How marketing leaders ensure that sustainability extends beyond ‘eco warrior’ consumers to grow into a mass movement

Creating more meaningful communication 

 

PepsiCo Positive (pep+) was launched two years ago as an overarching framework for the beverage maker. Lilly Yip, who was already chief marketing officer for PepsiCo APAC, got the additional mandate of chief sustainability officer. The commitments under pep+ affected areas like agriculture, supply chain, and consumer choices.

 

Yip said, “In order to make changes to many of our sustainability initiatives, we first need to raise public awareness and motivate them to participate.” 

This has resulted in pep+ messaging being embedded in stories that best fit the brand proposition. For instance, profiles on domestic farmers for potato crisp brands (Lay’s in China and Smith’s in Australia), which have outlined how the company supports this vital element in its supply chain.

 

To push plastic recycling, the company marked its first batch of recycled pet bottles in Australia with a ‘100% recycled’ message. Marketing events in China and Vietnam have featured recycling machines to remind consumers to dispose of bottles in the right way.

 

Colgate-Palmolive will launch an environmentally-themed campaign in Australia and then through the rest of the Asia-Pacific region next year. Yves Briantais, vice president of marketing, APAC, at Colgate-Palmolive, said, “For the first time, our campaigns will not be talking about toothpaste or toothbrushes, but about plastic instead.”  

 

Fresh and packaged fruit company Dole Sunshine decided to take on the massive wastage of food in an ongoing campaign called ‘Malnutrition Labels.’ Styled after the ‘nutrition label’ section that is a prominent part of snack packaging, the campaign involved placing hard-hitting statistics on food wastage and its impact, placed on garbage bins and trucks across New York. Desai said, “It starts from the fact that we waste one-third of the food we grow.” Renditions of ‘Malnutrition Labels’ are expected to launch worldwide.

 

This transparency and accountability is an approach endorsed by Twitter, with Hoang advising brands to go beyond “lofty promises” and “get out there and do something that makes a difference, no matter how small.” Whether that’s through “publicly showing transparency and traceability in your supply chain,” or helping customers repair old products to extend a product’s lifespan, she advocates for “showing progress” instead of “just focusing on goals.”

 

Creating more eco-friendly products

 

Around six years ago, Colgate-Palmolive pushed for the development of the first recyclable toothpaste tube. Realising how game-changing this was likely to be, the company offered the recyclable tube to its competitors instead of securing it as a competitive advantage — much like Volvo did with seatbelts in the auto industry. Briantais said, “Some of our competitors are now taking it over, and we hope tubes all over the world become recyclable. The planet will not be saved, but it will be a meaningful change and a major step forward.”

 

Some of these solutions are naturally constrained by the audience. For instance, Briantais said that while Colgate-Palmolive was working to make sachets — a popular format for consumers with limited purchasing power — more eco-friendly, the price of that solution should not be passed on to the consumer. But higher up the value chain, Colgate was experimenting with new product formats that often came with a premium price tag.

 

For example, Colgate Keep, a toothbrush with a replaceable head and an aluminium handle built to reduce plastic waste, is manufactured in small quantities and priced at a premium “to reflect the microstructure of the product.” However, Briantais intimated that the plan with premium products such as Keep is to gear them to become mass products and reducing the cost as demand increases. “As we make it mass, the cost will go down. If we do it authentically, the business will benefit. People will know why they buy us and do so no matter what, because of loyalty.” 

 

Looking further afield for partners

 

 

At Twitter, collaborations are considered powerful tools for affecting change, especially if they’re with unexpected partners. When it comes to tackling thorny issues such as sustainability — where systemic, rather than individual change is the key — Hoang challenges brands to band together with competitors for a formidable “team of rivals.” When striving towards a worthy cause such as sustainability, a little healthy competition — and cumulative corporate muscle — might just be the ticket.

 

Shifting the tenor of communication from alarmist to celebratory

 

Another issue to be tackled is the reporting on sustainability. While the attempt to convey the seriousness of the crisis is laudable, reportage and communication on the space has often carried with it a sense that the worst eventualities have already come to pass. Asked about the impact of this communication, Desai said, “There is an alarmist tone and pessimism which weighs down sustainability, and the agenda for change. The big task for all of us as communicators is how do we find ways of making sustainable solutions fun, exciting, innovative, and optimistic? That is my next big brief for transformation — making everyday sustainability colloquial, fun, and optimistic. To say this is not just for the eco warriors, but for everyone.”