Most sustainability practitioners believe customers will reward a company for doing the right thing. We know it’s a complex story and that price, accessibility of product and perceived efficacy all affect shoppers’ choices. In general, however, we trust that customers will pick sustainable solutions if they are easy to find and price differences are negligible.
And there is evidence that consumers do prefer to buy sustainable products. NYU Stern’s landmark study found that 50 percent of CPG growth from 2013 to 2018 came from sustainability-marketed products. The study is based on what consumers actually bought — not what they said they would do.
Still, we were curious to explore if there was more to this story. Clearly, some customers reward companies by buying sustainable products, but did that hold true for more specific aspects of sustainability, such as climate change? If two products were equal and were equally priced, would a perception of climate action by the company make the difference?
Read this guest blog on GreenBiz.
Leave a Reply