(Source: Kantar x Google: The Future CPG Consumer; internal Google Data, November 2019)
Last month, Google and Kantar debuted their brand new research which offers unique insight into the future CPG consumer, focusing on how changing lifestyles and redefined values will impact consumer behaviour going forward. While the results of this research are extensive, offering perspectives on consumer attitudes towards holistic wellbeing, convenience and tribal commerce, not surprisingly, sustainability emerged as a key concern for future consumers.
Here, we offer some of the key takeaways for the beauty and personal care industries from the research.
Consumer interest in sustainability is exploding, with a focus on zero waste
Using Google search data, we are able to see how the conversation around environmentally friendly products have shifted over the past five years. Queries focusing on ‘plastic free’ and ‘eco-friendly’ have overtaken searches for ‘recyclable’ showing how consumers are increasingly interested in zero waste products and solutions.
Consumers are expressing interest in sustainability with beauty and personal care above other CPG categories
More importantly, when we look at the categories driving interest in this area, personal care shows the highest query volume and beauty shows most growth, with searches for ‘plastic free’ and ‘eco friendly’ related to beauty growing +292% in the past 12 months in the UK.
Conversation around sustainability is exploding on YouTube, where consumers can interact with creators
When we compare the growth in searches around sustainability on search versus YouTube, we can see that queries are increasing at a rapid rate on YouTube; +366% YoY for ‘sustainable brands’! The fact that people are specifically searching for brands on this topic is largely driven by consumers looking for recommendations and guidance around which companies are acting environmentally friendly, and which should be avoided.
