In this video:
- Edmund Bradford and Stephen Mangham discuss how “sustainability” and “good growth” can be real differentiators for customers and other stakeholders
- Stephen explains that consumers are more attracted to brands who have a social purpose. There is far more interest, awareness and expectations from consumers that companies are making a positive difference to the world, or at least mitigating any damage they may be causing. “Sustainability” therefore, must be a strategic imperative.
Transcript
The timings are shown to help you jump in to the video at the right point if needed.
[00:00:09 –> 00:01:10] Edmund: Hello, everyone. I’m Edmund Branford. I’m a Director of the Good Growth Academy, and I’m delighted to have Steven Mangham with us today, who’s a branding expert and a master at Masters of Scale International. Now, in the previous video, we talked a little bit about sustainability, good growth, and marketing, and just getting our heads around the concept a little bit. Whereas in this video, I think it’d be really nice to talk about how sustainability and good growth can be a real differentiator for customers and perhaps other stakeholders in the marketplace. So, Steven, thank you again for joining us. What are your thoughts on how sustainability can be not just a box-ticking exercise for suppliers when filling in tender documents, etcetera, but more of a real differentiator, either in B2B or B2C?
[00:01:10 –> 00:02:22] Stephen: Well, it’s not new news that consumers are more attracted to brands with an attractive point of view on the world who are promoting a sense of usefulness. I remember when I worked on Coca-Cola Live Positively back in 2010 (so it was a long time ago now,) and there was a lot of day-after recall research evidence that said that the advertising that had the most impact in terms of memorability and persuasiveness were the ads that carried social purpose messages. And there’s a wealth of evidence out there in the last few years that – all other things being equal – consumers would prefer to buy a brand that has an attractive social purpose over one that doesn’t. There’s absolutely a strong consumer reward if you can communicate and articulate a strong set social purpose for your brand.
[00:02:22 –> 00:02:31] Edmund: And do you see that both changing and getting stronger in B2C and B2B situations?
[00:02:36 –> 00:04:06] Stephen: Broadly, yes. Certainly from a B2C point of view, there’s far more interest, awareness and, frankly, expectations from consumers that they expect that companies and brands are doing something positive for the world or at least mitigating any damage they may be causing. And that’s getting stronger and stronger. And of course, with a social media-driven world, there are constant conversations all the time about how well brands perform in this way or not. So you can’t ignore this as a brand today. From a B2B point of view, I think, to be frank, every customer and every stakeholder now has an interest and an expectation when it comes to these matters. For example, if you look at the growth of ESG-driven investors, it’s a common question today in analyst meetings, “What’s your ESG strategy?” If you don’t have one, those investors may think twice about investing in you.
[00:04:07 –> 00:04:39] Edmund: And there are very interesting stats now on ESG investment. I think it’s interesting, isn’t it, that a lot of this change is being driven both from the customer side, as you talked about, but also from the investor side and from the government side as well. And it’s almost like this perfect storm now of a force pushing companies towards more of an ESG compliant future, whether it be B2B, B2C or other situations.
[00:04:39 –> 00:04:42] Stephen: Absolutely. Because of all of these stakeholders.
[00:04:45 –> 00:05:07] Stephen: They are both very aware of the wider expectations of the people they serve. And then as individuals themselves, there’s an awful lot of them are thinking it’s important that we do this anyway. So I think, as you say, it’s something of a perfect storm. You certainly can’t ignore that today.
[00:05:07 –> 00:05:57] Edmund: I think from my perspective, maybe more than the B2B space than the B2C space. I think it used to be an old tick box exercise. I have one client I’ve been working with for over 15 years, and their client is Unilever. And so in the past, Unilever has kind of just said “Tell us what you are doing doing on sustainability” and fill in this space on the form. You’ll get the tick in that bit and then it’s on to the other aspects of the service. But now you can’t do that anymore. It’s about “I want to know what you’re doing. What metrics are you going to be using for measuring the change? When is it all going to happen? I want concrete plans. And by the way, if I’m not happy about it, you’re not a supplier anymore.” So it’s much more of an order qualifier now than just a little bit of icing on the cake.
[00:05:57 –> 00:06:31] Stephen: Absolutely. And also, as we said in the previous interview, it’s not about being looking at sustainability as a useful add-on, or it’s some additional measures that you’re taking. Is it at the heart of everything you’re doing? Is it a central part of your strategy? And I think that’s a major shift. And I think companies like Unilever, for example, I know, are expecting from their suppliers that they want to see that sustainability is a strategic imperative for their suppliers as well as for themselves.
[00:06:32 –> 00:06:49] Edmund: That’s excellent. And, of course, the heart of all this, we have this Chief Marketing Officer trying to get their head around it. Trying to make it all work. And in the next video, we’ll talk a bit more about the marketing function and the Chief Marketing Officer. Steven, again, thanks very much for your time.
[00:06:50 –> 00:06:50] Stephen: My pleasure.
[00:06:50 –> 00:06:53] Edmund: I look forward to our next short video in the series.
[00:06:53 –> 00:06:54] Stephen: Thank you.
Branding Expert at Master of Scale
A graduate of Oxford University, Stephen has over thirty years experience in marketing and brand communications.
He has advised MNCs and start-ups in just about every business category in Western and Eastern Europe and Asia.
He chaired the largest brand communications group in Southeast Asia before setting up his own business, which was subsequently sold to Japanese owned Dentsu Inc.
Stephen now mentors a number of CEOs of professional services companies. He is also an Expert Advisor for Bain and Co’s marketing transformation practice, a ‘Master’ at the business advisory company Masters of Scale International, and an active shareholder in a video content platform company.
Stephen teaches Integrated Marketing Communications to Executive MSc students at NTU’s Nanyang Business School, and Marketing for New Ventures to Global MBA students at EDHEC Business School in France.
He has advised MNCs and start-ups in just about every business category in Western and Eastern Europe and Asia.
He chaired the largest brand communications group in Southeast Asia before setting up his own business, which was subsequently sold to Japanese owned Dentsu Inc.
Stephen now mentors a number of CEOs of professional services companies. He is also an Expert Advisor for Bain and Co’s marketing transformation practice, a ‘Master’ at the business advisory company Masters of Scale International, and an active shareholder in a video content platform company.
Stephen teaches Integrated Marketing Communications to Executive MSc students at NTU’s Nanyang Business School, and Marketing for New Ventures to Global MBA students at EDHEC Business School in France.
Latest posts by Stephen Mangham (see all)
- How can a marketer help sustainability? - August 4, 2021
- The CMO and Sustainability Leadership - July 22, 2021
- How can sustainability be a real differentiator for companies? - July 7, 2021