Connecting with your customer and redefining your brand

The ‘Connecting With Your Customer and Redefining Your Brand’ panel discussed the ways in which organizations are creating new techniques for responsible business conduct and incorporating sustainable thinking into their brand strategy and DNA.  The panelists were:

Susan Coté, Director of Brand and Consumer Marketing, Green Mountain Coffee 

Daniel Gisser, Director of Corporate Marketing, Eaton Corporation 

Jennifer Rushmore, Global Sustainability Leader, Procter & Gamble 

Jonathan Yohannan, Senior Vice President, Cone Incorporated

The panel: The panel began with introductions of our distinguished panelists. We then delved into how the sustainable practices at different organizations have evolved. Sustainability at P&G focuses on both social and environmental responsibility. Sustainability has strong heritage at the company which has been awarded and recognized in different parts of the world. P&G focuses on strategic social responsibility which has paved the way for a more environmentally and socially responsible business model. 

Sustainability is addressed differently in a B2B business like Eaton. Eaton focuses on efficiency issues related to fuel consumption and greener buildings. The company has embraced green solutions in its best practices as such practices are a big revenue draw and a chance for the company to build its brand.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters have sustainability embedded in their DNA.  They built a tremendously efficient system involving sustainability in all aspects of their business processes.  GMCR’s various brands are involved in different areas such as supporting local communities, protecting the environment, taking care of the employees. The triple bottom line concept resonates throughout the company. 

Cone was able to address similar issues from a unique perspective, those of the customers themselves.  Cone works with different companies to help them improve their communication and corporate responsibility strategy.   It is critical for most customer and consumer facing companies to understand and become more engaged with its customers whether it is through cause branding, corporate responsibility, employee management , or others. 

Obstacles Companies Have Come Across While Developing Sustainable Initiatives: The panel discussed various issues encountered while addressing sustainability in the products and processes of organizations. The most significant challenge most panelists have come across is the cost of the final product.  P&G’s consumer research found that customers on an average are willing to buy green products as long as they function similar and are priced similar to other available products. The company has numerous innovations it would like to bring to market but has postponed doing so because of these concerns. 

One of the other concerns facing these companies is how to integrate best processes into the systems of their manufactures and suppliers. For example, GMCR worked with the cup manufacturing company to help integrate better processes in its value chain which led to greener cups and helped reduce its environmental footprint.  A company can achieve a better and greener system by not only making its processes better but also by involving other stakeholders in the process building.

The panel also discussed the marketing challenges associated with such initiatives and how companies walk the thin line between making the right communication and avoiding green washing. Both GMCR and P&G work within their strategy which enables them to stay on course for making the right communication with their customers.  Eaton mentioned how B2B business are able to deal better with such challenges because it works with its customers throughout the entire process. 

Insights from the panel: One of the interesting insights of the panel was how to decide which products and processes are worth investing green innovative ideas and energy. Many products and processes do not have as much ‘green’ potential as one might assume.  For example, many products can be designed to be bio-degradable, but would involve chemicals during manufacturing (does this make it no longer sustainable?);   A product could be made from glass instead of plastic but the transportation of the heavy glass packaging would have a larger carbon footprint and would reduce the benefit of having glass packaging in place of the plastic.  Among several such difficult choices companies have to decide which would make more environmental impact and better business sense. A company has to recognize these challenges and develop its strategy accordingly. 

The panel also navigated the predicament companies may face while making such decisions in different geographies, specifically developing countries. The consumers in these countries may not be aware of such issues or may not be really concerned about such products. For a consumer products company it is essential to be aware of regional concerns and address these concerns appropriately.

Finally, the panel had an interesting discussion involving social media – using Facebook and Twitter in the marketing strategy of the company. These channels open the company to an honest dialogue with their customers.  However, these channels also must be closely managed as consumers may use this avenue as a safe place to vent and ‘think’ with little consequence to the consumer, but a much larger consequence for the company.