UL (Underwriters Laboratories) has developed the first of what it says will become an annual global study examining the role of perceptions on how and where products are made, sold, bought and consumed. The new study, "Navigating the Product Mindset," explores the connections and contradictions between perceptions of consumers and manufacturers on issues of safety, innovation, performance and sustainability.
Global perceptions were collected from consumers and manufacturers in China, India, Germany, and the U.S. across industries in high tech, food, building materials, and household chemicals.
"UL has worked closely with manufacturers around the globe to help them bring safer products to market faster for more than 117 years," said Keith Williams, UL's chief executive. "Today we live in a more interconnected and interdependent world than ever before. With supply chain complexity growing and global trade increasing at unprecedented rates, understanding and navigating the Product Mindset is essential."
Key insights from the study include:
Geography and culture play the largest role in shaping perceptions about products.
Consumers are aware of an increasingly complex, global supply chain and have a growing interest in the traceability of products and product parts.
Manufacturers in emerging markets rate themselves as being ahead of the curve regarding both product and operational sustainability more than manufacturers in developed markets.
Few manufacturers appear to make the environment a top-tier issue when compared with safety and performance.
Product safety and performance are the top two considerations that impact today's Product Mindset for both consumers and manufacturers.
Methodology
Global quantitative research was conducted by an independent research firm during the Spring, 2011.
1,235 consumers and 1,195 manufacturers in China, Germany, India and the United States were interviewed across an array of topics related to safety, performance, innovation and sustainability.
Manufacturers were selected from the high technology, food, household chemicals and building materials sectors and were interviewed by phone. Consumers were interviewed through an online survey.
