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Personalised promotions are ‘twice as likely’ to convert UK shoppers
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While discount codes top UK consumers preferred promotions, offers that are personalised and tailored to a specific product a consumer has viewed are almost twice as likely to prompt a sale compared to general ‘range-wide’ discounts, according to a survey of over 1,500 shoppers.

Original research by AI-driven performance marketing solution Wunderkind, published in its 2024 Consumer Insights Report, revealed that demand for personalised promotions remains critical to re-engaging consumers in the online buying journey, with 83% more likely to purchase from brand messages that highlight exact products they have recently browsed.

And, according to the poll, almost half (49%) of UK consumers are more likely to make a purchase when they are offered personalised, product specific discounts for items they had already viewed, compared to a quarter (26%) who would be influenced to buy after receiving general, brand-wide promotions.

While discount codes remained the most effective promotional lever for 54% of UK consumers, the poll highlighted the role of personalisation and product-specific offers in promotional effectiveness.  Over a quarter (27%) would be prompted to convert by reminders or low stock warnings about items they had put in their online shopping baskets, while 22% said they would be persuaded to buy after receiving a ‘back in stock’ message about an item they had previously viewed.  Meanwhile, a further fifth (19%) of shoppers would be influenced by offers on new products promoted to them that were similar to products they had looked at previously.

Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, International General Manager of Wunderkind, said: “Despite falling inflation, consumers continue to display high-consideration buying behaviours, often taking longer to validate where and when to spend.  In this context, bringing customers back to the products they’ve shown the highest interest and intent towards becomes all the more important.  To do this effectively, retailers need to be able to identify that individual shopper – regardless of device or cookie status – and then retarget them with highly personalised triggered messages, at the right time and via the right channels.”

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Marketing execs ‘unprepared for future of personalisation’
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97% of digital marketing executives report they feel unprepared for this foundational shift in how companies will learn about consumers’ preferences and behaviour, and while 75% of consumers more likely to consider buying products from brands that personalise, 86% of executives believe their ability to run personalised marketing campaigns is inadequate.

That’s according to a recent survey conducted by Optimizely, which includes respondents from 1,000 marketing, eCommerce and IT executives in six markets – the US, UK, Germany, Sweden, Australia/New Zealand and Singapore. It comes at a pivotal moment for marketers as Google phases out cookies, AI emerges and regulatory threats grow.

“This report makes clear that brands are ill-prepared to navigate the emerging, generational shifts in the ways they can reach customers,” said Shafqat Islam, CMO at Optimizely. “While executives know that investing in personalisation and experimentation is key to survive in the new reality of digital experiences, they too often feel they don’t have a streamlined, intuitive toolkit to implement effective campaigns at scale. Accessing marketing solutions that create personalised digital platforms without third-party data will be key to thriving in the coming decades.”

Executives broadly agree that personalisation is key to an effective marketing strategy – 62% of respondents increased their personalisation budget since last year. They also recognise the specific benefits of experimentation within these efforts, including its ability to identify mistakes, (40%), allow for data-driven decisions (40%), test strategies before they’re employed (39%), personalise customer experiences (39%), and discover which personalisation strategies work (39%).

However, companies are still widely struggling to implement an effective personalisation strategy

  • Executives implementing real-time personalisation experiences face numerous challenges, including a lack of focused analytics (43%), difficulty scaling personalisation programmes (40%), and difficulty activating experiences in real-time (39%).
    • While 64% have begun implementing real-time personalisation strategies, just 9% have reached full implementation.
    • Many also face process-oriented obstacles: over a third (36%) cite disjointed workflows as a top challenge.
  • Just 26% of executives report having a unified definition of personalisation throughout their organisation.
    • While virtually all executives surveyed with a personalisation strategy are measuring their ROI, no single metric is used by even half of respondents, suggesting a broad uncertainty on how to understand and track success for these efforts.
  • 43% fear an ineffective personalisation campaign will result in reduced future marketing budgets.

Google’s phaseout will leave companies hard-pressed for the data they rely on. To succeed in the upcoming era digital marketing, brands will need to stop relying on third-party data, and instead focus on creative ways to develop campaigns based on data they can discern from consumers directly.

Read the full report here: https://www.optimizely.com/how-digital-leaders-are-thinking-about-personalization/.

