Column: Was climate ever central to the purchasing decision?
I recently came across an article that stated: Climate is no longer a key factor in purchasing decisions. However, that doesn't mean all is lost. On the contrary.
What is particularly remarkable is that this applies to the long-praised Gen Z of all people. In other words, the generation that people once hoped would only have to get older - and the sustainability problem would solve itself.
But was that ever realistic? Or to put it another way: was climate ever really central to the purchase decision?
Over the years, market research has provided a seemingly clear picture. In some surveys, up to 70 percent of respondents stated that sustainability was important to them and that they wanted to shop accordingly. However, these results were based almost exclusively on attitudinal questions. And this is precisely where the problem lies. Because this attitude was hardly reflected in actual behavior - i.e. in sales figures. This is also classically referred to as the value-action gap or attitude-behavior gap. Only the already convinced "green segment" bought sustainable products. The masses continued to opt for conventional products. Not out of ignorance, but because other criteria simply had a stronger impact.
Now even these positive attitudes seem to be crumbling. Does this mean that people suddenly don't care about the climate? Something else is more likely: the social pressure to cite sustainability as important in surveys has diminished.
In the past, it was hardly socially acceptable to say in a survey that climate protection was not particularly important to you when shopping. Today, it is possible to do just that - without justification, without a guilty conscience. So what we are seeing is not so much a backlash as a more honest articulation of what consumers actually want.
This honesty is uncomfortable
For the masses, climate was and is not a key purchasing criterion. Instead, the usual suspects dominate - as they always have: a strong brand, attractive product aesthetics, a convincing price-performance ratio. However, this does not mean that all is lost. On the contrary.
It simply means that sustainable products cannot be sold through morality, but through relevance. If you want to bring sustainability to the market, you have to design and communicate it in such a way that it fits seamlessly into existing purchasing logic - instead of fighting against it.
What is needed is not fewer sustainable products, but better marketing.
