81% APAC consumers feel it is possible for a brand to support good causes and make money at the same time
Corporations are responding to calls for fairness and support for key issues by making an effort to demonstrate their empathy.
The days when corporations could focus on providing good products at good prices and expect the marketplace to respond favourably are fast fading. Increasingly, these aspects are taken for granted and consumers are asking hard questions, such as: 'What issues do you care about? More than caring, what do you actually do about these issues? How do you treat your workforce? What is your ESG (environmental, social and governance) policy? How diverse is your workforce and how inclusive are your practices?' and expecting robust answers. Increasingly, the answers to these questions will drive marketplace success.
Authenticity is an important, but increasingly complex, concept in the competitive, fast-changing global marketplace today. It is also one that interacts with many of the other trends on our list. Successful brands need to blend elements of localness, naturalness, heritage, trust, empathy, consistency and purpose at the same time as offering good products at the right prices.