Building Sustainable Brands

8/6/2019 Building Sustainable Brands

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www.CarbonNeutral.com

Inspiring Marketing for Success:

Building Sustainable Brands

Based on the event Making the right claims:

using communicatons to build confidence in sustainable products & services


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Markeng has become smaller in so many ways. Its become

more and more short-term in its outlook Its become the

dogged follower of consumers, only daring to give them what

they want right now, rather than a leader, pre-empng and

even shaping future consumer wants and needs Its all about

value, not values, Mr. Gibbons stated.

Speaking at a recent Insight event held by The CarbonNeutral

Company, Mr Gibbons joined a panel of speakers to discuss the

role of markeng in building confidence in sustainable

products and services.

This transformaon of the markeng role which Mr. Gibbons

says was once inspiraonal is damaging, and nowhere is the

problem clearer than in the area of sustainability. Sustainabil-

ity, he explained, is inherently about values and about seeing

the bigger picture, and therefore it cannot be squeezed into

this new, narrower definion of markeng. When market-

ers dont see sustainability directly movang consumer

behaviour at the moment, they dismiss the potenal of green

markeng altogether. Markeng, frustrangly, has become

the one area of business that has held sustainability back the

most.

Also on the panel was John Grant, writer of The Green

Markeng Manifesto, and founder of the consultancy

Abundancy Partners, whose clients include IKEA and the Royal

Mail.

Mr. Grant called green markeng a dangerous business. In a

changing marketplace, green markeng is essenal, but

remarkably few companies manage to do it well. He pointed

out that with hordes of businesses rushing to get out a green

message any green message the market has become

saturated with conflicng claims, and dogged by accusaons of

greenwashing. In such an atmosphere, some of the best and

most innovave work companies are doing on environmen-

tal issues, and parcularly on the complex subject of climate

change, can end up lost in translaon.

Paula Oliveira, Associate Director of Brand Valuaon and

Analycs at Interbrand, summed up the situaon concisely:

Theres a lot of noise around the subject, and its quite

difficult for businesses to stand out from all this noise and

make their voice heard.

Inspiring Markeng for Success: Building Sustainable Brands

I stand before you today as a marketer, said Giles Gibbons, founder and CEO of Good

Business, before going on to make a startling confession: Markeng has failed and

not just when it comes to sustainability.

I want markeng to rediscover its

role as the real guardian of the brand,

and the accompanying need to look

not just at where we are now, but

where we go.

Giles Gibbons, Founder and CEO, Good Business

But that doesnt have to be the case. Customerscare about long-term sustainability, and want

reliable informaon about the green credenals

of the products and services they buy. Busi-

nesses, also, want to be proud of their work,

and inspired by what they do. Sustainability

shouldnt pander to the short-term model that

is strangling modern markeng, Mr. Gibbons

argued; instead, marketers have the power to

demonstrate to companies and the public how

sustainability can revitalise brands values and

foster real leadership.


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Ms. Oliveira declared that the business world is coming to

embrace sustainability, and that there is a massive

potenal from the demand side for customers to engage with

the brand. And it makes business sense: it can be because

companies offer products and services that help customers

live more sustainable lives, or it can just be because of the risk

of losing customers if companies dont behave like corporate

cizens. According to Interbrands recent research, a brands

corporate cizenship strategy is responsible for 13% of brand

favourability (customers overall impression of that brand).

While that might seem low at first glance, Ms. Oliveira ex-

plained, when it is compared with the contribuon that more

basic consideraons, like quality and price, make to brand

favourability, the figure of 13% indicates that corporate

cizenship has an impressive degree of influence over

customers opinions. Sustainability will be a crucial issue well

into the future, Ms. Oliveira said, And if you dont do anything

about it, you are almost going to be out of consideraon for

customers.

Her fellow panel speaker, Giles Gibbons, agreed that thebusiness world is changing and companies are taking more

responsibility for their environmental impact, but added,

What most businesses havent done effecvely is tell

anyone about it in a compelling way through their products

and services.

Green marketng the way forward

Consumers know what they want, said Mr. Gibbons; the role of

markeng is to show them where the business is going so that

the consumers can make informed decisions. That means

taking a point of view about the future. It means having a

personality, he argued. A personality means you dont talk

in platudes; it means you believe youre going somewhere.

