Ethical Marketing and The New Consumer E-Book

Chris Arnold

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 339

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

What was once just the desire of a few has now become a mass movement. The everyday shopper may still be searching out the value items but now they are also questioning the ethics of products and brands. Ethical products are increasing in sales year on year and those brands that have ignored it as a value are paying in reduced sales.

Empowered, the new consumer is using the pound in their pocket to make a point not just a purchase.

But ethical marketing isn’t just about environmentalism, it’s far bigger than that. This book challenges a lot of conventional thinking and introduces you to a wider range of ethics and the many types of ethical consumers.

As a brand manager or producer, it’ll give you useful tools to help you understand your Key Ethical Values. How to market and sell them.

It’ll blow away a few myths and probably surprise you with a few new facts and statistics. It looks at the positive and negative sides of big brands. And how to avoid greenwash, ethicalwash and becoming a victim of Brand Terrorism.

A must for anyone in the eco-ethical market or who wants to enter it. An essential guide to understanding the new consumer and why they buy, what they buy and what they don’t.

The book comes with a support website –www.ecoethicalmarketing.info – to allow comment, feedback, links and brands to publish their own case studies.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Foreword

Chapter 1 - INTRODUCTION

THE STRUCTURE

THANKS

Chapter 2 - THE POWER OF BRAND ETHOS

FROM ETHICS TO ETHOS MARKETING

WHY REPUTATION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN LOGOS

NO ETHOS

BECOMING RICHER THROUGH ETHICS

LOOKING IN THE MIRROR

SUMMARY

Chapter 3 - ETHICAL - REALITY OR A BRAND IMAGE?

WHEN IS AN ETHICAL REPUTATION NOT THE SAME AS BEING ETHICAL?

THE UNTAPPED POWER OF ETHOS

IT’S NOT HOW MUCH YOU MAKE BUT HOW YOU MAKE IT

SUMMARY

Chapter 4 - CHURN AND THE DISPOSABLE SOCIETY

FROM FRIVOLOUS TO FRUGAL - THE END OF CONSUMPTIVE CONSUMERISM

CHURN AND EARN AND HYPER-CONSUMERISM

WHEN SHOPPING IS BETTER THAN SEX

THE DISPOSABLE SOCIETY

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL …

MAKE LESS, DESTROY LESS

WHITE, BROWN OR GREEN?

REUSE, REPAIR NOT REPLACE

A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY - ENCOURAGING CHURN

SUMMARY

Chapter 5 - BAD TASTING MEDICINE

FROM BAD TASTING MEDICINE TO GOOD

THE PRICE OF BEING ETHICAL

FAIRTRADE - A FAIR PRICE?

A RETURN TO POST-WAR VALUES

SECOND LIFE PACKAGING

SUMMARY

Chapter 6 - IT’S NOT WHAT YOU SAY BUT WHAT YOU DO

DOING THE WALK AND TALK OF ETHICS

GOOD OLD HONEST FOOD

THINK GREAT, BE HONEST, FEEL PROUD

ABBEY NATIONAL AND HABITAT

KEEP IT SIMPLE AND HONEST

SELLING SEX ADVICE THROUGH THE TURN OF A COIN

NAPPY FAMILIES - GETTING YOUR MESSAGE TO STUDENTS

THE POWER OF YOUTH MEDIA - THE POSTCARD

SUMMARY

Chapter 7 - BRAND TERRORISM

DAVID AND GOLIATH

HOW TO AVOID ANTI-BRAND WASH

FROM HUMANITARISM TO PLANETARISM

AVOIDING BRAND SUICIDE

A BITTER AFTER TASTE

WHO PAYS? THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE

THE ETHICAL TIME BOMB

SUMMARY

Chapter 8 - SURVIVAL AND SECURITY

HOW ARE CONSUMERS RESPONDING TO THE RECESSION?

