A Better Way to Market Sustainable Products: Insights from NYU Stern and PwC Research

Sustainable products are increasingly preferred by consumers, yet effectively marketing these products remains a challenge for companies. Recent research by NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business (CSB) in collaboration with PwC offers actionable strategies to help businesses unlock the growth potential of sustainable goods through clarified messaging and credible claims.

The Business Case for Sustainability in Consumer Goods

• Strong Market Growth: Analysis of 12 years of U.S. point-of-sale data by CSB reveals sustainability-marketed products grew at an annual rate of 12.3% from 2019 to 2024—more than double the growth rate of conventional goods.
• Increasing Market Share: By 2024, these products accounted for nearly 24% of sales in 36 consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories, representing a significant portion of the market.
• Price Premiums: Consumers surveyed by PwC expressed a willingness to pay an average of 9.7% more for sustainable products. Actual premiums observed averaged 26.6%, ranging from 50% in categories like coffee and chocolate to over 100% for some paper products.

Key Strategies to Maximize Value from Sustainable Products

1. Understand Your Customer Base

• Target Demographics: Millennials, college-educated shoppers, urban residents, and high-income earners are most likely to buy sustainability-marketed items.
• Category Relevance: Some categories, like dairy, show broad appeal for sustainable products across all age groups.

Action Tip: Identify and prioritize marketing efforts toward groups and categories with the highest propensity for sustainable product purchases.

2. Amplify Product Appeal with Focused Messaging

• Core Attributes First: Successful marketing centers on a product’s primary benefits (e.g., taste, effectiveness).
• Layer Sustainability Messaging: Adding one or two sustainability claims linked to core attributes boosts product appeal by an average of 30 percentage points.
• Category-Specific Messages: Tailor sustainability claims to product characteristics important to consumers, such as “formulated with sustainable ingredients that are good for your skin” in skincare.

Action Tip: Craft a balanced message that integrates the product’s essential qualities with relevant sustainability benefits.

3. Elevate Credible and Consumer-Trusted Claims

• Most Appealing Claims: Messages emphasizing benefits to human health, cost savings, support for local farms, future generations, animal health, and sourcing from sustainable or local origins resonate strongest.
• Less Impactful Claims: Scientific properties like biodegradability, traceability, or generic certification seals tend to have lower consumer appeal.
• Credibility Matters: Certifications validate claims for regulators and some consumers but must be supplemented by compelling messaging.

Action Tip: Build sustainability claims around precise, tangible consumer benefits and back them with evidence.

Navigating Regulatory and Legal Landscape

• Watch for Ambiguity: Generic terms such as “clean” or “natural” risk legal challenges, especially for products used by children or applied to skin.
• Regulatory Monitoring: Companies must track evolving regulations like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the proposed Green Claims Directive that will require scientific substantiation of environmental claims.
• Value Chain Transparency: Developing robust capabilities for analyzing and tracing value chains enhances compliance and claim credibility.

Conclusion

Marketing sustainable products successfully requires a clear business rationale, targeted customer insights, harmonious messaging that blends core product benefits with sustainability, and credible claims substantiated by evidence. By following these principles, companies can harness the growing consumer demand for sustainability, achieve price premiums, and foster long-term brand trust.

Authors: Tensie Whelan, Distinguished Professor and Founding Director of NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, and David Linich, Principal at PwC US specializing in decarbonization and sustainable operations.

Related Research and Resources

• How the EU’s Green Deal Influences Business Reinvention
• CEOs’ Top Questions for Crafting Climate-Transition Strategies
• PwC’s 2024 Global Consumer Survey on Sustainability Preferences

For marketers and business leaders in sustainable consumer goods, this research provides a roadmap to capitalize on shifting consumer values with integrity and impact.

Design Delight Studio curates high-impact, authoritative insights into sustainable and organic product trends, helping conscious consumers and innovative brands stay ahead in a fast-evolving green economy.