Social Responsibility Score:

Frequently Asked Questions

Overview

Why do I need to measure sustainability perceptions?

Your stakeholders (i.e. Investors, Employees, Consumers) increasingly care about what you do and say in the ESG space and their perceptions of this influence their decisions. This is particularly important in relation to consumers where they are choosing to vote with their wallets. Responsible brands realise this and are putting / have put programs in place across ESG / Sustainability areas to meet these consumer needs. However without an understanding of how consumers view your ESG / Sustainability performance you are potentially blind to:

  • Barriers to consumers purchasing your brand
  • Reasons for customer leakage away from your brand
  • Opportunities to maximise a position of strength (i.e. increased distribution, price premium etc)

Regardless of where you are on your ESG / Sustainability journey, SRS gives you vital feedback and allows you to benchmark against your competitors and industry. And with over 700 brands already tracked across 3 key global markets it can allow you to benchmark against market leaders.

What problems does it solve?

Regardless of where you are on your ESG / Sustainability journey, Glow's SRS data provides valuable insight to support your decision making.

 

Benchmarking your current performance: 
  • Establish your baseline performance
  • Benchmark this against competitors
  • Quantify your $ risk / opportunity
  • Identify who are your promoters / detractors

Evaluate your current strategy and comms:
  • Identify opportunities and threats vs your competition
  • Understand where to prioritize investment based on the areas consumers see as most important for your industry and where you are currently viewed as strong / weak
  • Input into materiality assessments by adding the consumer viewpoint on ESG areas of importance
  • Understand if your current programs are aligned to the areas consumers see as most important
  • Identify if consumers are aware of your existing programs and if this is translating into positive perception of your ESG credentials: and therefore does your ESG comms need to change?
  • Understand if your key demographics and non buyers are positive about your ESG credentials: if not this is likely a barrier to growth

Activate your ESG Strategy / Communications effectively:
  • Will a new program capture hearts and drive action?   
  • Will a partnership with [brand x] improve my brand equity?
  • Should I lean into or shy away from this specific issue?
  • Is my packaging telling my ESG story effectively?
  • What sustainability actions will encourage loyalty amongst my core customers?  
  • Benchmark ESG perceptions of any changes against your current performance and that of the category. 

 

Track Changes in Perception:
  • Quantify the ongoing impact of different activities such as new products, packaging adjustments, advertising, PR, competitive activity etc on your brand ESG perceptions or those of competitors.

What type of businesses is SRS designed for?
Consumer facing brands who want to become more responsible (or agencies / advisory firms representing these brands). Brands need awareness above 20% or annual revenue in excess of $50m. Below those levels the tracking product is unlikely to surface enough people aware of the brand to provide robust insights. However, specific studies can be done separately for smaller brands using the same methodology & questions.
I’m a Consumer Brand, how does SRS help me?
  • Benchmark consumer perception of your ESG / Sustainability performance against your competitors, your industry and market leaders
  • Use SRS to help set a consumer focused ESG strategy

  • Evaluate and optimise your existing ESG programs / communications

  • Test potential program/communication changes and track impact of these and/or competitor activity

I’m a Marcomms agency, how does SRS help me?
  • Use SRS benchmarks, demographic splits or driver diagnostics as an input into strategic planning for ESG committed brands
  • Use SRS benchmarks and demographic splits within client pitches to identify positioning or communications opportunities or threats
I’m an Advisory business, how does SRS help me?
  • Utilize SRS consumer or employee data as an input into a client's materiality study or ESG strategy development
  • Support M&A work by identifying the risk/ opportunity from ESG led consumer switching
  • Benchmark consumer perception of brands ESG/ Sustainability performance against their competitors, industry and market leaders as a key input into a variety of strategy or ESG specific project work 
I’m a Market Research agency, how does SRS help me?
  • Create new revenue by adding SRS tracking as an offering 
  • Integrate SRS modules (diagnostics or tracking) into existing client projects to provide additional insights and benchmarking opportunities
Does measuring perception encourage greenwashing?
While it might seem that measuring brand perception could encourage greenwashing, it actually serves as a vital tool to counteract it. By gauging perception of a brand's sustainability efforts, companies can identify any inconsistencies between their messaging and genuine practices. This proactive approach helps prevent greenwashing by ensuring that a brand's claims align with public understanding, promoting transparency, and holding companies accountable for their sustainability commitments.

The Product

What is a Glow Subscription Data Product?

A Subscription Data Product (SDP) is a licence to use a set of data provided by Glow in line with the agreed terms and conditions. The data remains the property of Glow and the same data can be shared/ sold to other parties at Glow’s sole discretion. Glow also retains the rights to publish the data in any way at its sole discretion.

Can I buy data for brands other than my own?

Yes - the product is designed to allow you to benchmark your performance against your competitors and we can track any consumer facing brand.

How many brands do you track?

Currently, over 700 brands across 15+ industries are tracked across 3 key markets (US, UK and AU), with more brands being added monthly.

Can I specify brands to be added to the tracker?

Yes - as part of any subscription to the SRS tracking service, you can specify any consumer-facing brands you would like to have added and this will be done in the following month’s fieldwork.

In addition, a point-in-time view of any brand can be done via SRS Now or the SRS Diagnostic services.


Can my competitors see my brand's data?

If your competitor subscribes to the SRS service they can specify the brands they wish to have included in their reports. If they wish to have your brand as one of the comparisons to their brand they can choose this option in the same way you can specify any of your competitors' brands to be included in your reports.

