Tag: CSR

CMO Insights: Why Timberland Planted 1 Million Trees in Inner Mongolia

Posted on by Drew Neisser

This is not a story about a bunch of granola-loving, tree-hugging, goody two-shoes. Timberland, the company, is in business to sell shoes and other outdoor apparel. As Chief Brand Officer Mike Harrison put it in my interview with him last week, “We’re not advocating for good causes just for the sake of it, there is an element of enlightened self-interest in this,” adding, “we’re an outdoors brand, if winter goes away its not a good thing for us financially either.”

That said, Timberland’s approach to corporate social responsibility could be a model for any likeminded company around the world. Timberland is considered one of the most socially responsible brands in the US and was recently recognized by Ceres-ACCA as having the best sustainability reports. Timberland’s commitment to fighting climate change permeates the global organization, from the CEO to the sales staff in Japan, and serves as the starting point for this 7-point guide on how to do well by doing good.

1. Create a Culture of Doers

Timberland has long believed in empowering its employees to give back. Harrison reported that, “back in the early 1990’s, we started giving employees paid time off to volunteer in the community.” So when a bunch of employees in Japan linked their concern about air quality with deforestation in Northeast China, the next thing you knew Timberland was planting trees in Inner Mongolia. Noted Harrison, “It started out as a pretty low-key community service project in 2000,” and culminated in April 2010 with the planting of the millionth tree!

2. Walk the Walk First Especially in China

One of the more remarkable aspects of Timberland’s tree planting program in China is that they didn’t even sell boots there until 2006 (6 years after the first tree was planted). According to Harrison, “We were planting trees but we hadn’t gotten around to figuring out how to do business there.” Not famous for welcoming foreign brands, Timberland benefited from six years of good will generation. Describing the launch in China, Harrison noted that, “we told them about the Timberland brand and what we stood for and why we’d been planting trees and that definitely got a lot of interest.” Four years later, China is one of Timberland’s fastest growing markets.

3. Make it Green But Don’t Lead with Green

In 2007, Timberland launched the Earthkeepers boot, which, Harrison noted, “was the greenest boot that we knew how to make.” Since that boot was well received, they turned Earthkeepers into a “collection of environmentally responsible footwear and apparel,” that has become Timberland’s fastest growing collection. But Harrison recognized that, “consumers are not going out shopping for brands in our space wondering about how they can save the planet, so you need to look at environmental values as the gift with purchase.” Harrison considers this one of the biggest lessons, noting that his consumer won’t buy it if it doesn’t look good and perform like its less green counterparts.

4. Don’t Underestimate Online Engagement Among the Green Inclined

No good marketing story would be complete without a few bumps in the road. Timberland’s bump came after launching a virtual tree planting application on Facebook in late 2008. “We had all these grandiose plans to engage consumers and create a movement online,” noted Harrison, whose group was taken by surprise when the demand for virtual tree planting exceeded the speed at which they could plant corresponding real trees. When Timberland then took down the application there was a huge backlash and Harrison discovered, “Just how engaged our consumers were.” How Timberland responded to this crisis is as instructive as the rest of their actions.

5. Fess Up To Your Mistakes

After the Facebook application was shut down, Timberland’s “engaged consumers” created online petitions to bring back the application and then started to question the veracity of Timberland’s tree planting programs. This was potential PR disaster requiring an immediate and honest response. Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz held a chat session with the petition’s organizers and posted the conversation for all to see. This approach helped to diffuse the protestors and offered Timberland a valuable dose of humility. Offered Harrison, “it’s much better to openly engage with critics, be transparent, be open about your failings—we never say we’re perfect and we never will be.”

6. Don’t Be Too Earnest

Understandably proud of their green track record, Harrison noted that one of the biggest marketing mistakes they’ve made is “to come across as preachy” when advertising their Earthkeepers products. “We’re trying to be more humorous in our ads now—it’s a serious issue but we shouldn’t claim we’re curing cancer—we’re just planting trees and doing the best we can.” “We seem to engage better if we’re reasonably light,” offered Harrison while lamenting consumer’s general disinterest in reading longer and more serious eco-stories. Advised Harrison, “pick your message, be positive, upbeat, reasonably light hearted about it and don’t come across as overly earnest.”

