Lara Abrams Communications

Sustainable Brands ‘08 Draws a Crowd

Friday, June 13th, 2008

Sustainable Brands ‘08 was an interesting place to be this year. I did about 8 briefings in the two days I was able to stay at the conference, and though I missed some great sessions while doing interviews, as well as the first day of workshops, clearly last year’s early adopters who showed up to present their strategies and thoughts at the very first SB conference have been overtaken by the next wave of interest from a more mainstream market wrangling for a foothold in the marketing of, and being, green and ‘sustainable’. My sense was that the herd was at the watering hole, but many companies are still trying to really figure out what the boundaries of their ‘social contracts’ should be, and how to execute on that idea ‘sustainability’. However, already the word is out that the low hanging fruit in sustainability is soon going to be gone. As one attendee put it, “it’s going to take some drastic moves to reach the rest.” And that set the tone for the conference – drastic measures are needed now.

So I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that I had the sense there were a few companies struggling to justify to themselves that their brands were already green enough, more comfortable talking about present-tense actions than past sins, and perhaps that was why…they’re already feeling the low-hanging fruit is indeed gone. In general, I’d say it feels like a lot of companies are in a very introspective phase, with a lot of peer review going on, which could be summed up as said by one company exec I spoke with, who said, “this is as much about intent, and who we are, as it is about what we stand for.” For some brands, this whole green paradigm shift amounts to a mid-life crisis, while for others, it’s just a great starting point. I heard from several attendees that the message they were really taking away was that corporations need to start “from the inside out” in defining brand and sustainability strategies that make sense. Those who already have it figured out see the sustainability wave as merely logical extensions of an existing corporate and lifestyle mindset, and such companies - those already environmentally-conscientious, such as Seventh Generation and New Belgium Brewery, were there, and I think the crowd was invigorated hearing them speak; though having said that, there are so many more good examples of such ‘stand-out’ companies today than there were a year ago.

Dow’s Julie Fasone Holder, Corporate Vice President, Chief Marketing, Sales and Reputation Officer, presented an absolutely beautiful, totally compelling-to-a-younger-generation-ready-to-save-the-world ad campaign, one that would inspire pretty much anyone, including me, to want to be a chemist to solve the world’s problems, not to mention work for Dow. The idea behind the ad was “To get people to stop and listen, because you can’t talk to people if they don’t stop and listen”, said Holder. Smart. That said, Dow, btw, has recently been ordered to clean up dioxin-contaminated soil in and around residential neighborhoods near its plant in Midland, Michigan. And they’re not alone in carrying with them the legacy of past sins. It’s something many companies are struggling with. As Dow’s Holder put it, in 2005, the company set 4 goals for itself, at a high level. At the top of the list? “To do less bad”.

That one statement alone pretty much sums up a key issue that SB ‘08 spoke to, and that is the following: it’s clear that an increasing number of companies are trying to change their brands’ perceived negative behavior(s) and “do less bad”. It’s an attempt to shift gears and grow to a more sophisticated level of doing business, which includes a higher degree of corporate responsibility. And honestly, from the time I started researching cleantech and the greening of supply chains, it’s quite remarkable to see the progress that’s been and is being made. It’s astounding the number of companies just trying to do better, and that is remarkable in and of itself.

When reputation is, as one speaker put it, “both doing and telling, not just touching hearts and minds, but also rising to society’s expectations”, it’s not a surprise to see people, and the businesses they embody, trying to be better on a very deep level in the aftermath of the excess of the ‘90s. I saw branding execs practically tripping over each other to see what peers and other players had to say, and how they were saying it, as well as those proffering up services and support for the companies still trying to decide what to do and how to do it. From this perspective, SB ‘08 can be considered a very solid success for a company that’s just secured its Series A. Koanne and her team are a baby in Silicon Valley terms — most companies in Series A don’t get much interest from the rest of the world unless they’re in a really hot sector or there’s a good buzz, for good reason. But in a sign of the times, this conference was much more heavily attended than last year’s, and there were some really interesting companies there. There’s only one thing I would have changed. What needs to be done the next time a bunch of talent like that gets in the same room? (And this goes for anyone putting on a conference of this sort these days): Put all that talent to work. We all know we have a job to do, so take your audiences, put some groups of people together, and make everybody sit down and work on an assignment of some sort. Take 3-5 companies and get people working on the fixes they need in terms of ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’ Why? We have no time to waste on sitting back and listening in the old way anymore. Everyone needs to do something. And part of me couldn’t help but feel like I was right back in the Internet bubble, at a conference that it left me wanting more, expecting more, wishing we’d done more. I’d almost give my right arm to get to sit in on a spontaneous gathering of talent like the kind that was there, at such a conference, to see if we could ‘fix’ a problem a company was having. I mean, wouldn’t that make such conferences that much more valuable for us all? I can think that for a company like Agilewaves [http://www.agilewaves.com], which was there, to have had some ‘group’ feedback would have been superb.

