Indiantelevision.com Team

(13 February 2008 7:00 pm)

MUMBAI: In a recent global food packaging survey, the Nielsen Company has found that despite a growth in eco-friendly living, a shop’s environmental friendliness is the last consideration for Indian consumers (21 per cent) in determining where to spend money.

Value for money (65 per cent) ranks as the number-one influencer of store choice.

Conducted in mid 2007, the study surveyed 26,486 internet users in 47 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas and the Middle East, on the factors that influenced their choice of grocery store.

Environmental friendliness was the least important factor for Indian consumers among others such as price, product quality, convenience and location, when determining where to shop for groceries. However, 44 per cent Indian consumers are willing to sacrifice packaging for hygiene if it’s environmentally harmful.

21 per cent of Indian consumers as compared to 28 per cent of world consumers, ranked environment-friendly stores, using recycle bags/package as the most important consideration for their grocery store choice. However, 65 per cent of the Indian consumers as opposed to 85 per cent of world consumers, considered good value for money the number one influencer in their choice of store.

Nielsen director (client solutions) Rajshree Dave says, “Despite several campaigns all across on being environmental friendly and growing consumer demand for shops to be environmentally friendly in conducting their business, consumers don’t necessarily make this a priority when choosing where to shop.”

Nielsen’s survey further gauged consumers’ attitudes towards environmental friendliness in their shopping decisions and what aspects of packaging they would be prepared to give up if it meant it would benefit the environment.

At one end of the continuum of responses was the environment and at the other was packaging. The preference of consumers in India was in line with the Asia-Pacific average.

The Indian consumer was also willing to trade off convenience in form of "reusable," "stackable," and "easily transportable packaging." They were found to be more likely to trade off most aspects of packaging than consumers in
other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. 10 per cent of the people would not think of giving up any aspects of packaging even for the environment.

“The Indian consumer is quite used to buying open and unpackaged (loose) fresh products and other commodities. The hygiene perception offered by packaging is still not a well-established driver of choice for buying packed products. Moreover, Indian shoppers placed less priority on packaging that help them to store food because out here we still shop
more frequently and don’t tend to buy products with a long shelf life,” added Dave.

Interestingly, environmentally-aware New Zealanders topped global rankings as the nation most prepared to give up all aspects of packaging for the sake of the environment. This may in large part be due to high levels of "eco-consciousness," including in-store reminders and recyclable bag merchandising by supermarkets, and weekly recyclable rubbish collection instituted by local authorities in most cities.

The dichotomy of the Indian consumers is seen in their willingness to trade off convenience (in step with highly developed and modern cultures like New Zealand and Australia) and at the same time not being very averse to trading off any form of packaging that promises "product hygiene" (in line with consumers in countries like Vietnam and
Indonesia).

“As global concern and awareness about the need to preserve the environment increase, consumers around the world are demanding greater responsibility from retailers and FMCG manufacturers. And while eco-friendly packaging might not be the top priority for shoppers today, it’s certainly a growing consumer demand the food industry cannot ignore,” concludes Dave.