Have you ever wondered why selling sustainability is still so hard? You have seen the news, you have read the reports and you have probably experienced this firsthand when you go into a supermarket and stumble across social and environmental credentials as you scavenge for the foods that you want to purchase. It is an all too familiar scene and people have obviously long known that sustainability is the way to go if future generations are to even have a chance at survival. But the real question is, even with consumers that actually care about sustainability, why has not substantial action taken place all this time? Yes, the world has been promoting initiatives and yes, there has been a multitude of people who have been convicted to act on these initiatives. But how do we convince the rest of the world, specifically those falling under the “confused” and “conflicted” shades of green to care about and act on sustainability?
According to a study conducted by National Geographic, the number of global consumers who have expressed a deep concern for the environment amount to approximately 61%, though actual sustainable purchasing behaviour has been decreasing. This explains the so-called “value-action” gap between what consumers report in surveys and what they actually do. Think about some of your sustainable purchases or any sustainable products that you might have stumbled across, what do the labels or captions say on the product? More likely than not they probably prompt you to take action through perhaps persuasion, pressure or guilt-trips, all for the greater purpose of sustainability. Stop for a second and think, how does that make you feel? After seeing this type of sustainable product, you probably have another reason not to make this sustainable purchase on top of a premium price. You are probably wondering, would I really buy a sustainable product if this were how it is marketed to me? All in all, there is actually nothing wrong with the values that these sustainable products uphold but rather it is the value that these sustainable products offer.
Up to now, sustainable products have only been offering to consumers what these products can do for the world but not what these products do for them. As consumers typically look for three attributes when making a purchase, functional benefits, emotional benefits and social benefits, it is important for companies to keep in mind that they cannot shy away from what the consumer cares about. The question that needs to be posed apart from “what can this product do for the world?” is “what can this product do for the consumer?” At the end of the day companies need to remember that marketing sustainable products needs to be a two-pronged approach, one that involves not just corporate social responsibility (CSR) but also creating shared value (CSV).
Would this encourage or change your purchasing behaviour towards sustainable products?