2025 has proved to be a challenging year for brands in terms of managing sustainability perceptions.
Brand Finance’s latest round of research suggested a slight decrease in the influence of sustainability on consumer choice. Of the 48 industry sectors, 38 experienced a decline in the influence of sustainability from 2024 to 2025. A political ESG backlash, cost-of-living concerns, or a combination of other factors may drive this.
Over a three-year period, the importance of sustainability increased in the majority of sectors, indicating that sustainability remained a powerful driver of choice in global markets.
Brand Finance research consistently indicated that sustainability played a significantly stronger role in driving choice in the luxury and premium market segments. The three sectors where sustainability plays the greatest role in determining choice are the luxury automotive, champagne, and spirits industries.
There is a similar pattern in cosmetics – sustainability is 50 percent more important as a demand driver in luxury cosmetics than in the broader cosmetics market. A brand’s commitments may imply a slight cost increase, necessitating a more premium positioning.
Premium-segment consumers also exhibit less price sensitivity, allowing them to prioritise improvements in other attributes, such as sustainability. Lastly, at the premium end of many markets, brands become more than just a guarantee of attributes to the consumer; their products are also a signal of the purchaser’s status, taste, identity, and/or ethics.
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