From Sustainable Brands International in December, comes this interesting presentation from Santiago Gowland - VP Brand & Global Corporate Responsibility, Unilever. He speaks about the company’s Brand Imprint program, statistics, and considerations on the social role of business in the 21st century. Here’s the breakdown of his presentation:
- Embracing Reality: Average income of $2/day in emerging countries, coming water scarcity, oil production declines, soil degradation, international trade barriers, overpopulation, deforestation, poor land use, and environmental problems
- Shift in Balance of Power: Building Trust (war is over & consumers have won it; a good reputation is a valuable brand asset)
- Influences on consumer behavior come from every quarter (celebrities, internet, NGOs, advertising, opinion leaders, entertainment)
- Design Solutions: Energy saving light bulbs…
- Ethical Brands are proliferating
Brand Imprint Program
Synopsis
Internal process used for analyzing and integrating social, economic and environmental (SEE) impacts into brand development and portfolio management in order to reduce negative and maximize positive impacts through innovation and brand communications.
History
Unilever used to have a variety of corporate sustainability initiatives operating independently and disconnected from brand development and marketing. Launched in 2005 by lead developer Santiago Gowland and a multi-disciplinary group of experts, the program began with Lipton Tea and Dove. First they turned to their best practices in life cycle analysis, consumer marketing, and trend spotting. Then they joined these capabilities with a value-chain and livelihood analysis completed together with Oxfam.
Exceeding their initial expectations, Unilever proceeded to conduct “Brand Imprint” assessments with their additional brands.
Process
Holistic inquiry into the “Impacts by” and “Influences on” a brand. Participants include the corporate responsibility team, brand management leaders (supply chain, internal operations, marketing, support functions), consultants, and advisers acting on behalf of outside stakeholders. Together they conduct an up-front analysis, discuss and review the findings, generate alternative strategies, and establish an integrated brand strategy.
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Impacts
“Inside-Out” analysis of social, economic, and environmental impacts of the brand’s activities, using two analytical methods:
- Life cycle analysis of products and brand activities.
- Value chain analysis (building on the methodology of Oxfam’s study of Unilever Indonesia, and INSEAD’s analysis of Unilever South Africa).
Influences
“Outside-In” effects analysis:
- Consumers (drivers of consumption patterns, trends in consumer behavior, and expressions of the focal brand and other brands as those trends unfold)
- Market Forces driving the brand’s success (e.g. Porter’s five forces)
- Key Opinion Formers and their brand interpretation (media, NGO’s, regulators)
Core competencies
- Making products that improve people’s health, hygiene, and nutrition
- Global purchasing of agricultural raw materials
- Global logistics network
- Scientific knowledge in food technology & nutrition
- One of world’s largest communicators with people
- Experts in influencing public behavioral change, worldwide
- Ability to work in multi-sectoral partnerships
- Ability to train and develop people and project managers
Global Social Challenges
- Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger
- Achieve universal primary education
- Promote gender equality and empower women
- Reduce child mortality
- Improve maternal health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
- Ensure environmental sustainability
- Develop a global partnership for development
Next Steps
Which of the global challenges is Unilever best able to respond to? Which ones can they go beyond mere compliance? Of these, which are ones that will drive growth, fuel innovation, win in key markets, and build trust?
Thrust Development
3 step approach:
- Aggregate: Add together impacts to tell a bigger and more powerful story.
- Integrate: Leverage synergies to minimize duplication and maximize business efficiencies.
- Escalate: Scale up activities and fast track roll out of brands.
Vitality Framework
In 2008, Unilever finalized a Vitality Framework to help them deliver their mission in a systematic and measurable way.
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It allows brand managers to explore opportunities to innovate and improve their brands in three ways:
- Boosting people’s personal vitality and well-being
- Addressing social issues
- Reducing environmental impacts
Progress Measurement
Four ‘Vitality Metrics’ measure the framework’s performance:
- Greenhouse gas emissions
- Water
- Waste
- Sustainable sourcing
The first three provide an estimate of each element per consumer use, such as grams of greenhouse gas per single usage occasion of shampoo. The greenhouse gas metric takes into account impacts across a product’s lifecycle, including:
- Direct manufacturing impacts
- Indirect impacts such as sourcing of raw materials and the quantity of energy and water required for consumer use.
In 2008, they piloted these metrics in selected geographic regions and with certain products. During 2009 they’ll be refining these metrics and reviewing how far they can be used to shape future brand development and to set a baseline to track progress across the brand portfolio.
Summary
The Brand Imprint process provides a structured process for brand teams to understand and assess how sustainability issues impact and are impacted by their products. The Vitality Framework and metrics help integrate sustainability considerations into the everyday business processes of the categories and brands. This holistic architecture help them integrate social and environmental sustainability into the corporate business strategy.
Insights
According to this SustainAbility article,
“The key to Gowland’s success was the ability to wrap a common, business-friendly marketing language around this initiative—‘gaining insights.’ As Gowland commented, “We were going way beyond consumer-product insights. We were intent on examining the relationship between a brand and society, not just the psychological aspirations of consumers. This was a departure for us, but it was also something we could talk about in a familiar language.”
“One outcome of Unilever’s Brand Imprint was that it catalyzed the company’s commitment to managing water resources. Many of Unilever’s products are heavily dependent on agriculture, the biggest overall user of freshwater. Following brand impact assessments, Unilever engaged with its local producers to manage agricultural practices—switching from furrow to drip irrigation. As a result, in Australia alone 80% of the land has switched to drip irrigation and water consumption has halved. This innovative irrigation method also improved crop yields by 100%.”
Related Articles
- Certifying Lipton Tea: Unilever and The Rainforest Alliance
- Clorox: Leveraging Sustainability for Growth
Sources
- SustainAbility - Unilever Brand Imprint
- Sustainable Food Lab - Brand Imprint
- Unilever - Our Brands in Society
- Unilever - Strategy
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Check out the Sustainable Brands 09 Conference for a great lineup of speakers and topics
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