SELLING SURVIVAL AND SECURITY

THE REAL COST OF LIVING

EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION

PARIS GOES ECO-ELECTRIC

SUMMARY

Chapter 9 - ENGAGING THE CONSUMER, SHARING RESPONSIBILITY

JUST DOING MY BIT

AL GORE’S ‘WE CAN SOLVE IT’ CAMPAIGN

CHANGE THE WORLD FOR A FIVER

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU SAY BUT WHAT YOU DO

SUMMARY

Chapter 10 - FINDING REASONS TO BUY

THE EMOTIONAL CONSUMER

THE R&E LINE -A SIMPLE MARKETING TOOL

THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

NLP - THE AARDVARK TOOL

SIMPLIFYING CONSUMER CHOICE - THE POWER OF THREE

PEOPLE vs PLANET - THE GEOGRAPHY OF NEEDS

SUMMARY

Chapter 11 - RESEARCH AND SURVEYS

THE NUMERIC SOCIETY

NEW IDEAS IN PROFILING

NLP AND ENNEAGRAMS

EMOTIVATIONS

VISUALITY PROFILING OVER NUMERIC

JOEL MAKOWER, THE GREEN BLOGGER ON RESEARCH

‘ ANTI-MARKETING’

BEWARE OF THE NUMBERS

NEVER TRUST SURVEYS UNLESS YOU’VE ASKED THE THREE GOLDEN QUESTIONS

THE ETHICAL SHOPPING SURVEY

WHO’S TO BLAME AND WHO’S GOING TO FIX IT?

CHANGING CONSUMER HABITS

SUMMARY

Chapter 12 - THE BUSINESS AND RELIGION OF ETHICS

ETHICS AS A RELIGION

THE PURITAN PURPOSE

PROFIT OVER PEOPLE

THE QUAKER WAY

CHARITY AND THE RELIGION OF MONEY

SUMMARY

Chapter 13 - FAIRTRADE

THE GROWTH OF FAIRTRADE

TRAIDCRAFT - THE FAIR SHARE OFFER

100 YELLOW BANANAS, HANGING ON THE TREE

SUMMARY

Chapter 14 - FOOD WASTE AND RECYCLING

FOOD WASTE AND RECYCLING

PACKAGING LESS, SELLING MORE

THE POWER OF GESTURES AS A MARKETING TOOL

FROM PLASTIC BAGS TO DESIGNER BAGS

ANYA HINDMARCH: ‘I’M NOT A PLASTIC BAG’

THE WAR ON JUNK MAIL

SUMMARY

Chapter 15 - RECYCLING FOR RESALE

TURNING LEAD INTO GOLD

SECOND LIFE PACKAGING

NEW BRANDS FROM OLD

A FANTASTIC WAY TO MARKET YOUR BRAND’S ETHICAL CREDENTIALS

ECO INNOVATION

SUMMARY

Chapter 16 - TURNING RECYCLING INTO GOOD MARKETING

HOW COKE SEE PLASTIC DIFFERENTLY

HOW TO ENGAGE CONSUMERS TO RECYCLE

FROM ADS TO BAGS

BEACH COMBING FOR NEW IDEAS

THE REAL ART OF PERSUASION

SUMMARY

Chapter 17 - THE ETHICAL SPHERE

THE ETHICAL SPHERE

KEY ETHICAL VALUES (KEVs)

BALANCING PROPOSITIONS

THE THIRD DIMENSION

THE PROCESS

SEEING THINGS DIFFERENTLY

BROADER THINKING

SUMMARY

Chapter 18 - LANGUAGE AND PERSUASION

THE POWER AND INFLUENCE OF WORDS

SUSTAINABILITY

CARBON FOOTPRINT

POLLUTION HAS POWER

CO2

GREEN

SUMMARY

Chapter 19 - HOW TO BE A CREATIVE MARKETER

WHY BE CREATIVE?

HISTORY TEACHES US HOW TO REALLY FLY

WELCOME TO FUZZY MARKETING

HOW TO RUN A TRAIN LESS EFFICIENTLY BUT LOOK MORE EFFICIENT

BE BRAVE - GIVE YOUR STAFF A GET OUT OF JAIL CARD

PROCESS AND IDEAS

SUMMARY

Chapter 20 - FAT AND FIT - OBESITY AND HEALTH

LET THEM EAT FRUIT

HEALTHY MARKETING

THE GROWTH OF HEALTHY SNACKS

REBRANDING FAT - TAFS

A MOTHER’S DILEMMA

GETTING THE NAME WRONG

DON’T BLAME IT ON THE BURGER

HOW TO SELL AN HONEST SNACK

NOT SO FINGER LICKING GOOD

SUMMARY

Chapter 21 - SELLING ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR

AMERICA’S BEST SELLING PRODUCT

AN ETHICAL DILEMMA

UNHAPPY HOUR - UNSELLING DRUNKEN BRITAIN

THE REBIRTH OF ALE

WHY THE WINE INDUSTRY HAS LESS BOTTLE

THE REBIRTH OF CIDER

THE AVERAGE CONSUMER PURCHASING ATTITUDE

LOCAL AND ORGANIC MARKETING

A WORLD OF TOO MUCH CONSUMER CHOICE

SUMMARY

Chapter 22 - FROM BRAND VALUES TO BRAND VALUE

BBC SELLS DISGUSTING FOOD

WHEN A BRAND BECOMES A TURKEY

BRANDING MR RILEY’S PIES

WHEN IS FOOD DISGUSTING?

