Consistency is the key to plastic-free loyalty

Back in 2015, we began a series of studies into loyalty and what drives brand love among consumers.

One of the first things we discovered was that consistency is key (Redefining Loyalty report). It helps to build a bond between customer and brand. And, in turn, that breeds trust.

Nowhere will trust be more important than in the battle brands face to convince consumers they are committed to reducing plastic waste. In itself, this could be crucial to the future of many businesses, particularly food, drink and packaged goods providers. That’s because some 60% of consumers we polled in a recent survey said they are concerned about the amount of plastic they use in their daily lives.

So if consistency is crucial, brands must ensure they live up to their promise. Critically, how can they do that across all channels?

When we talk about touchpoints in retail we really mean physical stores and ecommerce. However, brands also need to walk the talk via social media channels or face reputational wrath from consumers. In 2019, Twitter users took aim at the likes of McDonald’s, Starbucks, Britvic and Oral-B, uploading photos of branded waste under the hashtag #IsThisYours.

To investigate channel consistency, and as part of our latest report, Plastic-Free Shopping, we followed consumers who we asked to attempt a plastic-free shop; they did this online and in supermarkets.

In the first experiment, single man John discovered that in order to go partly plastic-free, he’d need to shop at a bigger-format Sainsbury’s a 15-minute bus ride away from his home. But the grocer couldn’t offer a consistent online experience: to go totally plastic free and being able to buy, for instance, milk and juices in glass bottles and loose cereals, he needed to visit three smaller online stores.

In a second test, a family of five found it equally hard to access brands in both channels. Although some products they sought were offered in supermarkets without plastic packages they weren’t available online. 

Finally, we asked a couple to try buying plastic free. Their experience was similar to the other participants. Several items were available without plastic packaging in-store, but they could not be found online with the same grocer. They had to track down their shopping list using a handful of ecommerce options.

Interestingly, consumers seem to think supermarkets are complicit with brands in a slow adaptation to plastic-free production, not doing enough to promote alternatives or putting pressure on suppliers to do so. Some 80% think the grocers should do more. The warning signs are clear: 40% of those surveyed said they would switch to different stores that made plastic-free items available.

Of course, price and convenience play a major part in loyalty. But when you consider trust was named the number one factor in loyalty in our Redefining Loyalty study, and that trust is founded on brand promise which arises from consistency, ensuring a joined-up plastic-free approach will be vital to building strong businesses of the future.