by My friend and colleague Christopher Kent of the Foresight Alliance pointed me to a post by the GfK Roper Consulting global trend of ‘Considered Consumption’, which shows that today a staggering 79% of consumers agree that they only “buy products and services that appeal to their beliefs, values or ideals.” ConsumerShift calls the trend “ethical consumption” (same difference). It is a central feature of the “consumershift” toward lifestyles based less on material goods consumption. My colleagues and I had been estimating somewhere around 20% of consumers willing to spend in support of their values. Roper is reporting a big jump that may reflect ideal to , a greater extent than reality, but nonetheless it still suggests a growing phenomenon.
Those interested in digging a little deeper might visit LOHAS research which suggests a $290Billion market for offerings around lifestyles of health and sustainability. They find for instance, that consumers have indeed cut their consumption (fits with enoughness driven by the Great Recession) but at the same time “there are some very bright spots within the sustainability realm, one of which is that consumers are more active in the LOHAS space than ever before.” Nice to see other sources supporting ConsumerShift’s ideas. Andy Hines
Hello Andy,
Thank you for referring to the GfK Roper Consulting global trend of ‘Considered Consumption’. I am very pleased to see that you are also seeing a shift in consumers’ expectations towards sustainability and considered consumption. Of course there are variations and many factors need to be taken into account; not all consumers have the same expectations. It is therefore very interesting to do further, more detailed analysis to understand key motivations and beliefs for consumers around the world.
I hope you enjoy our blog posts, we just added new ones which you can find here: http://www.gfkroperpulse.co.uk/
Kind regards
Edith