Photo by Amélie Mourichon on Unsplash

The biggest digital marketing skill gaps in 2024
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By Anjana Jayasena, Analytics Manager at Semetrical 

Today’s marketing world demands technical savvy like never before. Many of our clients face challenges in mastering key technical elements, such as smoothly implementing consent mode v2 and ensuring data flows seamlessly for actionable insights. With Analytics enquiries on the rise, it’s clear that businesses must prioritise bolstering their skills. It’s not just about staying ahead of the competition; it’s about empowering brands to make confident, data-driven decisions that drive real growth. Here are some of the biggest digital marketing skill gaps this year:

  1. Analytics 

According to MarketingWeek*, ‘Data and Analytics’ are the biggest skills gap faced by the marketingindustry in 2024, an issue currently experienced by over one third (36.9%) of brand-side marketers. This presents an increase from last year, where data skills were lacking in 34.4% of marketing teams, showing a widening of the gap.

The inability to effectively gather and analyse data is proving a significant barrier for brands and poses a serious area of concern for businesses. We’ve witnessed these challenges among our clients, increasingly so in the past year, with a much greater number of prospects coming to us with Analytics, specifically GA4 related enquiries. According to our Sales team, analytics issues currently make up the largest proportion of our enquiries!

  1. Performance Marketing

Interestingly, one of the most integral elements of Performance Marketing is the ability to analyse data. As such, it’s no surprise that Performance Marketing comes in second place after Data and Analytics.

While you don’t need to be a data wizz, it definitely helps to feel comfortable around large data sets in order to track and analyse the effectiveness of your campaigns and leverage data to deliver highly targeted campaigns too.

  1. Content

In 2024, 18.1% of marketing teams* report a skills gap when it comes to ‘Content and Copywriting’ skills. Providing augmented writing assistance and even content generation, generative AI was used by 76% of marketers** for basic content creation and copywriting in 2023, helping in some way to fill content gaps.

While it is debatable whether AI can be classified as a solution to replacing content skills, the general consensus among digital marketers – and Google – is absolutely not.

  1. Social media 

Surveys* show that 14.8% of marketing teams lack Social Media skills, which is particularly shocking given that 77%*** of businesses use Social Media as part of their marketing strategy

According to HubSpot****, the biggest challenges faced by marketers in Social Media include creating engaging content that generates leads, reaching their target audience, growing and retaining followers, as well as keeping up with trends and algorithm updates.

  1. E-commerce 

It is reported that 12.1%* of marketing teams are suffering from a lack of eCommerce skills, encompassing a variety of areas.

Much like Performance Marketing, eCommerce Marketing is heavily reliant on data skills in order to understand consumer behaviour, improve customer experience, track sales, and optimise strategies. Again, this reiterates just how critical analytical skills are in your marketing teams.

*https://www.marketingweek.com/marketers-data-analysis-skills-gap/

**https://www.emarketer.com/content/5-charts-showing-how-marketers-thinking-about-generative-ai-now-that-hype-has-passed

***https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/social-media-statistics/

****https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hubspot-blog-social-media-marketing-report

Photo by Elio Santos on Unsplash

Cash-strapped Gen Z wants brands to recognise social issues
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Gen Z expect brands to demonstrate purpose beyond profit, even in the face of economic instability, as they report the highest concern (90%) of all generations about social issues, which has a clear impact on their purchase decisions.

That’s according to Dentsu’s 2024 Read the Room: Pursuing Happiness report, which finds that 75% of Gen Z are more likely to buy from brands that give a portion of their sales to charity and 70% say they prioritise brands that demonstrate emotional intelligence in their advertising – both findings are the highest of all generational cohorts.

The research also finds that Gen-Z donates the highest proportion of their salary (5%) to charity compared to other generations. That’s despite more than half (57%) of Gen Z reporting that they are extremely anxious about their finances in the immediate future. An additional 78% agreed they would be more likely to purchase from a brand that makes its products sustainably.

The research delves into the influences behind buying decisions across a wide range of generations and industries – from Boomers to Millennials to Gen Z – to give brands insights in consumer mindsets in 2024 and beyond.

It finds that Gen Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, view charitable donations and social activism as a core pillar of their personalities, with brand identity linked to personal value systems. Gen Z want to buy from brands that are actively doing good for society, not just through words, but through authentic action.

Even among Boomers, more than a quarter now prefer to buy from a brand exhibiting a strong sense of purpose. Consumers will ultimately move away from brands that fail to back up sustainability and social initiatives with evidence. Brands must gain deep knowledge of their customers’ value systems, and then communicate clearly how they are delivering on those values. In doing so, brands can create new consumer demand, unlocking new value in new spaces.