7. Think Global, Act Social

Offering a glimpse into their future marketing plans, Harrison noted that “half of our business and half our consumers are outside the US, so the next big step is moving to a more global Timberland.com and moving to a more global social networking strategy.” This coincides with new tree planting initiatives in Haiti and Nepal along with continuing efforts in China. In fact, CEO Jeff Swartz has set the audacious goal of planting 5 million trees in the next five years. Timberland is also updating its virtual tree planting initiative with the introduction of a new Facebook application, which will be integrated with its soon to be launched “Nature Needs Heroes” marketing campaign.

Final Note: In its Q1 2010 earnings report, Timberland’s revenue was up 7% overall and 17% in Asia. Seems like Timberland is doing pretty darn well by doing good.  (This article first appeared on FastCompany.com)

Pepsi Refresh Serves All

Posted on by Drew Neisser

What I love about the concept of Marketing as Service is that when done correctly it is a win win all the way around.  The consumer wins because they get something of real value and the marketer wins because they get something of real value too, not the least of which is a meaningful consumer interaction.  Done correctly, marketing as service can increase loyalty, attract new customers, generate favorable PR and even increase your fanbase on Facebook.

Which brings me to Pepsi’s Refresh Project.  If you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading this and click here.  In their words, “Pepsi is giving away millions of dollars  to fund great ideas.” Here’s a quick recap from MediaPost:

PepsiCo introduced the Pepsi Refresh Project to a large audience during the Super Bowl. The yearlong project, whose mission is to fund entrepreneurial projects with “a positive impact,” encourages fans to submit ideas — as well as vote online to decide who will be monthly winners of multiple grants ranging from $5K to $250K apiece.

At first you might ask what does saving the world have to do with Pepsi but the simple answer is in the program tagline, “every Pepsi refreshes the world.”  The reality is that Pepsi is finding a deeper way to connect with its youthful target, a target that is indeed keen on saving the world or at least making sure that young artists find an audience or that an eco-friendly play gets produced in NYC. If the target believes Pepsi actually cares, Pepsi moves from soda to soul mate.  The project has been gaining momentum over the last several months according to MediaPost:

Using no broadcast media to publicize the contest in December, Pepsi closed the submission period for ideas in 72 hours. Then the company added a little media to the mix in February and closed submissions within 24 hours. By March, as the project became more well-known, Pepsi closed submissions in less than 12 hours. There have been millions of votes, more than a billion media impressions and hundreds of thousands of new Facebook Fans.

This program is worth studying in further detail for its state-of-the-are use of social media, crowd sourcing and good old CSR (corporate social responsibility.)  But alas, I can’t do that for you right this second as I need to take a Pepsi break.

Marketing as Service isn’t CSR

Posted on by Drew Neisser

In Jonah Bloom’s editorial on Marketing as Service (MAS), he challenged a couple of marketers including AT&T and Citi to “make their marketing useful” and offered up a couple of examples which he thought would provide utility for New Yorkers. To some readers, both examples sounded like acts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) thus muddying the waters a bit between CSR and MAS. Without getting too academic, let me try to clarify the similarities and differences between these two important marketing constructs.

CSR is generally sponsored by a corporate entity (P&G sustainability goals ) while MAS is typically developed for a specific product or service (Charmin’s portable potties). While both CSR and MAS are meant to generate good will, CSR typically focuses on servicing society (Nike’s Live Strong donations) while MAS serves a particular target segment (Nike+ microsite & events to support runners). CSR is often trumpeted via traditional advertising; MAS is a substitute for traditional advertising. CSR strategy briefs rarely talk in terms of driving sales; MAS strategy briefs are almost always about driving sales.All that said, there are times when CSR is delivered via MAS and MAS has elements of CSR which is why the two are easily confused. A recent TAAN blog post by Peter Gerritsen provides further clarification:

Most all of us know about Cause Marketing. Doing good, and connecting the client with the beneficial efforts on behalf of the well-meaning cause. Admirable, and worthwhile. Often delivering results for both the cause and the client.A new term (at least to me) is “Marketing as Service” or “Marketing with Meaning” — providing a useful service to the public/prospect/customer as a element of the marketing effort. There have always been some fabulous “promotions” that are directly tied to the marketers product. This is going a step further — Actually being USEFUL to the audience. Instead of promoting a product, buying media time and space to advertise, holding a special event with sponsorships, this is about giving directly to the audience something of value to them and adhering the marketer’s brand to this value. There are a number of great examples that should give you a starting point in considering this opportunity for your clients. This could be a great leveraging vehicle in drawing you closer to your client, beyond the commodity ad work we all perform. (Now, I know you don’t look as your work as a commodity. So, don’t go crazy over my lumping you in with the rest of the ad agencies. But ….)

