Branding Unsustainable Products and Services

Sometimes I write something that I publish in my other blog, Digital Savvy, and this blog. Increasingly I find myself addressing marketing folks about becoming advocates and in this article, going so far as to drop the language of brand and branding.

This all started as a post I made to a blog I was unfamiliar with, The Idea, by Brian Creath. I had clicked through to Mr. Creath's blog via a reference to his being upset with Jonathan Baskin's book,
Branding Only Works on Cattle.

So here is a call to arms. It's an ode to advocacy, to Earth, and EarthDay.



Before Brand

I guess it may be difficult for some to imagine a time before the word, branding, was used in marketing. I'm not talking the middle ages, but a scant twenty years or so when people bought products and trusted companies who built reputations, good ones. Back then there was talk of name awareness when agencies had people at the helm who put their names on their work and represented their clients: before JWT and WPP. Name awareness was measured and top of mind was a value reflected in sales. Emotions were NOT called in to play as a substitute for product features and benefits, many of which were, and still are, unsustainable.

Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP noted in a letter in their Social Responsibility report: “So if the marketing industry has been unwittingly complicit in causing the problem (build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere), it’s now confronted with an historic opportunity: to shape and encourage consumer demand for sustainable products and lifestyles; to restore the true value of durability; to reject the superfluous in products and packaging; to make much of what has passed for fashion deeply unfashionable…"

Branding Unsustainable Products
What I think is that brand and branding was used in the service of so many unsustainable products and services with too many disreputable companies across a wide range of unsustainable industries that it may be viewed as a cover-up as a noun and covering up as a verb.

The language of brands is rife with what the late George Carlin called a soft language and said, "I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality..." My sense is that a good portion of consumers, especially younger ones, don't like them either.

Authentic Brands
Maybe we have just come around a corner, with three of the top four advertisers in Internet advertising suffering mightily - retail, automotive and financial services - where we can start to address authenticity, reputation and, as a tip of the hat to Mr. Carlin, reality for the emerging and sustainable business landscape. It is not just coincidental that what we hear today is all about the lack of trust and confidence among our citizens towards a significant number of our business leaders and their companies as it is proof positive that these these two values are crucial to sales.

Jonathan Baskin
I recently heard Mr. Baskin speak at a meeting of the Luxury Marketing Council here in San Francisco. I wrote afterwards and repeat now, this is a great book to read and send to your clients who need to challenge themselves to thinking about a world without branding. Three years ago I recommended not using the word, brand, for a whole week, substituting instead "reputation" to shift perceptions. Give it a try.

I think Mr. Baskin is being provocative and challenging the status quo. And, for my money, it's about time. Glen Urban, an MIT professor, wrote a book four years ago entitled, "Don't Just Relate -Advocate," and that's what Mr. Baskin is doing. And I admire him for it.

Steering the Conversation Forward
He's getting attention and challenging us to meet the historic opportunity referenced by Sir Sorrell and steer the conversation towards how we are going to do that and not use the tainted language of branding. Let's jump on it. Our scientists are telling us we are running out of time.

Language of Sustainability

We recently changed the name of our company from Red Direct to Red Digital Marketing. It fits much better with what we do and our commitment to sustainability as a business strategy.

Comparing our old self to our new self by the language we use:

Six Principles for a Sustainable Australia

My friend, Jerry Holtaway brought to my attention an interesting fellow, Barney Foran, an economist presently a visiting fellow with the Centre for Research and Environmental Studies (CRES) at the Australian National University in Canberra. Professor Foran calls out six principles essential to building a sustainable Australia. They are:

Stabilising human population number and age structure;
reducing the use of the grand global elements;
basing economy and society on flows rather than stocks;
shortening the supply chain;
engineering society for durability and resilience;
and developing a new economics where taxes tell the truth.

Jerry also pointed out a very interesting project, the Australian Conservation Foundation's Interactive Consumption Atlas, "a really excellent example of making the ecologically invisible visible in a compelling way."

