Sustainable Consumption and the Modern Brand

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Sustainable Consumption and the Modern Brand

• Barbican, 5 September 2007
• Anthony KleanthousSenior Policy Adviser, WWF-UK

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I arise in the morning torn between a desire to
save the world and a desire to savour the world.
This makes it hard to plan the day." E.N. White
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For every problem there is a solution which is
simple, clean and wrong. HL Mencken (1880-1956)
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Introduction

• Consumption in WWF
• Let Them Eat Cake
• Thriving
• Goals
• To engage the wider business community in the
  debate over responsible brands
• To encourage positive change within the marketing
  industry
• To broaden the body of knowledge

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Mission

• To create a world in which companies and
  consumers thrive within ecological limits

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Vision

• Sustainability drives commercial success

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Bad Boys (and girls)?

• Alcohol
• Fatty foods
• Empty calories
• Waste
• Water
• Climate change
• Biological resources
• Packaging
• Product longevity

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Success?
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Solution

• Provide brands (goods, services, brand
  identities, marketing, advertising) that make
  people, the planet and society happier, healthier
  and better off
• Other functions already on board
• What was holding back the marketers?

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Myths

• Marketing cannot drive sustainable consumption.
  
• Wrong! Marketing and brand communications can
  make a major contribution to meeting the biggest
  challenges of our age.
• Mainstream consumers do not value responsible
  brands.
• Wrong! There are huge market opportunities
  waiting for canny marketers who tune in to deep
  shifts in societal values
• Marketing professionals do not understand
  sustainability
• Wrong! Many marketers are just waiting for
  permission and an appropriate framework in
  which to engage with sustainability issues, even
  if they arent familiar with the language and
  concepts of Corporate Responsibility.

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Insights from quant

• Industry professionals care about sustainability
  and prefer to work for companies that share those
  concerns
• Consumers tend to chose responsible brands
  whenever they can, as long as those brands are as
  attractive as other alternatives
• Brands should communicate more on environmental
  and social issues to both staff and consumers
• Companies are less concerned with environmental
  and social issues than the communications
  professionals they employ
• Employers fail to encourage and reward
  sustainable practices internally
• Although communications professionals believe
  they have a strong influence over consumer
  behaviour, they are not held responsible by their
  employers for the environmental and social
  aspects of that behaviour
• Clients are just beginning to screen agencies for
  their sustainability credentials
• Clients and agencies lack information about
  consumer attitudes to environmental and social
  issues

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Mainstream consumers care
Source Co-op, 2005
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Theoretical framework
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Brand Identity

• Reality
• Products services
• Impacts
• History
• Values
• Organisation and culture
• Personal experience

• Perception
• Brand promise
• Marketing and corporate messages
• Consumer expectations
• Reputation

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Aligning Values
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Shifting Measures of Success
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Profiles of leadership

• Source GoodBrand/Young Rubicam

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Social Equity Drives Esteem

• Ethical Practice Honest, fair, financially
  reliable
• Employment Ethos A good employer
• Social Engagement Responsive to local community
• Service Orientation Cares about its customers,
  reliable
• Social Responsibility Corporate citizenship
• Emotional Proximity My kind of brand or company
• Social Utility Provides worthwhile products

Source GoodBrand/YR
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Shifting identity
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you,
then they fight you, then you win Mahatma
Gandhi
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Shifting identity
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Shifting identity
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Shifting identity

• 53 of UK consumers and 66 of US consumers have
  considered switching brand due to CSR1
• 57 of consumers have recommended a company on
  the basis of its responsible reputation2
• 58 have avoided a product or service because of
  the companys reputation2
• 35 have felt guilty about unethical purchase(s)
  2
• 63 approved of a green tax to discourage
  behaviour that harms the environment3