Bottom line: Marketing as Service is all about the how — how a marketer communicates with its target. Instead of talking about a particular product or service, MAS provides something the target can actually use and, in a sense, its medium becomes the message. Corporate Social Responsibility is all about the why — why a marketer is doing something for a particular cause or social issue. Instead of talking about a particular product or service, CSR hopes to generate a halo of good will over a company via pro-social messaging. Any questions?

Marketing in a Recession: Be Brave or Be Gone

Posted on by Drew Neisser

A memorable moment in Monty Python and the Holy Grail is when a galloping minstrel sings of Brave Sir Robin and how “he ran away, he ran away” when faced with adversity. With a downturn (dare I say recession) looming, my advice is simple: don’t be Brave Sir. Robin. As the old saying goes, with each challenge comes opportunity and opportunities abound even in downturns.

1. Don’t Kill Your Budget (Yet)

The first thing we marketers must do is save the budget. I have no doubt your CFO is already calling for reductions in head count and spending. Now is the time to be brave. Since all your competitors won’t have the chutzpah to say no to their CFO, you must make the case that this is your chance to gain true competitive advantage with a share of voice you’ve been dreaming about all these years. Remind your CFO that top-of-mind awareness is an asset of the company that will devalue faster than he/she can say ROI. In truth, awareness can decline as fast as 50% a month when you go silent and the cost of buying back that awareness will be horrendous.

2. Cut Wisely
Given that my first point is probably a pipedream and that you will no more be able to avoid cuts than a deer can turn away from oncoming headlights, let’s consider where to cut. Traditional advertising has always been the first to go and depending on your media mix, that may make sense now. The one advertising channel that will be harder to cut is online since a steady stream of metrics provide the ROI data that is so often missing in other areas. Promotional dollars are harder to cut because your channel partners may very well depend (like the addicts they are) on the sales boosts coupons and other discounts provide. Events and trade shows should be reviewed on case-by-case basis, saving those that can demonstrate ROI and tossing the ones that have been of questionable worth all along.

3. Stay Focused
Now that you have less money to work with, it is all the more important that you concentrate your spending where it can have the greatest impact. This is not the time to consider new targets or new channels if that means losing focus on your core constituents. But staying focused doesn’t mean doing the same old same old. Get out there and talk to your customers and find out how the downturn is affecting their lives and their product choices. Just the mere process of talking to your customers will make them feel special and cement the bond you’ll really need to weather the economic storm.

4. New Stuff for the Old Gang
What you hear from your current customers may really surprise you and push your product or service offerings in new directions. With austerity looming like a black cloud on the horizon, some consumers may turn to affordable luxuries even more than usual. While more “value packs” seems like an obvious direction, it is also possible consumers will turn to smaller sizes just to keep their monthly spend down. On the other end, luxury customers may temporarily discard their “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” attitude choosing to spend their dollars more discretely. For example, furriers might want to think about putting the fur on the inside of the coat, offering the same warmth without the showy statement (animal rights activists would encourage you to put fake fur on the inside!) On the services side, tighter economic times could create all sorts of new opportunities. Those with two jobs might need more help at home, keeping things organized, walking the dogs and/or shopping for groceries (online services like Fresh Direct could indeed thrive in a downturn.)

5. Keep it Light
Just because the economy is sadly wanting doesn’t mean consumers want to be reminded of their uneasiness in every communication. A little humor, particularly of the self-deprecating variety, will be most appreciated by your otherwise stressed-out target. If there is humor to be found in your DNA, now is the time to unleash the smiles. Entertainment companies will be wise to breakout the comedies after finding a happy ending to the writer’s strike. I’m reminded of the depression era-based movie Sullivan’s Travels in which the protagonist (a movie director played by Joel McCrae) searches for a serious theme for his next feature. What he learns is that laughter is the ultimate tonic during tough times.

6. Avoid the Middle
A waning tide may lower all boats but some will surely ride this out better than others. My money is on strong brands with high net promoter scores who are consistently delivering genuine and perceived value. Weaker brands with little customer loyalty will find themselves stuck in the middle, neither cheap enough to overcome their shortcomings or expensive enough to attract the ever-spending affluent crowd. This is a bad time to be Sears and a better time to be Best Buy or Bergdorf’s. Sears is stuck in the middle without competitive advantage on price, value or service. Best Buy offers both value and service (via Geek Squad) and Bergdorf’s regulars are unlikely to cut back drastically. Mass consumer brands with a wide range of products would be smart to emphasize their high-end and entry-level models again with the goal of avoiding the middle.