Invitation to Attend March 26th Synergos Meeting

I will be a panelist at the Thursday, March 26th meeting of Synergos in Palo Alto, 6PM to 8PM. The topic is "Economics of Sustainability." RSVP now. This is a great way to meet new people and engage in stimulating conversation. The March meeting is an annual Earth Day Eve event.
The Hayden Group sponsors the Synergos Series. The Synergos Series offers interesting guests, interesting speakers, business networking and brainstorming- all in an intimate setting that begins with wine tasting.

WHERE: PALO ALTO:Please RSVP to Victoria Hayden at victoria@thehaydengroup.com so we can ensure adequate seating. WHEN: The last Thursday of every month. Drop by any time between 6 - 8PM.

Earth Day values stamp designed by Rose Cassano of EarthSayers.tv. Use with permission. Thank you.

Consumer Expectations and Your Reputation

A Practical Guide to developing a Successful Corporate Sustainability Program is an excellent guide published by the company, Waste Management. If you are struggling to convince your management on the importance and relevance of a sustainability initiative for your company, this guide lays out the business benefits e.g. improved worker productivity, reduction in operating costs, and energy savings along with practical suggestions for implementation.

The guide also calls out what consumers expect from business. This should catch the eye of your CMO as well as the section that calls out reputation-building benefits.

Consumer Expectations
- Reduce pollution throughout office and manufacturing operations (71%)
- Design products/packaging with more environmentally-friendly contents and minimal packaging (69%)
- Distribute and transport goods more efficiently (69%)
- Communicate environmental efforts to employees and consumers, so they can support those efforts (69%)
- Donate money to environmental causes (59%)
- Lobby for more environmentally friendly policies (57%)

Reputation-building Benefits

-Brand enhancement and protection
-Marketing advantage—price premium
-Appreciation in shareholder value
-Employee recruiting, retention and satisfaction improvements
-Customer loyalty
-and “Most Favorable” regulatory reporting requirements

And no faking it!

However, you should beware of using your corporate sustainability report strictly as a public relations tool. There are many advocacy groups that monitor these reports and check the validity of claims made in them.

While you may download a copy of "Practical Guide" of this report here and I suggest you visit the Waste Management site as well.

The Social Intrapreneur

The Social Intrapreneur is an excellent publication from the consultants at sustainability.com and the Skoll Foundation. Social Intrapreneurs are corporate changemakers who work inside companies. They innovate and deliver market solutions to some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges.

You don't have to move outside an organization to be a change agent and an advocate for sustainability.

More Talk Than Walk

From the Think Ecological report, "IT Sustainability Imperatives in Internet and eCommerce Business," Jan 2009, some key findings:

"Yet they’re mostly talk and little walk: conducting senior level discussion (37 percent),
publishing CSR guidelines (32 percent), and doing nothing (31 percent) topped the
list of what executives are doing to push the ecological mantra.

Top environmental sustainability challenges included low of awareness of business
benefits (53 percent), fears of compromised productivity (52 percent) and perceived
costs to build in efficiencies (50 percent).

There is no consistent owner, if any, of a corporate sustainability agenda in the
organization. More than 43 percent don’t have one or don’t know if they do.

Nearly 60 percent want more material and events to help them improve
Eco-Logical thinking."

There is opportunity here for building awareness, education, and consulting with executives on the benefits of sustainability as a business strategy. And the CMO should be the one leading the conversation and resulting action plans.

"The bottom line at Pitney Bowes reflects tangible benefits...Sustainability furnishes a starting point for connecting with existing and potential customers."

-Michael Monahan, CFO, Pitney Bowes.

Download a copy of the report "IT Sustainability."

Cradle to Cradle Certification

The publication, Greener by Design, reported today that "McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) is taking its Cradle to Cradle analysis further down the product supply chain with its new Cradle to Cradle Approved Ingredient certification.

