Understanding customer attitudes and behaviour to help re-develop an ESG strategy for M&S

The Puzzle

To help redefine and develop its ESG strategy, M&S wanted to understand the importance of ESG in consumers’ lives, particularly the ‘trigger moments’ that drive consideration of different food- and clothes-related issues at home and when shopping

In short, what issues relating to sustainability do people think and care about, and when and why do they make an impact in their daily lives?

The Pieces

A series of depth interviews with food and clothes shoppers of different ages and lifestages, conducted on Zoom:

• M&S customers and non-customers
• Eco-actives vs. Eco-considerers

Following the depths, all participants provided a week-long diary on WhatsApp – including photographic and video evidence – of key ‘trigger moments’ when ESG issues had made their presence felt in their lives, and the impact and influence they had

The Picture

We provided M&S with a clear understanding of:

• Overall attitudes to ESG and the influences behind them
• The most salient ESG issues currently in people’s lives
• Key ‘trigger moments’ when people are receptive to the issues and when attitudes and behaviour
  can be influenced
• How best to engage people in key issues to help them ‘do their bit’
• How M&S as a store and brand can build, maintain (and potentially lose) people’s trust in relation
  to ESG

These insights are being used to develop M&S’s ESG strategy for the future