Every business in existence today, especially young businesses are learning as they go and need to have a clear understanding of the business environment, the market and most importantly, the customers.
The most talked about customers in today’s generation are millennials.
Millennials are often criticized for the choices they make, however, the rest of the world is starting to wake up to the perspectives of the environmentally-conscious generation.
Millennials know they have a strong influence in how society is shifting and they are using their power towards a more green and ethical place.
Now, let’s learn more about what ethical consumerism is all about and how it can help you grow your business.
What is ethical consumerism
Ethical consumerism is a state-of-mind that’s aimed towards achieving one main goal; sustainability throughout the world.
This approach is extremely significant in making a difference in the world today.
Investing in products or services that limit harm, in any respect, is at the core of ethical consumerism.
Like all aspects in life, we are given the free will to choose what we wish to do with our disposable income.
This is where the differentiation of the buying power amongst consumers can become quite apparent.
The buying nature of the consumers whom believe in ethical consumerism is one that puts forth a lot of energy and thought towards their spending habits.
There is a strong belief in the collective that when buying a product, it’s not only a transaction to obtain merchandise or experience a service, but that this exchange also has a clear backstory of the goods and services involved.
The idea is that, the marketplace can be moral with little to no harm to those involved.
Everyone can benefit when making purchases that they desire, and nobody has to get hurt in the process; like a win-win situation.
Essentially the intention is to use the power of a person’s ‘vote’ towards goods and services in a more conscious and ethical way.
Everyone establishes a vote when making a purchase considering the principle that without the demands of consumers, corporations wouldn’t know which products to stand by or let go of in the marketplace.
This is a concept that can be identified as dollar voting.
Dollar voting
Dollar voting connects the dots between the buying behaviors of consumers and how this affects company’s operations.
The more money that the public spends on a certain brand, like Evian water for example, the more votes it is essentially receiving.
Therefore, the more it will continue to be on the market. This can also work the other way around, the less people buy from a brand, the less votes it earns and the less it will be produced eventually leading to extinction.
Think of it like this: producers are not the ones voting for what is on the market, buyers are the actual ones making votes, providing businesses the information necessary as to which products should or shouldn’t be produced.
People buy brands, not products and today’s tech savvy consumers do their research very well. This is why it is vital to create a strong brand equity.
How to grow your brand equity
In today’s society, people don’t just merely buy products that are thrown out into the market, instead they buy brands and the experiences that are connected to those brands. In order to build a strong brand equity, it’s crucial to first build a strong brand identity.
The first step for a business to grow its equity is to ask itself why it’s doing what it’s doing. The easiest way to think of what a ‘why’ is within a company is to relate it to the reason for their existence; their purpose or core values.
An organization’s reasoning for why they do what they do is what gives existing or potential customers the reason to choose them over anyone else.
It is important that a business is genuine about its value proposition as it assists in creating trust and adds tremendously to a brand’s equity. When a company is honest it shows integrity and people will reward those brands with loyalty time and time again.
There are a few other questions that a brand should ask itself like:
- Who are you? This refers to how people recognize a brand as well as what they think of that brand.
- What are you? This can be closely related to the brands personality and how a brand communicates what it stands for.
- What about you? This is linked to how people respond to a brand based on their feelings or judgements of the perceived quality and credibility that a brand has to offer.
- What about you and me? This is based on how much of a connection customers have with a brand.
Take this example of a fairly small company which provides renewable energy to its customers known as, Atlantic Energy.
As you can see on their website, they answered all the questions mentioned above and stated that they try to provide clean energy to their customers.
Furthermore, they try to sell their story as well as answer all the questions a business should ask itself.
They also collaborate with their customers and build a relationship with them by giving them free LED lightbulbs as well as installing them for free.
Making a commitment to conducting your business ethically and proving it with facts helps in creating confidence and trust in the mind of your clients while adding a considerable amount of value to your brand at the same time.
Transparency is very important in building brand equity; it is even shown that more than half of the consumers say they’re willing to pay more for a product that guarantees absolute transparency.
This evidence has become consistent and can be very useful in understanding the values of your customer base.
Winning over today’s ethically conscious consumer can be done with building trust by practicing business sustainably and ethically. Collaborative marketing and word-of-mouth helps a business market itself better as well as adds to its brand equity.