SUMMARY

Chapter 23 - FAST FASHION

THE HIERARCHY OF ETHICS

THE POWER OF THE HIGH STREET

ETHICAL FASHION WEEK

SAVING THE PLANET, ONE STEP AT A TIME

SMALL THINGS CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

THE TRUE PRICE OF COTTON

THE DEVIL WEARS PRIMARK

‘ HOW DO THEY MAKE’ EM SO CHEAP?’

HOW SPAIN IS CONQUERING THE HIGH STREET

DON’T LOOK BEHIND THE LABEL, LOOK AT IT

SUMMARY

Chapter 24 - WASHING GREEN

THE GREAT CLEANING LIE

SOAP POWDERS, FRIEND OR FOE?

TURN TO 30

WASH AT ZERO

THE BIG SOFTENER CON

NOT SO CLEAN CLEANERS

REFRAMING FROM THE ENVIRONMENT TO THE HOME ENVIRONMENT

GREEN ENLIGHTENMENT OR JUMPING ON THE GREEN BANDWAGON?

SUMMARY

Chapter 25 - GREEN INSURANCE AND FINANCE

SLOW TURNING WHEELS - WHERE ARE ALL THE ECO BRANDS?

IS THE CUSTOMER SAVING THE PLANET OR JUST SAVING MONEY?

IBUYECO - DOING YOUR BIT THROUGH INSURANCE

THE NEW WORLD OF MICRO BRANDING

WHAT INSURANCE CAN LEARN FROM SELLING SHOES

ONCE BITTEN,TWICE SHY

CAUTION AND UNCERTAINTY

FORGET GREEN, TRY ETHICS

THE GREEN WALL

GREEN CAR INSURANCE, A CONSUMER EXPERIENCE

WHEN THE LEFT HAND DOESN’T KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT HAND’S DOING

SUMMARY

Chapter 26 - BONUS CHAPTERS AND WEBSITE

CREATIVE ORCHESTRA

INDEX

This edition first published 2009

© 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Arnold, Chris.

Ethical marketing and the new consumer / Chris Arnold. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-68546-4

1. Marketing—Moral and ethical aspects. 2. New Age consumer. I. Title. HF5415.A.8—dc22

2009021630

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

eISBN : 978-0-470-68546-4

Set in 11/13 pt ITC Garamond Light by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong

FOREWORD

Ethics. In our purchases, in our business, in our lives.

Any conversation on this topic is likely to be a lively one. Because your ethic will be different to mine and to the next person we meet. Ethics are personal and to my mind stem from self awareness. When you truly consider the effects of your actions, whether that’s how you travel or perhaps the food you choose, you begin to develop and understand your own moral code. Sounds simple? Well probably not. Already we’re in a minefield of doubt and confusion.

What are the boundaries of your ethical behaviour? For you is it about environment, politics, our fellow man, or the animals? Quickly we see that the more we think, the more there is to think about! When you start asking questions you are taken deeper into your subject.

How can you determine the whole story of much of the ‘stuff’ that you have around you? Much that we have around us that is produced by big business is no longer the product of a single source; little is produced in one country let alone one factory. As a consequence our trust in big brands becomes ever more important, and yet more difficult.

If local sourcing feels right, what happens when you consider the potential effect to communities abroad that have developed over the last few years to bring us the things we have come to expect on the shelves in the shops around us? How recently were green beans seasonal? And baby corn on the cob a luxury few of us would contemplate? Eschewing these may seem an ethical choice, but the consequences down the line may leave us less comfortable.

In business ethics starts a bit further back, with ethos. What does the company believe? How prepared is it to tell the whole truth? And can it deliver to its shareholders while remaining true to the ethos.

Starting a business in a ‘good’ way is a great foundation for your future. Remaining true to your beliefs is a challenge, but it’s easier than changing them. You’ll have many pitfalls to watch out for, and you’ll spend more time deciding on each supplier. But do consider too that just by staying true you are already moving others in the right direction - with every question you ask you help another business to question itself.

