Social values can drive pocket book decisions

When a group of consumers say they care 46% more about something this year than last year, we get curious. Well, according to our March study of 1,097 US consumers,* 46 percent of respondents say they care much more about social values today than they did a year ago. This is a significant change in attitude, and it’s affecting our political, economic and social lives profoundly. And consumers are keeping up with the latest thinking on social values; 51% said they follow it very closely or even extremely closely.

Brands have taken notice, and are highlighting the steps they’ve taken to support diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI). Why? Because 56% of our respondents said they were more likely or much more likely to buy from an organization that aligns with their social values. In the $100k - $150k income bracket that number goes to 62%.

53% of all consumers told us that they would pay more for a product that supported their social values.

We wanted to dig deeper into the actual issues that people care about the most. Here is where they came out in 5 areas. We asked them how important each of these issues was to them, and these are the percentages who replied that it was “extremely important” or “very important”.

 


    
    Female
    Male
    Income > $50k
    Income $150k+
  


    LGBTQ equality
    56%
    47%
    52%
    46%
  

    Racial equality
    70%
    65%
    71%
    63%
  

    Gender equality
    70%
    68%
    67%
    63%
  

    Pay disparity
    78%
    68%
    75%
    70%
  

    Environmental protection
    74%
    69%
    72%
    69%
  

How organizations respond to these issues, managing stakeholders while staying nimble and relevant, is the corporate challenge of the decade, for industries from CPG to construction to utilities. Empowered and highly networked consumers, voting with their dollars, are rewarding the organizations that get this right.

Methodology: This study was conducted using SurveyMonkey Audience in March 2021 to collect a sample of 1,097 adults in the US. The sample was balanced for age, gender, and US Region according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey