13 May Do Consumers Care if Your Brand is Socially Responsible?

Does a shopper really make purchasing decisions based on how a company treats its employees and the environment? Believe it or not this is becoming a bigger and bigger concern for shoppers.

We’re not talking just organic, tried and true “green” brands; more and more, these socially responsible shoppers are looking at the mainstream. A recent survey from marketing agency Good.Must.Grow (GMG) found that most Americans care about buying products from companies that do good in the world.

GMG surveyed 1,015 Americans, finding that 30% of respondents said that they expect to increase the amount of goods and services they buy from socially responsible companies (up from 18%). 60% of people said that buying goods from socially responsible companies is important to them.

Treatment of employees was found to be the biggest factor (45%) for people deciding how responsible a company is. Environmental impact followed close behind and transparency was the third biggest factor.

Remember that certain pizza brand that was smeared all over social networks for giving away 2 million free pizzas but refusing to pay 14 cents their employees’ health care? That is the embodiment of what we’re saying. Additionally, one out of six U.S. consumers claimed that they would avoid a product entirely if they didn’t like the parent company!

How important are these things to you as a consumer? Share your comments below or  post to our Facebook page!