(This is the second of three posts dealing with the use of environmental claims in marketing communications. In my first post, I described the current political backlash against some ESG-related policies, but I also noted that public support for protecting the environment remains widespread, according to recent research. This post discusses why environmental claims in marketing haven't worked as well as some research findings suggest they should.)
The current political backlash against ESG-inspired policies and programs is prompting many marketing leaders to question the wisdom of including environmental claims in their marketing campaigns.
Beyond the political risk, marketers must also determine whether the use of environmental messaging will improve marketing performance and drive revenue growth. On this issue, the available evidence paints a mixed picture.
Sustainability Marketing Is Working . . .
The Sustainable Market Share Index(TM)[1] (the "CSB Index") produced by the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business provides compelling evidence that marketing products as sustainable results in substantial market share growth.
The CSB Index is based on sales data from Circana for 36 categories of consumer packaged goods (CPG) products (excluding alcohol and tobacco). Collectively, these 36 product categories accounted for approximately 40% of the total US CPG market in sales from 2013 - 2024.
The 2024 edition of the CSB Index found that:
- Products marketed as sustainable held a 23.8% market share of the total US CPG market, up 2.6 percentage points from 2023, and the market share of sustainable products has increased 9.2 percentage points since 2013.
- Products marketed as sustainable achieved a 5-year compound annual growth rate of 12.4% vs. a CAGR of 6.8% for the overall US CPG market.
- Products marketed as sustainable were responsible for 41% of the growth of the total US CPG market for the period of 2013 - 2024.
While the CSB Index only tracks data for selected CPG categories, it nevertheless suggests that using environmental/sustainability claims in marketing can drive significant market share growth.
But a Substantial "Say-Do" Gap Exists
David Ogilvy, the legendary advertising executive and founder of Ogilvy & Mather, once said: "The trouble with market research is that people don't think how they feel, they don't say what they think, and they don't do what they say."
Many of the surveys addressing public support for environmental sustainability demonstrate that Ogilvy's famous quip is at least partly true because they reveal a substantial
say-do gap. A say-do gap refers to the disconnect that often exists between the views and intentions that people express in surveys and polls and their actual behaviors.
As I noted earlier, recent surveys have consistently shown that public support for actions aimed at protecting the environment and improving sustainability is widespread, and similar findings have been appearing in surveys for most of the past two decades.
However, numerous surveys have also revealed a substantial say-do gap between people's stated views and attitudes about sustainability and their actual buying behaviors. For example:
- In a 2024 survey of more than 3,000 US and Canadian adults conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Public Inc., 76% of the respondents described themselves as "conscious consumers," but only 38% of the respondents' actual purchases were made with consideration for social, ethical, or environmental factors.
- In a 2025 survey of more than 5,000 consumers in Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, the UK, and the US by Blue Yonder, 78% of the respondents said sustainability considerations are somewhat or very important when shopping, but only 29% had switched their brand loyalty to companies they perceived as exhibiting more sustainable practices.
The say-do gap is not a recent development. It's been appearing in survey findings for at least the past 15 years. For example, in a 2010 survey by Cone Communications (described in this
Forbes article), 80% of the respondents said they were likely to switch brands to one that supports a cause, although only 41% said they and purchased a product in the previous year because it was associated with a social or environmental cause.
Causes of the Say-Do Gap
The sustainability say-do gap can be attributed to several factors.
Social Desirability Bias
First, some surveys may have overstated public support for sustainability, at least to some extent, because of the
social desirability bias.
This bias refers to the tendency of survey respondents to answer survey questions in the manner they believe will be viewed favorably by others rather than the way they actually think or feel.
So, when a survey asks participants whether sustainability is important to them when making purchase decisions, some respondents are likely to perceive that "yes" is the "right" answer.
Failing to Capture Relative Importance
Many surveys also fail to capture the importance of sustainability in relation to other factors that influence purchase decisions. For example, a survey respondent may truthfully say sustainability considerations are important when making a purchase decision, when the reality is that sustainability is less important to the respondent than factors such as product quality, cost, and convenience.
This phenomenon is evident in the findings of a
survey of 1,000 US consumers conducted by McKinsey & Company in March of this year.
The McKinsey survey asked participants to rate the importance they ascribe to seven factors when making purchase decisions. As the following table shows, 72% of the respondents said perception of quality is extremely or very important, and 70% said the same for price. However, only 33% of the respondents rated environmental impact as extremely or very important.
Effectiveness of Environmental Messaging
The size of the sustainability say-do gap is also affected by how effectively marketers communicate the environmental benefits of their product or service. The persistence of a large sustainability say-do gap indicates that marketers need to make their environmental claims and messaging more persuasive.
In my next post, I'll describe the four attributes that make sustainability claims more compelling for potential buyers.
[1] - Sustainable Market Share Index is a trademark of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business
Top image courtesy of Sheri via Flickr (CC).
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