Tannuka Juneja
Indians are finally ready to pay more for planet-friendly consumer brands. A new survey by Bain & Company said 52 percent of consumers in urban India expect to increase spending on sustainable brands in the next three years.
The consultancy, which surveyed consumer attitudes towards sustainable brands and their buying habits, said more than 60 percent of Indian consumers are willing to pay more for “sustainable products”. However, Bain & Co partner Ravi Swarup said the Indians had so far only shown intent. In the survey, 20 percent of consumers said they were environmentally and socially conscious, while 49 percent said they were health conscious. Sustainability is equally important across all age and income groups, the company said in its APAC Sustainability Report.
Bain & Company surveyed 1,550 consumers in India seeking comments from gen Z, millennials, gen X and boomers. As many as 80 percent of respondents represented the top 60 percentile of income levels, while 46 percent of respondents ranged between 40-80 percentile, while 90 percent were from urban areas. In the APAC region, it surveyed over 16,000 respondents. “While one may have expected that consumers identifying as either environmentally or socially conscious and health conscious would have predominance in certain subsections of the society, the fact is that it is equally prevalent across income, age and gender,” it said in its Indian findings.
At the same time, the report highlights the growing global awareness of various environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) challenges.
Sustainability is also a hot topic for investors, with 78 percent of global investors saying they focus more on ESG now than they did five years ago.
