The recent news of Waitrose launching a packaging-free trial at their Oxford branch was greeted with much excitement and fanfare online. Given the impact our food packaging is having on the environment, this was an exciting development from one of the major supermarket brands. It was a huge PR win. So much so that it got me thinking of the well-publicised difficulties they were facing (£) this time last year.
Waitrose seem to have realised that the way to today’s consumer is by being a force for good. It’s a true reflection of a purpose driven brand in action: the brand, sustainability and packaging teams all working in perfect harmony to deliver on their brand mission of ‘Partners making the difference’.
People care – it’s not just a fad
Over the past few years, a considerable amount of evidence of a new generation of more ethically, socially and politically minded consumers has been publicised.
With an estimated eight million tonnes of plastic waste being dumped in the world’s oceans each year, we are all responsible. Smart corporates (and governments) are acting quickly to ensure they remain on the right side of public opinion.
A great example of a brand embracing this type of change is Evian, who announced last year that they’re going carbon neutral and plastic free.
In fact, looking beyond climate change, there is mounting evidence that doing good is actually smart business. An important piece of research from B Lab, revealed last year, showed that in the UK, certified B Corps (businesses that meet B Lab’s standards for transparent and ethical performance) are growing 28 times faster than the national economic growth of 0.5 percent.
I, for one, am hoping that this generation will continue this evolution to tackle the most pressing issues facing society right now. In climate change and plastic pollution, we have two critical issues. Brands that help facilitate a societal shift in how we deal with these issues are bound to win the hearts and minds of this generation of ethical consumer.
A really lovely example of this type of ethical brand in action is Adidas selling a million shoes made out of ocean plastic in 2017. A huge win for the bottom line, the planet and also the Adidas brand reputation.
This generation votes with their wallets, so brands with empty promises within their shiny new purpose statements should take note!
On the other hand, brands with sustainability at their core are starting to see the benefits of a virtuous circle: do good, capture hearts and minds by doing that good, which leads to growth and the space to do more good.
But don’t just jump on the bandwagon
With sustainability and brand purpose so inextricably linked, it’s important for any smart brand strategy to ensure these two elements are true and relevant.
We all saw what happened when when Pepsi’s tone-deaf campaign commodified and trivialised the #blacklivesmatter protests to sell soft drinks in 2017. When this goes wrong, it can take years to rebuild a reputation.
As Jeff Bezos once said, “your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room”. Brands that understand this spend considerable time and effort embedding ethical behaviour and innovative thinking within the business, the culture and the operation. It creates a real point of difference. And when brands embed that point of difference within not just their visual identity, but also the behaviours and attitudes of the team, they really start winning.
Jonathan Walker
Client Partner
According to Forrester Research, we’re in the middle of a marketing renaissance. But the Renaissance is remembered for a return to humanism – and for many brands right now, that’s an ingredient that is sorely lacking.
It’s true that today, it’s easier than ever for brands to connect with people. Our ever-increasing data footprint maps our every want, need and fear online for brand managers to segment and use. But with the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer telling us that only 56% of people trust business, clearly something is going wrong in this quest to win customers.
If the marketing world wants a real renaissance, interactions between businesses and their customers need to start feeling human again. And that doesn’t have to mean less automated; it just means the same personality and purpose should infuse every interaction.
Basically, it means getting your brand in order.
Here’s what to bear in mind when getting back to basics with your brand.
A strong brand gives everyone in the business a shared purpose and shared values to get behind. Then, every customer they interact with gets to experience what matters to the business, first-hand.
And the benefits of uniting your team behind a strong brand don’t stop there. Wellbeing and belonging research shows that the most effective and productive teams are those with a shared vision for the future. The 2018 Great Places to Work survey found that when employees believe their company has a high-trust culture, they’re 22 times more likely to want to work there for a long time. And the same survey found that millennials who like their workplace are 59 times more likely to strongly endorse the company to family and friends.
So it’s no surprise that businesses who are investing in their brand, their culture and their team’s wellbeing are raking in both top talent and brand loyalty.
Consider carefully how much of your brand’s customer interaction is going to hinge on artificial intelligence.
There’s no doubt that automated interactions have real value – customer service chatbots enable consumers to carry out such a wide variety of tasks, bots now account for more internet traffic than humans!
But they go wrong in so many ways, large and small, like a few years ago when a bot seriously embarrassed Microsoft. I can’t be the only person with a regional accent that Alexa, Siri and the local cinema booking line struggle to understand. And when that happens, I want a human I can turn to for help. In the age of authenticity and transparency, this is going to be all the more important.
The marketing renaissance idea assumes that people welcome online tracking and personalised advertising, but that isn’t always the case.
When it’s personally relevant, it can be really welcome. Amazon peppers its sites with product recommendations based explicitly on users’ search history, with hardly any backlash. I recently found out Stevie Wonder was playing Hyde Park this summer, thanks to a Facebook ad based on a search I’d made, and I was grateful for the heads-up.
But one study showed that when websites tell users their activity is being tracked, ad click-through rates drop significantly. It’s a fine line to tread.
A clearly defined brand includes a clear purpose: who you’re here for, what you offer them and when. Knowing your purpose will help you tread that fine line with confidence and conviction.
