How to connect with a sceptical consumer

Today, consumers are inundated with messaging about sustainability – for many businesses, ‘sustainability’ has become a matter of marketing. Nevertheless, even if it might sound banal, communication on sustainability should itself be sustainable, namely transparent and meaningful for all stakeholders. 

Depending on the audience, authors Françoise Chevalier and Michel Kalika in their work Research in Sustainability (Chevalier & Kalika, 2023) identify two types of communication: the one directed to the trade – that is, corporate messaging within institutions – and a more general one addressed to consumers. The first one is often a matter of compliance: it mainly consists of the sustainability report or other type of reporting and certification, and it might vary according to business or industry. Communication to consumers, on the other hand, is generally made to disclose the engagement of a brand, thus enhancing brand value with the aim of generating new revenues for the organisation. 

If the first one is partly framed by norms and regulations, the second is generally left to the discretion of individual businesses. Institutions are trying to regulate the matter, but to date there’s no shared consensus, and norms might differ according to country or industry. For instance, the EU recently introduced a directive to prevent ’green washing’. Furthermore, the topic being in constant evolution, legislation should evolve accordingly, as it is the case of the above-mentioned directive. 

If sustainable development must take into consideration all stakeholders of an organisation, so should its communication. Nevertheless, not all stakeholders are sensitive to the same message nor use the same channels, meaning that conversations, channels and tone of voice should vary accordingly. Moreover, the message should be pertinent and relevant to the audience, but most of all understandable. 

This is indeed a delicate matter as announcements on sustainability can be rather technical, and require some sort of knowledge level on the part of the audience to be completely appreciated. Often consumers do not have all the necessary competence to fully appreciate statements, nor to verify the veracity of them. This is one of the reasons why credibility is a crucial matter when communicating about sustainability. The fact is consumers are more and more sceptical when it comes to announcements on CSR. In fact, the so-called Communication Paradox (Ihlen, 2014) or Communication Dilemma (Coombs, 2011) explains that too much communication on sustainability risks making the audience dubious. On the other hand, absence of communication might be perceived as no engagement by the organisation on those themes. Finding the right balance can be a challenge. 

When it comes to CSR, we are all, more or less, dependent on communication released by organisations. When buying a garment, for instance, one can mostly know if it is of a good quality or not, but not if it comes from sustainable production or materials. The same can be said for food: even a renowned chef or a wine expert with the competence to value quality would not be able to judge the level of sustainability. When it comes to such a complex asset as a yacht, made of many different technologies and materials, it gets even harder. In this sense, communication gains a new relevance. But once again, does the average consumer have the competence to value the veracity of statements on sustainability? Often no, and that’s when trust takes the field, as it happens in the case of trust in the brand, or in a label or a certification (such as ISO, for example). In this sense, trust is a great tool to reduce uncertainty. If a brand is recognised as carrier of values, it is more likely it will garner trust. For this reason, building solid brand value benefits trust building. 

The cold hard reality is, however, that in most cases, especially when it comes to luxury goods that are rarely a neccessity, the only 100% absolute ‘sustainable’ choice is to walk away and not buy. We must deal in realities, however, rather than absolutes, which is why it is critical to appreciate sustainability as a dynamic process – CSR should be valued from the perspective of the progress a company is making. Reporting the improvements your business is achieving, illustrating the changes being made in tangible ways – according to the same parameters and standards – is vital. 

As far as channels to the consumer are concerned, the internet appears to be the preferred channel to communicate the engagement with CSR. Sustainability needs to be told, but also explained, and the internet is particularly good for longer documents, such as sustainability reports – but it also allows more dynamic conversations with stakeholders, through spaces dedicated to different topics. Most organisations have an area on their website dedicated to CSR, while others open a brand-new channel to do it. 

With sustainability becoming a communication (and marketing) issue, companies need to keep an eye on the changing regulations that are rapidly evolving to protect consumers. Communicating CSR can not be a matter of creativity. CSR and sustainability claims are coming under increasing scrutiny – the amount of information available to consumers, particularly on the internet, means that any false steps, or claims that don’t hold water, risk undermining a brand’s credibility overnight. 

In short, engaging in sustainability is not enough. Organisations need to communicate that engagement in a realistic, progressive, meaningful way, reflecting inherently held values. Grand statements and slogans might have gone unquestioned five years ago, but today’s consumers (and regulators) are wise to me-too marketing hype. Get it wrong and trust, so important in the relationship between buyer and seller, especially in the luxury world, can be lost – winning it back can be nigh on impossible. Get the fundamentals and the messaging around them right, and your brand will reap the rewards.