Brand Grab: Unlocking sustainability's brand value

In our work and research we see that the majority of people want to create a fairer more equitable and sustainable world regardless of political persuasion or socio economics.

They may have differing views on how to get there but at heart they sense that the world is grappling with an environmental and social crisis which runs alongside the economic one.

Clearly people see that governments have a huge role to play in putting in place the right policies. We have seen the passion that this creates with our recent work in partnership with our NGO clients and a few notable actors, ex-liberal party leaders, church leaders and notable economists (to name a few).

However, people see that brands have a massively important role to play too. Brands are in an ideal position to take a leadership role in this space.

Brands can help people to play their part by offering products and services that are designed and sold with the social and environmental impacts built into the core of the business.

The challenge for most brands is that they do not see how this is remotely exciting both for themselves and their customers.

When they look at sustainability they see data, science, technical engineering, waste reduction and efficiency drives. Whereas brands are built on lifestyle, engagement and relevancy to a specific consumer need.

This is largely because most people are confused about what is meant by the word sustainability. It has been over used and misused to the point where people have started to switch off.

This is a problem because what it means is that the real value of sustainability to any business is locked up.

These businesses miss out on all the fantastic brand reputation, employee engagement, cost efficiency, innovation and Environmental and Social Governance benefits that come with a robust sustainability strategy which is well articulated.

Why this happens is often simply down to the difference in language that the different players within business speak when it comes to sustainability.

What we see often is that the sustainability specialists in organisations are amazing pioneers. However, they often struggle to translate their vision into language that the board and marketing people can understand.

Likewise the marketing people see sustainability as important but at the same time feel it is too complex, technical and irrelevant to their customers.

We see that the role of a sustainability strategy and communications focused company is to get both the people inside brands, and their key stakeholders audiences, aligned around sustainability through exciting and engaging ideas.

Critically this means having a clear process to find the right focus, for what to communicate and how to communicate it, before jumping into creative execution.

Once the focus or what we call the 'Sustainability Foundation' is found, brands must then help people to understand this vision through clever creative ideas that are executed brilliantly.

Often brands are afraid to celebrate their sustainability success stories or talk about their sustainability strategies for fear of greenwash.

We think that this is too conservative and means that the green gap, between people's intentions and people's actions, is locked in place.

The beauty of a clear and imaginative strategy for communicating the genuine sustainability efforts of a brand is that it kick starts a virtuous circle of reward for the employees, the customers and the brand.

Once the potential of ideas for sustainability are unlocked then innovation and creative thinking flows within the organisation and between the brand and its customers.

We see this within the banking sector where some of the more progressive banks are creating new green financial products and services aimed at helping customers create value out of sustainability.

We also see it in the FMCG and retail markets where the most interesting and exciting brands are building sustainability into the core of their business to produce brilliant new solutions for customers.

Keen to hear your thoughts.

M