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At the recent Sustainable Brands ’09 conference, the audience was charmed by two professors of psychology: Dr. Dacher Keltner and John Marshall Roberts.
While it’s not uncommon for great brand strategies to be based on cutting-edge psychology, it was surprising to hear the relevance of their message to marketers today.
Keltner’s recent book, ‘Born to Be Good’, illustrates how the human path to happiness can be found through inter-connectedness. While some assume we are hard-wired to lead “nasty, brutish, and short” lives, he posits that we are in fact unselfish and crave positive connections.
Roberts builds on Keltner’s thesis, adding that the current climate is in need of inspiration, and there is a gaping opportunity for persuasive visionaries. See his recent book, ‘Igniting Inspiration’. We have been living in a pessimistic culture with little trust in our fellow human beings.
The audience was left with the idea that the pendulum has swung; this previous pessimism has opened up the door to positivity. As a culture, we are now looking for a connected community and sustainable future - economically, socially, and environmentally. And as we wade through this economic quagmire, we will be inspired by optimistic people and their messages.
We want to believe we will emerge a healthier, stronger and more sustainable society.
So what does this mean for your businesses?
Lead. Show consumers what altruistic and sustainable steps you have been taking to create a better future. Obama ran and won an entire campaign around the premise…and Roberts believes it’s just the tip of the “hope” iceberg.
We are on the cusp of a sustainable revolution and people are looking for leaders. You don’t have to wait for the perfect message to take your first step.
Establish an end goal for your company or brand that will make an impact towards the greater good, then speak to and educate your consumers along the way.
Compostable Bags
When you think of salty snacks, sustainability is not what immediately comes to mind. But SunChips is working towards just that.
Step 1: Earthday 2008, SunChips opened a solar concentrator field in their Modesto, CA power plant harnessing the sun to help power the production of SunChips. SunChips then proudly highlighted this step in their advertisement (along with the well-chosen uplifting tune).
SunChips could have waited to feature this fact in their advertisements in fear of consumers calling them misleading - after all, this is only one of their seven processing plants. Is this enough to support the claim on the bag ‘good for me and the planet’?
But consumers want hope. And when SunChips put a stake in the ground with distinct goals and transparency as to how they were going to get there, they were rewarded.
Step 2: On Earthday 2009, Sunchips stated their 10 1/2oz bag would be 100% compostable by Earth Day 2010. Thomas Oh, Director of Marketing for SunChips at Frito Lay, relayed to the Sustainable Brands audience that this is where the real brand benefits started.
SunChips ran an inspirational ad during “American Idol” which simply and artfully illustrated the bag composting over the course of 14 weeks. Apparently, it was just what people needed to see.
Scientists and engineers have been speaking about ‘Cradle to Cradle’ design for years, but SunChips brought it to life. The image of a seemingly metallic bag disintegrating before your eyes moved people.
Demi Moore saw the ad and Twittered to hundreds of thousands of her followers. Bloggers and writers followed suit, ultimately driving 115 million impressions for this bag of salty snacks.
Step 3: Now that SunChips has a gained this captive audience, they shouldn’t stop there. They have established themselves as a leader, and people will now look to SunChips to continue leading towards a brighter, more sustainable future. And from what we have seen so far, their loyal brand audience will be pleased.
SunChips is working diligently with organizations to increase awareness of composting, working with municipalities to offer local composting programs, and have even partnered with TerraCycle to give consumers more commercial drop off points for their bags.
Not bad for a bag of chips.
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Nice. I love Sunchips, but always wondered how legit their ads were. They made me feel good, but you never know. thanks
Good insight. And as a marketer in a ‘ungreen’ industry, this gives me hope.
Who knew we’d be learning from SunChips. But what other sustainable initiatives is Frito Lay doing with their brands?
That seems a pretty lofty goal - 100% compostable. I thought a percentage of their bags were compostable now - how do you even have a % compostable? Part degrades? Rather than include the claim that a percent is compostable now, which is just confusing, I think they should have just waited until they could give people directions on what they can actually do with the bag.
But I agree- still some great steps
Sun Chips just got a little tastier!
Thanks for this encouraging bit of info. Sunchips have always been on my good list, but I’m glad they’re solidifying their position. For more on sustainability issues from corporate transparency to consumer awareness, from personal healing to planetary healing listen to this clip from More Than Sound: http://www.morethansound.net/samples/Ecological-Awareness_in_15-minutes.mp3
more on “Ecological Awareness” at morethansound.net
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