Angela Tangas, UK&I CEO dentsu, said: “In another economically challenging year, a people-centered   focus must be a priority for brand strategy and business growth. Our insights reaffirm that understanding both consumer and customer behaviours, anticipating their needs and creating new ways to meaningfully and authentically connect is critical. We can clearly see that consumers, especially Gen Z, expect more from brands in terms of environmental sustainability and social impact, at a time when technology is enabling new experiences and cultivating new behaviours. The demand for purpose means authenticity is paramount, which will be key to unlocking wins today and preparing for tomorrow.”

Photo by Zana Latif on Unsplash

137% increase in mobile app messages as AI begins to impact conversational brand interactions
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Conversational messaging channels are seeing the fastest growth in terms of brand interactions with customers, with Infobip research recording a 137% increase in mobile app messages in 2023 compared to 2022, including a 73% rise in social media messages, and a 63% increase in chat app messages.

Infobip analysed more than 473 billion digital communications interactions on its platform in 2023 between businesses and consumers to identify the latest global business messaging trends, concluding that conversational experiences are increasing throughout the customer journey, whether for marketing, commerce, or support.

Conversational support 

Whether a person is dealing with a human agent, a chatbot, or a combination of the two, conversational support provides an effective, efficient, and positive experience. WhatsApp remains the primary channel brands use for conversational support, where businesses send 90% of support messages over the chat app. However, brands are beginning to diversify their channel mix, leveraging chat apps in specific regions.

For instance, Infobip has recorded increases of 541%, 146%, and 284% in Messenger, Viber, and Line, respectively. Brands are now using conversational AI to provide personalized customer service and support. For instance, Megi Health Platform uses a virtual assistant on WhatsApp to help improve the patient experience. Meanwhile, insurance firm LAQO uses our Azure OpenAI partnership to provide a fast, 24/7 and personal service.

Conversational marketing

The two-way exchange of information is the basis for conversational marketing, and brands are ramping up their efforts to meet customers on the channels they use with their family and friends. Overall, the data shows a 29% increase in mobile app messaging for marketing in 2023 compared to 2022.

WhatsApp remains the top digital channel for conversational marketing in absolute numbers, driven by new features that enable customers to start and complete a purchase in a single WhatsApp chat window.

Infobip is also seeing significant increases in other messaging apps such as Telegram, Line, Viber, and Messenger. More specifically, WhatsApp messages increased by 421% in Asia Pacific in 2023, while mobile app messaging increased by 146% in the Middle East and North Africa and by 18 times in North America. Meanwhile, RCS Business Messaging is an emerging channel for conversational marketing.

Regional difference

With brands adopting conversational experiences globally, there are some regional differences:

  • Africa: conversational channels gain traction with social media messages increasing nearly 2.5 times
  • Asia Pacific: strong growth in mobile app messaging, with WhatsApp increasing by four times
  • Europe: rapid growth for RCS, as interactions increase by 11 times
  • Latin America: strong growth in mobile app messaging, with Viber increasing by more than 2.5 times
  • Middle East North Africa: rapid adoption of conversational channels, as voice and video interactions double
  • North America: exponential growth in rich messaging, with RCS interactions increasing by 50 times

The changing role of SMS

Infobip’s data from 2023 shows that SMS remains an important channel for business communication, but usage is changing where SMS is now being used alongside chat apps. Across all industries, brands most commonly use SMS with WhatsApp, with 25% of businesses choosing this combination. Moreover, where businesses and brands use two channels, SMS is one of the two options in 63% of cases.

Ivan Ostojić, Chief Business Officer at Infobip, said: “Our data shows how conversational experiences are rapidly spreading across the globe as businesses roll out marketing, sales, and support use cases. Where 2022 revealed a spike in omnichannel adoption when brands recognized the importance of connecting with their customers on their preferred channel, 2023 shows how brands are perfecting the end-to-end customer journey. Customers can now seamlessly progress through a journey within a single conversational thread on a chat app or RCS. With the emergence of interactive AI, we expect brands to incorporate a federation of different chatbots and AI algorithms working together to trigger actions at the ideal points during the customer journey. In the next year, we foresee the widespread adoption in customer service, marketing and sale automation, and for operational use cases like scheduling deliveries and managing payments.”

Is email-only outreach a thing of the past?
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Lead rates from email-only outreach fell drastically last year, while those from multi-channel continued to climb.