The new certification looks at the chemical components of ingredients and materials that will be in finished products, assessing their effects on human and environmental health, as well as their ability to be recycled or composted."

Just as all Cradle to Cradle certified products are listed publicly, MBDC plans to provide a public database of certified ingredients.

Sustainability is Not Optional

DM News, the authority for Direct Marketers (January 19th 2009) wondered, "what the new presidency will mean for green marketing." Well, the good news is that Terry Wellman who produces the show, Business Green Media Conference, notes a shift in the general attitude towards sustainability. "The atmosphere has changed tremendously with the change in administration, and it is now very positive about sustainability." Good to hear.

Yet I can't help wondering how it is that sustainability remains in the optional category. As a friend suggested at lunch yesterday, rather than EarthSayers.tv being the "voices of sustainability" the positioning ought to be, "voices of survival."

That's the bad news. We still act like we have all the time in the world.

What's Marketing Got To Do With It?

Recently, when presenting EarthSayers.tv to a prospective sponsor, the person I was talking with seemed surprised that a marketing person would be the builder of EarthSayers.tv. This person comes from the environmental movement and the idea that one would "market" sustainability is counterintuitive. Well, low awareness is low awareness. And the tools available to increase awareness are communication tools and practices. The Web is driving big changes in marketing and environmentalists need to spread the word. Our President is setting the tone with a strong collaboration and cooperation message.

The same day I was talking with the environmentalist, I ran across the Social Responsibility report of the WPP, one of the world's largest communications services groups, employing 110,000 people working in over 2,000 offices in 106 countries. It contains a letter from the CEO, Sir Martin Sorrell, about the role of marketers in today's world. Here are some highlights from his letter:


“So if the marketing industry has been unwittingly complicit in causing the problem, it’s now confronted with an historic opportunity: to shape and encourage consumer demand for sustainable products and lifestyles; to restore the true value of durability; to reject the superfluous in products and packaging; to make much of what has passed for fashion deeply unfashionable…The Internet makes the dissemination of information and the mobilization of protest swift and virtually cost-free…we’re all too conscious that we can be credible as an advisor only if we practice what we preach.”

We are practicing what we preach.

Tupperware and the Women of Soweto South Africa

There is a section in the New York Times every Sunday called "The Boss." Today's column was about Rich Goings, CEO of Tupperware. He was recruited by Warren Batts to be President of Tupperware in 1992. He set about changing the image of Tupperware that was a left over from the June Cleaver era. What he did in August of 2008 is this: "I took our Board to Soweto in South Africa to meet with 300 women who sell and use our products. The directors saw the confidence the women were getting, and it opened their eyes. We've been in Soweto for 20 years, and the directors saw that even in desperate places in the world, good things happen and the difference we make is visible."

I visited their site and read the article on social responsibility:

"Tupperware Brands is a leader in driving positive change in women's lives. Our business strategies and philanthropic programs align to enlighten, educate, and empower women
and girls. Offering educational opportunities and building confident and accomplished young women are social investments that guarantee powerful returns for generations
to come, and build a legacy of caring for tomorrow's leaders -our children."

Amen.

We're Not Dabbling

"Advertising agencies have dabbled in side businesses for decades, but “inventing their own brand, not dependent on clients’ largess, is the big new thing,” said George Parker, an ad agency consultant and writer of AdScam, a blog about the industry."

When we at RED Direct undertook the project to build EarthSayers.tv, the first Website dedicated to the sustainability movement and highlighting the voices of sustainability, we weren't thinking about a side business.

We were thinking about being part of a real transformation and making innovation our main business. Advertising and direct marketing, what we used to do, don't work for us anymore. We think there are clients out there who agree with us and are looking for help to put sustainability strategies at the heart or core of their business. And, coming from advertising and direct marketing, it seems clear to us that sustainability strategies will drive major innovations within marketing.

