Unilever’s recent sustainability drive is being questioned in marketing circles, and no doubt in shareholder circles too.
But there’s real insight in this move, if you care to look a little deeper:
• To start with, the drive is accredited to listening to consumers. Unilever is not alone in recognising consumer’s growing conscience and their willingness to engage with credible trustworthy brands, The Food and Drink Federation (FDF UK) for example has also created a new sustainable practice.
• And of further significance, is that sustainability will now sit within Unilever’s marketing remit, as opposed to perhaps being the adjunct to strategy that CSR too often is. After all 'sustainability' is a consumer message that market oriented businesses must embrace and embed in their marketing, beyond the CSR report
• There’s also evidence to suggest that shareholders are less sceptical about such initiatives now. Investec’s new sustainable message and especially its ”Money isn’t everything” line is testament to this
• And recession or not, global brands are still cognisant of the need to keep sustainability on the agenda (www.bsr.org) - as per my previous blog
• Finally, the apparent hypocrisy of brands encouraging a behavioural change to consume less, can be countered by a message to consume more wisely - which incidentally also resonates particularly well in times of economic restraint. The emphasis here should be more about need than want, and critically about building trust that generates gains in terms of loyalty and growing a customer base.
But what pleases me most about this announcement, is that it is yet another indication of a genuine move towards business conducting itself more ethically, and the clear evolution of what corporate citizenship should, and can, be.
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