That’s according to new research from Sopro, which noted a 22% drop in success rates for email-only outreach occurred in 2023 vs 2022.

This corresponded to an increase in the number of marketing emails by 49% as businesses battled for attention from prospects.

Three quarters of B2B companies surveyed believe that marketing results are better when email prospecting is combined with other outbound marketing channels, while 68% agree that email prospecting complements inbound marketing channels.

Email still holds a vital role in outreach strategy, however. 67% of buyers said they prefer to be contacted by email than any other channel, while 88% want to hear from suppliers when researching a purchasing decision.

The landscape remains challenging. An average of four stakeholders are now involved in the decision-making process, up from 3.6 in 2023. 11% of companies have between six and nine people involved. When asked to list their main marketing concerns in 2023, respondents cited lead generation (46%), lead quality (38%) and generating quality content (36%).

Sopro analysed data from more than 75.2 million emails and combined them with insights from over 350 sales and marketing professionals, outlined in the State of Prospecting 2024 whitepaper.

The study comes as businesses prepare for new regulations by Google and Yahoo, which are due to be enforced from February 2024. These will apply to anyone who sends more than 5,000 emails per day, in a bid to clamp down on spam.

Ryan Welmans, CEO and co-founder at Sopro said: “It is clearly a tough environment for businesses and marketing professionals, with increased competition and stricter regulations on the way, against a constantly evolving economic backdrop. But this also presents an opportunity for those who have the knowledge and tools to follow best practice and stand out from the crowd.

“The new regulations echo a belief that we have always held at Sopro – that emails should be personalised, relevant and value-driven. When combining expertise with new tools – in particular AI – businesses can offer recipients real personalisation that goes beyond email and that can be maximised across all relevant channels. We hope that the information in this new whitepaper will act as a practical guide for sales and marketing professionals, prompting them to set strong multi-channel strategies for 2024 and beyond.”

Another new development is that 18% of people are happy to be contacted by post, which is more than double the number in the previous year. This suggests that personalised direct mail could be highly valuable for intelligent prospecting.

The research indicated that gifting can increase lead quality by 36.1%. Branded merchandise was reported to be the next most successful gift (49%), with beers, wine, or spirits at 44%. Disappointingly for the planet, tree planting was the least used gift option, with 45% of survey respondents failing to redeem the gift.

Immersive technologies set for ‘transformative impact’ across sectors
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The growing demand for immersive experiences is transforming how people engage with content and their environment, offering captivating virtual worlds and enhancing education, training, and various sectors like healthcare, consumer, retail, automotive, travel & tourism and games.

That’s according to Saurabh Daga, Associate Project Manager of Disruptive Tech at GlobalData, who summarised the firm’s latest report by saying: “The demand for platforms infused with technologies like AR, VR, and mixed reality has been growing across sectors due to their ability to enhance training, consumer experiences, and operational efficiency. In healthcare, they enable realistic medical simulations, boosting skills and safety. E-commerce benefits from interactive product visuals, enhancing decision-making. The automotive sector uses them for design, manufacturing, and customer engagement. In travel & tourism, they enrich tourist experiences. Moreover, immersive platforms are finding greater use in industrial sectors bridging the divide between physical and digital for enterprises.”

GlobalData’s “Immersive enterprise: the sector impact of alternative reality technologies” report delves into over 60 real-life implementations of immersive technologies. The report categorizes these implementations based on the end-use sectors and use cases.

GE Healthcare partnered with medtech company MediView XR to create the OmnifyXRTM Interventional Suite System, which will integrate mixed reality solutions into medical imaging. The resultant platform combines augmented reality visualization, remote collaboration, and clinical insights with medical imaging using spatial computing and mixed reality. This collaboration aims to advance the use of augmented reality in clinical settings for improved patient care and medical interventions.

Nestle uses VR for product development, creating and testing virtual prototypes in the metaverse. This streamlines the process, tracks key metrics, and gauges consumer reactions. The consumer goods company has also applied VR to optimize Purina’s pet food division’s shelving and merchandising.

Mercedes-Benz has integrated AR glasses into its Vision One-Eleven concept car. These AR glasses enhance the driving experience by overlaying real-time information, navigation, and contextual data onto the driver’s field of view, creating an immersive heads-up display. This technology aims to improve situational awareness, offer dynamic navigation guidance, and introduce greater interactivity in the vehicle.

