The NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business (CSB), released new research, Social Sustainability Messages that Resonate, exploring which social sustainability claims best resonate with consumers. The study was completed in partnership with seven global brands spanning food & beverage, technology, financial services, personal care, over-the-counter medicine, and nutrition and tested claims that describe ethical business practices, inclusivity and social wellbeing.

The results demonstrate that select social sustainability messages, when substantiated, can amplify brand appeal by an average of 23 percentage points compared to high performing category claims alone.

“This new research complements CSB's Sustainable Market Share Index and expands our findings on environmental messaging to social sustainability messages as a driver of brand appeal,” said Randi Kronthal-Sacco, senior research scholar at CSB. “The research shows that consumers across demographics respond positively to select social messaging, and sheds light on opportunities for brand managers to understand and deepen connections with their consumers.”

In summary, the research showed the inclusion of select social sustainability claims outperformed the average marketing message.

Social sustainability messages were among the top performing claims overall. For three out of seven brands, a social claim was the single best performing message inclusive of category claims.

The most appealing messages varied by brand, but performed best when the social claim was tied to the product's core functions, for example “fighting food insecurity” for food brands.

Adding two resonant social messages increased brand appeal by an average of 23 percentage points over category-standard claims alone.

Best resonating social sustainability messages with strong performance across brands and cohorts related to the following themes:

- Access: Promoting equal access, removing gaps in opportunity
- Basic needs: Providing communities with essential needs and services
- Crisis response: Supporting disaster relief efforts and emergency response
- Disability and veteran community: Offering products designed to support people with disabilities and veterans and their families
- Economic status: Targeting underserved socioeconomic groups

Findings for top social claims spanned the demographic, psychographic and political spectrum.

The research was conducted with support from The Ford Foundation and Edelman.