Kiwano Marketing » Marketing Communications

Bringing Personality Back To Your Business

Sofia Ribeiro — Tue, 17 May 2011 04:06:28 +0000

Today I was browsing the web and stumbled on There Is Grandeur In This View Of Life. It’s an hilarious blog written by Goofy Girl, where she tells us about her life and her thoughts on random things that tend to happen to most of us. What I specially enjoy about this blog is Goofy Girl’s tone: personable, unique and sometimes outrageous – basically, it’s a blog that you can immediately see that it’s written by real person. I guess you’re probably thinking “Well, all blog posts are written by someone.” But don’t you feel frustrated to see all these blogs using bland, general language so they won’t hurt someone’s values? This is particularly true for corporate blogs. How do we go around this? Is using insipid, nondescript language the only avenue for corporations?

I have to confess I have committed the same mistake. As a small business owner, it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to get your message to resound with the general audience. As a marketer, though, I know this is plain wrong. So how do you find the balance between genuine, personable communications and the formality expected from you?

Last year I read Rohit Bhargava’s book Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity. Rohit identifies four reasons for why businesses lose their unique feel:

1. Adding lawyers (used to) inspire consumer trust. The more successful the organization, the more layers you could expect to encounter when dealing with it.

2. Advertising (used to) define a company’s identity. Before social media, most interactions with the company were either at the customer support level or through media placements.

3. Consistency is (or used to be) a successful business practice. Companies wanted to provide a consistent experience no matter how many locations or how big that business was. Needless to say, consistency is the enemy of individuality.

4. Risk management is (or used to be) the first priority, or simply put, protecting the business from negative situations – such as an employee sharing a real perception and not the company’s boilerplate.

Obviously, companies that did manage to stand out from the crowd enjoyed great success (such as Coca-Cola in the ‘90s). But nowadays, brands ARE expected to be full of personality (thank you, social media!). We’re done with the corporate talk! Ban it from your vocabulary – it’s dead. It should have been banned long, long time ago.

How do you stop the corporate communications blandness and inject some personality into your brand? Here’s how:

1. Apply the UAT filter to your brand. Identify what’s Unique, Authentic and Talkable about your business.

2. Give a voice to your employees. Let them talk about your business on social media and actually identify themselves as employees of your organization. Don’t forget to have a social media policy in place, though – one that is flexible so it allows employees to express themselves. The goal here is to foster individuality vs the big (faceless) behemoth that is a corporation.

3. Tell your story. Every business has its unique story. What’s yours? What makes you (the business owner, the marketing person, the customer support guy) passionate about what you do? Show your enthusiasm and motivation – something that goes beyond profit.

And if you one of your status updates/brochures/ads make someone mad? Or what if an employee shares information that is confidential or simply wrong? Just apologize – you’re only human. It’s time to drop the corporate veil and let that unique personality come out.

As for me, I just glued a post-it in my home office that reminds me to drop the “marketing talk” from my corporate years and let people discover… well, me.

Social Media Crisis Management: Best Practices and Horror Stories

Sofia Ribeiro — Fri, 06 May 2011 19:40:09 +0000

Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of talking with Elisa Birnbaum, an established freelance writer and contributor at Charity Village. Elisa writes about social media strategies and tactics for non-profit organizations. This time around, she focused on social media policies – and what can happen when you don’t have guidelines in place.

”If you’re an avid devotee of social media, chances are you’ve already heard about this infamous gaffe,” writes Elisa on her cover story, Social Media: What’s Your Policy? ”A Red Cross employee uses HootSuite to send out an otherwise-innocent tweet about her alcohol-induced evening in the company of a specific beer. She thought she was sending it from her personal account. But she was wrong.

As we all know, mistakes like that are not easily repealed and once you’ve hit that send button it’s hard to take things back. But here’s the thing about the Red Cross and their reaction to the incident: no one got fired, nothing hit the proverbial fan and no one went into heavy crisis mode. In fact, they made light of the situation with an affable response.”