Daga concluded: “Advanced immersive platforms are poised to revolutionize various sectors. While these technologies offer substantial benefits in training, consumer engagement, and operation streamlining, challenges like high costs, hardware limitations, and data security need to be addressed. Nonetheless, by combining with emerging technologies like AI, enterprises can overcome these challenges, leading to a more engaging and efficient future.”

Half of consumers to ‘significantly limit’ their social media interactions
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A perceived decay in the quality of social media platforms will drive 50% of consumers to abandon or significantly limit their interactions with social media by 2025.

A Gartner survey of 263 consumers between July and August of 2023 found 53% of consumers believe the current state of social media has decayed compared to either the prior year or to five years ago. The top reasons for this perceived decline were the spread of misinformation, toxic user bases, and the prevalence of bots. Concern about the impact of anticipated GenAI use in social media is high: over 7 in 10 consumers agree that greater integration of GenAI into social media will harm user experience.

“Social media remains the top investment channel for digital marketing, but consumers are actively trying to limit their use,” said Emily Weiss, Senior Principal Researcher in the Gartner Marketing Practice. “A significant slice says that, compared to a few years ago, they are sharing less of their own lives and content. As the nature of social media use and the experience of the platforms changes, CMOs must refocus their customer acquisition and loyalty retention strategies in response.”

Other Gartner predictions to help marketers respond to the changing landscape in 2024 and beyond include:

A Gartner survey of 305 consumers in May 2023 found 72% of consumers believe AI-based content generators could spread false or misleading information. In addition, a Gartner survey of 320 consumers in February 2023 found consumers’ perception that AI-powered experiences and capabilities are better than humans is eroding.

“Mistrust and lack of confidence in AI’s abilities will drive some consumers to seek out AI-free brands and interactions,” said Weiss. “A subsection of brands will shun AI and prioritize more human positioning. This ‘acoustic’ concept will be leveraged to distance brands from perceptions of AI-powered businesses as impersonal and homogeneous.”

As CMOs try to “do more with less”, GenAI promises increased productivity and cost savings. Much of the attraction of GenAI for CMOs revolves around productivity and cost savings, especially for creative services. However, the enhanced productivity will enable senior creative roles to redirect their skills and time to more advanced strategic creative endeavors, such as leveraging GenAI product and service innovation.

“The use of GenAI in a creative team’s routine daily work frees them up to do higher level, more impactful creative ideation, testing, and analysis,” said Weiss. “As a result, creative will play a more important and measurable role in driving business results, and CMOs will actually increase their spending on creative and content.”

The rapid adoption of GenAI in search engines will significantly disrupt CMOs’ ability to harness organic search to drive sales. A Gartner survey of 299 consumers in August 2023 found consumers are ready for AI-enhanced search, with 79% of respondents expecting to use it within the next year. Furthermore, 70% of consumers expressed at least some trust in GenAI-backed search results.

“CMOs must prepare for the disruption that GenAI-backed search will bring to their organic search strategies,” said Weiss. “Marketing leaders whose brands rely on SEO should consider allocating resources to testing other channels in order to diversify.”

Rapid advances in GenAI have left organizations without the frameworks and best practices to ensure responsible use and mitigate risk. A dedicated content authenticity function and development of guardrails for brand will be an organizational imperative.

“As content created with GenAI tools balloons throughout marketing channels, transparency around its use will become increasingly necessary to maintain trust with customers,” added Weiss.

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UEFA Champions League still one of sport’s biggest sponsorship draws
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Sponsorship plays a crucial role in supporting the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in maintaining its ambition of hosting the best professional soccer tournaments in the world, including the Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League.

It contributes to the smooth operation of each competition, as exemplified by its top associations with Heineken, Turkish Airlines, and PlayStation. UEFA is estimated to generate $606.33 million through central sponsorship deals for the Champions League for the 2023-24 season, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s latest report, “The Business of UEFA Club Competitions 2023-24,” reveals that in 2023, the UEFA Champions League had 12 teams, which generated more than $60 million in annual sponsorship revenue. Barcelona and Real Madrid are expected to generate a significant amount in the 2023-24 season, with approximately $169 million and $143 million, respectively, adding to their esteemed reputation in the sport and immense popularity globally.

Joe Pacinella, Sport Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “The UEFA Champions League clubs are known to be some of the most valuable soccer properties on the planet, as seen with Barcelona and Real Madrid. Manchester United’s $96 million-a-year sponsorship revenue is also very impressive and illustrates its commercial pull, along with that of Paris Saint-Germain, which collects $87 million annually, slightly more than Manchester City’s just over $83 million-a-year.”