What is the output I get?
SRS Now

A point in time PDF report on the performance of a specified set of brands, available for any brands. Specifically:

  • Summary of focus brand(s) current SRS and comparison to all reference brands within the report
  • Summary for focus brand(s) including SRS by demographic & purchase recency
  • Point in time funnel metrics for focus brand(s)
  • $ Risk / opportunity for focus brand(s) based on current SRS performance

Enables brands to see where they sit relative to competitors, understand which customer segments are driving performance and quantify the $ risk/opportunity profile.  

 
SRS Diagnostic

For the SRS Diagnostic service the output is a one off PDF report containing SRS data and the diagnostic drivers for your selected brands. Specifically:

  • Summary of each brand's current SRS & comparison to industry
  • Industry importance and performance by the 13 diagnostic drivers
  • Brand performance v industry for each diagnostic driver
  • Bespoke questions eg to assess current program awareness or interrogate specific audiences  

Enables brands to identify where they are currently succeeding (or otherwise) so they can set or optimize ESG strategy to improve consumer understanding and appreciation of their sustainability performance. This helps maximize returns on ESG investments. 

 

SRS Tracker

A quarterly PDF report containing SRS data for your selected brands (focus and reference brands). Specifically:

  • Summary of each brand's current (latest 3-month period) SRS, comparison to all brands tracked & comparison to industry
  • Quarterly and YoY SRS change for each brand
  • SRS trend for each brand over last year
  • Summary for each brand, including SRS by demographic & purchase recency
  • SRS by Brand Awareness & Purchase Recency over time

Enables brands to see how SRS is changing over time relative to competitors, understand which customer segments are driving performance and identify risk/opportunity.  

 

Custom Research with SRS Benchmarks

Access to the summarized research data from your custom study via the Glow Platform alongside a data summary with agreed SRS benchmarks from the 700+ brands we track monthly.

Data Usage

Are there any limitations on how the data can be used?

The data remains the property of Glow and as such can only be published with explicit approval from Glow. Other than limited excerpts, data can’t be shared outside of your organisation without Glow’s approval.

Will you publish the data on my brands?

Glow retains the right to decide what data it will or will not publish. However, it is currently not Glow’s policy to publish SRS data in its entirety. Glow’s objective is to help all businesses do better so we prefer to publish data that shines a light on those businesses leading the way and setting a positive example for others.

Pricing

What does it cost?

SRS is highly customizable, so prices vary based on the specific requirements of the client and whether they are purchasing SRS Now, SRS Diagnostic, SRS tracker, customer research or a bundle.   

SRS Now starts from as little as $5,000

Are there discounts for buying across multiple markets?

Yes. Our pricing is based on the specific requirements of each project and as such any multi market agreement will factor this into the relevant price.

Methodology

How is the data gathered?

Data is from online research using Glow’s own platform that sources respondents from global panel providers. For SRS we ensure a nationally representative sample by matching against census data proportions on Age, Gender and Location.

What markets can you cover?

We can run SRS Now, Diagnostic and custom research in over 64 markets globally. We currently run SRS tracking surveys monthly in the US, UK and AU and plan to extend market coverage as commercial partners come on board. 

Why do you gather data monthly?
Data is captured monthly because brand or competitive activity can significantly impact brand sentiment quickly and these changes need to be captured for brands to identify opportunities or mitigate risk in a timely manner.
Where do you get the respondents from?

Glow’s respondents are sourced from a number of high-quality panel providers that specialise in recruiting respondents using online and offline methods that ensure representativeness. These panels are incentivised online panels that reward people for completing surveys. Our panel partners and their methodologies are endorsed by the relevant research industry bodies in each market in which we capture respondent data.

Data Delivery

How often do I receive the data?

SRS Now provides a one off output within 72 hours of project confirmation.

SRS Diagnostic and custom research with SRS benchmarks provide a one off output approximately 4 weeks post project confirmation.

SRS Tracking provides a quarterly update of data (Jan, April, July, Oct) unless specific different delivery schedules are agreed within a subscription contract.

How is the data delivered to me?
The reports, and any associated data files, will be made available within the Glow platform for which you will be granted an account, access, and admin controls to ensure stakeholders can easily view, share and download the content.

Miscellaneous

Why is SRS Tracking data reported quarterly?
Consumers' views will change based on what you and your competitors do in this area: be it communications, NPD, PR, new stories about your ESG performance etc. As this perception can influence purchasing decisions it is therefore important to understand any changes that are happening and also to evaluate which of your actions have a positive impact (so you can build / replicate these) and which do not (so you can avoid).
How is this different to brand tracking?

Social Responsibility Score is different to brand tracking or reputation measurement. It is a bespoke measure of social and environmental responsibility designed to specifically capture consumers' views of your brand in relation to ESG performance. It enables you to compare your performance against industry benchmarks and hundreds of other brands as well against 13 drivers of performance across Environmental, Social and Governance.

It is a much more specific measure of social responsibility for brands who have significant ESG investments already in place or who are developing their approach and want to ensure it takes account of consumer demands.

How is SRS different from other metrics measuring and monitoring ESG performance?

The majority of the metrics that exist are not consumer based. They tend to be measures of the potential impact of a company’s stated ESG strategy or assessment of delivery of stated strategy. These measures are generally based on publicly reported data sourced from annual reports, so are often a mix of what companies plan to do and are doing, and don’t assess what consumers think of the company’s plans or performance. 


Glow's metric is different because it has been built from the ground up over the last two years using feedback from tens of thousands of consumers to understand what elements of ESG are important to consumers and that influence their choice of brands. 



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Still have questions?

Let one of our team demonstrate how SRS can help you.

Fill in the form now to book a 30 minute data demo. 

Data currently available for more than 600 brands across Australia, USA, UK.  

 

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