Elisa goes on sharing similar stories (with not so similar happy endings). After interviewing a handful of social media experts, Elisa compiled a list of top 5 tips for crafting your own social media policy:

1. Don’t forget it will have an impact on internal operations. For example, your hiring process may be affected and you may now need to re-evaluate who you hire and the type of qualifications they offer.

2. Make sure your policy is comprehensive, but yet easy to understand. Your goal is to get people to read and follow your policy (and not just scan through it).

3. Work on your policy with your marketing and sales team. Make sure your policy and your social media presence are aligned with your brand.

4. The policy should cover every possibility, including the likelihood of replacing your social media manager. People may be attached to a certain voice, making it hard for new staff to take over.

5. Keep in mind that your social media policy is always a work in progress. Social media is a dynamic, evolving medium and you want to make sure your policy stays relevant at all times.

Read the complete article at CharityVillage.com.

CBSR Summit: Collaborating for Sustainable Change

Sofia Ribeiro — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:22:07 +0000

Bringing Together Corporations And The Community

What do Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Nestlé, Mountain Equipment Co-op and The Natural Step have in common? More than what you’d expect. All these companies are heavily investing in social responsibility programs, with varying degrees of success. And they will all be attending the CBSR Summit this Thursday, to talk about the lessons learned throughout the years. With a mix of both do-good and large corporations, it’s with great excitement that we will hear what each company is doing for their community – and how they’re able to increase their profits while doing so.

As companies around the globe work to embed sustainability into their corporate cultures, collaboration is emerging as a key lever for addressing these complex challenges. But, with so many horror stories on partnerships gone wrong, how do you ensure you’ll find the right partners – and that you’ll be successful?

As you can see from our last post, Social Enterprises: How to Make Profit While Contributing to Social Justice, there are many ways your sustainability initiatives can thrive while improving your bottom line. But no matter how you go around it, one thing is sure: who you partner with is more often than not the deciding factor for your success.

This is why the theme for this year’s CBSR Summit is Collaborating for Sustainable Change. On October 21, join CBSR for an inspiring and collaborative day where you will learn how Canadian businesses can address their CSR challenges through collaboration with internal and external partners, driving improved performance and innovation.

Some of the speakers include:

• Dr. Karl Henrik Robèrt, Founder, The Natural Step
• Tim Brown, President and CEO, Nestlé Canada
• Robert Dutton, President & CEO, RONA Inc.
• Dr. Rafi Hofstein, President & CEO, MaRS Innovation
• Nikos Koumettis, President, Coca-Cola Canada
• David Labistour, CEO, Mountain Equipment Co-op
• Nicholas Parker, Executive Chairman, Cleantech Group
• Andrew Pelletier, Vice-President of Corporate Affairs & Sustainability, Wal-Mart Canada

CBSR Summit: Collaborating for Sustainable Change
Thursday, October 21
From 8:30a.m to 5:15p.m
Le Meridien King Edward Hotel
37 King Street East, Toronto

To register, please visit CBSR’s Summit page.

Let us know if you’re coming! We’d love to connect with you.

FTC’s Update on Environmental Marketing Claims

Sofia Ribeiro — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:36:07 +0000

After 12 years of no significant developments on its environmental marketing guidelines, the Federal Trade Commission has finally proposed an amendment – one that will have significant impact on how green businesses communicate their benefits.

Most relevant amendments:

1. Marketers should not make unqualified general environmental benefit claims. They are difficult, if not impossible, to substantiate.

2. Qualifications should be clear and prominent, and should limit the claim to a specific benefit. Marketers should ensure the advertisement’s context does not imply deceptive environmental claims. Marketers should not make unqualified general environmental benefit claims. They are difficult, if not impossible, to substantiate.

3. Third-party certification does not eliminate a marketer’s obligation to have substantiation for all conveyed claims.

4. Marketers can make an unqualified recyclable claim only if there’s a “substantial majority” of consumers/communities who have access to recycling facilities.

5. Marketers should not make unqualified degradable claims for items destined for landfills, incinerators, or recycling facilities because decomposition will not occur within one year.

