Study: Consumers Seek Brands That Reflect Their Values

• by Ray Schultz , March 15, 2021

Here’s a challenge for email copywriters: How do you weave in claims that your brand is socially conscious?

That task is critical, given that 69% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that support socially conscious causes, according to a new study by Channel Factory, an ad0performance platform for YouTube. 

Of the consumers polled, 53% of whom are women, 68% prefer to buy from brands that are committed to making online environments positive. And 60% prefer firms want to see diversity and inclusion.  

But here’s the task for content creators working in email or any other channel: 54% of consumers would react negatively to ads or content expressing social values with which they disagree.

Meanwhile, 73% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from brands whose ads are relevant to the content they are viewing on YouTube. 

That raises another question: how brands would know a person’s YouTube habits and potentially use that information in other channels — like email. Would Google migrate that data into Gmail?

Even if confined to YouTube and based on anonymized data, which is likely, this could raise an issue concerning a key consumer value: privacy. 

That said, marketing and consumer expectations have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“For years, we have tiptoed around the need for advertising to be held more accountable -- to be ethical, conscious, and conscientious,” says Tony Chen, founder and CEO of Channel Factory. 

Chen adds: “Undoubtedly, 2020 has accelerated this and consumers have made it clear that they want to be surrounded by content that speaks to them, is relevant and engaging. 

Channel Factory surveyed U.S. 1,000 consumers.