One of the fastest ways to go broke is selling people what they should do rather than what they want to do.

But it’s a brain bender: ask someone if they want to buy sustainable products and they’ll say “absolutely”. Watch them in the supermarket and they’ll grab the same brand they always have.

This is the story of how we cracked the code and threw away the idea of appealing to ‘good intentions’ and focused on ‘good marketing’ (not advertising or branding, but the broader discipline of marketing).

This edition of supergoods is proudly brought to you by The Little Food Market.

Partner with The Little Food Market 2026 - Melbourne & Sydney

Reach 30,000+ food lovers and align with 200+ artisanal producers.

The Little Food Market is a three-day tasting and shopping event for standout food and drink brands.
You sample, sell and learn in the same conversation - real shoppers buy on the spot, while buyers and media move through across the weekend.

• 30k+ attendees in 2025 (100% YoY growth)

• 200+ curated producers; premium tasting + retail environment

• Brand exposure across digital, OOH and onsite signage

This isn’t “awareness”. It’s evidence.

You leave with customers, content, and retail conversations already warm - a clear story you can take to stockists and investors: we showed up, we sold through.

Use it to sharpen what matters: pack, price, pitch - based on what actually moves baskets. No expo theatre. Just receipts.

Hosted at Royal Exhibition Building (Melbourne) & Carriageworks (Sydney).

Dates: MEL 17–19 Jul 2026 | SYD 21–23 Aug 2026

Exhibitor spots are limited - reach out to Simon for more info.

What is the intention-action gap?

The intention-action gap is the difference between what consumers say they'll do and what they actually do at the moment of purchase. Think about how many times you've intended to go to the gym, but sat on the couch watching the Simpsons instead. OK, maybe that’s just me.

It's why focus groups love your concept, but your sell through rates tell a different story. The gap widens when the "should" option requires more mental effort, has immediate barriers or isn't obviously superior in the moment of decision.

We faced this problem in spades on a sustainable laundry project back in 2020. I’m gonna walk you through how we tackled it.

The paradox in numbers

The data "told us” people want sustainable laundry detergents.

70% of Australians claim to actively ‘try to shop sustainable products.

Only 30% admitted they find it difficult.

But the cold hard reality is that only 16% of consumers who express concern about sustainability actually purchase sustainable products.

That is the intention-action gap in raw, hard numbers.

Failure hits when you just stop at the first bit of data and blindly hope. The reality is that when shopping laundry detergents, most people simply didn’t think about sustainability.

With a little more digging (observation + research), we uncovered further barriers:

• Limited options (sustainable products relegated to tiny sections)

• Confusing messaging that required a PhD to decode

• Inferior quality perception

• Inconvenience (harder to find, unfamiliar formats, premium pricing)

• Shelf distractions (price promotions on familiar brands)

We faced a dilemma: sustainable brands catered to the converted 16%, while the other 84% with good intentions kept buying what they always bought.

Our solution: building a Trojan horse

We couldn't just make another eco product. We had to build something that solved every barrier preventing people from acting on their good intentions.

1. Packaging: familiar over perfect

The most sustainable format is highly concentrated dosage - cuts shipping water, emissions, plastic. But it's unfamiliar and easily overlooked.

So we designed it exactly like mainstream brands: standard dosage in a 2L jug with handle. We used recycled plastic, but it wasn't the world's most sustainable option - it was the market's most acceptable option.

Sometimes 80% sustainable that people actually buy beats 100% sustainable that sits on shelves.

2. Pricing: accessibility over premium

Laundry detergents in Australia are 90% sold on promotion. We built strong promotional programs from day one to match competitor frequency. Shoppers aren't loyal - they swing between 2-3 brands depending on what's on promo.

You can't change behaviour by making it more expensive or misaligned to the way people shop. The pricing model was critical to mainstream adoption.

3. Performance: great products over sustainable products

This quote lived in my head for a very long time.

Our product had to outperform competitors. We pushed the development team to build their most efficient detergent and ran multiple studies proving it cleaned better than major brands. Performance meaning more than just cleaning: scent, bottle experience, ease of use.

Here's the thing: superior performance eliminates the mental trade-off that kills sustainable purchases.

4. Retail: partnership over battles

Instead of typical "one in, one out" shelf battles, we chose exclusivity. Rather than dilute our impact across multiple retailers, we focused on one partnership, giving us power back in Australia's duopolistic grocery market.

Crucially, we convinced retail to put it in the "mainstream" aisle instead of the eco bay. There was one eco bay buried at the end of 12 detergent bays. Most shoppers never make it there because they've already found something familiar that works.

Meet people where they are, not where you think they should be.

5. Branding: the Trojan horse comes alive

Most eco products followed a typical visual identity: brown bottles, papyrus fonts, soft paper labels.

We went completely opposite:

• Bright, bold colours

• Clashing typefaces

• Insane typographical execution that jammed information until nearly illegible but somehow beautiful

We named it "UNDO THIS MESS" and gave products ridiculous names like "Antibac Attack, The Germ Reaper" and "Super Soft Softener, It's Like a Day Spa for Your Clothes."

The result was a brand that looked vaguely like another shouty detergent at first glance, but became something entirely its own upon inspection.

6. Launch: creating demand before supply

We launched the brand before the product was made. Billboards, social media, even t-shirts (no one bought them) - all before the retail review.

Walking into that meeting, we had everything to lose. If this flopped, we'd wasted the budget and probably our credibility. But we showed retailers real activity and said, "We're doing this with or without you."

In Australian FMCG, if major retailers don't take your product, it dies. We threw this reality in the bin and created our own leverage.

The results

Five years later, the strategy worked completely:

• Stole market share from non-eco brands

• Recruited new shoppers for our retail partner

• Brand still performing well across multiple retailers

• Range grew from 5 SKUs to 20+

• Revenue hit multiple seven figures

Closing the gap

We didn't create another sustainable product - we closed the intention-action gap.

Every barrier we eliminated was a friction point stopping people from acting on good intentions:

• Cognitive load - Made it familiar, no mental energy required

• Performance anxiety - Guaranteed it worked better

• Price sensitivity - Matched mainstream promotional frequency

• Convenience - Put it where people actually shop

We didn't try to change what people wanted. We changed how they could get what they already wanted - a product that worked brilliantly and happened to be better for the planet.

The lesson isn't just about sustainable products. It's about any gap between what people say and do. Instead of trying to educate people out of the gap, design your way around it.

Sometimes the most revolutionary thing you can do is make the right choice feel completely ordinary.

If you enjoyed this write up, send it to a friend or colleague. And consider subscribing here for weekly breakdowns and more.