What's an example of a company with a mission to do good, and how much more are consumers willing to spend to buy from them?
Being a business that wants to do good in the world is a company that goes about its activities whilst thinking about how they treat people and the planet.
Companies that want to do good in the world are also looking at things like ethical supply chains, reducing the impact their product or service has on the environment and producing a healthier version of incumbants.
Mission Good is an example of a business that does good for the world. We work with products and services that are prioritising people and planet as well as profit and we help them grow, scale and raise capital. We try to get the consumer to pick the product or service that does good over one that well, doesn’t.
I’m pleased to report that there are so many examples of companies that do good.
Here are just a few…
Renewable energy companies: Octopus Energy, Ripple Energy, Good Energy, Ecotricity, Float Energy
Food companies: Deliciously Ella, Plants, Odd Box, Abel and Cole, Innocent Drinks, Biona, Alara Wholefoods, Pip Organic, Proper Snacks, Rebel Kitchen, Pollen + Grace, Riverford Organic, Traidcraft, Surreal, Bold Bean Company, Waste Knot, Pip and Nut
Drink companies: Trip, London Nootropics, Chi Coconut Water, Feel Good Drinks, Flawsome!, DASH water, Love Cocoa, Montezuma's, Seed & Bean, Tony's Chocolonely, Yogi Tea, Dragon Fly Tea, Pukka Herbs, Clipper Teas, Haven Coffee, Source Climate Change Coffee, Grumpy Mule, Rebel Kitchen, Minor Figures, Plenish, XOXO Soda
Transport: Gridserve, Octopus Electric Vehicles, Connected Kerb, Arrival, Via, Trek Bicycles, Rivian
Household goods: Naked Paper, Who Gives a Crap, Cheeky Panda, The Honest Company, Leesa, Seventh Generation, Parachute Home, Seventh Generation, Bathing Culture, Mable
Fashion and materials: Modern Synthesis, Nike Forward, Stella McCartney, Omnes, Patagonia, Organic Basics, Reformation, Chloé, Tentree, Elvis & Kresse, Cotopaxi, Ecoalf, MUD Jeans, Freitag
Waste/circular economy companies: Olio, TooGoodToGo, Recirculate Systems Ltd, Moree
How much do consumers care?
A recent PWC study with 20,000 participants found that more than four-fifths (80%) of consumers say they are willing to pay more for sustainable produced or sourced goods. In terms of a price premium, some consumers are willing to pay on average 9.7% more.
While consumers are focused on sustainability, they are also weighed by cost-of-living pressures. The same study found that one-third (31%) of consumers cite inflation as the biggest risk to their consumption habits over the next year, while 62% cite the most significant increase in spending to be on groceries over the next six months as inflation drives the price of essential goods higher.
Further to this, a Stanford Report looked at US data to analyse consumer habits. In fact, this study analysed six terabytes of sales data for 30,000 products - from cosmetics and deodorants to shampoo and toothpaste – sold at U.S. retailers between 2012 and 2019. It found that package size, ingredients and brand name are much bigger drivers of purchases than sustainability.
Therefore, although consumers want to be making ethical purchasing decisions, they are battling between this and price. What this means is that mission and purpose-led brands should factor these elements in when producing their products.