CFO Dave Burritt of Caterpillar, Inc. calls out the first "broad implication" of sustainability strategies as reputation - consumers demand responsibility.

It is at the intersection of sustainability strategies, thought leadership and relationship marketing, Web 2.0 technologies where innovation blossoms and we know so. EarthSayers.tv is at the center of this intersection as a platform for thought leadership, built on Web 2.0 technology, and, in the next phase, a robust network of sustainability advocates, the relationship marketing model adapted to the digital world.

Green Design Grant Announced Apply by Jan 23rd

Rob Coleman of the Rogue Element, a design and branding firm out of Chicago just announced their first annual Green Design Grant. The team will be giving away a year's worth of design services to a sustainable or green organization in need of design services who couldn't otherwise afford them.

This direct link takes you to a grant page with all the details. Pass this information on.

Rogue Element does not have any limitations about where your organization is located, or even if it is in more than one location. We work with clients world-wide. However, any travel costs incurred by Rogue Element while providing services under the Grant will need to be paid by the winning organization.

This is a great opportunity for a start-up or an organization needing a make-over. Rob's team is talented, committed, and are voices of sustainability.

The Chief Inspired Protagonist

This is the title of Jerry Hollender the President of Seventh Generation and a leader of the growing sustainability movement. We are very grateful to Jerry for his comments about EarthSayers.tv in his latest blog posting, the Inspired Protagonist.

You can subscribe to his blog, but here is his posting for today, December 3, 2008.

I sometimes wonder, after I've spoken at a conference, whether I learn more from listeners than listeners learn from me. Take, for example, an email I recently received from Ruth Ann Barrett, a marketing executive who's previously worked for Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.

Ruth Ann recorded a talk I gave at the Economist magazine's recent conference on building sustainable businesses. I spoke of Seventh Generation's corporate responsibility reporting and the challenge of creating metrics that are meaningful and helpful for consumers. Ruth Ann thought my remarks were interesting enough to post a snippet on YouTube. But what really interested me was learning about a new venture she's leading, EarthSayers.tv.

EarthSayers.tv consists of a group of high-tech veterans who aim to grow sustainability awareness and education on the Internet. When you Google the term "sustainability," you get a little less than 30 million results. Do the same for "Britney Spears," and you get nearly 100 million. EarthSayers seeks to change that sorry state of affairs by increasing Internet traffic for those sites that really matter. Through its video and audio clips of the "unfiltered voices of sustainability" -- the pioneers, innovators, and unsung heroes -- EarthSayers.tv is also helping people to enter the "learning cycle" and do the right thing for society and the environment.

EarthSayers.tv has launched a prototype; I encourage you to check it out.

I-Open Leadership Training Conference

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) is sponsoring a two day retreat here in Newbury, Ohio, South of Cleveland. Ed Morrison of I-Open introduced us to the process he uses to help citizens build civic space and collaborative communities. I-Open pushes the envelope in using Web 2.0 tools essential to building collaborative networks and is changing the landscape of economic development in many regions of the United States. Today also featured a comprehensive presentation by Valdis Krebs of orgnet.com. He is the pro of Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Organizational Network Analysis (ONA). Visit his site and have your eyes opened.

These are the folks we want to work with in developing a thought leadership network in the second phase of development for www.earthsayers.tv.

Video coverage of today's presentation is available on the I-Open site:
http://i-open-education.near-time.net/wiki/i-open-education-leadership-retreat-for-dec-3-4-5-2008

Six Business Benefits to Sustainability by John Friedman

John Friedman wrote an excellent article on the Six Business Benefits of Sustainability. I picked it up at JustMeans, an online community focused on creating a values-driven economy. Here they are in summary form:

License to Operate (Speed to Market)

Cost Reduction or Avoidance

Market Opportunity/Advantage
(Impact of actions, and not intentions)

Employee Engagement

Access to Investment Capital
(From 1995 to 2003 assets involved in social investing have grown 40% faster than all professionally managed investment assets in the U.S.)

