Report Summary
More than half of the population are Conscious Consumers, who proactively pay attention to brands’ mission or social purpose, and strive to prioritize buying brands whose moral values and beliefs align with their own. Socially conscious shopping requires time and effort, and consumers’ ethical considerations vary across categories. Brands interested in appealing to Conscious Consumers need to invest in building their reputation as a socially conscious brand. This requires brands to strategically focus it’s overarching ethical mission, commit to long-term and actionable initiatives, and leverage third-party certifications and partnerships to help verify the brand’s authenticity and tangible impact.
This report looks at the following areas:
- The market drivers and context behind purpose-driven shopping and consumption
- A demographic profile of Conscious Consumers compared to the total population
- Consumers’ current engagement with ethical and socially conscious consumption
- Shopping priorities and considerations across categories, including both ethical and functional qualities
- Consumers’ outlook on brands recognizing and celebrating awareness holidays related to a culture or cause
- The key challenges to consumer social consciousness and the red flags that denote unethical brands.
For Conscious Consumers ethical shopping is impactful and empowering, but it's also time-consuming and not shoppers' top considerations across categories.
Lisa Dubina, Associate Director, Culture & Identity
Market Definitions
For the purposes of this Report, Mintel defines Conscious Consumers as a subset of consumers who self-identify as actively paying attention to brands’ mission or social purpose, and tend to buy from brands/companies whose purpose aligns with the consumer’s own values and moral beliefs.
Table of Contents
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Executive Summary
- What you need to know
- What consumers want and why
- Opportunities
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Market Dynamics
- Market context
- Market drivers
- Has the brand purpose bubble burst, or do Conscious Consumers still exist despite spreading cynicism?
- Target audience
- The majority of consumers pay attention to companies' social purpose and tend to buy brands that have similar values
- Over half of consumers are Conscious Consumers
- In consumers' own words: prioritizing ethical brands
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Consumer Insights
- Consumer fast facts
- Consumer fast facts (cont.)
- Engagement with consumer consciousness
- In the past year, half of Conscious Consumers purchased brands that support causes they agree with
- Graph 1: support of brands' purpose-driven causes in the past year, by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- The majority of Conscious Consumers support brands' mission-driven purposes in multiple ways
- Graph 2: repertoire analysis – number of ways supporting brands' purpose-driven causes, by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Monetary contributions are the most common among Gen Z and Millennials consumers
- Graph 3: support of brands' purpose-driven causes, by generation, 2024
- Three quarters of Conscious Consumers feel supporting socially conscious brands helps make the world a better place
- Young and liberal-leaning consumers are more likely to view buying socially conscious brands as making a difference
- Graph 4: agreement – "Buying from socially conscious brands helps make the world a better place," by political affiliation, 2024
- Graph 5: agreement – "Buying from socially conscious brands helps make the world a better place," by generation, 2024
- The majority of Conscious Consumers notably view buying socially conscious brands a personally empowering
- Graph 6: agreement – "Buying from socially conscious brands is just as important as voting," by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Graph 7: agreement – "Buying from socially conscious brands gives me the power to influence social change," by political affiliation, 2024
- Consumer Consciousness across categories
- Quality is the top purchase consideration across all categories, showing that even among Conscious Consumers, the purchase value remains critical
- Graph 8: shopping considerations, NET, across all categories, 2024
- When looking at categories individually, price is a consideration, particularly among clothing/apparel
- Graph 9: shopping considerations by category – among the total population, 2024
- Conscious Consumers are more likely to consider clothing/apparel brands' commitment to DEI, sustainability and local philanthropy
- Graph 10: shopping considerations – among clothing/apparel, by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Good American is a fashion brand founded on body-positivity and inclusivity
- When shopping household care brands, Conscious Consumers are more likely to consider the brand's sustainability
- Graph 11: shopping considerations – among household care products, by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Rebel Green promises household care consumers eco-friendly products that are still effective and functional
- Local philanthropy, local sourcing and sustainability top Conscious Consumers' ethical considerations for food/beverage brands
- Graph 12: shopping considerations – among food/drink products, by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Chick-fil-A joins the U.S. Food Waste Pact
- A quarter of Conscious Consumers consider if personal care brands are made in the US, sustainable and committed to DEI
- Graph 13: shopping considerations – among personal care products, by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Avène leverages its brand legacy to dip its toes into ingredient education
- Respect for privacy, sustainability, and commitment to DEI are more important for Conscious Consumers when shopping technology brands
- Graph 14: shopping considerations among technology products, by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Swiss tech launches new smartphone designed around consumer privacy
- Brand and shopping considerations vary across categories for Conscious Consumers
- Graph 15: shopping considerations across categories, among Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Interest in brands' participation in DEI initiatives also heavily varies by race/ethnicity and political affiliation
