By Thomas Kolster from Goodvertising Agency<\/p>\n
Most brands are still scarily silent about the difference they want to make in our lives and yet hope we won\u2019t notice them force-feeding us with advertising-as-usual until they produce consumer foie gras. This is in stark contrast to what people expect of brands today: According to Havas\u2019 Meaningful Brands Survey findings, 71 percent of people globally want brands to solve some of society\u2019s biggest challenges such as unemployment, climate change, etc. Then why are brands still so silent? Why does there still seem to be an insurmountable wall between sustainability and marketing?<\/p>\n
As in most struggles or conflicts, the answer is often hid- den in the differences between the two parties: Languages, views, race, gender or backgrounds. It\u2019s when sustain- ability meets marketing (or the other way around) that the problem arises \u2014 essentially marketing and sustainability people do not speak the same languages and they don\u2019t have the same qualifications, only adding to the gap of sometimes planetary dimensions: Marketing is from Mars and sustainability is from Venus.<\/p>\n
Life on Planet Sustainability & Planet Marketing<\/b><\/p>\n
On Planet Sustainability they care about facts and science: It\u2019s about exploring supply chains, measuring the amount of carbon emissions in Brussels sprouts (remember to add the fart factor!), and there are endless discussions about materiality. On Planet Marketing it\u2019s quite the opposite:\u2028It\u2019s about emotions, feelings, purpose \u2014 and the language is often more about fiction than facts. In sustainability,<\/p>\n
everything is complex and analysis is key. There are often no simple answers and it\u2019s no longer about cradle to grave; oh, nooo \u2014 it\u2019s now actually about cradle to cradle. Conversely, in marketing, simplicity and emotion are key \u2014 so it\u2019s easy to communicate a message people can internal- ise and act on.<\/p>\n
The overall goals of marketing are sales and building brands, which are often measured in monetary value, brand recognition and similar. In sustainability, it\u2019s about doing things smarter to limit or eradicate negative impact and build a prosperous planet, which can rarely be measured one uniform way \u2013 again, more complexity. For each of us wearing either the sustainability or the marketing hat, these differences can lead to frustrations, misunderstandings\u2028and unfortunately in many cases campaigns or branding attempts with more style than substance (something sustainability people will quickly dub \u2018greenwashing.\u2019)<\/p>\n
A balancing act<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen my fair share of campaigns where the pendulum either went too far towards sustainability or too far to- wards marketing. Sustainability is often a numbers game and numbers coupled with scientific abbreviations aren\u2019t making the message any easier to read. Who knows if a car advert touting 184g\/km CO2 is environmentally friendly or not? (HINT: The average target set by the European Union for 2015 is 130 g\/km.) In marketing, it\u2019s about understand- ing the target group and translating the message into something actionable.<\/p>\n
If the target group don\u2019t care much about nature, then focus on money \u2014 like in a VW ad for its BlueMotion tech- nology, redacting parts of its long message with strikethroughs to simply communicate: BlueMotion saves you money. If your target group is environmentally conscious and may I add, highly emotional, then translate the consequence of those numbers into a message people can understand on an emotional level. Fiat did so in its impactful ads showing Pandas as crash-test dummies\u2028to drive home the message that Fiat cars are tested for a lower-impact on the environment (they had been\u2028certified the lowest CO2 emission car range that year by Jato Dynamics). Too creative? For marketing people in search of the smallest incremental difference to turn into a matter of life or death for the target group, lack the un- derstanding of sustainability or choose to ignore it, the message often leaves Planet Reality and the result is an ad like the one for now-defunct car company Hummer, which claims its cars are \u201cThirsty for adventure. Not gas.\u201d\u2028(The average fuel consumption being \u201conly\u201d 17 l\/100 km). It\u2019s a balancing act.<\/p>\n
Effective therapy<\/b><\/p>\n
I was asked to talk about the divide between sustainability and marketing at last year\u2019s SB conference in London and I didn\u2019t want to be the critical observer sitting with my arms crossed and mumbling that the world is shit. I wanted to offer a comforting word of advice when really I had none, so I did what you do when you don\u2019t know the answer to a question \u2014 I googled it. I googled \u201cCouples Therapy\u201d and up came \u201c5 Principles of Effective Couples Therapy\u201d by Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I want to share those 5 principles with you, because their universal message connects with our silo thinking. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll recognize some of them and do remember to share them with your significant other in marketing or sustainability:<\/p>\n
Principle #1: Change the view of the relationship<\/i><\/p>\n
You should stop playing the blame game. You are instead urged to understand the relationship for the situation that it is in and learn how the other party interacts.<\/p>\n
Principle #2: Modify dysfunctional behaviour<\/i><\/p>\n
Change the way in which you interact with one another. This means ensuring that there is no physical or psychological damage occurring.<\/p>\n
Principle #3: Decrease emotional avoidance<\/i><\/p>\n
Keeping private feelings to yourself will certainly cause further problems in a relationship. Growing emotionally distant is a dangerous place to be when trying to make a marriage or relationship work. You should focus on feeling more secure about being open and expressing feelings.<\/p>\n
Principle #4: Improve communication<\/i><\/p>\n
Learn how to communicate with one another effectively. You should also consider which types of communication might be more effective considering the unique situation.<\/p>\n
Principle #5: Promote strengths<\/i><\/p>\n
Pointing out individual as well as relationship strengths assists in getting more enjoyment out of a relationship. Such a large portion of therapy focuses on problems, so rediscovering strengths assists you in staying positive and acknowledging the good.<\/p>\n
I do hope these 5 principles will be the beginning of plane- tary bridge-building and the first steps on a healing journey that leads to a strong relationship with a shared vision. And if you can\u2019t use these 5 principles in your work life you can always reuse them at home \u2014 that\u2019s sustainability for you. Good luck with a brighter relationship and hopefully the beginning of a brighter planet.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Thomas Kolster from Goodvertising Agency Most brands are still scarily silent about the difference they want to make in our lives and yet hope we won\u2019t notice them force-feeding us with advertising-as-usual until they produce consumer foie gras. This is in stark contrast to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n