‘Who Cares Wins’
Break The Pattern
The increasing pressure on brands to embrace sustainability – which in its truest meaning includes social and environmental objectives highlighted by the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals – should be regarded as the biggest growth opportunity for brands.
To tap into this growing space – meeting consumer expectations and seizing business opportunities – brands must walk the talk. They must make real, tangible, and concrete impact and it is essential that they continue to update, adapt, and evolve to remain relevant in the eyes of their customers, and to avoid reputational damage.
Stand up and stand out
Most brands are approaching sustainability in an undifferentiated way, chasing only compliance in the eyes of consumers and regulators. There are few initiatives and positions taken by brands that, once communicated, are really noticed, remembered, or that provide differentiation for the brand. Indeed, where everyone repeats the same promises (e.g.: committing to reduce carbon emissions to net zero, dubious offset strategies or adopting 100% recyclable packaging) very few brands stand out.
It is therefore necessary for companies to quickly break this pattern to prevent eroding the uniqueness and distinctiveness of a brand.
Creating differentiation
Brands increasingly find themselves in a vicious cycle: as investing in sustainability continues to be an imperative to maintain relevance, standards rise, consumer expectations continue to grow, regulators clamp down, and brands are forced to react to the shifting standards. In this scenario of limited differentiation among the category, the only true criteria for distinguishing one brand from another eventually becomes its price resulting in it being perceived as just a commodity.
