Consumers Weigh Causes and Prices Before Buying

Food retailers and CPG manufacturers that align with charitable causes largely move consumers -– but not completely.

One-third of consumers (33.1%) say the strategy doesn't make them likelier to shop in a particular supermarket; just 13.3% say it does, according to findings of the 2012 National Grocers Association-SupermarketGuru Consumer Panel Survey Report. Notably, consumers who say "no" the most are the nation's heaviest grocery spenders (36.8% of this group that spends $101 and more per week).

For the majority of consumers overall (53.6%), it depends -– on the store's prices, or on the causes it supports, or on a combination of both. People understand that charitable causes help others in need, but tough times are pretty much everywhere these days, and many already give in other ways beyond what a food store or food brand might do. So there's a limit to the charity they'll connect to their food shopping.

This resistance emerges if people don't feel as strongly about a particular cause, or if they think a store or brand inflates prices in order to deliver the support it messages about. For example, 10.9% say it depends on the causes. Another 15.8% say it depends on the prices. And 26.9% say it depends on both causes and prices.

What if prices rose to allow for donations? That would be fine for 56.7% of U.S. adults surveyed, as long as the price difference was no more than 2%. However, it would be OK with only 10.1% of consumers if the price difference swelled to as much as 5%. For a full one-third of respondents (33.2%), the amount of price difference wouldn't matter.

Related, if charitable support was keyed to a retailer's private label sales, and those prices rose, 62.3% of consumers say they'd still buy their usual amount of store brand items. About one-quarter of consumers (25.3%) say they would buy less, and 12.4% say they would actually buy more.

Will a "causes" strategy help a supermarket pull consumers from wider geographic areas? Not for most consumers, the survey findings show. A majority (53.9%) says it won't travel any farther to shop in a food store that supports causes. However, 24.2% say they would travel up to a mile or two longer, 16.1% say they would travel up to five miles more, and 5.7% say they would travel up to 10 miles farther to support a supermarket that supports causes.

Which causes are uppermost in consumers' minds today? Their Top Five (respondents could name multiple responses) are: relieving hunger (54.8%), relieving child hunger (39.9%), education (30.8%), supporting people in disaster-stricken areas (28.5%), and the environment (23.2%).

(Source: The Lempert Report, 02/14/12)