How Alpro captures value through sustainability claims

Today’s CPG/FMCG companies are investing a great deal in sustainability to protect the planet. But while consumers claim to value sustainability, they often prioritize other drivers (like taste or health) at the shelf. Overcoming this “say-do” gap can be tricky. How do you encourage buyers to value your sustainability efforts and choose your products?

Danone’s Alpro brand has partnered with SKIM on a strategic insights project to answer this question and to help the company connect the dots between their sustainability efforts and winning at shelf.

How could Alpro create sustainability claims that motivate consumers to purchase?

Sukanya Acharya, Danone’s Head of S&I – Global Plant-Based, and Rémy Bouret, SKIM Senior Manager, explored the factors that drive purchase decisions in their category and how they connected these to sustainability claims to drive consumer choice.

If you’re looking to boost consumer engagement with your sustainable products, keep reading to learn about the research findings and Alpro’s formula for impactful sustainability claims.

Alpro’s challenge: Create sustainability claims that drive choice

Alpro’s sustainability journey focuses on creating business practices that help to reduce impacts on climate, water, land, and biodiversity.

At the same time, the company needs people to choose their plant-based products on the shelf. And for food products, sustainability is often not the primary driver. Consumer choice is typically more motivated by taste and health claims.

“We realized that we cannot replace primary drivers (taste and health) with sustainability drivers, but if we find a way to combine them, we can create stronger propositions that will drive choice. This is the journey we went through with SKIM.”

– Sukanya Acharya | Danone’s Head of S&I Global Plant-Based

The process: Develop winning claims

Alpro turned to SKIM to help them develop and validate the most impactful product claims to drive adoption. The three-step process included:

1. Exploration: To uncover the link between the primary choice drivers (taste & health) and sustainability, SKIM used a qual-inspired methodology that works at quantitative pace and scale, gathering hundreds of verbatims around why sustainable foods could be perceived as tastier and healthier.

2. Ideation: To develop a set of claims that demonstrate the links among sustainability, health and taste as consumer benefits, Alpro stakeholders gathered for an ideation workshop, where they leveraged the research insights along with psychology frameworks to create the strongest possible claims.

3. Validation: To measure consumer reactions and identify the most impactful claims, SKIM used an innovative testing technology that captures the rational and emotional drivers behind consumer choices.

The findings: A recipe for success

This insights project helped Alpro create a proven framework for creating claims and messaging for sustainability products. Here’s what we learned:

• The link between primary drivers and sustainability: Consumers connect food that is natural and free from chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers etc) to great taste, health and sustainability.

• A formula for impactful claims and messaging: Applying psychological distance principles to the messaging enhanced consumer responses and resulting actions.

Through extensive testing, SKIM has found patterns in the most successful claims, this enabled us to create proven guidelines for writing winning claims and messages.

– Rémy Bouret | SKIM | Senior Manager

What did they learn about winning claims? See our top 4 guidelines below:

1. Be specific: Highlight particular sustainability-related benefits for consumers.
   
   
2. Use simple language: Use sustainability terms that are easy to understand and convey value to consumers.
   
   
3. Be positive: Emphasize the favorable benefits of sustainability rather than potential losses.
   
   
4. Cue the senses: Be sure to pair sustainability with related words and visuals that evoke a taste, scent, sound, or feeling.

Mapping claims’ potential for market success: Four message categories were identified together with the impact they have on consumer choice:

1. Indifferent: Claims that are more complex and less tangible to the consumer. These are least likely to reassure existing buyers or drive choice.
   
   
2. Safeguards: Typically, technical claims related to promises or certifications. While their absence will negatively impact existing volume, they won’t drive new volume.
   
   
3. Performers: Claims that successfully integrate sustainability with taste and health and motivate new buyers. They will positively impact choice if present, yet their absence doesn’t threaten volumes.
   
   
4. Spotlights: Claims that tick all the boxes: relevant to consumers, successfully linking the choice drivers, essential for maintaining current volume and capable of driving new volume.

“Through our successful partnership with SKIM, we discovered the ideal recipe for success that connects sustainability with the primary choice drivers of taste and health. We can do so by combining the choice drivers (performers and spotlights) with safeguards that provide the RTBs and evidence consumers want.”

– Sukanya Acharya |Danone’s Head of S&I Global Plant-Based

3 takeaways: Build the value of sustainability

When it comes to sustainability, claims and messaging are crucial to influence consumers to value your contribution and choose your products at the shelf.

Here are 3 takeaways to help you succeed:

1. Connect to primary drivers: To support sales, connect sustainability messages to the primary drivers for consumer choice in your category.
   
   
2. Show the evidence: Sustainability initiatives and certifications provide crucial proof of credibility to protect current volumes.
   
   
3. Look to the future: Consumers’ opinions and priorities are constantly evolving, so be sure to refresh your research and combine foresight and expertise to stay current. What’s indifferent today could be a safeguard tomorrow.

To discuss how to optimize your sustainability claims and influence consumer choice,