The goal, he said, is persuading consumers to trust the brand.

When sustainability and markeng come together, as they

have at the Doves, the M&Ses, the John Lewises, the

Timberlands, the Innocents, you can feel that it works, it

feels real, it feels human, it has a genuine direcon, and mostimportantly, it feels like something you, the consumer, can

trust, because you get it. Mr. Gibbons concluded that brands

rise above being just products when they take on a genuine

direcon.

The speakers came up with three key themes that should

shape green communicaons. To stand out, said

Ms. Oliveira, your sustainability strategy has to be consistent

with your brand proposion. Nicola McLaren, Consumer and

Market Insights (CMI) Unilever, agreed, adding, That

integraon ensures the sustainability message isnt just there

as a way ofcking a box, rather it shows that we are doing well

as a business by doing well for the planet and its people, and

this can serve to further reinforce the brand itself.

pureglacier

KITCHE N

Photo:Pell eBergstrm/SkarpAgent

Why are businesses missing out on the

enormous potenal of green markeng and

how can they get it right?


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the crops, and therefore a higher-quality tea. Mr. Grant agreed

that the most successful green brands link the sustainability

benefits of their products to more tradional messages about

the products quality and value.

The third point may be the most crucial: green markeng

requires real transparency, which means it isnt for the faint of

heart. Sustainability is judged from your very worst

credenal, Mr. Grant said, in contrast to branding, which

focuses on the businesss best aributes. Companies making

green claims are voluntarily pung their business pracces

under a microscope, and need to be upfront about their

sustainability policies to be able to withstand public scruny.

Ms. Oliveira cauoned that before companies make state-ments about their corporate social responsibility, they must

be ready to be authenc and accurate, and to provide proof

points as evidence of their accomplishments. In the age of

social media, the public will quickly discover any inaccuracy in

a companys claims, she said, and bad execuon can ruin the

most well-intenoned sustainability policies.

However, Ms. Oliveira went on to reassure the audience that

good green claims are about being honest, not about being

perfect. A company can, and even should, hold up a vision of

the sustainable business it is working to become, provided that

the company makes it clear that this is a vision. Ms. McLarenadded that companies need to express their intermediate

goals as well, and communicate what they have already done

on environmental issues, in order to add substance to their

long-term commitments and to movate their customers to

see themselves as part of that future vision.

Certficaton the key to credibility

Cerficaon images are fantasc they really, really work,

said Ms. McLaren. Consumers trust them, and these images

talk to consumers very quickly. When a business must fall

back on an exhausve explanaon of its sustainability

programme, without the instant point of reference a cerfica-

on provides, customers can easily become confused and lose

interest.

Rebecca Fay, Markeng Director for The CarbonNeutral

Company, argued that the proliferaon of different

sustainability standards created by companies only makes the

problem worse. Cerficaon marks can help cut through the

tangle of conflicng standards.

Ms. Fay said that when it comes to claims about a companys

carbon footprint, a carbon neutral statement can really deal

with that confusion, because its a clear, simple statement

about an acon that is being taken to reduce carbon

emissions, and as such is powerful. However, the term

carbon neutral will only retain its power if companies use

it consistently and credibly, which means that any company

claiming that it or its products are carbon neutral should make

sure it is following a publicly available standard.

Secondly, a companys green message has to

be relevant to a range of different audiences,

including employees, suppliers, and civil

society. Perhaps most importantly, though,

it must be relevant to customers and that

requires finding what Ms. McLaren called

the consumer sweet spot, the point where

the benefit to the planet intersects with the

benefit to the customer. She cited PG Tips

successful use of Rainforest Alliancecerficaon to engage with customers: the

cerficaon promised beer lives for

farmers, while the imagery PG Tips used in

the campaign portrayed thriving farming

communies creang sustainable livelihoods

through their relaonship with PG Tips. The

campaign not only helped customers under-

stand the sustainability benefits of PG Tips

tea, but also suggested that a living wage for

farmers meant beer care and aenon to

One significant tool exists to ensure green claims

are relevant to the brand, relevant to a wide range

of audiences, and backed up by solid evidence:

cerficaon.


