It’s widely understood consumers are increasingly motivated by environmental and climate considerations, and marketers are scrambling to understand what this means for brand positioning and consumer behavior. Per Nielsen:
… consumers around the world are making adjustments in their shopping habits. While still juggling convenience, price and awareness along with their need to better the world, they’re looking for companies to step up as partners in their quest to do good. In fact, a whopping 81% of global respondents feel strongly that companies should help improve the environment. This passion for corporate social responsibility is shared across gender lines and generations. Millennials, Gen Z and Gen X are the most supportive, but their older counterparts aren’t far behind. [1]
In short, it’s no longer optional for consumer-facing businesses to ignore the environmental concerns of their customers and society at large. And the most pressing concern, because of its existential nature and global impact, is climate change.
What is Carbon Neutral
“Carbon Neutral – or Net Zero Carbon – is a term used to describe the state of an entity (such as a company, service, product or event), where the carbon emissions caused by them have been balanced out by funding an equivalent amount of carbon savings elsewhere in the world.” [2]
And why is Net Zero Carbon important?
“Net zero is important as it’s the best way we can tackle climate change by reducing global warming. What we do in the next decade to limit emissions will be critical to the future, which is why every country, sector, industry and each one of us must work together to find ways to cut the carbon we produce.” [3]
As human activity and a growing population releases more and more greenhouse gases, so it becomes increasingly pressing that we take action to curb emissions and/or remove these from the atmosphere.
The hinge, of course, is around our collective political and social will to do so. This is where the power of the individual consumer can be leveraged to create incredible impacts with very little disruption to current purchasing behaviors, broadly speaking.
Consumers as Driver Toward Net Zero
“We cannot reach net zero without engaging the consumer,” says Robert MacArthur, the founder of Soli.
Soli exists to harness the power of consumer loyalty to achieve the goal of Net Zero, in a virtuous feedback loop that serves the consumer, businesses, and the environment itself.
Soli transforms corporate sustainability into customer loyalty incentives, allowing consumers to be a direct participant in sustainability initiatives. Our patented technology breaks up bulk carbon offsets into small pieces called SoliPoints, a “Sustainability Currency” that can be used as marketing incentives or as mechanisms to make individual products or services green. [4]
This marriage of corporate sustainability with marketing through customer loyalty incentives unlocks a tremendous force: the power of consumer loyalty.
Consumers Want a Reason to Be Loyal
Marketers understand the importance of capturing customer loyalty, not least because of its raw power. Loyal customers will carry businesses through downturns and send them to new heights during boom times.
- The average repeat customer spends 67% more in month 31-36 than they spend in month 0-6.
- 95% of companies report that their loyalty members spend more annually than non-members, and almost 50% of consumers actively admit that this is true about themselves.
- Yet, only 18% of businesses focus their efforts on customer retention.
- 95% of consumers want companies to find new ways to reward them for their loyalty. [5]
Conclusion
It’s clear sustainability and loyalty rewards have become increasingly important to consumer marketers. By tapping into both these desires, a virtuous circle can be generated that helps empower individual consumers to participate in one of the most daunting challenges of our time: climate change and the drive toward Net Zero emissions. Soli speaks to both these consumer desires: sustainability and loyalty rewards.
