The sustainability path to purchase for a home appliance brand

sustainability case study
Identifying the role that sustainability plays in driving brand equity and sales.
Michael Hanbury-Williams,Head of Sustainability & Purpose, UM EMEA IPG Mediabrandssaid"The whole team at Kantar have been sensational from start to finish with this first-of-its kind research. We were immediately able to directly incorporate some of the key learnings into our various workstreams with the clients, and are excited to see the growing impact of sustainability-related research across our own business."

Challenge

In times of economic crises, strong brands matter more than ever. They bounce back faster following periods of uncertainty. We feel it is time to investigate how sustainability is driving the brand and sales. 

This research sets out to provide deep and actionable insights how brands could – and should – leverage sustainability as a driver for long-term brand building and short-term product sales.

Approach

We re-framed a validated and proven path-to-purchase study with modern challenges: sustainability and cost of living. 

Method: online survey, n = 1,017, UK, home appliance shoppers in the six months prior to survey. 

We combined direct questions, choice model and advanced analytic to go beyond the surface and inform creative approach and media planning to best invest marketing budget related to sustainability (‘marketing for good’).

Insight

In the home appliances category, we found that traditional drivers for brand differentiation have maxed out, and the market leader is losing momentum.

We showed that sustainability is a strong driver for brand excitement (shares my personal values and beliefs, is natural and invests in relevant sustainability commitments) as well as driving sales (energy-efficiency). This trend is apparent among all buyers, but even more noticeable among GenZ and Millennials. The brand has great sustainability content but is not sharing it proactively enough.   

Impact

IPG Mediabrands was able to use this research in full to work on a sustainability RFP for a home appliance client. The media recommendations related to optimizing media planning such as SEO/SEM, content for brand.com or develop a retailer strategy was extremely useful and helped IPG Mediabrands to respond to the RFP.
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