6. Non-toxic claims can only be used when an item is generally non-toxic both for humans and for the environment.

Read the summary of the proposal at FTC’s website.

What’s more interesting in these amendments is the issues that are not currently being addressed, such as renewable materials and renewable energy claims, as well as those related to carbon offsetting.

The FTC has set a 60-day comment period ending on December 10, after which it can pass a final version of the guidance.

What other issues do you believe should be addressed?

Herding the Green Consumer

Sofia Ribeiro — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:14:48 +0000

On the other day I finished reading Mark Earl’s Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature and started thinking about the implications of applying this approach to sustainable marketing. From the surface, it looks like the perfect fit: both focus on how to develop ourselves as a species and yet conserving our natural habitat. Looking at brands famously perceived as green such as Seventh Generation and Patagonia, they tend to focus on the same values. So is this the right approach to green marketing, forget about the I, it’s all about the collective?

It would look like it is. Let’s look at some of Earl’s insights on the new wave of marketing:

1. Our species is first and foremost a social one. Stop thinking and talking with words that conjure the “I” perspective.
2. Interaction is everything. Understand that people tend to talk about what other people do to them (and not corporations). Learn this dynamic and use it.
3. What people say is just the most visible influence. Make peer-to-peer interaction the real goal of all marketing (and not just word-of-mouth).
4. Focus on your Most Influential Customer (MIC) or Most Collaborative Customer (MCC) instead of your Most Valued Customer (MVG). Rethink targeting to reflect models that help you identify and empower your influencers.
5. Be more interesting. Find your purpose-idea and live it.

Most of the famous green brands do indeed follow these principles – just look at their social media profiles and the number of people they influence through their social networks. But this is where I stop in my tracks: most of these followers are not simply a reflection of the mainstream consumer. No – they’re socially and environmentally-aware people who needed little persuasion to shift to a more sustainable brand.

And I ask myself: do the same herd principles apply to a general brand? Specifically, do these principles apply to a mainstream brand that wants to be perceived as a sustainable one – a brand that does deserve to be regarded as such?

I’m inclined to say no (or not yet). Many consumers still regard the sustainable movement as an initiative led by hippies and tree-huggers, and focusing on the collective will just reinforce that idea. Although it saddens me to say it, if you’re looking to sell your green product to the mainstream crowd, you should focus on the “I” – how these benefits apply to that specific client, and sell them on price, quality, performance, etc. – just briefly mentioning the green aspect of your product or service as an afterthought. Look at Timberland, for instance. They’re famous for their high quality, rugged boots, not so much for their initiatives in environmental protection (although they’re one of the leaders in this area).

Perhaps this is not as dim as it looks. The end goal of the green movement is to substitute current products on the market for a more environmentally and socially responsible version – whether the consumer is aware of it or not.

“Is that it?” you ask me. “Should we try to reach out and promote our green programs?” Definitely! Once your clients are hooked in, you can start your educational efforts, providing interesting tidbits of information in your monthly newsletter and across your social network. It’s far from ideal, but this is what works for most mainstream brands, especially if you’re running a small business.

What do you think? Share your thoughts below or send me an email.

Sustainable Brands Recap: CSR’s 7 Best Practices

kiwano — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:14:18 +0000

In today’s competitive market, companies that incorporate social and green policies can leave a lasting impression on the consumer. As Sofia Ribeiro pointed out in her post Using Community Involvement as Part of Your Green Marketing and CSR Strategy, a Cone Inc. survey revealed that 83% of people will trust a company more if it is socially/environmentally responsible. With this in mind, how do companies go about communicating their best initiatives?

