Complementary Studies Provide Glimpses into Consumers’ Minds During Most Difficult Year in Modern History

Perhaps more than ever, 2020 inspired and informed countless consumer research
studies — the findings largely shaped by what was top-of-mind for individuals
during the COVID-19
crisis. Did sustainability concerns make the list?

We caught up with Chris Coulter, CEO of
GlobeScan — whose 2020
Healthy & Sustainable Living
Study revealed the attitudes
of 27,000 people in 27 countries; and Etienne White, VP of Sustainable
Brands™’ Brands for Good initiative — which
continues to measure consumer progress against adopting sustainable behaviors,
as part of its Socio-Cultural Trend
Tracker.

What is your current assessment as to where the world sits right now; and progress towards meeting the world’s big challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity loss?

Chris Coulter: Well, according to a relatively quick survey we did of a
group of sustainability leads, there is a middling sense that the resourcing of
sustainability functions might be compromised in 2021 because of budget
restrictions and uncertainty.

But, in every other dynamic — from investors and the ESG movement to civil
society — it’s ready to explode. The Decade of Action will be combined with the
Decade of Activism. As soon as COVID is done, there’s going to be this pretty
intense expression from civil society of the direction we’re going.

We’re accelerating and all working together like a watch — with all of these
different pressure points reinforcing each other, rather than hindering. The
sand that we had in those gears, historically, has washed away.

Etienne White: I agree with you broadly, Chris. However, I think we’d be
remiss if we didn’t talk about where consumers are at right now: in a place of
fear. The research we did
in August showed that 56 percent of US consumers fear personal death, 73 percent
of people fear leaving home for essential errands, and 59 percent fear losing
their jobs.

When we asked them whether it’s more difficult or easier for them to be
sustainable right now, 59 percent say that COVID has made it harder to make
sustainable choices. 55 percent say the economic landscape has made it more
difficult for them to live a sustainable lifestyle.

So, this moment we’re in is not without some really acute challenges.

So, at a time when people are worried about their jobs and putting food on the table, sustainability and lifestyle choices may fall down the priority list. We had a similar situation back in 2008, when the economic crash saw sustainability take a hit. What’s the main difference between then and now?

EW: COVID has served to magnify and amplify many of the fractures that were
already there. But it’s helped to educate people, too.

Our research revealed 75 percent of mainstream US consumers saying COVID has
made them more aware of global issues. We’ve seen a groundswell around racial
justice, with
57 percent of people saying they won’t support a company or brand unless it
supports racial
justice.

About ten years ago, consumers defined sustainability by environmental actions,
with social actions far less critical for us to solve. This summer, we asked:
Which is more important to address: social or environmental issues? 71 percent
of people said, ‘both equally’; and 76 percent said the two issues are
intertwined. You will not solve one without also, in tandem, addressing the
other.

That’s such a big ‘aha moment’ — that mainstream consumers now fully understand
that represents a significant change, and a wonderful opportunity for brands.

CC: Yeah. It’s hard for individuals to articulate the specificity of this,
but I think that people intuitively get it — which speaks to the broad wisdom of
the crowd, which is great.

All of these attitudinal measures have improved in an important way. In 2014 in
the US, for example, a year before the Paris Agreement, 61 percent of
Americans thought climate change was a ‘very serious’ or ‘serious’ issue. Now
that figure is 81 percent — a 20-point increase in six years.

There’s also been an eight-point increase of people believing that we need to
consume less to preserve the environment for future generations. There’s been a
nine-point increase in people saying, ‘I want to reduce the impact that I have
on the environment by a large amount’. That’s a big deal. Those shifts don’t
usually happen at that scale in just 12 months.

What can brands learn from this?

CC: Well, interestingly, 47 percent of consumers across the world say,
‘What’s good for me is not often good for the environment.’ So, that inherent
trade-off among people thinking that stuff they want, or want to do, has a
negative impact on the environment, is a big deal — and a big opportunity for
brands to bust that myth, and also showcase how it could be different.

When there’s a perception of difficulty in shifting your behavior, there’s very
little interest in doing that. Sometimes we embrace the complexity — like
circularity,
for example — as a thing that’s kind of cool. But consumers look at that and
say, ‘That is just way too difficult for me to understand, so I’m going to
ignore it for a while.’

EW: That’s right. Target in
the US, like many other retailers, have mini online gift shops right now. You
can look at ‘gifts for him,’ ‘gifts for her,’ ‘gifts for your kids.’ But they
also have ‘gifts that support black-owned businesses.’ It’s super simple; and I
know that my purchase is actually able to make a
difference.
There’s no preaching to me about it.

