October 12th, 2021, Frances Johnson
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Challenge
Understanding what Singaporeans think about bag charges and reusable bags.
Solution
Nationally representative Omnibus survey using YouGov's Serviced Surveys to identify attitudes to single-use bags and associated charges.
Results
Valuable insight into Singaporeans’ perceptions used to publish the Plastic ACTion (PACT) 2021 Impact Report.
Business challenge
WWF-Singapore want to eliminate the excessive usage of single-use plastic, particularly bags. Their PACT initiative seeks to partner with businesses and assist them with their sustainability journey.
WWF-Singapore sought to understand current consumer sentiments on bag charges by conducting a nationally representative survey. The scope of the survey included:
- Sentiments on reducing waste and bag charges
- Suitable price-points that would motivate consumers to bring their own bags and/or carry purchased items without a bag
- Types of retail outlets where consumers would be more motivated to bring their own bags and/or carry purchased items without a bag
- Effective narratives that could be used for point-of-sale messaging to communicate a bag charge
The objective was for WWF to identify opportunities where a bag charge could be implemented and demonstrate to retailers that Singapore consumers are ready for bag charges.
Solution
WWF-Sinagpore conducted a nationally representative Omnibus survey, using YouGov Surveys: Serviced, with a sample of N=1000. The survey provided data on sentiments and perceptions of bag charges across different consumer profiles (e.g. age, gender and race).
YouGov's expert research team tailored the survey questions to fit WWF-Singapore's needs and objectives while ensuring that there were no issues (such as bias) within the questionnaire.
It was crucial that the questions asked would allow WWF-Singapore to further engage relevant stakeholders on the topic, and create a convincing case for retailers to implement a bag charge in their outlets.
Results
The survey results showed a positive outlook and assisted PACT in providing retailers with data-led advice on price points for adding a bag charge. Results showed:
- 70% of respondents felt positive or neutral about retail outlets implementing bag charges
- 71% of respondents were motivated to bring their own bag rather than pay a charge of up to S$0.50
- 43% were motivated by charges as low as S$0.10
The data collected further informed WWF-Singapore's strategy, with evidence to help understand what types of messages would resonate most with Singaporeans to encourage them to bring their own reusable bags. This information was passed to PACT partners who required guidance on point-of-sale messaging.
Lastly, the results from the survey were substantiated by the results gathered from PACT’s retail bag charge signees, whereby more than 60% of consumers brought their own bag due to the charge.
Client testimonial
“YouGov was extremely prompt in delivering the project. They were very receptive to our suggested changes and provided sound advice on how we could reduce bias. The results were compiled and presented in their dataset, which was easy to comprehend, and we could also download the raw results for our own analysis. YouGov also reviewed relevant public materials, such as the mention of the survey results in the PACT 2021 Impact Report.”
- PACT (Plastic ACTion) Initiative