Recently, Perry Goldschein took the podium at Sustainable Brands 2010 to talk about the seven best practices of corporate social responsibility (otherwise known as CSR). As the founding partner of SDialogue LLC, a strategic sustainability communications firm, Perry provided insights on how to engage your consumers and stakeholders. Follow this recap with CSR’s 7 Best Practices to learn how to put your organization’s best social and environmental practices in the spotlight:

1) Set Measurable Goals:
Return on investment has always been a difficult thing to measure. In order to accomplish this in your CSR policy, Perry suggests implementing small changes close to home, such as improving employee policies that decrease turnover and improve recruitment. Simple steps, like minimizing waste and resource use are changes that can be developed into a memorable story about how sustainability efforts support your company’s overall corporate strategy.

2) Stakeholder Engagement:
Leaving their stakeholders out of the loop is one of the top mistakes companies make when trying to jump on the green/socially responsible bandwagon. In order for your company to articulate its values, missions, strategy, and implementation in the creation of your CSR plan, it is important for everyone to be on the same page. Stakeholders can help by partaking in the regulatory approvals process, improving relationships proactively, or solving CSR roadblocks and potential crises. Include your stakeholders from the start of the consultation process and sidestep moving forward with developments in which they would otherwise have little influence over or information about.

3) Sustainability Issues Mapping:
This approach uses interactive maps to help prioritize and narrow down key issues, saving your company time and money during the initial research stage. For instance, Sir Geoffrey Chandler, founder and chair of Amnesty International UK, praises sustainability issues mapping as “a most stimulating approach. It brings together things which ought to go together, but too frequently don’t.”

4) Sustainability Management Systems (SMS):
Develop a framework to ensure that environmental, social, and economic concerns are considered in tandem throughout your organization’s decision-making processes. Start by identifying and prioritizing sustainability aspects and impacts. Take it one step further by looking at legal requirements related to these impacts and evaluate your company’s current compliance. Collaborating with an environmental consultant can help during this process. Next, outline your company’s goals and objectives. Finally, educate and train your employees on using the SMS, and also periodically run audits to ensure that it’s carried out in the most effective manner possible.

5) Lifecycle Assessment:
Product design is critical. Gone are the days where the immediate product the only thing that matters, without any given thought to its afterlife. A cradle-to-cradle approach exhibits your company’s creativity and innovation and can, consequently, improve your bottom line. Whether it’s re-using your product or designing it in a manner that will keep it out of the landfill, build customer rapport and brand loyalty by taking the pressure off the disposal process for your products.

6) Sustainability/CSR Reporting:
CSR reporting has increased in popularity over the past few years, due to increasing government regulations as well as self-regulation by forward-thinking companies. It’s important that your consumer base has easy access to your latest and greatest efforts, in a way that doesn’t minimize what you’re doing. A simple and environmentally-friendly way to do this is to post your CSR reports on your website, in an easy to download PDF file or other accessible format. This is another area to ask for feedback from your number one fans: your stakeholders.

7) Sustainability Branding:
Transparency is key in sustainability branding. For example, Clorox Green Works, when endorsed by the Sierra Club, was able to capture 42% of the market share in their first year! The market for natural cleaning products has since increased, paving the way for smaller brands like Seventh Generation and Method to reach to a broader customer base.

However, be careful to avoid greenwashing and implement the entire CSR seven best practices I’ve described above. McDonald’s made this mistake when it attempted to change the background of its logo from red to green in order to appeal to European customers. McDonald’s quick leap to the final CSR step was implemented while still relying on a variety of unsustainable practices and suppliers. Transparency builds trust, while greenwashing will alienate your consumer base.

Incorporating social responsibility hand-in-hand with sustainable practices will ensure that your company remains competitive in today’s consumer-savvy market. Don’t wait to get the word out on how your organization is doing its part!

Confessions Of An Ex-Shopaholic: A Journey To Change Consumer Behaviour

Sofia Ribeiro — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:16:22 +0000

Sofia Ribeiro, Marketing Wizard, gets upfront and personal with her own struggles between shopping and the environment.

Today I’d like to share a personal story: mine. I used to be this shopaholic addicted to fashion. Shoes, clothes, hats, earrings, bags, you name it – I’d get it. Having lived in Milan, one gets used to considering your look as an important feature of one self (I’d actually spend over 50% of my paycheck on fashion items). My partner would even make fun of me for having over 60 pairs or shoes, “when all you have is two feet.”

