James Oates Columnist Sustainable analysis I Understanding the influencers that are making changes will be had one of those lovely moments as a parent recently vital to all brands in any sector. Behaviour is changing. Consumers when homework overlapped with my work. Discussing are more likely than ever to consider waste, sustainability and with my nine-year-old son the benefits of a line chart brand reputation before making a purchase and brands and versus a bar chart was much safer ground than trying to retailers will need to act on this information. help with prepositions. Theres a big role for the market research industry to play in A more challenging homework topic is sustainability and, in my providing the data that gives more transparency to the debate. To house, like many others, it goes beyond a school assignment. date, the question of sustainability means being blinded by Whether its an insistence on ditching plastic straws, rejecting scientific fact or fiction, dependent on your view. Data analytics plastic water bottles or avoiding palm oil products, there is a means we can cut through with data that illuminates what we buy, genuine passion in my children to change our day-to-day what we throw away and, from that, how we as consumers behaviour and contribute to a sustainable ecosystem. The contribute to a global problem. challenge Im facing at home is much the same as that facing our Through this lens, it will be easier for business and the average clients and the industry at large and it has got me thinking about person to digest as we personalise the the role of data analytics in helping us story and bring the debate much closer to meet this challenge. to what we all do at home. Nielsen I presented recently to the FMCG gives data to the United Nations as industry on key trends that will It doesnt matter what part of the sustainability debate, and I influence consumer behaviour over the type of business you operate only see contributions to this type of next decade. We covered what will be in sustainability requires work becoming more important for important: the accessibility of 5G; the our attention UK data organisations. way we view convenience in our daily Historic behaviour is one thing, but lives; and the need for our purchases analytics also needs to forecast what to be instantly available. But the topic the outcome of our consumption patterns will mean. There is of discussion that really grabbed the audience was sustainability. already a debate about whether we have gone beyond reasonable It doesnt matter what type of business you are in levels of consumption in many areas of our daily lives. But as new sustainability requires our attention. It is a broad-ranging topic, patterns of behaviour develop for example, consuming more and I believe that data and analytics play an important role not just meat substitutes, the removal of plastic and the move to electric in the debate, but in helping the industries we operate to navigate cars our industry must call out what impact it is having. We will it effectively. need to predict the good and the bad of these changes, by drawing As always, there are trends in public opinion that help to shape on quality data to enable robust predictions that support industry our society, and the memorable image of an ocean of plastic in a in making changes for good. BBC documentary helped to bring a complex issue to life, making This will take more than us producing a simple line chart. Our it personal for viewers. From then on, it has gained momentum. ongoing homework is to give a clear and transparent message on Our role as data analysts is to see if these big topics are not only consumption and its impact, which will be essential to cut through changing attitudes, but also whether they translate through into the sustainability noise and provide the industry with guidance behaviour. It is by analysing these attitudes that we understand the from which we will all benefit. expectations of shoppers and consumers. 61