The future of sustainability in loyalty programmes
As the saying goes, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Sustainability is a way of living to meet human needs whilst also maintaining a healthy environment. In 2020, we began a series of studies looking into loyalty and what drives brand love among consumers. A major point we wanted to consider was the importance of sustainability in brand loyalty.
Consumers have exhibited a strong shift in preferences for more sustainably produced products in the past 5 years. When thinking about loyalty, 63% of respondents agreed that in a recent survey conducted by Rare: Group, that sustainability (e.g. ethically centred brands, recycled packaging, zero carbon emissions) is an important aspect in staying loyal to a brand. Of this 70% are females vs. 56% males, a sure indicator of a growing area of interest and importance.
Is sustainability and charitable giving important for loyal consumers?
Consumer awareness surrounding sustainability has had a huge impact in 2020 following the covid-19 pandemic, particularly to millennials who have entered a period of peak purchasing power. According to WARC, conscious consumerism has led brands to react quickly to become more environmentally responsible, reducing CO2 emissions is now the primary association, having grown to 19% to push ahead of recycling programs and single-use plastics.
A majority of consumers state they are willing to pay for more sustainable brands, but wonder why they should have to. Interestingly, consumers view supermarkets as being in the forefront when it comes to important communication around sustainability. As concerns about climate change grow, brands are increasingly using their sustainable claims around carbon footprints and CO2 as a new form of marketing. An example of this is Sainsbury’s, with a recent announcement to invest £1 billion to become carbon neutral by 2040, which is 10 years ahead of the government’s net-zero target date, making it more attractive for consumers to shop with Sainsbury’s.
Coinciding with new consumer behaviour whilst the economy recovers after the coronavirus pandemic, it is now more important than ever for brands to embrace sustainability as part of their loyalty schemes.
So how exactly does going green give you green? There are more benefits of embracing sustainability than you think. Beyond receiving kudos from your customers, retailers can benefit from the following:
More social media engagement: Many sustainability movements happen on social platforms, participation in a hashtag campaign can increase traffic to the brand.
Larger community: Your brand can gain accreditation by forming a partnership with a charity or environmental organisation as their following can increase yours.
Reduced production: By encouraging consumers to bring back used products for an incentive, this can reduce the rate of production and ultimately cut costs.
More in store visits: Sustainability incentives within loyalty programmes can encourage consumers or require them to visit in-store, encouraging them to shop around and use their reward there and then.
Which companies have put sustainability first?
Their drinks are delicious but also good for the environment. Innocent drinks purchase fruit through the Rainforest Alliance, which conserves farmers’ biodiversity. Innocent has also been encouraging consumers to recycle their plastic bottles through its branding and gives 10% of annual profits to charity.
Luxury jewellery brand, Monica Vinader, uses 100% recycled gold vermeil and sterling silver. They will have saved more than 1,100,000kg of CO2 emissions by the end of 2021 due to their commitment to maintain the use of recycled gold.
Supermarket chain, Asda, have set a number of long term goals with the aim to become more environmentally friendly, including the reduction of food waste by 50% by 2030, to sell 100% sustainably sourced fish and to have 100% recyclable packaging in own brand products by 2050.
Final thoughts on how to implement sustainability into loyalty programmes
Consumers have to like the brand in order to become loyal, it therefore helps if you have shared values surrounding sustainability. Wanting to become more eco-friendly has become far from a niche passion: there are currently over 3.7 billion active users of social media and the explosion of rapid news coverage means global environmental issues are hard to ignore. This growing number of concerns is only going to rise with Gen Z more concerned about sustainability than any previous generation, giving consumers a reason to research the impact of their purchases, it is therefore important for brands to communicate why we should be purchasing from them to demonstrate sustainable authenticity.
In this case, brands should not aim to toot their own horn but give consumers an opportunity to make informed choices in their purchasing decisions by supporting brands that care about the environment, community and future.
