It’s officially conference season for marketers around the world and I’ve been doing my share to spread the good word of Marketing with Meaning on this variation of the campaign trail. Two weeks ago I got a chance to speak at the Cause Marketing Forum in Chicago, next week is our huge seminar at the Cannes Lions Ad Fest (where I’ll be blogging and tweeting all week), and last week I got a chance to take the stage at the Sustainable Brands event in Monterey, California.
Sustainable Brands is one of the largest and longest-running events dedicated to the topics of sustainability and corporate responsibility, and how they come to life in marketing for some of the biggest brands in the world. I had the chance to meet executives from companies such as Microsoft, Unilever, and Walmart. Some of the delegates hold specialized roles in their companies, while others were traditional brand marketers at companies that have mainlined sustainable business and marketing practices. I felt a little like the wild card participant at the event. I didn’t share a case study on sustainability or have an agency devoted to this surging specialty practice. Instead I got to come in and share how the interruptive model of marketing is no longer sustainable, but that Marketing with Meaning offers a new path—a path in which brands can reach incredible results both in building the business and improving the world. You can see the slides from my brief presentation below…
Interestingly, I got one piece of negative feedback from an audience member in a roundabout way that I would rather not describe here. Someone in the audience from a different advertising agency complained through certain channels that I was far too strong in my comparison of interruptive advertising to pollution, and that I might have embarrassed this person’s clients. This was a new first for me, as I’ve been tougher on our profession before (I always say “our” or “we” because I live in this industry, too) with many more advertising folks in the room, and never gotten this response. Sadly, I offered to discuss this concern directly with the person but I’ve yet to hear a response. What do you think? Was I too tough?
Moving on, I only got to attend one of the four days that the conference ran last week, but I did manage to capture some killer content for you, dear readers. There were three terrific presentations from marketers that had me giving my new TweetDeck iPad app a rigorous workout:
Timberland
Mike Harrison, Chief Brand Officer for Timberland, took the stage to share the story of the company’s resurgence behind its new Earthkeepers boots. A fellow Procter & Gamble alum, Harrison kicked off his presentation by saying that his years in traditional marketing at P&G did not prepare him for this new world of developing and marketing sustainable products. He went on to admit that the company is still figuring out the right path in this new space; but after listening to Mike on stage and in a Q&A session later in the day I believe Timberland just might be writing the missing manual for success.
Timberland itself is a company that is focused on delivering “commerce and justice” in everything it does; its positioning is “the authentic, sustainable outdoor brand,” and as a brand that is about enjoying and exploring the outdoors it has a built-in link to environmental sustainability. Last year the brand created a Facebook application that led the company to plant more than 1 million trees. The company has created a kind of “nutritional label” for its shoe boxes that shows what goes into them, and it has pledged to improve the sustainable sourcing of its products every year. And this also follows through the company’s organizational culture: For years, employees are encouraged to take a week of additional paid time away from the office to volunteer on causes they value.
This starting point helped the brand recognize the opportunity to create an Earthkeepers boot that uses recyclable materials and works with suppliers to minimize the environmental impact of activities such as leather tanning. The end product is something that looks good or better than other boots. (Well-used, recycled leather always looks better.) And the company is working on an Earthkeepers Boot 2.0 that can actually be sent back to the company for repair and recycling.
The idea works strategically because it is helping the company differentiate in a very crowded marketplace. As Harrison said, “Anyone with a fax machine and a friend in China can make a boot.” Results have been very strong so far: It should soon be a $400 million line and is helping the brand improve on key equity measures. Harrison showed how the stock price is up 50% since the company repositioned itself away from hip-hop and back toward the environment. Interestingly, a vast majority of sales of the boot are from outside the U.S., so this growth should only continue as the brand prepares to expand the line and its marketing budget. Expect more big things from this brand in the year ahead!
IBM
I was excited to see Lee Green from IBM at the conference because we will have his colleague, John Kennedy, join us at Cannes next week. Green is Vice President of Corporate Marketing at IBM, and he shared the story of the company’s move to make “A Smarter Planet.” Like Timberland and many of the best case studies, IBM’s new path came from years of slowing sales and growing competitive pressure. The company needed to be about something more than hardware or consulting services; it desperately needed a new focus and positioning on something higher-level.
IBM went to its roots and rediscovered its history of creating products that drive progress. It realized, however, that “progress” is not about the technology itself, but rather about how technology can be used to improve the world. IBM realized that “the planet is getting flatter… and smarter”—and it had an opportunity to make a Smarter Planet. This new direction is leading the company into some pretty interesting new businesses. For example, it is helping companies re-fit aging buildings to meet the latest green guidelines. It is working on a tool to allow people to see the energy they are using, which results in 15% less usage and a 10% cost savings.
Smarter Planet is more than a new ad campaign; this is really an entirely new positioning for the company—and it is delivering on the concept of Smarter Planet by doing more than running TV commercials. For example, it hosted an Eco-efficiency Jam earlier this year that brought together 1,600 business, government, and NGO leaders from more than 140 countries to work on some of these key problems together.
The results of this redirection are very preliminary but seem to be having an impact. IBM is growing again, and it was named as the second most valuable brand in the world in Interbrand’s annual survey, with a valuation of $60 billion.
Jack Daniels
We’ve recently begun doing some work the Brown-Forman, the parent company of Jack Daniels, so I was excited to meet and hear from Rob Kaplan, who leads Corporate Responsibility for the company. He shared the story of how Jack Daniels, arguably the number-one spirit brand in the world, is discovering the power of including sustainability in its marketing strategy. Like the two examples above, Jack Daniels did not have to invent or add a meaningful message—rather, it went back to its roots and what it has continued doing today. At its small distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, 99% of waste is reused. Used barrels are sold to others who reuse them, grain by-products are sold to local farmers who feed them to their animals, and the nearby streams are kept perfectly clean because it is this limestone-filtered water that gives Jack Daniels its smooth taste.
Kaplan spoke about how the company spoke with Sam’s Club, which was looking to feature brands that have true sustainability credentials. After hearing the story of the Jack Daniels recycling and reuse program, they asked for a very large order to feature on special nationwide. Now, those of you from the CPG world know that getting new distribution, on feature, at a chain such as Sam’s Club can basically make your number for the year. But instead of just putting some regular Jack bottles on a pallet and shipping them out, the brand took the opportunity to create a special SKU. This new, limited-edition bottle not only gave brand fans something unique, but Jack Daniels partnered with a nonprofit organization to plant 100,000 trees with proceeds from the sale of these special bottles.
Not only did this initiative help secure incremental sales at Sam’s Club, but it earned positive word of mouth from sustainable product fans. For example, this Sierra Club blog post glowingly wrote of the promotion.
Overall I came away from this conference convinced that “sustainability” is no longer just some kind of siloed corporate department or annual report box to check off. It is something that consumers are demanding of the products and services they buy every day, and it offers a strategic focus for brand marketing with meaning.