Moving a business’ ethos is probably the greatest challenge in doing the right thing. I’m delighted every time a huge business makes a genuine change for the better - but woe betide those who spin a story! There are now so many green watchers waiting to leap on every false claim, or even ones that aren’t supported elsewhere in the business.

Improving a business’ ethos is a massive challenge, but one that brings rewards to so many of those measures we watch so keenly such as ability to recruit and retain talent, customer satisfaction, trust, and the vital area of customer retention.

Once someone has made a conscious shift to a better product as a consequence of their heightened awareness of the effects of that purchase how hard will it be to then switch that conscience off and return to just buying on price?

For some the word ‘marketing’ seems unethical, after all, it’s the driving force behind churn and this instant, disposable society we live in. Those that have mixed their politics with their ethics see marketing as a bad capitalist tool. Yet where would charities be without marketing? Red Nose Day is a marketing event for Comic Relief, and despite the recession, it has had one of its best years this year.

New ethical products have to compete with traditional ones in a highly competitive marketplace. Often marginally more expensive they have to sell themselves hard, conveying the added value they bring. With less spend and little distribution, it is good marketing that can give them the advantage, win business and help build a strong customer base. With that comes all the benefits of the support they pass down the line.

Even those ethical brands that don’t seem to employ high profile marketing techniques like TV adverts are employing many other subtler marketing techniques. Without them most would quickly fade away.

For those brands that have adopted more ethical values it’s often simply about communications. Telling people the story in a compelling way.

Love it or hate it, you can’t turn your back on marketing. It’s an essential tool to growing a business. But like any tool it requires expert use. Use it badly and it can do more damage than good. Use it well and you will reap success.

Kelvin Collins Former Head of Brand Management Co operative Financial Services www.kelvincollins.com

1

INTRODUCTION

Although green issues have been with us for several decades it’s only recently that brands have started to take them seriously. But rather than exercise carefully considered marketing many have jumped on the green bandwagon. Now millions of dollars and pounds of marketing spend are being spent on campaigns to make brands look more ethical, sadly most are a waste of money. Phrases like ‘green-wash’ and ‘ethicalwash’ are an apt way to describe most marketing activity. There seems to be little communication between CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and marketing departments and little understanding of consumer attitudes. Call it lazy, ignorant, poorly advised or just that too many brands have fallen into a process of just churning ads out - and green is just another brief - but there really isn’t much good eco- ethical marketing about.

On one level this book should help marketing and brand managers avoid becoming a victim of greenwash or worse, damaging the reputation of their brand. For eco - ethical businesses it will provide useful marketing guidance. And for students, it will offer some challenging ideas.

This book seeks to explore new ideas, provide a better understanding of the eco-ethical or ‘ new’ consumer and turn a few ideas upside down and even inside out. There are already a few myths that need exploding and as for any rules which you’ve been told, ignore them. One thing you’ll discover is that maybe green isn’t the best way forward if you want to be seen as an ethical brand. When we started the People versus Planet debate we challenged a lot of people to think about people messages against environmental ones. The outcome of our research was both illuminating and surprising to many.

The book will also show you how using traditional advertising techniques may be less effective than you thought. Or that you probably need to start with a different strategy than the one you first thought if you want to communicate the ethical values of a brand.

Advertising and marketing are not a science and there are no rules, just learning. It’s an area full of well argued opinions and debate and as soon as someone thinks they have discovered a rule everything changes. I always compare it to music and fashion, what’s in one year is out the next. The consumer is constantly changing and we’ve seen a dramatic change over the last few years. Combined with a recession, the world of marketing is being shaken up.

This book isn’t a rule book, a guide maybe but more than anything it’s been written to get you thinking, to challenge conventional ideas and explore new areas. When people ask me what I do for a living I say I make people think and help them solve problems, hopefully this book will do exactly that. Marketing is an adventure, a journey of the unexplored, which is why it’s such an exciting area to work in. But the moment it becomes a process it’s usually not good marketing. Think of any great campaign and great marketing idea and almost all of them broke with tradition. New ideas equal new opportunities. But this also requires people to be brave, ‘there’s no success in the comfort zone’ was a quote from of one very successful entrepreneur I know. Another entrepreneur who I worked with, Simon Woodroffe (Yo!) said, ‘If you follow conventional thinking, all you’ll ever be is conventional’. Worse, and this is my addition, you could be out of business.

