Posted January 25, 2017

 

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – Applied DNA Sciences, Inc., a provider of DNA-based supply chain, anti-counterfeiting and anti-theft technology, product genotyping and product authentication solutions, announced the results of a cotton survey conducted by Harris Poll.

 

With a new U.S. president focused on protecting products born in the USA, consumers may be looking more closely at product origins, and could demand more transparency. Thirty percent of Americans said that they would completely stop purchasing a brand if they made a false product claim about a bedding/clothing product being 100 percent organic, 100 percent Pima cotton, or other claim of this type. Further, roughly three in five Americans (61 percent) say if they found a brand made their bedding/clothing products from raw cotton that was picked by child laborers /forced laborers, they would no longer purchase the brand.

 

These statistics are part of a recent survey of more than 2,000 US adults 18 and over, conducted online in December by Harris Poll on behalf of Applied DNA Sciences, that develops DNA-based technology to help justify product claims, ensure authenticity and provide an additional level of transparency across global supply chains.

 

Citing scientific proof of product claims as a key factor in consumer purchase decisions, the survey yielded telling insights involving product trust and how that trust influences the final decision to purchase or not:

 

• More than three quarters of Americans (76 percent) say when a product claim indicates cotton bedding/clothing is 100 percent organic, 100 percent Pima cotton, etc. they believe it is true.

• One quarter of Americans (25 percent) say if they discovered that a brand claimed a cotton bedding/clothing product was 100 percent organic, 100 percent Pima cotton, or other claim of this type, and it turned out not to be true, it would have a lot of negative impact on their likelihood to purchase that brand and 3 in 10 (30 percent) say it would completely stop them from purchasing that brand.

• 78 percent of Americans say if a cotton bedding/clothing product claimed to be 100 percent organic, 100 percent Pima cotton, or other claims of that type, and all else was equal, they would be likely to buy a brand that showed scientific proof of its claim over one that did not.

• Nearly one third of Americans (32 percent) say if they found out a brand that claimed to make their bedding/clothing products from cotton grown in the U.S. but actually used a blend of cotton grown in the U.S. and China, they would purchase less frequently from that brand.

• Roughly three in five Americans (61 percent) say if they found out a brand made their bedding/clothing products from raw cotton that was picked by child laborers/forced laborers, they would no longer purchase from that brand.

 

"This survey reaffirms what we have known all along," said Dr. James A. Hayward, CEO of Applied DNA Sciences. "Consumers want authentic products and want to trust in what they are buying. They have no interest in bringing a product into their home that has been born of any kind of forced labor. Our primary aim is to cleanse the cotton supply chain and by that, I mean eliminating any diversion, any mislabeling, any counterfeiting that can take place throughout the cotton supply chain.

 

“An ideal way to ascertain the true identity of a natural commodity is to use the DNA that nature gave that commodity or to mark it with a manufactured DNA,” he added. “This enables the cotton to be traced to where it was picked before it went into the ginning process that cleans away seed and other debris for packaging into bails to ship around the world for spinning, dyeing and to make into clothes."

 

Survey methodology

 

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Applied DNA Sciences from December 27-29, 2016 among 2,015 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

 

 All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, the words "margin of error" are avoided as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100 percent response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

 

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the online panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

 

Source: Applied DNA Sciences