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48

• 1. SWR, 2002 2. Future Foundation, 2005 3.
  Guardian/ICM, 2006

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Shifting Identity
How much more are you willing to pay for a
product or service that is ethically sound?
52
48
Source Observer/ICM, October 2006
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Shifting Identity
Would you buy a product if you knew that it had
been produced in a sweatshop (i.e. made by people
working for low wages in poor conditions)?
Yes 19
No 81
Source Observer/ICM, October 2006
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Shifting Identity
When shopping for non-food items, do you look at
the label to see where the product is made?
Yes, always 19
No 45
Yes, sometimes 33
Source Observer/ICM, October 2006
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Shifting Identity

• So, 52 say they prefer ethical brands, and, of
  those, 69 say they would pay more for them.
• That represents an immediate business opportunity
  for mainstream ethical brands

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Shifting Identity

• and 31 say they would pay nothing more for them
• That represents an opportunity for mainstream
  ethical brands to win market share from rivals
• immediately

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Shifting Identity

• Now the bad news
• People kid themselves
• Consumers dont trust most brands!

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Shifting Identity
Some people say that advertising products as
ethical is often just a ploy to get us to spend
more. Do you agree or disagree?
Disagree a lot 13
Agree a lot 36
Disagree a little 18
Agree a little 33
Source Observer/ICM, October 2006
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Shifting Identity

• And to make things worse
• old habits die hard!

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Shifting Identity
If you had purchased a particular product from an
ethical company for a number of years before
that company was taken over by a multinational,
unethical company, would you continue to purchase
that product?
Yes 52
No 48
Source Observer/ICM, October 2006
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Shifting identity

• Saving money is a key motivator for action, but
  the devil is in the detail
• Those who could benefit most from basic
  energy-saving measures at home tend to be tabloid
  readers, and heavy television viewers receiving
  satellite channels
• Older people are a hard sell they use more
  energy and have more money
• Young men would rather install a domestic wind
  turbine than turn down the thermostat!
• Even the Confused but Willing and the Too Busy to
  Care can become more sustainable consumers
• Education and demonstration
• More sustainable choices
• Online shopping and home delivery

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Shifting Identity

• Green issues are at centre stage in British
  politics
• Tories re-brand Built to Last
• Labour adopts One Planet Living
• Liberal Democrats announce shift to environmental
  taxes
• The US is rapidly waking up
• States and cities challenge inadequate Federal
  policies
• California to sue the big auto manufacturers
• Al Gore and Bill Clinton
• Sustainability issues top of the UK news agenda
• Sky News appoints first Environment Correspondent
• Fashion industry lobbies to ban models with low
  BMI
• Marketing and design press picks up on SD agenda
• Integrated regional sustainable developments
  emerging

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Trends
Downsizing
Fair Trade
Organics
Localism
Mass luxury
Healthy living
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Shifting behaviour

• Ethical food purchases up 50YOY over the last 3
  months
• Ethical personal care sales up 40 in same period

Source Mintel
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The price of complacency
SUV sales crash ?33 2004/5 ?9 2005/6
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From CSR to big business
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From CSR to big business
Were in it together
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Leading consumers

• People arent always able or willing to be who
  they want to be
• Brands can help them

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It is not easy being green." Kermit the Frog
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Pitfalls

• Greenwashing/Astroturfing
• Hitching your wagon to someone elses horse
• Ignoring the elephant in the room
• Not thinking through
• Being shy
• Offsetting as other than last resort

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The Greenwashers
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Approach

• Understand your brand
• Understand your consumers
• Get your house in order
• Define roles (CSR vs. Marcoms, etc.)
• Innovate
• Motivate
• Collaborate
• Communicate
• Sign up your consumers to the sustainability
  journey
• Measure, monitor, report

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Its no use saying, we are doing our best. You
have got to succeed in doing what is necessary"
(Winston Churchill)
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Approaches
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Summary

• BRAND IDENTITY REALITY PERCEPTION
• Reality and perception must both be managed
• Expression is essential
• Align corporate and brand values with societal
  values
• Recognise that the shifts have already happened
  in the mainstream
• Work to build capacity and embed values
  throughout the organisation
• Use sustainable values as business drivers
• Great communication is key everyone must do it,
  but it wont work without the experts