One key thing that I’ve learnt over the years is that too many brands start in the wrong place. They make assumptions, base decisions on wrong information and then write briefs that end up sending everyone in the wrong direction. The tools that you’ll find in this book such the R&E Line, the Ethical Sphere and a few other ideas will provide you with very powerful weapons to improve your marketing. There are sections that will help give you a greater insight into consumers. We haven’t filled the book with case studies, but we are inviting any business to submit their own case studies on the website http://www.ecoethicalmarketing.info. There will also be room for discussion and debate, and in this area there’s a lot of it. In time we hope that it will become a hub of ideas and information for brands, students and small businesses working within the eco - ethical arena.

THE STRUCTURE

When Wiley first asked me to write this book (and it took longer than planned with so much material), as a creative marketing consultant I asked a few questions about readers, distribution and statistics about reading.

One fact that was hardly surprising is that a large percentage of business books that are bought are never read properly. Of those books that are read few are read cover to cover, most are dipped in and out of. How many of us have shelves of books that we mean to read one day? Many of which have travelled thousands of miles in our hand luggage without ever being opened?

To ‘eat the elephant whole’ is something most of us don’t do, we live in an age of bite size media, in a world where we seek out information in fast to digest forms. Time is one thing few of us have to spare. We no longer think in a linear way but within a chaotic ‘fuzzy’ world. Thanks to the internet to start at the beginning and end at the end is now a very outdated idea. We like to drop in and drop out, zig zag about, gathering up those nuggets of relevant information as we go along. Time is too short and precious a commodity to waste on waffle or irrelevance. A hundred words of insight or vision are worth more than 10 000 words of rubbish. We are all in search of knowledge and leadership.

Rather than write a book that linked one chapter to another this book is designed to be read in any order, you decide. There is a structure but there is no reason to start at the beginning and read to the end. It’s not really a unique or original model, many education books are written this way, as are magazines.

THANKS

There are many people who have helped in putting this book together, too many to list - they know who they are. My apologies to those whose case studies, interviews, brands or thoughts have not been included - we had to cut over 20% of the original manuscript. But we have launched a website where case studies and deleted chapters will be posted (see the final chapter). However, my greatest thanks go to Sarah Eden, an eco -writer who has helped with research, processing a great deal of information and doing the first edit. A green star if there ever was one.

2

THE POWER OF BRAND ETHOS

FROM ETHICS TO ETHOS MARKETING

We talk about ‘ethical marketing’ but perhaps we should adopt a more progressive term, ‘ethos marketing’. This makes a brand feel less marginal, and after all, shouldn’t all marketing be ethical?

Ethos is probably one of the most important things a brand (and therefore a business) has. Yet so few bother to market it. Worse, many businesses have lost it, turning into bland brands with few, if any, values.

The mistake many brands make is when it comes to a makeover. Things are tough and the board needs the company to reinvent itself so they decide they need a new corporate identity. ‘We need a rebrand’. What they get is a new look, not a new brand. A brand isn’t defined by its logo but by what it does. What it does is defined by its ethos, which gives it the why. It really is that simple.

Brands are like people and no matter what clothes you wear others will see you for what you are through your behaviour. I once worked with a manager whose only value was how much things cost and whether he could cut it. He did everything on the cheap, not surprisingly quality or ethics were not part of his agenda. How many companies behave in the same way? The public can soon spot a company that cares only about money, which means it won’t care about quality, people or ethics. ‘A principle isn’t a principle unless it costs you something’. And in the business of ethics, you often have to sacrifice some margin for values.

WHY REPUTATION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN LOGOS

The other great mistake companies make is to think brand. People talk about reputation. So does the City. Reputation is what others say about you, it reflects your true values.

Innocent is a prime example of a brand that has grown off a strong ethos and reputation. Every touching point with the brand is defined by its ethos. If you meet their marketing team at a show they are friendly, energetic and honest. It’s all about quality. The ingredients and the people are the best. You can tell the company cares about what is put into its bottle and who puts it in.

You can’t say the same for any other soft drink. Brands like Coke have suffered so much adverse publicity, especially over the water scandal in India, that its behaviour has redefined the brand. Even given billions of dollars of advertising, kids see it as a bad brand.

Ethos is what defines the why and what we do. I always say that if your company has a strong ethos then you should be able to send any member of staff out to buy coffee cups and they’ll know exactly what to buy. I heard a story about a very dynamic digital company who sent their PA out to get napkins. She returned with Christmas themed ones, and this was in July. Her explanation was that it felt like Christmas every day in the office. That’s one hell of a great ethos to have.

