According to the BBMG Conscious Consumer Report, nearly nine out of every ten Americans consider themselves to be “conscious consumers.” These includes people who are more likely to buy from companies that manufacture energy efficient products (90%), promote health and safety benefits (88%), support fair labor and trade practices (87%), and commit to environmentally-friendly practices (87%). These consumers look beyond the traditionally desired attributes of low price and high quality to also consider how their purchases could impact the community and the environment.
As these types of socio-environmental impacts become increasingly important to consumers, it is also becoming crucial for businesses to engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). How a company behaves with respect to its broader set of stakeholders (not just shareholders) is now frequently publicized and can significantly impact customers’ decisions. Today’s consumers can choose from an ever-expanding variety of foods and vegetarian businesses are advised to develop meaningful CSR policies, both as good practice and to differentiate themselves from competitors.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “food manufacturers, retailers, and foodservice establishments also see greater social responsibility as a way to gain competitive edge.” The USDA report identifies CSR as one of the biggest developments in the global business world over the past ten years. CSR emphasizes a shift from government regulation of business practices to voluntary corporate disclosure of activities that involve social issues. CSR has given rise to meaningful labels such as Fair Trade coffee, showing that real change can result from businesses responding to social interests and prioritizing the “greater social good.”
This has led many companies to become involved in socially important areas such as environment protection, community development, nutrition education, and animal welfare. Companies like Whole Foods Market, Newman’s Own, Wal-Mart, Burt’s Bees, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, and Ben & Jerry’s stand out to consumers as leaders in the movement toward greater social awareness. Similar research on corporate social responsibility by Technomics finds McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Subway, Starbucks, and Applebees to be socially conscious stand-outs in the foodservice industry.
With today’s digitally-enhanced consumers, word about a company’s level of involvement in these social issues can get around quickly. According to the BBMG study, consumers use a variety of sources to determine whether or not a company “does good things for people and the planet.” These sources include magazines and newspapers (53%), certification seals and labels on products (52%), the internet (41%), and advertisements (30%). Word-of-mouth from friends and family (24%) was also a significant means of learning about a company’s “green-ness.”
While consumers are interested in sustainable corporate practices, however, they’re also using these sources of information to identify “greenwashing.” Consumers are rapidly becoming more sophisticated and able to differentiate substantive business changes from marketing ploys. It behooves all companies, particularly those involved in the vegetarian foods industry, to take these consumers seriously and always to be truthful in your communications. Vegetarian food consumers, who are generally older and more educated than other consumers, are also more able to identify greenwashing.
Most vegetarian food companies already have a legitimate claim to providing “green” products because vegetarian foods generally have less impact than animal-based foods. Moreover, according to Cultivate Research’s recent study, a significant proportion of vegetarian food consumers are motivated to choose these foods because of social, environmental, and animal welfare issues. Vegetarian foods score well on each of those points, but companies shouldn’t stop there; fair sourcing and employment practices, low-impact packaging, and using renewable energy will all become increasingly important to these relatively issue-savvy vegetarian food consumers.
So what does all of this mean for your businesses? Put simply: Walk the walk, then you can talk the talk. Maybe you already have sustainable business practices and a comprehensive CSR policy, or maybe you’re making good strides in that direction. In either case, do not be afraid to integrate the issues that matter to your customers into your sales and marketing wherever possible. To do that, however, you need to keep a pulse on these consumers of vegetarian foods and understand why they choose to spend their dollars with companies that have similar values.
Leave a Comment