Corporate Social Responsibility Matters: Ignore Millennials at Your Peril
It is no secret that companies must be responsive to customer demands and expectations if they want to survive.
Consumers are demanding more from the brands they buy –and increasingly are rewarding companies whose services and products are both good for them and good for society.
In its 2015 Nielsen Global Corporate Sustainability Report, Nielson found that “66% of global consumers say they’re willing to pay more for sustainable brands–up 55% from 2014.” It also found that 73% of global Millennials are willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings–up from 50% in 2014.
Businesses must adapt to the times as consumers are voting with their wallets and Millennials, in particular, are demanding that companies put their money where their mouth is.
Millennials make up the fastest growing force in the marketplace. Numbering more than 80 million strong, Millennials already account for an estimated $1 trillion of U.S. current consumer spending. This sum will continue to grow exponentially as more Millennials reach peak buying power.
Millennials represent the consumer market of the future, and it behooves corporations to read the tea leaves.
In a study by Horizon Media’s Finger on the Pulse, “81 percent of Millennials expect companies to make a public commitment to good corporate citizenship.”
By almost any measure, Millennials place a premium on corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts.
