Nielsen, striving to share its expertise in data collection and analysis with governments, nonprofit organizations and other stakeholders to create value for society as a whole, entered into a strategic alliance with Special Olympics Inc. (SOI).

SOI is, currently, the world’s largest sports organization supporting people with intellectual disabilities. Nielsen aims to help the organization, by providing valuable data, research and insights, achieve a deeper understanding of people with disabilities, of their community impact and, also, of the impact of SOI’s own programs.

Providing SOI with insights regarding the consumer behaviour and power of U.S. households with intellectual disabilities, the Nielsen Consumer and Shopper Analytics team found that:

• 5.5 percent of U.S. households have one or more members with intellectual disabilities, corresponding to $31 billion in buying power annually
• 7.1 percent of additional households have an immediate family member – i.e. a parent or child – with intellectual disabilities living outside the household, corresponding to $35 billion in buying power annually

Using this data, and insights provided by Nielsen, SOI will be better able to achieve its global mission of helping its athletes, reduce stigmas, promote positive attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities and, also, create and implement more successful programs.

“Access to Nielsen’s expertise, data and insights will allow us to understand the impact Special Olympics has on society and how to grow that impact. It will allow us to better understand the needs of our athletes, how we can better serve them and how we can continue to bring more athletes into our movement,” said Special Olympics CEO, Janet Froetscher.

References:

This article was compiled using Nielsen’s 2015 Global Responsibility Report. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses but made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the links below:

http://www.specialolympics.org/Press/2014/Special_Olympics_and_Nielsen_Announce_Strategic_Alliance.aspx

https://www.jenreviews.com/olympic-athlete/

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This case study is based on the 2015 Global Responsibility Report by Nielsen published on the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Disclosure Database that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate that CSR/ sustainability reporting done responsibly is achieved by identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment and stakeholders and by measuring, managing and changing.

Sharing its expertise in data collection and analysis with governments, nonprofit organizations and other stakeholders, to create value for society as a whole, is a top priority for Nielsen. In order to achieve this challenging goal Nielsen took action to:

• collaborate, in a number of ways, with universities
• advance UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through Project 8 (an online data collaboration platform)
• help Good World Solutions (a nonprofit social enterprise aimed at improving factory workers’ lives worldwide) with survey design
• enter into a strategic alliance with Special Olympics

The post Case study: Nielsen data for good – measuring to provide value to society as a whole appeared first on SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine.

Over 30,000 consumers in 60 countries were polled about their purchasing behaviour with 66 per cent of them prepared to pay more for sustainable brands—an 11% increase from the previous year.

This upward trend is expected to continue as Millennials, one of the largest generations in history, are about to move into their prime spending years. 73 per cent of them are willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings—up from 50 per cent in 2014.

“Sustainability is a worldwide concern that continues to gain momentum—especially in countries where growing populations are putting additional stress on the environment,” says Grace Farraj, senior vice president, Public Development & Sustainability, Nielsen. “An increasing number of consumers in developed regions consider sustainability actions more of an imperative than a value-add.”

Brand trust is a key sustainability factor that will influence almost two-thirds of global consumers.

“This indicates an opportunity for consumer-goods’ brands that have already built a high level of trust with consumers to evaluate where best to introduce sustainable products into the market to drive growth,” says Carol Gstalder, senior vice president, Reputation & Public Relations Solutions, Nielsen. “On the flip side, large global consumer-goods’ brands that ignore sustainability increase reputational and business risk. This may give competitors of all sizes, the opportunity to build trust with the predominantly young, socially- conscious consumer looking for products that align with their values.”

Nielsen’s research also found that 66 percent of consumers were willing to pay more for sustainable goods in comparison to 50 percent in 2013.

This behaviour isn’t just limited to the wealthy in big economies. In fact, consumers earning $20,000 per annum or less are actually 5 per cent more willing than those with incomes greater than $50,000 p.a. to pay more for products and services from companies with a commitment to sustainability.

A testing economic climate has left the Millennials (born between 1980-2000) undeterred about the cost of paying extra for sustainable offerings, rising to 73 per cent from 50 per cent in 2014.

Under 20s, or Generation Z as they are also known, are demonstrating equal determination to align their pennies with their values. 72 per cent would spend their income with companies who were committed to sustainability, and increase from the 55 percent polled in 2014.

The Millennials and Generation Z are set to dominate spending in the years to come making an alignment with their values at the earliest opportunity a sound investment for the future.

References:

1) This article was compiled using Nielsen’s 2015 Global Corporate Sustainability Report. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses but made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the Report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the link below:

http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/dk/docs/global-sustainability-report-oct-2015.pdf

2) http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/pages/millennials/

3) http://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2014/12/29/5-traits-that-define-the-80-million-millennial-customers-coming-your-way/#434fd3992a81

4) http://www.psfk.com/2016/08/what_sustainability_means_to_millennial_generation.html

5) https://www.fbrh.co.uk/en/csr-sustainability-facts-and-research

The post Consumers prepared to pay more for sustainable brands – significant year-on-year increase – major Nielsen study (30,000 consumers in 60 countries) appeared first on SustainCase - Sustainability Magazine.