Consumers and businesses often have different ideas of what it means to be sustainable. Understanding what consumers want and how they feel about sustainability in the dairy industry can help people who make dairy products market them well.
In an article published by Elsevier and printed in the Journal of Dairy Science®, researchers from North Carolina State University looked at how consumer perceptions of sustainability are affected by trends and consumer desires for sustainability. They also looked at how consumer perceptions of sustainability compare to popular plant-based alternatives.
Consumers’ views on sustainability are affected by many things, such as packaging, labelling, animal welfare, organic status, grass-fed or pasture-raised feeding systems, and perceptions of local and clean labels. When consumers and businesses don’t agree on what sustainability means, it can lead to confusion and frustration. In addition to demographics and psychographics, products within the same category can have different effects on how people feel about sustainability.
The authors of this study looked at where there are differences between how sustainability is currently defined and how consumers see it, as well as how to use strategic marketing to teach consumers.
Angelina Schiano, PhD, Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center, North Carolina University, Raleigh, NC, USA, was the first author of the study. She said, “Consumers themselves have different perceptions, definitions, and options of sustainability that vary between categories and products in the dairy industry.” “Understanding where sustainability definitions overlap and where they differ is more than just a technical exercise. These definitions shape public opinion and policy, and not thinking about the full effects of a chosen definition can have wide-ranging effects on the industry, the environment, and people’s quality of life.”
Consumers’ views on sustainability are affected by many things, such as packaging, labelling, animal welfare, organic status, grass-fed or pasture-raised feeding systems, and perceptions of local and clean labels. When consumers and businesses have different ideas about what sustainability means, it can lead to confusion and frustration. (Photo: iStock/sergeyryzhov)
Environmental, economic, and social sustainability are often used as a framework for thinking about sustainability. The use of water and land, greenhouse gas emissions, and reliance on nonrenewable energy sources are environmental factors. The price of products and the ability of producers to make money are economic factors. Social factors include the number of jobs held by undocumented workers and the care of animals. The authors found that people’s definitions of sustainability include all three of these parts, often in different ways.
“Cognitive overlap can lead to halo effects that have a big impact on how people see things and what they want to buy. “For example, a product that is marketed as healthy may be seen by consumers as more sustainable, and a product that is marketed as natural may be seen as more healthy,” said Dr. Schiano.
People were more likely to think of healthier and more environmentally friendly practises when they heard the word “organic.” “This shows that the best label claims to make people think that organic milk is more sustainable are those that include other aspects of sustainability in addition to the organic status.”
But the study suggests that promoting nonconventional dairy as a sustainable alternative may hurt the dairy industry in the long run by making consumers less interested in conventional dairy and less willing to pay for it. Instead, the authors suggest using strategic marketing and a consumer-centered approach to teach people about the dairy industry in a way that makes people feel better about dairy and dairy products in general, especially when compared to how plant-based alternatives are marketed.
