Even
companies that embrace large scale sustainability reforms, what can be
called sustainability transformation, often miss out on maximizing
sustainability value through lack of a brand management strategy.
A quick survey of brand management
consulting firms validates that there is still no mature approach for
integrating value from sustainability into their brands. Companies tend
to find themselves at one of three places on the sustainable brand
spectrum: being at risk of damaging consumer confidence by greenwashing by
making sustainability claims that aren’t completely true; shying away
from promoting sustainability initiatives because of the risk/benefit
trade-offs from being transparent; or failing to leverage the good
sustainability work that they are doing by not talking about it all.
So how do you create this sustainable brand management strategy?
The key is alignment – alignment between
your company’s sustainability values and what your customers value;
alignment between marketing, product development goals, and enterprise
sustainability goals for your company.
For example, your company makes baby toys
and your consumers are demanding that the company reduces or eliminates
toxic chemicals used in the production process.
However, the CEO has been reading all
about the impending water crisis and the benefits of energy efficiency,
and so that’s where she decides the company should direct its
sustainability focus. If the company ignores these demands from
consumers, the product development team might not be given any wiggle
room in time or budget to explore more benign options in product design
because they are focused on other conflicting priorities such as better
water management. The CSR team might be asked to focus on a lighting
retrofit in the corporate headquarters instead of building partnerships
with product stewardship organizations.
If the company isn’t listening to its
consumers and stakeholders, it will have no idea that these
eco-conscious parents care less about the water and energy used in the
production of their baby’s toys and more about whether that toy is
leaching toxic chemicals when the baby sucks on it!
This is an alignment problem that will
hinder the development of a sustainable brand management strategy. And
this is tough for managers and executives to wrap their heads around,
because they will point to that lighting retrofit or the lower water
bill and say, ‘Hey, we’re working on sustainability initiatives, so we
don’t understand why we’re getting accused of not being sustainable!’.
The issue is not that the company isn’t
addressing sustainability; it’s that they are not aligning their
sustainability initiatives with what the customers care most about.