NO ETHOS

But when it comes to no ethos, the classic was Woolworth’s. When I first started my career in advertising at McCann-Erickson in London it was the first account I worked on. It wasn’t much fun and the client played so safe. Even then, over 20 years ago, it was in trouble. The store had become too diverse and no one knew what it really stood for. Twenty years on the same problem has led to its failure in the UK. Even ordinary consumers have used the phrase ‘Woolworth’s, what do they stand for these days?’

The original store started in 1878 in America and was a five & dime store, the original £1 shop. In the beginning its purpose was simple - bring great value and choice to the customer. Having grown to one of the world’s largest retail brands in the world, it started to decline in the 1980s. In the US it diversified into sportswear by way of the Foot Locker brand, with the last Woolworth’s closing in 1997.

It first opened in the UK in 1909 in Liverpool, growing to over 800 stores with almost 90% of the general public making at least one visit a year. But now everyone was bringing great value to the customer and you needed a new angle. Woolworth’s tried numerous routes but a failure to define its ethos and values, and therefore its brand, is one of the reasons it failed. I noticed recently that there wasn’t one product in the store that championed any aspect of ethics. Just how far can you have your finger off the pulse? It seems that the real ‘wonder of Woollies’ (as the ad slogan used to go) was how it managed to survive for so long.

BECOMING RICHER THROUGH ETHICS

Ethos is one of the most powerful things a business can tap into, yet I’ve rarely heard any corporate identity design company mention the word. The trouble with ethos is that it’s hard to fake or to demand that people adopt it, if your behaviour as a business is in conflict. Worse is when a business, like Body Shop, is built on a strong ethical ethos and then the money men move in and ethics is replaced with greed.

When Body Shop was sold to L’Oréal in 2006 there was a massive clash of ethos. Body Shop under Anita Roddick had a strong policy of not testing on animals. By contrast, L’Oréal had tested on animals (though they claimed they hadn’t done so since 1989, but these things stick to a brand, as Nestlé knows all too well when it comes to baby milk). Customers were outraged. There were even boycotts. Many thought Roddick had sold out. She was after all the driving force behind the company and her ethos was the brand’s. L’Oréal also represented the type of company driven by profits and this again jarred with the public’s view of The Body Shop, even though it was financially very successful with over 2000 shops in over 50 countries and a sale value of over £650 million - who says you can’t make money from ethics?

The combination of a strong ethos and a strong personality is one of the most powerful things you can take to market. It connects on every level with the public. Even a grey brand like M&S found new life in Plan A, not just because it’s a great piece of marketing but because it was delivered via the head of the company. Somehow, one believed that Plan A was as much Stuart Rose’s vision as the company’s. We trust people not corporations and when people speak we listen and want to believe. So many ethical brands are started by passionate individuals whose values are those of their brand, so it’s not surprising that we trust them more than large corporate ones.

LOOKING IN THE MIRROR

My advice to any business is to look at yourself first before you start to waste a fortune on marketing. Get your ethos right. Do you even have one? If not then you need to develop one. Ask all your staff, suppliers and customers what they think your values and ethos are. What drives the business? What is the spirit of it? You could be in for a shock.

Now ask, are we communicating this? Chances are, you aren’t. Instead you’ve drifted off into product advantage or highlighting some rare bean you’ve discovered on a field trip to the rainforest. That’s all well and good but make sure you also tell people the why. Why you picked it. Why you would rather buy it from a tribe in Bolivia than a chemist in Romford. Why you think it’s important. Values soon come through. And when the customer knows the why behind what you do, that it is a good and ethical one, they trust you. And without trust, few brands can survive.

Your ethos can also be a platform to grow from. A company that sells organic fair trade nuts can do other things. It can champion causes, challenge the bad boys or seek to use its influence (and customers) to make change in society. Body Shop and Lush have sometimes acted more like Greenpeace than retailers. Benetton made us think about ethical diversity while shopping for clothes. These actions may seem frivolous to narrow minded accountants but they bring depth to a brand, and actions do speak louder than words. This is the new spirit of the age which some people talk about in business. An extra dimension to marketing the old school can’t see; the third dimension. Or better, the ethical dimension.

Actions create experience and experience is far more influential than words or pictures. Innocent grew its business on actions and ethos, not through a million dollar ad campaign, all that came well after they were established.