The ridiculous thing about all this is that I have always cared about the environment. I would feel good about recycling, and thought I was doing my share. I fell for the same mistake many consumers are “victims” of: I had changed my routine just a tad to help the environment, and felt so good about it that making a further change didn’t cross my mind. Thank God those days are long over!

I can’t point to a specific moment in my life when I started changing, but suddenly I was more active on my environmental values. I began volunteering at local parks and I can’t forget my shock when I saw dozens of shopping bags muddled up among the trees. Suddenly, those plastic bags that used to carry the hats, shoes and tops that I was so mad about didn’t have the same allure next to old beer cans and discarded newspapers (and yes, I was still at the park).

On my next shopping trip (and these happened almost on a daily basis), I noticed the number of people carrying around those cute shopping bags happily down the street, and that completely turned me off from shopping. I couldn’t erase the image of those same bags covering the grounds of my favourite park.

Next thing I know, I started looking at my clothes and shoes differently. I found the pleasure of rediscovering items that lived on the bottom of my closet and my partner even commented that it had been a while since he heard me say “I don’t have anything to wear today” (that’s how silly I was).

Reducing Is Kinda Cool
It took me six full months to discover the pleasure of reducing. I now spend under $800 a year in clothing and accessories, a significant reduction for someone who used to invest over $15,000 on fashion items. I actually spend more money per item now, but the clothing really lasts. Not only that, I’ve also applied the same motto to different areas of my life, and I have stopped buying furniture (it’s amazing how much great stuff you can find on Craigslist). I’m also eating less and I’ve never felt happier and more accomplished in my life.

It was then that Cecilia and I decided to start Kiwano Marketing: to promote sustainable lifestyles through marketing.

Focusing On The First R: Reduce
I guess I took the long way here to reach the main purpose of this blog post: as marketers, we need to dedicate more time on the importance of reducing. True, marketers are supposed to sell products. But why don’t we use our extensive knowledge on consumer behaviour to make reducing cool and alluring? And there are already fantastic products out there already made of 100% used materials and/or 100% reusable.

By making reducing the new black, companies can manufacture less products and still have room to charge more per item, keeping or increasing their profits. Reducing campaigns also have a great buzz potential, and if the campaign is well executed, those organizations that take the initial step into this new business mentality will enjoy fantastic word-of-mouth.

It’s time to move the green industry from products that are organic and biodegradable. These qualities are significant, but no longer enough – and soon they will be a standard and mandatory. We need the next revolution: reducing.

So that’s my personal story… what’s yours?

The Emerging Buying Power of Eco-Moms

Sofia Ribeiro — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:26:45 +0000

Getting beneath consumer segmentation and identifying attitudes and values that impact green consumer behaviour

Earlier this month at the Sustainable Brands ‘10 Conference, I attended to a fantastic presentation by Linda Gilbert from EcoFocus Worldwide on market research and green consumers. Here are some fantastic facts on the green consumer movement:

- 2 in 4 Americans agree that a cleaner planet starts at home.
- 2 in 3 are ready to make changes.
- 84% of respondents say they base their choices in environmental issues.
- 87% of Americans say that global warming is not the point – it’s all about trash and waste reduction.

“But everyone is really confused,” says Linda. “Brands are not providing the information consumers need in order to do sustainable choices.” While LOHAS consumers still represent a small percentage of the market, this group illustrates what the future holds for traditional, mainstream consumers. Not only that, but Drifters – those that care for environmental values but only purchase green products sometimes – are the fastest growing segment of green consumers.

“One of the highlights of our research was that mainstream consumers don’t want to be labelled as green, even if they buy eco products,” says Gilbert. “They rather be associated with sustainability instead – a term that raises less issues and miscommunications.”

So how do businesses – no matter what size – reach out to mainstream consumers?

