May 30th, 2022, Hoang Nguyen
Consumers' interest in and expectations for sustainability in the products they buy tends to be high in the US and Great Britain, especially when it comes to food, drink and grocery packaging, a YouGov survey reveals. Large shares of Americans (53%) and Britons (82%) think that grocery businesses and food manufacturers should be required to use sustainable packaging.
A new report from YouGov, “The rise of snackers”, shows that eco-conscious consumption is top of mind among consumers who like to snack in between meals (i.e., snackers) as well.
Let’s dig into a few key takeaways from YouGov’s snacking report.
The intersection of snacking and sustainability
To help snack brands better understand environmental consciousness and how issues of sustainability and climate change factor into snackers’ perceptions of brands, YouGov developed a method of segmenting audiences based on their views of sustainability.
We identified five clear segments:
- Planet protectors — This is a group of engaged environmentalists who are happy to pay more for products that are good for the environment and interested in issues related to sustainability.
- Price point green — This segment cares about the environment and tries to protect it, but the key factor that affects their purchase decisions is price.
- Green when keen — This group recognizes that climate change is a problem, agrees we should do more to protect the environment, but sustainability is not entrenched in their lifestyle.
- On the green fence — This audience is unconcerned and disengaged about climate change and uninterested in sustainability issues.
- Green rejectors — This segment holds negative views on environmental sustainability, tend to be skeptical about climate change, and prioritizes economic and political issues over the environment.
Data from YouGov's snacking report reveals that snacking tends to be popular among of a majority of consumers in the US and Great Britain. Two-thirds of people in the US (65%; estimated market sizing of more than 166 million US adults) and more than half of those in Great Britain (58%; 30.3 million British adults) say they often snack between meals.
A closer look at the snacking market shows that 61% of American snackers and 64% of British snackers are either engaged on the issue of sustainability or say they care about the environment.
This represents a potential market size of 101 million US adults and 20 million British adults who snack in between meals and are environmentally conscious to some degree. This audience is comprised of snackers who fit the description of ‘Planet protectors’, ‘Price point green,’ and ‘Green when keen’ in our sustainability segmentation.
Popular snack brands among sustainable-minded snackers
Using data from YouGov BrandIndex—which tracks consumer perceptions toward brands on a daily basis—we examined Consideration for snack brands among snackers who care about the environment. Consideration is a measure of whether consumers would consider purchasing from a brand the next time they are in the market for a product or service.
In the US, sustainable-minded snackers are most likely to consider buying M&M’s, Doritos, Lay’s, Oreo and Cheetos.
We also looked at the top confectionary brands in Great Britain and KitKat, Maltesers, Galaxy, Wispa and Twix rank among the top five brands in terms of Consideration among sustainable-minded snackers.
Get the summary report here to learn more about snacking consumption, including:
- The market for snackers in the US, Great Britain, Germany and France
- Snack preferences in each region
- Why people say they snack
- Which Mondelez snack brands resonate most with consumers in each market
- The rise of healthy snacking and what people are looking for in healthy snacks
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