The relationship between businesses and their customers is always evolving, but get the basics of your brand right and that relationship will be coherent, well rounded and far more human. It’s a short step from there to trust and brand loyalty.
Jonathan Walker
Client Partner
I was in the US the other week to witness the reaction to the new Gillette advertising campaign. It was both amusing and frightening in equal measure, watching the consumers and pundits react: there were as many moments of moral outrage as there were passionate messages of support. Another major brand taking a stand on a topical social issue shouldn’t really have caught everyone by surprise. But it did…
In case you’ve been under a rock for the past week, this new ad urged men to do better by turning the original Gillette strapline “The best a man can get” on its head, with the new and thought-provoking “The best men can be”.
Sparking a debate about the next generation of masculinity in light of the #MeToo scandals should of course be lauded. However, the ad caused a flood of mixed responses, including a large number who viewed the film as sexist and anti-male. In some of the analysis, almost 40% of women reacted negatively to it.
Across the team here in the studio even, there was a range of reactions to the ad. What was universal though, was our admiration for the position they’re taking in starting the conversation. Gillette are absolutely on the right side of this important argument.
Although Gillette themselves say they are happy with sales in the aftermath of the controversy, it’s really too early to tell what type of impact this is all going to have on their reputation, market-share and brand value. However, two examples from recent history suggest this may well turn out to be a smart move: Patagonia and Nike.
Although much less controversial, it’s interesting to look at outerwear company Patagonia, who drew almost universal praise for their response to the savings the company made from the 2017 federal tax cuts last year. When CEO Rose Marcario announced on LinkedIn that “Instead of putting the money back into our business, we’re responding by putting $10 million back into the planet. Our home planet needs it more than we do” – the market gave Patagonia a gigantic thumbs up.
Given the mounting evidence to suggest that Patagonia’s revenue grows every time it amplifies its social mission, it’s safe to assume this latest commitment to environmental activism will continue that growth trend.
Similarly, when Nike launched its Colin Kaepernick-fronted campaign in the US last autumn, it created a huge amount of negative noise. The line “stand for something, even if it means sacrificing everything” was in direct response to the NFL protests against police violence, and got some people so hot under the collar that the #boycottnike was trending in the days and weeks after the launch.
However, that initial outcry doesn’t tell the whole story. In fact it seems quite the opposite: according to some data points, Nike’s sales have surged some 31% since the campaign. Truth indeed that standing for something is important in this age of cynicism and rock bottom corporate trust.
Whether Gillette continue the P&G trend of being early movers on a key issue, or a more cynical brand trying to lay claim to a very hot topic, remains to be seen. In fact, it will be determined by their actions in the coming weeks and months, for example: will they continue the debate or is this just a one off? Will they review their pink ‘Venus’ range for women (that includes names like Passion and Embrace and costs more than the men’s ranges)?
We’ll have to see, but as Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario put it when discussing other companies embracing social issues, “the companies that do that in a way that’s really consistent with their values are rewarded for doing it”.
If I were to hazard a guess, I would imagine this will not lead to the huge drop-off in market share that the #boycottgillette hashtag is currently predicting. Ultimately, they will be judged by this generation of consumers who, more so than ever, want to get behind organisations that stand for something.
So, bravo then to Gillette, for the ambition to take on the subject. If this trend continues, 2019 could very well become the year of the brave brand. I certainly hope so.
Jonathan Walker
Client Partner
To keep moving in the right direction, a brand needs to be bigger than one person. This means you, CEOs.
A visionary leader sounds like something to envy. Something that would be an asset to any company. And it’s easy to look at Tesla or Amazon and think they’re so successful because they had Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and their competitors didn’t. As a story all about people, not economics and strategy, it makes a kind of instinctive sense.
But a company’s vision shouldn’t live in one person. As part of the company brand, the vision belongs to everyone.
The power of brand to engage and empower employees is too often overlooked. But the brand tells everyone what they’re here for and where they’re going. And when everyone knows that, everyone can help things keep moving in the right direction.
Of course there are some upsides to having a charismatic figurehead attached to your company. They can put a human face on a corporation, making it easier for press and the public to engage. And as long as their star keeps rising, they’ll pull the company skyward in their wake.
But when the founder or CEO becomes synonymous with the company, when the person becomes the brand, they also become a single point of failure.
Elon Musk was the one who was going to make all our pulp sci-fi dreams come true, from travelling in tubes to colonising Mars. But what’s your impression of the man today? Isn’t he the one that gurned his way through a joint on that podcast? Didn’t Azealia Banks get trapped in his house somehow? And he sells flamethrowers now? Is he a science hero or a supervillain?
Musk is the most recognisable element of the Tesla, SpaceX and Boring Company brands, so his erratic behaviour reflects on them all. And how must it feel for the staff? When the company’s reason for being is to execute one man’s vision, what does it mean for the company when that man’s focus starts to drift?
That’s why brand can’t be dictated purely from the top. All areas of the company need to be involved in creating, maintaining and growing the brand. When everyone understands where the company is going, a detour by a single individual can’t derail the whole journey.
A company, and its brand, is bigger than one person. The brand describes the company – and the company is all its people.
We want to help define your brand in a way the whole company can get behind. With Blueleaf and the Payment Systems Regulator, we engaged the whole company to create brands that reflect and reinforce shared values and ambitions.