1. Speak to “My world, My life:” relate to an issue that consumers can easily relate to, such as their health or their children’s safety.
2. Beware of missionary marketing: consumers are not looking to save the planet and missionary marketing messages will fall short in driving brand awareness and sales.
3. Keep it positively interesting: green products should be cool, or at least make people feel good when buying, consuming or using them. Images of polar bears sinking won’t get traction in the new green economy.
4. Help sort it out: consumers want to adopt environmentally sustainable behaviours, but most don’t know how. Clarify in your marketing materials exactly how your product helps the environment and the community.
5. Keep it clean: customers want to deal with clean products and will buy those with no toxic chemicals.
6. Make a visible difference: people want to be perceived as green too. The more environmentally responsible you are, and the more impact you have in the green industry, the more customers will buy your product (or service).
7. Bring it closer to home: at the end of the day, consumers are more concerned with issues that directly impact their lives, such as their child’s health or the quality of the air in their office. Relate to something they personally relate to, and your brand awareness will go up

“It’s all about living well AND being eco-friendly,” says Gilbert. “Businesses should make life easy for consumers. The easiest it is for consumers to buy sustainable products, the more successful the company will be.”

Get Ready for Eco-Mom

Women and especially moms are very wary of the impact of the products and services in their lives, and how these impact the health of their family. Moms are also a main buyer, representing an overpowering influence over brands.

The report shows that Eco-Moms are more involved than others in example setting behaviour, such as water conservation (turning off the water when brushing teeth or other activity) and energy savings (turning off lights when leaving a room). Already, 35% of Eco-Moms are sending their children to school with waste-free lunches and snacks. Upon embarking on more eco-friendly behaviours, moms are finding unexpected health and quality of life benefits:

• 2 in 5 are becoming more physically active as a result of a greener lifestyle, and
• 3 in 5 expect that a cleaner environment will mean less cancer and disease in the future.

Most also agree that they are spending more time together as a family, with nearly 70% of parents agreeing that being eco-friendly provides them with teachable moments with their kids.

“Brands with or who want to build equity with moms around nurturing and responsibility themes have a powerful platform here,” recommends Linda Gilbert, CEO of EcoFocus. “It’s a new archetype that will define next generation products and communications,” says Gilbert.

For information about the EcoFocus report Are You Ready for Eco-Mom?, call 727-743-2352 or email Sean Lucey.

Motivating Mainstream Consumers to Make Sustainable Choices

Sofia Ribeiro — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:20:29 +0000

Mainstream consumers are complicated. They know just enough buzz words to make you think they know more than they do, and most don’t actually go green to save the planet. How do mainstream consumers ACTUALLY make decisions about which green products to buy? Suzanne Shelton, President and CEO of Shelton Group shared her insights at the Sustainable Brands ‘10 Conference, last week.

Green is Officially Mainstream
According to Eco Pulse 2010, a study of green consumer trends by Shelton Group, 64% of the population is now actively looking for green products. Most consumers start small, adopting easy-to-buy products such as home cleaning products (versus a hybrid car or a green home, which require a higher investment).

One of the main reasons for this behavioral shift is directly connected with the performance, quality and price: most green products are now directly competing with their non-green version, and this accessibility in terms of price and quality results in higher adoption rates. For instance, 1 in every 2 respondents found that green products are as good and effective as non-green products.

Most Consumers Know Less Than You Might Think They Do About What Constitutes Green
“The average consumer knows enough to go by a cocktail conversation,” says Suzanne Shelton, President and CEO of Shelton Group. “For instance, when asked to name a green home feature in an open-ended question, half respondents wasn’t able to come up with a single one.” This shows there is a big disconnect between businesses and consumers.

There were a number of interesting trends that where revealed in Shelton’s study. Consumers rather see a 100% natural product rather than a product that contains only some natural ingredients.

Another trend that was illuminated in the study, is there is a prevailing erroneous assumptions made among consumers around green economy related terms, such as “organic” and “natural.” Consumers believe that “natural” is a regulated term, while “organic” is just a word used by marketers to justify a premium price on a green product. The same applies when it comes to toxic chemicals. Consumers don’t know how to discern harmful ingredients from naturally-occurring and good chemicals.