The brands that are succeeding are the ones who make it very simple, and also
are realizing that that education job for the large part has been done.
Consumers understand very well what it is we need to do. We don’t need to see
any more marketing with forests burning or people protesting. We don’t need the
problem explained to us. And creatives have fallen in love with the problem, and
showing the problem — but that’s a real turnoff for consumers.

The pandemic has hit businesses really hard. There will be lots of brands looking at your research and thinking, ‘Actually, we know that the consumer is shifting.’ But there will be pressure, once the world goes back to normal, to start selling lots and lots of stuff again. What’s your prediction for what might happen after the pandemic?

CC: There’s an interesting connection between what’s happened politically
and what’s happening in consumer lives that reinforces some of the positives —
including the green recovery in the US and in Europe, and with a new Biden
administration incoming.

One of the key pieces of the puzzle is the idea of free ridership. We can have
our hearts oriented towards a more sustainable lifestyle; but part of our head
is very rational in saying, ‘Well, if I’m going to invest in a Tesla — but I’m
surrounded by people who are driving Hummers — it doesn’t matter what I do.’

But there’s a global phenomenon of sending all of the important signals to
consumers that the future is inevitably more sustainable. That’s exciting.

We asked a question in our June survey about ‘building back better’ post-COVID.
At a macro level, 55 percent of the world wants to build back the economy in
ways that address climate change and inequality. 45 percent said they want to go
back to normal.

What’s startling is how different that response is. So, in countries in Latin
America and Europe, in particular, there are majorities — 60-70 percent of
people say they want to build back better. But in most of South East Asia,
you’ve got majorities that believe in getting right back to where we were.

How do you ensure that your research is hearing from the broadest possible demographic, including those from low-income households?

EW: We were very deliberate in our research here in the US. We could have
quite easily done it with a panel of 1,000 consumers to be able to get enough of
an indication that we needed. Instead, we invested and heard from 3,700 US
consumers because we wanted to be able to get a really broad swathe — not just
the US coastal elites.

We also wanted to be able to splice and dice the data by race, so that we could
look at the differences between Blacks, Latinx, Asians and whites. We wanted to
be able to splice and dice it by political affiliation, too.

CC: We adopt an inclusivity approach, too, to listen to those voices that
maybe get drowned out or aren’t as easy to pick up.

More broadly, the sustainability community has lots of work to do in trying to
understand where different voices and different perspectives and backgrounds fit
into sustainability. Right now, it’s really a very white industry.

Is there too much emphasis placed on Millennials and Gen Z being the beacons of hope among consumers when it comes to behavior change?

EW: Well, America’s youngest adults don’t come with wildly different
sustainability intentions or actions than their older cohorts. And when we asked
people, ‘Do you always or often try to behave in ways that protect the planet,
its people and its resources?’ we find that 34 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds
say they do and 39 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds report that they do. But the
leading group is the 35- to 44-year-olds — that was at 45 percent.

So, there’s a couple of myths of sustainability that we could all do with
talking about more and busting. The idea that it’s only the younger generations
that are truly championing sustainable behaviors is no longer accurate.

In communications, how do brands get that balance right between focusing on the doom and gloom, and the positive stuff?

EW: I started my career working in global ad agencies, so seeing that change
now start to happen is a wonderful thing.

Everyone is very well aware of the challenges we face. And as we saw in this
research, people are even aware of the societal pieces that need fixing. So, the
job of creatives now is inspiring action and imparting
information
in ways that feel actionable and accessible.

So, let’s wrap up by talking about the next iteration of research coming in 2021. What can we expect from the next 12 months and what do you expect from your next round of consumer research?

EW: We’ll be repeating our study next year; and we’re also following up with
quarterly pulses, where we get to hear from a smaller size group of people and
dig a bit more into the ‘whys’ of some of the information we receive.

We’re also looking specifically at how well brands are doing at closing the
intention-action
gap.
We’ve come up with a list of the nine most impactful sustainable
behaviors that
brands and consumers can work on together — that will mitigate against the
coming climate crisis, and also help solve societal challenges we face.

CC: We’ll be doing lots of consumer research with different companies and
brands as part of their ongoing proprietary stuff. But we’ll also have another
round of global surveys on healthy and sustainable living in June, which will
hear from people in 30 countries.

And there will be some tracking of some trends, too; as well as some modelling
to try and understand how to further unlock sustainable behavior change.

Published Jan 5, 2021 7am EST / 4am PST / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET

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