7. Partner with Non-Profits
Non-profits will undoubtedly feel the pinch as their supports cut back on donations. This happens in every downturn and is really painful for the non-profits who continue to perform an incredible range of socially beneficial services. Mobilize your employees and your customers behind the non-profits you truly believe in and you will be amazed at the good will and good business you will do as a result. The non-profits will be so grateful for your support that they will bend over backwards to ensure you achieve your business goals not just now but for many years to come. It may seem counterintuitive to increase your CSR (corporate social responsibility) now BUT that is exactly why it is worth considering. Your employees will undoubtedly respond with increased loyalty that will also translate into higher productivity.

8. Hedge your Bets
Market volatility is not a new concept yet many companies are remarkably vulnerable to changes in the weather not to mention the economy. Savvy marketers are turning to sophisticated forecasters who can not only anticipate changes but also offer hedging solutions. With some progressive thinking, marketers can find some means of hedging against the key variables that impact their particular industry. In the field of weather, a new company called Storm (www.stormexchange.com) is helping a variety of companies from makers of outerwear to power companies determine the business cost of variable weather conditions and then helping them hedge against abnormal conditions.

9. Keep your Ear to the Ground
If you don’t have a full-time “social media director” on staff, get one quick. This individual needs to be on the internet every day, monitoring the chatter about your brand. Since bad news spreads faster than a blaze in the Malibu hills, active blog monitoring is the first line of defense, offering a firewall between your brand and an image-burning disaster. Your clearly identified (no pseudonyms please Mr. Mackey ) representative can set the record straight, respond to performance complaints and keep you informed when problems aren’t being addressed in the field. He/she may even turn a customer into an advocate simply by acknowledging their comments. Given how few companies bother to engage their customers, those that do are frequently met with “wow, I didn’t know you cared that much” and vows of eternal loyalty—loyalty that will float your boat long after your competitors succumb to the economic down currents.

Good isn’t always Great

Posted on by Drew Neisser

For 18 months, I’ve been making the case that marketers can do well be doing good. I still believe this. I have also tried to make Marketing for Good broader than CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) including quality engagements, product improvements, educational programs and even highly entertaining communications in MFG. One of the reasons for this is that CSR is one of those areas that feels like the right thing to do but is rarely held to the same accountability standards as other forms of marketing. I have no problem with CSR and in fact embrace it wholeheartedly as long as it represents a meaningful commitment by management and not just an insincere means of gaining customer preference.

Ironically, marketers that are doing well anyway tend to be the ones who have money left over for CSR. A short article in today’s New York Times called “Bottom Line on Doing Good” made this very clear:

“IT’S alluring and very much in vogue to connect social
responsibility with profitability,” an article in The Harvard
Business Review begins. “If you can make a business case for
positive social action, everybody wins — employees, shareholders and
society at large.”

That, of course, leads to the question: Is there such a link?

The issue has been studied to death. And after reviewing a huge
number of the studies, the writers say, the answer is that if there
is a link, it is “not a strong one.”

Joshua D. Margolis of Harvard Business School and Hillary Anger
Elfenbein of the University of California, Berkeley, say they
analyzed 167 studies conducted in the last 35 years that examined
the issue of whether social responsibility leads to increased
profitability and found that while it certainly did not hurt — that
is it did not diminish shareholder value — there was only “a very
small correlation between corporate behavior and good financial
results.”

And that minor correlation, they add, could be explained by the fact
that companies that have performed well over a long period of time
have enough money to contribute positively to society. Conversely,
corporate misdeeds, once they become known, do have a significant
negative impact on financial performance. So, intriguingly, it is
easier to prove the negative in this case.

“Perhaps the easiest way to communicate our findings is to say that
only 2 percent of the studies we reviewed showed that managers who
dedicate corporate resources to social performance — taking actions
that consider in the interests of society — impose a direct cost to
shareholders,” they write. “Companies can do good and do well, even
if they don’t do well by doing good.”

Recently a prospective client approached us about a CSR project. They asked about setting up a foundation that would support people who suffered from a disease their product could have helped prevent. This seemed like an interesting idea until we did some homework and found out a foundation already existed that met the same need. It was at that point we realized this client was not really committed to the problem but simply saw it is an opportunity to gain exposure. Ultimately we were able to talk them out of this avenue since the cost of setting up another foundation would really limit the dollars that actually went to help people in need. We also talked ourselves out of an assignment. In this case Good would not have been Great at all.