“Consumers complain that they see a lot of green products with ‘green’ everywhere, but they don’t see anything about ‘natural’,” says Shelton.

Most People Don’t Go Green to Save The Planet.
Information and facts is not enough to motivate people to go green. “Studies show that we make decisions based on our emotional brain (and not the rational),” continues Shelton. “This means that, if you want your consumers to go green, you have to appeal to their feelings, senses, perceptions, beliefs – FACTS ARE NOT ENOUGH.” So how do you go around this?

First, engage with the emotional brain and, only then, kick-in the rational argument. We don’t like to believe we’re buying based on our feelings and our emotions – businesses – and marketers – need to give us facts for people to hold on to.

“Another interesting fact that came up in Shelton’s research is that 35% would be willing to give away their iPod to save the planet,” says Shelton. “This means 65% wouldn’t give away their mp3 player!”

Consumers say they want to do something about the environment (because that’s the right thing to do), but when it comes to leaving their comfort zone or giving up on a benefit or on their life style, most people won’t make the green decision. “Never discount health, comfort, convenience, life style and beauty,” Shelton added. “That stuff can make or break your campaign.”

Manufacturing Practices, Ingredients and Packaging are Key
Do you know how most consumers know if a product is green? The answer might surprise you:“They saw it on the packaging,” says Shelton. Most relate to certifications, labels and even advertising. A curious fact that came up on this study was that if consumers don’t see a company as green, they won’t buy the product, even if that product is green. (This perception can be misleading. Yesterday I had a great chat with an EPA representative and she mentioned that the line Green Works – by Clorox – is more environmentally sustainable than Sun Chips).

So, in the eyes of the consumer, how can a company be perceived as green? Respondents identified the following practices, in order: Recycling, no chemical waste, renewable energy, minimal product packaging and a sustainable product life cycle. But, when it comes to food, the criteria changes. Consumers look for food that contains no chemicals/preservatives, no additives or pesticides, and, ideally contains only natural ingredients.

“The bottom-line is that there’s no size fits all,” says Shelton. “You need to focus on different green arguments according to product category.”

The 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of Buy: Price, Ingredients, Brand, Efficacy and Packaging
This is astonishing and very insightful. Note the placement of efficacy: it’s the fourth criterion, and not the first or second as many would come to believe. But even here the no-size-fits-all mentality shows: when it comes to ingredients, people would pay the most for a product with the “plant-derived ethanol, natural products.” But when it comes to food, it’s all about endorsements versus ingredients or description.” All this data is very surprising,” says Shelton. “For instance, for cosmetics, it’s all about what kind of energy was used to make the product, and same applies to baby products!”

If you’re grappling with what kind of description you should adopt when alluring to renewable energy use, go for specificity. For instance, Shelton’s study identified that “Manufactured with renewable energy” is less powerful than “manufactured with wind power.”

As for best packaging, consider using descriptions such as “made with naturally biodegradable materials.”

Green Communications: Be Transparent and Personable
“Only 6% of consumers believe companies say they’re green because they actually believe in it,” goes Shelton. “Most consumers see green as a marketing or a sales strategy.” Some of the feedback Shelton’s study collected points in this direction:

“Green seems it’s a ploy for people to buy things,” says a consumer. “Manufacturers sometimes think we are stupid or gullible,” says another. So how do go around this? “Be transparent. That’s what’s going to win the day with consumers,” says Shelton.

Visit the Shelton Group Web site, for more information on the Eco Pulse study.

The Power of ANDvantage

Sofia Ribeiro — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:02:27 +0000

Increased Profits by Solving Relevant Global Social Issues

The Sustainable Brands ‘10 conference opening night event featured an eye-opening presentation by Bill Marquard, founder of Marble Leadership and author of Wal-Smart: What It Really Takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart World. He introduced the audience to ANDvantage strategies, which help companies generate increased revenue and profits in their core business by solving relevant global social issues.