- Graph 16: shopping considerations – "It's important that brands in this category are committed to diversity and inclusion," across categories, by race/Hispanic origin, 2024
- Graph 17: shopping considerations – "It's important that brands in this category are committed to diversity and inclusion," across categories, by political affiliation, 2024
- Eggo focused on empowering Black farmers and Black agriculture
- Brand considerations & red flags
- Many consumers consider the harm brands cause more important than the proactive good they're doing
- Graph 18: agreement – "When shopping certain categories, I just try to buy "the lesser of two evils"," by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Graph 19: agreement – "It's more important that the brands I buy are not actively doing harm, rather than being committed to doing social good," by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- In consumers' own words: purchase considerations and priorities
- Directly harming the environment or wildlife are the top negative actions that brands should avoid
- Graph 20: brand red flag – "I would stop buying a brand that…" by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- In consumers' own words: importance of sustainability and employee welfare
- UK fast-fashion brand Boohoo suffers after revealed to break ethical pledges
- Gen Z and multicultural consumers are the most likely to want the brands they buy to support the causes they care about
- Graph 21: brand red flags – "I would stop buying a brand that…" by race/Hispanic origin, 2024
- Graph 22: brand red flag – "I would stop buying a brand that…" by generation, 2024
- Gen Z and multicultural consumers are the most likely to want the brands they buy to support the causes they care about
- For the most politically engaged consumers it's more important that the brands they buy do not support social causes they are personally against
- Graph 23: brand red flag – "I would stop buying a brand that…" by political affiliation, 2024
- Expectations for awareness holidays
- Surprisingly Conscious Consumers don't want brands to overly acknowledge social/cultural awareness holiday
- Graph 24: agreement – "I don't like when brands make a big deal about global/national awareness holidays (eg Black History Month, Earth Day)," by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Conscious Consumers are most interested in brands donating or facilitating donations for awareness holidays
- Graph 25: top three ways brands should participate in awareness holidays (eg Black History Month, Earth Day), by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Demographics and political affiliation heavily affect consumers' outlook on brands participating in awareness holidays
- Graph 26: agreement – "I don't like when brands make a big deal about global/national awareness holidays (eg Black History Month, Earth Day)," by gender and race/Hispanic origin, 2024
- Graph 27: agreement – "I don't like when brands make a big deal about global/national awareness holidays (eg Black History Month, Earth Day)," by political affiliation, 2024
- Recognizing awareness/cultural holidays in advertising or social media posts is an opportunity to connect with young and multicultural consumers
- Graph 28: top three ways brands should participate in awareness holidays, by generation, 2024
- Graph 29: top three ways brands should participate in awareness holidays, by race/Hispanic origin, 2024
- If not consistently interacting with participants of specific cultural and spiritual holidays, it may be best to avoid engagement
- JCPenney celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with its "Cultura is Strength" campaign
- Challenges to consumer consciousness
- The time and effort it takes to prioritize purpose-driven brands can be a challenge for consumers
- Graph 30: agreement – "It takes too much time and effort to prioritize brands whose purpose aligns with my own values and morals," by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Brands can help make conscious shopping easier for purpose-driven but time-crunched Millennial parents
- Graph 31: agreement – "It takes too much time and effort to prioritize brands whose purpose aligns with my own values and morals," by generation and parental status. 2024
- Partnering with government sectors and nonprofit organizations can help reassure consumers who may question the impact brands can actually have
- Graph 32: agreement – "Only the public sector (ie government) has the power to significantly improve society," by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Even though the majority of Conscious Consumers feel brands' efforts are genuine, partnerships can help demonstrate authenticity
- Graph 33: agreement – "Third-party certifications (eg Certified B Corp, Fairtrade International) make me more confident I'm buying truly ethical brands," by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- Graph 34: agreement – "For the most part, I believe brands' social causes are genuine," by Conscious Consumers, 2024
- LGBTQ+ and liberal-leaning consumers in particular appreciate the creditability and confidence that third-party certifications can provide
- Graph 35: agreement – "Third-party certifications (eg Certified B Corp, Fairtrade International) make me more confident I'm buying truly ethical brands," by political affiliation and LGBTQ+ identity, 2024
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Competitive Strategies & Market opportunities
- Launch activity and innovation
- Walmart announces new workplace perks to further support employees
- Penguin Random House invests in FSC-certified material to produce more eco-friendly books
- Taco Bell uplifts SoCal's local food cart community
- Marketing and advertising
- Domino's pledges a historic $300 million to St. Jude Hospital with customer round-up program
- Lush spotlights essential human rights with its new UK campaign
- eBay struts in secondhand fashion at London Fashion Week as part of the brand's inaugural Preloved Fashion Week
- Opportunities
- In summary: key implications and recommendations
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Appendix
- Market definitions
- Consumer research questions
- Consumer research methodology
- Consumer qualitative research methodology
- Generations
- Abbreviations and terms
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