Sustainability and Customer Values as Part of Strategic Marketing : A Focus Group Study Exploring What Customers Value in a Sustainable FMCG Product

Abstract: This is a focus group study to explore the marketing process for a start-up company about to develop and launch a sustainable razor. In this process, understanding what the customers value in a sustainable product for daily use, such as razors, and how to apply this in the marketing process is of great importance. Sustainable fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) are essential for this study, together with customer values and behavioral change. A literature study was conducted concerning strategic marketing, sustainability marketing, value development, social marketing & behavioral change, and the consumer buying process & purchase decision to analyze this area. A theoretical framework was then developed with three important steps for the marketing process: Identify customer values, Identify barriers and benefits for behavioral change, and Influence the customers. This theoretical framework was then applied when analyzing qualitative data gathered through interviews with different focus groups. The findings showed that the most critical customer values are convenience and comfort as well as information and transparency. Convenience was also found to be the most significant barrier to behavioral change while good offerings, transparency, and the desire to be more sustainable were identified as benefits. To influence the customers and change their behaviors for a sustainable FMCG product, the barriers should be overcome and the benefits promoted by using different strategic tools. This study found that the most successful tools are convenience followed by incentives and then prompts. As part of a potential marketing strategy, the most important identified customer values and strategic tools should be prioritized in the offering of the product and the value proposition more-for-more should be considered - when customers receive a sustainable, high-quality product, they are willing to compromise on price if the product has clear information about its sustainability.