SUMMARY

Almost all business start- ups begin with an ethos. But somewhere along the road to becoming big it fades. Suddenly a company doesn’t know why it does what it does or what its values are. All it knows is that the shareholders want more every quarter. So many big brands have no ethos. Consumers tune into an ethos and it’s far more powerful than any ad because if you know the ‘why’ you know ‘how’ they will behave. And what you do, not what you say, defines your brand reputation. And no matter what you think, it’s very hard to undo a bad reputation.

3

ETHICAL - REALITY OR A BRAND IMAGE?

WHEN IS AN ETHICAL REPUTATION NOT THE SAME AS BEING ETHICAL?

If you ask the public which brands are ethical and which aren’t you get a fairly consistent point of view. The Ethical Brand Index, created by Karen Fraser, is the most accurate measure of brand perception in relationship to ethics. Like similar surveys, top of the list are the predictable brands - The Body Shop, Green & Black, Innocent, Co- op, etc. Bottom of the list are fast foods and fuels. No surprises there. But is perception the same as reality?

One brand regarded highly for its ethics is Pret a Manger, founded in 1986 by Sinclair Beecham and Julian Metcalfe. It is a stylish sandwich chain with a passion for food that boasts, ‘ Pret creates handmade natural food avoiding the obscure chemicals, additives and preservatives common to so much of the “prepared” and “fast” food on the market today’. This may be true but what about other ethical issues such as health? Let’s consider the ethics of calories. Their crisps are calorific and many of their sandwiches are loaded with mayonnaise. A criticism of fast food is its high calorie content but many sandwiches are the same, if not higher in calories than a hamburger.

Pret’s design and marketing is up there with Starbucks; clean looking, modern and fresh, with stunning graphics and entertaining slogans. As we all feel positive towards Pret we don’t think or want to criticize them. I am a great fan of their food but I know if I’m on a diet it’s not always the best place to go.

I really doubt whether most customers could recite the claims of Pret but the lasting impression and experience is so positive that the consumer sees them as ethical. Why is that? I doubt the same would be said of Subway (which makes one of the most calorific ‘subs’ you can buy).

By contrast, Subway looks cheap and low quality. Poor graphics, shop fitting and presentation, it’s not premium in any way. How does that make us feel towards them? Hardly positive.

The big difference is ethos. Subway has none, Pret has buckets of it. It feels like it has a passion for food, whereas Subway feels like a fast food franchise.

THE UNTAPPED POWER OF ETHOS

Brands that come top of many surveys live and breathe some form of ethics. They deliver it from the heart. Ethos is a key element to looking and feeling ethical. You can’t fake it, people see through false claims. And ethos starts with people. We trust people; we don’t trust big corporations or faceless franchises. The reason M&S’s Plan A was so convincing was that it was delivered by a person - Stuart Rose - not via a corporate mouthpiece.

If you want the consumer to feel good about you and view you as ethical you need to dig out your ethos and deliver it.

So what about those at the bottom of ethical surveys? Is McDonald’s really the evil monster it’s made out to be? There’s a problem here, if it’s so bad why do so many people eat there? Why do so many parents have their kid’s birthday party there and why, in a recession, do their sales go up? Why do people queue to work there?

Let’s consider some of the criticisms. Cows are bad for the planet and McDonald’s means lots of cows. This is the left wing vegetarian argument based upon cows being producers of methane, which is bad. True, but all animals produce methane. Rotting vegetables produce gases as well. On the other hand, isn’t it just crap food that’s bad for us. Yep, eating a hamburger a day may be bad but so are some sandwiches from Boots, M&S or Pret; or a curry, a Chinese take-a-way, pizza and fish & chips and a million other things. All these are high in calories too but no one is attacking them especially as unethical.

What about energy companies? Shell, Exxon, BP and the rest get a bad press. When Shell created its flowers ad based on the fact it was using some of its waste CO2 to grow flowers (even though it was less than 0.4%) it was heavily criticised by many people, including the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). As advertising goes the ad was a good one but it failed to understand the ethical market. A touch more honesty and maybe some intent, ‘we aim to use more CO2 year on year for good purposes …’ would have raised it above criticism. But presented the way it was placed it in prime greenwash territory. Ironically, it was no greater exaggeration than many ads but it was an oil company trying to look green and to some this is unthinkable and any attempt to look green must be shot down.

The bad news for environmentalists is that the oil companies are putting millions into good causes and alternative energy projects. The problem for oil companies is that they don’t know how to get that across in a way which is convincing (traditional ad agencies still don’t understand it).

