Like politicians in an election campaign, brands claiming to have a purpose greater than sales fall into the trap of making overly ambitious promises. While voters tend to believe in the same promises made at the beginning of a term and eventually mentioned at the end, consumers approach advertisers’ promises with much more skepticism. Partly, this is due to consumers generally doubting the intentions of companies, but also because the problems they address are too large, leading them to doubt their own ability to solve them. Predictions regarding climate change, social upheaval, inequality, human rights violations… can provoke fear that leads to paralysis, inaction. However, it is time for brands (and consumers) to realize that, no matter how bleak the future may seem, small steps are quite sufficient to trigger an avalanche.
Thus, it is enough for a brand to take the initiative; to make one step and thereby encourage consumers, as well as other brands, to do the same and ultimately participate in achieving the goal, fulfilling their purpose. This butterfly effect was also discussed by consumer trend experts from Trendwatching.com in their May report. They claim that there are three triggers of this trend (which they called norm-nudging), the first being the promotion of lifestyle change.
Paralyzed Generation
According to data from the IPCC, very small changes in consumer lifestyle can lead to significant shifts. More precisely, if consumers turned towards a more sustainable lifestyle, carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by 40 to 70 percent by 2050. In other words, while many things depend on political structures, decisions made at a ‘higher level,’ and companies, citizens can be and are part of the solution. The second trigger is the fact that younger generations feel much greater fear about the future than older generations. In addition to suffering from anxiety regarding climate change and so-called eco-guilt, research has shown that pessimism related to the social and political climate is at an all-time high. Young people, as ‘trendwatchers’ write – are futurophobic and, consequently, completely paralyzed. However, if brands (or organizations) encouraged them to take small steps, their future would look much brighter. Furthermore, ‘trendwatchers’ note that their norm-nudging trend has also been influenced by the social network TikTok. Although social platforms are often a cause of anxiety and depression, they can, to some extent, encourage users to take action.
TikTok has proven to be an excellent medium for this, and hashtags like #ecotok, #antiracism, or #ecohacks have over 1.25 billion views. Activists on this social network share their actions and encourage other users to do the same. It has been shown that more than half (54 percent) of Generation Z members were prompted by TikTok to do the same and share their ideas for solving social problems with family and friends. To make it easier for brands and clarify what exactly are ‘small steps that produce an avalanche,’ the team from Trendwatching provided several examples of norm-nudging in practice. One of them is the Visa brand, which launched FutureCard in November last year in collaboration with the American financial company Future. Consumers who possess this credit card receive five percent cash back on purchases of products or services with zero or minimal carbon footprint. For example, if a customer chooses to use the Citi Bike bike-sharing service or public transportation, they will receive five percent of their spent money back. The same applies to purchasing second-hand clothing or charging electric vehicles. So far, Visa x Future has made deals with over 50,000 companies, and to further encourage customers towards sustainable consumption, they have also eliminated fees for using the card.
