Now more than ever, customers care about what a brand stands for beyond the product itself.
Despite recent reports of declining corporate and public support for corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts, Forbes' Best Brands for Social Impact list suggests that consumers may actually be taking companies' efforts into consideration more than before.
To showcase companies that are doing great things for society, Forbes partnered with customer analytics firm HundredX to create its second annual list of brands whose efforts generate the most support and customer loyalty. Between March 2023 and February 2024, more than 185,000 consumers participated in an online survey and rated brands and products across more than a dozen categories. Four of these were used for the Social Impact List: overall brand value and trust, social stance, sustainability, and community support. Nearly 4.5 million ratings were generated across more than 3,000 brands.
Last year, 22% of respondents expressed strong positive or negative sentiment about a brand's social impact. This year, that number jumped to 27%. With such a large dataset, this isn't just statistically significant, it's important evidence that brands need to consider making these efforts part of their corporate identity or risk losing potential customers.
“People care,” says HundredX CEO Rob Pace, “and there's an argument that these things aren't important, that they're over-hyped, but we're still seeing consumers on their own being more likely to criticize this this year than they were last year.”