UEFA’s deals with Heineken, PlayStation, and Turkish Airlines offer a huge source of revenue for the federation and provide diversity within UEFA’s sponsorship portfolio, further enhancing their global exposure and cementing their pristine status.

Heineken is the biggest spender on the Champions League roster and promotes the competition worldwide through exclusive rights surrounding the deal. The Dutch brand has been partnered with UEFA since 1994, continuously engaging with soccer fans around the world and using the Champions League as the focus of their marketing campaigns, in a deal worth $65 million annually, as per GlobalData. The brand sponsors all three UEFA club competitions, including the Champions League, Europa League, and the Conference League.

Pacinella added: “Heineken has focused on UEFA’s three club competitions for a number of years, making it the center of their sports sponsorship portfolio. The brand aims to assert itself as a market leader for soccer in the beer scene, being UEFA’s top sponsor.”

Hankook Tire primarily focuses on the Europa League and Conference League, giving both competitions worldwide exposure. The automotive brand stands as both competitions’ top sponsor, ranking as the most lucrative deal that is not affiliated with the Champions League. The Korean brand has been promoting the competitions across Asia and engaging with fans across the globe, offering matchday experiences and online social media content. Hankook Tire’s deal with UEFA is worth $17.5 million annually on a one-year deal.

Pacinella concluded: “The Europa League is Europe’s second-tier competition but still ranks as the second most popular soccer club competition in the world after the Champions League, emphasising the power of European soccer relative to other continents. Despite the huge appeal and success of UEFA’s club competitions, the newly instated UEFA Conference League certainly lags behind the rest and has less social media followers than the Copa Libertadores, CAF Champions League, and the AFC Champions League, but given time to grow, it will no doubt surpass these competitions.”

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What does the notion of ‘sustainability’ mean in the minds of consumers?
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When a company claims to be ‘sustainable’ consumers feels this relates to ‘circularity’ and ‘naturalness’ and/or ‘social equality’ commitments, according to new research by Vlerick Business School.

Companies can benefit from actively including the operational indicators behind these associative concepts in brand positioning & marketing communication efforts towards consumers. The research reveals 19 elements that consumers associate with sustainability. These are bundled under three factor components based on the results of an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis on the data collected.

‘Circularity’ bundles the associative elements in consumer minds that relate to avoiding exhausting natural resources and re-using materials (e.g., ‘circular economy initiatives’, ‘recycling programs’, ‘restoration/replenishment of natural resources’).

‘Naturalness’ bundles elements related to the use of non-artificial production methods and resulting products. Examples are ‘no chemicals in production’, ‘no pesticides for vegetables’, ‘no production of GMOs’.

‘Social equality’, finally, bundles elements that relate to the need to ‘care for people’. Examples are ‘gender equality’, ‘fair wages’ or ‘good labour conditions’.

These findings come from research conducted by Frank Goedertier, Professor of Marketing at Vlerick Business School, together with his co-authors, Joeri Van den Bergh, from Human8 and Vlerick Business School, and Bert Weijters and Ole Schacht, both from Ghent University. The researchers wanted to understand what operational associations (in terms of hands-on practices) are triggered in the minds of consumers when a brand claims to be ‘sustainable’.

To do so, the researchers surveyed over 5,500 consumers, across seven different developed countries: France, the UK, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia in two data collection waves. 19 separate hands-on practices were identified, as well as the extent to which consumers associate these with the ‘sustainability’ notion. The researchers grouped these into three categories (social equality, circularity and naturalness). An extensive literature analysis preceded the survey data collections.

“Sustainability is being increasingly proposed as an overarching goal for transforming the way we live, work, and consume, and more and more consumers want to purchase from brands that they know are sustainable in their practices”, said Goedertier. “However, it is unclear what hands-on practices consumers actually associate with (or expect from) a brand that claims to be ‘sustainable’. Our findings reveal specific notions that can allow companies to position their brands on sustainability in a way that reflects the hands-on practices and aspects consumers associate with it.”.

The researchers say that the findings are particularly interesting as previous literature focuses on separating both social and environmental factors when it comes to sustainability. In this study, consumers clearly group both together when it comes to identifying a sustainable brand.

By shedding light on how consumers view sustainability, the researchers hope that the findings will help companies generate more impactful and consumer-relevant sustainability communication and actions – highlighting the key areas consumers view as sustainable indicators.