Sustainability as Critical Business Issue - 69%

Survey results by CoreNet Global and Jones Lang LaSalle, November 10, 2008 as reported in The Earth Times.

Of the more than 400 Corporate Real Estate Executives (CREs) surveyed, 69 percent said sustainability is a critical business issue for their real estate departments. When CoreNet and Jones Lang LaSalle asked the same question in 2007, 47 percent said it was a critical issue. Furthermore, 40 percent this year rated energy and sustainability as a "major factor" in their companies' location decisions, with an additional 36 percent calling it a "tie-breaker" between locations that are otherwise competitive.

Companies are increase their focus on Energy and Sustainability to reduce costs.

The Five Inhibitors to Sustainability

While adding content to EarthSayers.tv, I am always inspired and educated. Here is but one example.

EarthSayers are individuals who are taking active steps to motivate and inspire us to change. The 7th Generation Project, for example, is a U.K.-based not for profit social capacity and network project seeking to address the interwoven layer of human, earth and economic sustainability.

In their video (it is on EarthSayers, but you are clicking through to it on Youtube because until we get funding to build the site out, it is easier and quicker to send you to Youtube), they identify the five key inhibitors to change:

1. Awareness
(I had no idea it was so serious)

2.Capacity
(I don’t know how to fix it)

3. Action
(What can I do about it)

4. Leadership
Why are we NOT doing anything about this?

5. Community
I can’t do this on my own.

EarthSayers.tv is focused on all five inhibitors. Awareness and capacity through the content on EarthSayers.tv and the EarthSayer Leadership Network, as proposed, is being designed to address inhibitors 3 through 5.

We are going to have to bring more ideas like EarthSayers.tv to the fore that address these inhibitors one by one and with great innovation and activism. I hope what I write stimulates you and inspires you to start addressing some or all of these inhibitors with innovative products and services. We can do it.

"Strategic Doing"

One of the advantages of growing a Website dedicated to the sustainability movement is the like-minded people you meet. Recently I fell upon a Website, I-Open.org and read, "I-Open is focused on the habits we need to innovate in the "civic space". My eye fell on the offer of a whitepaper, "on new models of economic development."

I read the paper and can highly recommend it. The author, Ed Morrison, addresses building an open civic process called "strategic doing." Particularly germane to our site, earthsayers.tv, was his reference to the "appreciative leader" who "understands a fundamental insight about human behavior: people move in the direction of their conversations." I highly recommend you visit the I-Open site and download a copy. Today.

Once you make the habit of spending some time each day listening to an EarthSayer, someone speaking up for us and our planet, it becomes clear that the language of sustainability is strong and vibrant, but most of all it is inspiring. There is often an "I can do that" response to hearing an EarthSayer - an architect or a business leader or an artist or teacher - talk about how they are adopting sustainable principles and practices at home, at work, or in their communities.

We are beginning a conversation with the I-Open folks as together we have much to offer organizations in both the public and private sectors. The intersection of Web 2.0 technology and social and environmental consciousness offers us the opportunity to be creative and innovate.
Join with us in the conversation.

What Consumers Consider Important

From an article "Cause Marketing Offers Huge Payoffs, Study Finds" in Sustainable Life Media publication of October 7, 2008.

Additional research conducted by Cone Marketing identified the specific factors consumers consider important when deciding to support a company's cause efforts. For example:

84% would prefer to select the cause their purchase would support

83% say personal relevance is key

80% believe the specific nonprofit associated with the campaign matters

79% say they would be likely to switch from one brand to another, when price and quality are about equal, if the other brand is associated with a good cause

85% say they have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about

Consumers are more receptive to cause messages than ever before, the report suggests.

More than half (52%) of respondents say companies should maintain their level of financial support of causes and nonprofit organizations, despite current economic woes.