How do you use sustainability to benefit business? We outline why sustainability is increasingly important to consumers and should also be for businesses.
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Sustainability has long ceased to be a trend, but an expectation. In order to gain the trust of potential customers today, manufacturers and private labels must increasingly focus on the topic of sustainability. We will explain why innovations can only lead to success today through sustainability.
Ways to approach sustainability to benefit business
The topic of sustainability has arrived in the minds of consumers
It is almost unbelievable how often the media has written about climate change in recent years and months. Frightening news about the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the United States government about the climate impacts, the diesel affair, the ongoing reports about plastic in our oceans – all of them are part of a continuous and worldwide reporting.
At the same time, we are carried away by grassroot movements or inspired by clever innovations by inventors who want to change the environment. They open our eyes to an individual’s scope for action. We participate in social networks and via crowdfunding and help with casual clicks to successfully implement sustainable projects. But it also exists: the stricter tone in social engagement, especially when climate change is becoming more and more lawful towards governments.
We, the consumers, get involved and are at the forefront of shaping social change. We know our enormous strength and responsibility. We have been using organic products more strongly since the turn of the millennium. But we have learned something about it and now one in four people is oriented towards sustainable aspects in consumer goods. Correspondingly, more than 68 percent of people state that they shop and consume more consciously in order to promote sustainability. Only brands that have sustainability anchored in their brand core are successful.
Sustainability determines trust in a brand
Consequently, it is of central importance for brands to act sustainably. Gone are the days when sustainability was just a trend word. Only brands that have sustainability anchored in their brand core are successful. Entrepreneurial rethinking alone is not enough. To regain lost trust and initiate change, consumers see as the main task of managing directors. But how do companies regain trust? The food and consumer goods sector, in which private labels are included, has lost 3 percent of its trust compared to the previous year .
First of all, the prerequisites must be created in the trade organization so that the transfer to the private label is successful. For this purpose, sustainability should be brought into the social, ecological and economic triad. The fair dealings with employees and partners, the continuous improvement of the value chain from an ecological point of view and sustainable, economic action belong together strategically.
Only when these internal requirements have been seriously created is there a basis for communicating credibly with the end user. A transparent foundation, which the critical consumer understands, enables playful trust to be regained across an entire industry.Agile brands can show off their advantages.
Innovations today must focus on sustainability
Innovations in particular can help you to position yourself successfully on the market and to reach consumers. Agile brands can still show their advantages here. Innovations such as compostable packaging, mineral oil-free printing inks, sharing business models or products based on plants are successful examples that convince customers and have prevailed on the market.
Already in studies recently, sustainability could contribute up to 10 percent to sales increases. This proportion will increase significantly in the future. We are convinced of vegan. This is the challenge for businesses to win tomorrow’s customers.