The point is: there’s little sense or reason, as to who or what the public thinks are or are not ethical. It’s in the unpredictable nature of consumers to arrive at their own distorted ideas. Fish & Chips and beer is good, McDonald’s is bad. As Tears for Fears put it, it’s a mad, mad world.

IT’S NOT HOW MUCH YOU MAKE BUT HOW YOU MAKE IT

Consumers are not fond of companies that just make money. They don’t begrudge a business being profitable but there’s a big difference between being profitable and profiteering.

Many corporations have big egos and want to be the biggest, the loudest and the most profitable. This only really impresses a very small minority of people - mainly in the City and on Wall Street - the rest find it either irrelevant or obscene. When Tesco started bragging about how many millions it was making a day what was it really trying to achieve? Did it think that the average Tesco shopper would think, ‘wow that’s good what a great store’. Maybe what they really thought was, ‘Wow, no wonder everything is so expensive these days, this shops making millions out of suckers like me’.

It’s easy to get carried away with corporate bragging but in the world of ethics it’s not how much you make but HOW you make it. Big profits suggest greed and ruthlessness and send out all the wrong signals. With the recent credit crunch there has been a surge of anti-capitalist articles in national papers. ‘Fat Cats’ is a term commonly used to describe people who think of nothing but making money. Barclays came under attack from The Sun for attending a conference in Monte Carlo where ‘bankers sipped on glasses of champagne that cost £12 while laughing and joking’. No matter what Barclays said the image of greed was fixed in the reader’s mind. And no one likes greedy people.

The tendency to think big is best can also be your competitors’ advantage. Back in the 1960s (during those Mad Men days) Bill Bernbach’s ad agency, DDB, produced a revolutionary strategy for Avis, the car rental company. Hertz was the biggest and most dominant car hire company. It was way ahead of Avis in size, spread and almost everything else. But it had a flaw: corporate arrogance. No one likes arrogance and this alienated people from it. Big and brash is unfriendly. DDB decided to position Avis as a ‘challenger brand’. The proposition would capture an ethos - essential to good ethical marketing - and be honest. The line they came up with that said it all was ‘When you’re number two you try harder’. Pure brilliance. Honest, ethos driven and it says something of value to the customer. Compare that to a common line used by many large corporations ‘We’re number one’. Who cares? Number one doesn’t mean better service or customer satisfaction.

I could name many companies that get it wrong. It’s hard for many companies not to boast, it’s only human nature. Brands are like people; when they act like the very people we hate the brand loses respect and its reputation is darkened. I always advise clients to think of their brand as a person and to remember that the brand is often a reflection of the people they hire. A bad salesman, clerk or telephone sales person makes a brand look and feel bad. A good one makes them look and feel good. You don’t need a degree in psychology to know that.

How many companies value their customers? Not many. Some act like the customer is a nuisance and from personal experience I’d put Ryanair at the top of that list, Talk Talk second and BA third. Top of my good list would be Bosch, Boots and John Lewis. Why? Because they care. They aren’t defensive and you can talk to them. They make you feel special and valued; much more so than the money we spend. They act like a friend not a faceless corporation. And what better relationship could you have between a brand and a customer than friendship? Be honest, if your brand was being researched and the consumer described it as a ‘best friend’ you’d be delighted. If they described it as ‘an arrogant git we all hate’ you’d be devastated.

Ethics start with an ethos. A desire to do good and to respect people and our environment. Values are an asset and to value just money (and not the customer) is a shallow way of thinking. We all have heard how unhappy rich people can be, as Lennon and McCartney put it, ‘money can’t buy you love’. I’m not suggesting that an ethical business shouldn’t value making money, far from it, it should. Making money means it employs more people, buys more, sells more - all this adds to the economy and society. Successful companies can afford to support communities and help charities. Profit is good. What I am saying is, a company that has tunnel vision has no values, and if it has no values it will do more harm than good.

Ironically, many companies now adopt more environmental practices - recycling, reducing wastage, saving energy, water and paper, thus saving money. There is a financial gain to environmentalism. A representative from Environwise (a company that advises industry on environmental best practice) once told me that they sell their services now on financial gain rather than environmentalism. ‘Tell them they can save the planet and they look at you with a blank expression. Tell them they can save money and their eyes light up’. Is that a bad thing? Maybe not if it makes a company greener. The road to conversion starts with small steps not big leaps.

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