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Using marketng to engage and inspire

Markeng inspired me because I thought it was the excing

bit of business, Mr. Gibbons confessed. If that potenal sll

exists anywhere in markeng, then surely it is on the topic of

sustainability. This is where markeng can truly, as Mr. Gib-

bons put it, see the big picture of peoples lives and find out

what will make them easier and beer and happier and more

fulfilling.

Because winning the customers trust is vital, Ms. McLaren

argued that everyday household brands are ideally placed to

lead the transformaon of green markeng: Everyday

household brands have a real opportunity to play a pivotal role

in this new conversaon with the consumer about

sustainability, because they are so well established in

consumers minds. We already have a dialogue with ourconsumers, we already have a relaonship built on trust, and

therefore our consumers will listen to us.

Ms. Oliveira noted that the business-to-business market is

leading the way in creang a demand for clear informaon

about companies environmental pracces. While 13% of the

average consumers opinion of a brand stems from the brands

corporate cizenship record, that figure rises to a full 17% -

20% when the consumer is a company, not an individual.

Finally, Mr. Grant argued a strong case in favour of using

markeng to engage, not just with individual customers, butwith enre communies. In his opinion, past efforts to change

customers behaviour through markeng what he called the

plasc bags and pledges era have proven that it is

impossible to apply aspiraonal, individualised market-

ing to changing peoples behaviour around sustainability.

However, new forms of community engagement are, in Mr.

Grants words, moving forward in the way the individualised

approach hasnt. They engage people and get them on board,

wherever theyre starng from.

The CarbonNeutral Protocol has existed for eight years to

cerfy carbon neutral products, services and companies in 32

countries. It is administered by The CarbonNeutral Company

and provides its own cerficaon mark, enabling companies to

demonstrate their green credenals with a simple, impactul

statement. The CarbonNeutral Protocol is also fully

compliant with other third party standards and guidelines

which have been produced by the UK government (through

both the Department for Food and Rural Affairs and theDepartment of Energy and Climate Change), the Brish

Standards Instuon and the Federal Trade Commission in the

US.

If a client uses a CarbonNeutral statementeffecvely, it can allow them to differenate

their product or service, make a statement

of leadership and build reputaon, and

engage stakeholders on important issues.

Rebecca Fay, Markeng Director, The CarbonNeutral

Company

In most cases, Mr. Gibbons said, the change comes from the

top down, driven by a few far-sighted execuves, and can

therefore happen quickly and dynamically. However, the rare

occasions when the transformaon occurs from the boom up

are inspiring. Mr. Gibbons cited John Lewis as one example of

a company where sustainability seemed to be in everyones

blood, and became integrated into the companys markeng

and operaons naturally. Whether green markeng comes

from the top or from the ground up, Mr. Gibbons was clear

about one thing: a real and effecve connecon between a

companys communicaons and its sustainability policies is

almost never the result of regulaons. Its about turning the

debate in these organisaons towards innovaon, towards

what can be rather than what people externally tell us we

need to be, he concluded.

How can a company transform its operaons to

bring sustainability and markeng together?

As Mr. Gibbons put it,

Lets inspire markeng to be inspiring.


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About The CarbonNeutral Company

The CarbonNeutral Companyis a world-leading provider of carbon reduction solutions. We work with over 300 busi-

nesses in 32 countries to develop offset inclusive carbon reduction programmes which enable companies to increase

revenue, manage costs and engage stakeholders. Since 1997, we have purchased carbon credits from more than 200

projects in 24 countries.

CarbonNeutral is the registered trademark of The CarbonNeutral Company and is a global standard to certify that

businesses have measured and reduced their CO2

emissions to net zero for their company, products, operations or serv-

ices in accordance withThe CarbonNeutral Protocol. We have offices in London, New York and Singapore and are a

founding member of The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance(ICROA), which provides leadership and a

unified voice in advocating for rigorous offset industry standards.

To find out more about how an offset inclusive carbon management programme can benefit your business, please con-

tact Diana Lutfior call 0207 833 6000.

Building Sustainable Brands

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