Ethics influence shopper choices

Consumers continually make trade-offs when deciding what products they buy depending on their individual circumstances and the type of categories they are buying into.

Across the store the core drivers of convenience, health and premium are still very much in evidence and increasingly we are seeing the impact of environmental and ethical concerns on product choices.

Clearly products that manage to tick a number of these different attributes will find success more easily.

Going forward we would expect ethics and environmental credentials will really begin to impact brand performance as consumers are increasingly aware of the broad spectrum of these criteria.

This will range from local sourcing of products and ingredients, packaging and the overall environmental impact
of producing and distributing the product.

However, it is an incredibly complex and interwoven subject often making it difficult for consumers to pick the best option.

For example, perhaps shoppers need to be able to assess the overall impact of buying produce grown in heated poly tunnels in the UK, as opposed to products being imported from warmer countries.

In addition, should the shopper also consider the social impact of taking away valuable trade from developing countries?

Overall we are seeing people indicating they want to do the right thing when making their product purchases and increasingly this involves making judgement calls on different products, often based on their perceptions of different brands rather than necessarily having all the information available.

This is where schemes like the Carbon Trust logo, indicating the carbon footprint, helps shoppers but as we have seen for nutritional labelling, for this to be successful the labelling should be consistent and also easy for everyone to understand.

Nielsen research shows that over 40% of shoppers would switch products to one with a lower carbon footprint.

Walkers Crisps is a good example of a brand that is responding to the ethical and environmental agenda. It has been one of the first manufacturers to include carbon footprints on packs of selected lines and has also started
sourcing all its potatoes from Britain.

Source: Checkout Nielsen Top 100 Grocery Brands