I don’t think electric equipment would do a good enough job

  • Yes, I would value that they used all electric equipment and would be more likely to use their services