New Research by NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business Identifies Most Appealing Social Sustainability Messages Across Consumer Audiences

Audio By Carbonatix

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 27, 2025--

The NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business (CSB), today released new research, Social Sustainability Messages that Resonate, exploring which social sustainability claims best resonate with consumers. The study was completed in partnership with seven global brands spanning food & beverage, technology, financial services, personal care, over-the-counter medicine, and nutrition, and tested claims that describe ethical business practices, inclusivity, and social wellbeing.

The results demonstrate that select social sustainability messages, when substantiated, can amplify brand appeal by an average of 23 percentage points compared to high performing category claims alone.

“This new research complements CSB's Sustainable Market Share Index and expands our findings on environmental messaging to social sustainability messages as a driver of brand appeal,” said Randi Kronthal-Sacco, Senior Research Scholar at CSB. “The research shows that consumers across demographics respond positively to select social messaging, and sheds light on opportunities for brand managers to understand and deepen connections with their consumers.”

In summary, the research showed the inclusion of select social sustainability claims outperformed the average marketing message.

• Social sustainability messages were among the top performing claims overall. For three out of seven brands, a social claim was the single best performing message inclusive of category claims.
• The most appealing messages varied by brand, but performed best when the social claim was tied to the product's core functions, for example “fighting food insecurity” for food brands.
• Adding two resonant social messages increased brand appeal by an average of 23 percentage points over category-standard claims alone.
• Best resonating social sustainability messages with strong performance across brands and cohorts related to the following themes:
  • A ccess: Promoting equal access, removing gaps in opportunity
  • B asic needs: Providing communities with essential needs and services
  • C risis response: Supporting disaster relief efforts and emergency response
  • D isability and veteran community: Offering products designed to support people with disabilities and veterans and their families
  • E conomic status: Targeting underserved socioeconomic groups
• Findings for top social claims spanned the demographic, psychographic and political spectrum.

This research was conducted with support from The Ford Foundation and Edelman. Please find the full research findings here.

About NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business
NYU Stern CSB was founded in 2016 with a vision of better business for a better world. Through pioneering research, educational programming, and corporate engagement, CSB combines academic rigor with real-world application to help companies future-proof strategies, quantify financial performance, and develop the next generation of sustainable leaders.

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251027870700/en/

CONTACT: Alison Reynolds

[email protected]

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA NEW YORK

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: RETAIL SOCIAL MEDIA HEALTH OTHER PHILANTHROPY PHILANTHROPY UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION ADVERTISING COMMUNICATIONS FOUNDATION FITNESS & NUTRITION FOOD/BEVERAGE

SOURCE: NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business

Copyright Business Wire 2025.

PUB: 10/27/2025 09:00 AM/DISC: 10/27/2025 09:00 AM

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251027870700/en