The key thing though, is that brands have to start getting their consumers to consume less - about 20% less, actually. In fact, Jacquelyn Ottman told the room it was time to start thinking “like a beer marketeer on New Year’s Eve.” Brands have to demonstrate environmental stewardship now through and through. That’s the bar that’s been set. [Full text of Jacquelyn's talk here.]

This call for a reduction in consumption is quite an earful when you’re the head of marketing for an organization, and your task is to help drive sales through strategic marketing initiatives (in other words - to get consumers to consume more of whatever it is you produce). But that was indeed the message. As was the call for radical, not just incremental, change.

So what’s a brand to do? To quote Gil Friend, of Natural Logic: “Keep it simple.” Focus on primary benefits and transparency, and act from a place of integrity and authenticity. Demonstrate responsible supply chains. Develop product take back programs to make recycling easy for your customers. Create energy efficient products. Be environmentally conscientious as well as health and safety focused in your use of materials. Demonstrate a higher caliber of being and acting, and your consumers will reward you with their loyalty and purchase behavior. The benefits of doing these things? Happier, healthier employees and customers, better retention of employees, and an improved ability to attract and recruit better employees, the ability to attract more patient capital (if you’re in the fund-raising mode), improved community relations, reduced waste, a better understanding of inputs and outputs, sourced materials and your suppliers, a smaller environmental footprint, and a smarter way to manage and meet business challenges and growth. Ottman, for example, cited Toyota and Timberland for excellence in sustainable branding, noting that Toyota’s focus on the primary benefits of their product’s quiet ride and fuel economy were far more meaningful than just saying ‘we are saving the planet’; and Timberland’s transparent “eco metrics’ process for carbon-identifying shoes was in itself example of great transparency. And there are other companies doing similar things. The top named green brands, as noted in an unaided consumer awareness poll by C&W noted the following: Whole Foods, which topped the list, followed by Burt’s Bees, Trader Joes, Toms, Toyota, 7th Generation, Honda, Whirlpool, Aveda and Method. Btw - 95% of those polled in a recent survey said they think companies use too much packaging. 45% said they want to see recycled materials in packaging.

With the help of a weak economy, consumers are already on the track to consuming less. Just look at how consumers’ driving habits are changing. A recent national survey commissioned by Access America asked Americans if they have made changes to their driving habits as a result of rising gas prices. I’m taking out a lot of other information in here, but the results of their survey showed that by $5.00 per gallon, 85% of all Americans will have changed their driving habits. Just think of the burden placed on commuters and the companies that employ them, alike.

With the economy clearly affecting consumers’ ability to do much more with their pocketbooks in the way of ‘saving the planet’, it’s truly now incumbent more than ever before for companies – large companies at that – and governments - to step up to the plate and offer clear solutions. A March ‘08 Gallup poll cited at the conference shows 80% of those polled to be first most concerned about the quality of the economy, secondly most concerned about affordability of health care, and lastly most concerned about the environment (40%). Global warming as a topic now comes in third behind energy and carbon emissions pollution as topics of interest to consumers polled by Cohn & Wolfe recently. Kraft had a representative there for the first time and told me their mac ‘n’ cheese was flying off the shelves.

With that, I’ll switch gears. I’ll be sending out (am just waiting for fact-checking to be done) some insights gleaned from conversations I had with various companies over the two days I spent at SB ‘08 in a follow on blog. Happy reading, and happy Friday… and thank you to everyone who offered up some of their time for a briefing. More here: http://www.sustainablebrands08.com/ and Press Center Materials here [http://www.sustainablebrands08.com/press], and additionally, video here.

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To contact Lara, please email her at lara@laraabrams.com or call 415 613 1704.