Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a term used for business activities that address goals that are not purely commercial. Almost all food and grocery manufacturers and retailers incorporate a CSR dimension into their operations. CSR has become an increasingly important part of business for the food and grocery sector. This has resulted in the publication of corporate reports relating to their sustainability agenda. While the term CSR is relatively new, the principles it describes are not. Some of the UK’s largest FMCG brands have had CSR programmes in place for many decades, but do shoppers really care? This report will give a holistic view on where shoppers go, how frequently and most importantly why they choose the different channels to fulfil their shopping needs.

1. www.evolution-insights.com
Corporate Social Responsibility in Food & Grocery
2014

2. About Evolution Insights
Our research and analysis helps clients develop targeted shopper marketing initiatives designed to influence shoppers at the point of purchase.
We use a range of research methodologies to discover genuine insights. Our research incorporates a broad spectrum of robust qualitative and quantitative research techniques.
As a leading publisher of shopper research, we are ideally placed to offer your business actionable shopper insight.
Evolution is a leading research consultancy specialising in shopper motivation and behaviour. We deliver off-the-shelf, tailored and bespoke research for manufacturers, retailers and agencies. Sign up for Shopper Trend Report, our free monthly newsletter offering analysis and commentary on topical shopper issues.
Evolution offer a range of products & services for clients in the field of shopper research: Off-the-shelf research Evolution’s off the shelf research publications deliver affordable insight into shopper motivation and behaviours in UK food, drink and grocery Insight Plus Insight Plus offers your business the opportunity to engage in any of our regular shopper research projects in advance of publication, tailoring the scope to suit your needs Bespoke Consulting As publishers of research, we are able to draw upon a wealth of existing proprietary data for consulting projects – helping to better inform and shape any further research requirements
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3. Contents
Summary
5
Key Findings and Executive Summary
6
Introduction
8
What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
9
Importance of CSR
10
CSR in Practice
11
Government Policy
12
Definitions (CSR)
13
CSR and Brand Loyalty
14
Ethical Initiatives
15
CSR initiatives
16
Overall Awareness of CSR Initiatives
17
Community Initiative
18
Initiatives that had the Most Positive Impact from a Shopper Perspective
28
Brand Image
29
Important Factors
30
Paying More for Ethically Sourced Products
31
Food Labelling
32
Methodology
33
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4. Summary
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If CSR changes shoppers perceptions of a brand
The FMCG brands that are deemed to have a good/poor CSR reputation
If shoppers are willing to pay more for ethically sourced products
If CSR really affects a shoppers’ purchasing decisions
If shoppers are familiar with ethically sourced logos
(e.g. Fair-trade)
The importance for brands to support local communities
The importance for a brand to have a CSR policy from a shoppers’ perspective
The impact of corporate sponsorship from a shoppers’ perspective
CSR
This report will tell you:

5. Key Findings
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link with
and
were the most well known initiatives with 58% and 45% of shoppers knowing of them respectively
Health initiatives have the most impact on Brand Image
The Fairtrade logo is the most recognisable logo found on Food and grocery products with 81% recognising it.
51% of shoppers would pay more for a product if it was Fairtrade
50% of shoppers saw Asda in a more positive light after hearing about heir initiative to donate money to victims of flooding. This was the highest change in attitude of all of the initiatives mentioned.
community
initiative

6. Government Policy
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High on the list of the UK Government’s priorities is to achieve sustainable and balanced economic growth across the UK, as well as building a stronger, fairer society. The government see responsible business as being central to this and how they can stimulate and support action by business to increase their positive impact on society and the environment and reduce their negative effects, whilst enabling growth within business, is key.
CSR is the voluntary action businesses take over and above legal requirements to manage and enhance economic, environmental and societal impacts.
It is about being a responsible business and as a part of an integrated and strategic approach creates shared value for business and society. The exact approach varies and is influenced by factors such as business size, sector and locality.

7. Overall Awareness of CSR Initiatives
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We presented respondents with 10 CSR initiatives - two each of community, health, environment, sponsorship and charity. We asked them if they were aware of the initiative, and to rate the organisation involved in either of the following ways:
Positive
Neutral
Negative
The 10 CSR initiatives are individually detailed on the following pages…

8. Community Initiative
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Do they think more
positively of
Asda?
71% 26% 3%
48% 49% 3%
community
initiative
Asda recently donated £400,000 to communities impacted by the flooding in the South West of England
Awareness of this
initiative:
10%
Of those that were aware of the initiative
Of those that were not aware of the initiative

9. Paying More for Ethically Sourced Products
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of shoppers would pay more for Fairtrade
of shoppers would pay the same for Fairtrade
31%
of shoppers would pay less for Fairtrade
18%
51%
We were interested to know what percentage of shoppers would pay more for ethically sourced products. We presented the respondents with the following scenario…
Thinking broadly, if the standard price for bananas was 70p per kilo, would you be willing to pay more/less/same if the farmer got a better deal?

10. Methodology
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11. Secondary and desk research
Preliminary quantitative survey
Main quantitative survey
Insights
•Evolution carries out a preliminary survey of around 100 shoppers, to test questions for the main survey.
•Detailed secondary and desk research is conducted to define the topic area, macro drivers and trends, scope and examples of within the research topic.
•Initial insights gained are used to help further design the main survey.
•A main survey is completed by at least 1,000 UK adults who are the primary household shopper for food & grocery.
•Comprehensive and detailed assessment of all the data received was then used to discover insights.
•Throughout this process, primary research was supported by secondary research drawing on Evolution’s proprietary databases, national statistics, news and industry resources.
Methodology
Evolution’s methodology
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12. Contact us
Evolution Insights Ltd
Round Foundry Media Centre
Foundry Street
Leeds
LS11 5QP
Telephone: 0113 394 4671
e-mail: craig.bradley@evolution-insights.com
Web: http://www.evolution-insights.com
Company No. 07006001
Country of Incorporation: United Kingdom
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