Consumer choice evens the playing field for brand sustainability

Boycott, avoid, punish. These are increasingly common behaviours among today’s consumers who feel they have been misled when it comes to sustainability, explains Karen Winterich, professor in marketing and the Susman Professor in sustainability at Penn State University.

“We've had so much greenwashing, unintentionally by brands… that has led to a lot of consumer scepticism, which brands are going to have to work really hard to overcome by [re]building that trust through transparency,” says Winterich. “What makes it feel more equitable is that consumers have a lot more choice, and so they feel that they can communicate with brands.”

So, how are consumer’s rethinking their sustainability habits? And what role can brands play in communicating, educating and leading towards sustainable public and planetary health?

In this interview Winterich joins Sean Kearns, editor-in-chief at Longitude, to share insights on what makes for sustainable corporate, consumer and societal behaviour – and why trust is critical to progress.

Conversation highlights

Greenwashing breeds mistrust among consumers

I think that we're overcoming some of the scepticism, but I do think that the brands being transparent and building trust is the most important. If a brand does not have that trust built with the consumer base, they're going to be sceptical. They're going to perceive any action as greenwashing and just to increase the company's own profits.

But once that trust is built and really, I think that trust comes in part from the brand image. So if there's a brand that is already perceived as being a good corporate citizen, they haven't been in the press for a lot of negative, irresponsible, immoral, unethical behaviour, whether that's treatment of employees or treatment of the environment or community around them, then it's easier to start to build that trust and consumers will feel like they really, truly want to make positive progress and they're not just doing it to increase their own revenues or profits.

Price dictates consumer sustainability habits

Not everyone has the luxury of not letting price dictate, and that can go back into a lot of social equality issues. But I think for those that have a little bit of flexibility in their budgets, they are now shifting away from price being the dominating factor.

In part, I think it's a little bit less of wanting to really support the best, most responsible, environmental, sustainable brand, and they're really willing to punish those that are not sustainable. It seems like the motives are more on the negative side, right? I want to punish, I want to boycott, I want to avoid buying you. But in turn, that means I am willing to spend a bit more to support the company that I think has the best intentions, is doing the most for the environment. We see the growth of benefit corporations or B Corps.

Oftentimes not always, but these are niche brands. They're small they're startups. There is some kind of resonation that consumers have with these smaller brands that they don't have that same level of scepticism, and they really want to support those brands that they believe have really good intentions at heart.