A few days ago, at the opening night of the Sustainable Brands ‘10 conference, Bill Marquard, founder of Marble Leadership and author of Wal-Smart: What It Really Takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart World, walked attendees through the traditional OR mentality, where senior managers were lead by economic leaders (such as Milton Friedman) who believed you can only have profits OR philanthropy. Instead, businesses should use the revolutionary power of ANDvantage.

ANDvantage strategies help companies generate increased revenue and profits in their core business by solving relevant global social issues. According to Marquard, successful sustainable businesses are able to focus on profits, people and on the environment, bringing the triple bottom line to the core of business strategy. There are dual benefits of social innovation: market development, product innovation, operational efficiency, culture building.

ANDvantage fosters innovation by asking tough questions: How can my business provide environmentally AND socially responsible products and still be competitive in terms of performance, quality and price? “If Sustainable Brands is the answer, what’s the question? How do we find the AND between social issues and business value?” inquired Marquard.

Marquard’s laid out the four stages that business go through to get to the stage where they obtain business value from tackling social issues:

1. Philanthropy
2. Strategic philanthropy
3. Strategic sustainability
4. Find the advantage embedded in core business

Marquard showcased some best practices case studies. French dairy food firm, Danone entered in a joint venture with a firm called Grameen, teaming up with local experts to build a yogurt factory to produce nutritional yogurt that would address some of the malnutrition in the poor people of Bangladesh. With 50% of children in the country suffering from malnutrition, the company’s priority was not only to maximize profits, but the health of their customers in the regain.

Not only is the malnutrition issue addressed, but the local community benefits in other ways in that 250 area farmers supply milk to the factory at a rate that is a little more than they would receive from their regular customers. Because many of the people in the region cannot afford to chill their food, special nutrients, designed to keep fresh for up to a week outside a refrigerator, are added. A network of women then take bags of the yogurt around to local villages.

One cup of yogurt provides 30% of the recommended daily intake of nutrition for children. When introducing the product to the villages, a Danone representative from Danone, will accompany the women to the who explains its nutritional benefits . A costumed Lion also visits the villages with the team to help generate interest. The effort is done on a small scale, to limit risk and to enable Danone to learn how to market food the the South Asia market. The potential benefit is significant as it helps Danone determine whether the lucrative market of neighboring India

Danone made a profit of more than $1bn in 2008 and expects that to rise by 10% this year, despite a downturn in sales in Europe. They are currently in talks to other companies discussing the idea of starting up similar joint ventures in Bangladesh.

He also used Wal-Mart as a good example of how tackling social issues can be profitable. In 2008, Walmart teamed up with the global relief and development organization Mercy Corps, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Guatemalan nonprofit,Fundación ÁGIL (Fundación Apoyo a la Generación de Ingresos Locales) to launch of an alliance to improve the lives of small-scale farmers in Guatemala, called Inclusive Market Alliance for Rural Entrepreneurs.

The purpose of the alliance is to address Guatemala’s persistent rural poverty, by introducing the farmers to training and making available market connections. Farmers participate in training on crop diversification and good agricultural practices, processing and post-harvest techniques to meet national and international agricultural standards, and business and management skills including the use of critical pricing information. They will also receive assistance to buy tools, equipment and other agricultural resources.

The three-year effort is working to build the capacity of small-scale farmers to help them move from traditional corn and beans production to demand-driven production to supply major retailers like Wal-Mart in Central America. These farmers are supplying retailers with targeted crops like tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and onions. Guatemala’s overall poverty rate stands at 51%, with nearly three-quarters of the poor living in rural areas and working in agriculture.

With the resources provided by the Alliance, small-scale farmers in these rural areas are able to grow into entrepreneurial producers of premium horticultural products. It is expected that higher, more consistent incomes will lead to increases in education, health and food security for their families and communities.

Marquard challenged business leaders to quit using OR and to embrace the power of AND; solving social problems through core business will lead to innovation. It will be interesting to see how his presentation – and challenge – will impact companies working toward sustainability.