Brand in Brief

Winning brands know how to build emotional connections and stay relevant by helping people realize deeply held dreams or beliefs. Some of my favourite brands are ones that take a leadership role in trying to make the world a better place. (Patagonia is probably at the top of my personal list).

There seems to be a new crop of companies that start with “being good” as their inspiration for developing their brand. Here’s one that I recently found that is interesting. They have also sponsored a cool phone app to build brand awareness virally.

The Brand: Ecolife

Ecolife is an energy efficient apparel line owned by Delta Galil USA. What does this mean? Did you know that clothing is responsible for approximately 25% of an individual's C02 emissions – about 1 ton per person. Or that 75% of the energy consumption in apparel, is not in its manufacture or distribution, but in the laundering of the garments after they are bought? In fact, washing and drying consume far more energy than the actual manufacturing process.

Who knew?

Enter Ecolife, a fabric built on the premise that if you can reduce the need for washing and drying, you can reduce energy consumption. They’ve created a treated cotton fabric that is anti-bacterial (thus does not need as much washing), dries in half the time, and lasts longer than regular cotton .

Visiting their website, it looks like they are starting off in guy’s underwear. Cool – earth-friendly undies

The Promotion - The iPhorest

Ecolife is sponsoring the “iPhorest” , a new mobile phone app that allows users to “plant trees” from their phones. You can download it to your iPhone for $4.99 and use it to plant a virtual tree on the Internet. Your phone works like a shovel, dig a hole, throw a seed in it and watch it grow. For each virtual tree planted, The Conservation Fund will plant a native tree in real life, beginning with restoration of vulnerable wildlife habitat along the Gulf Coast. (If I was Ecolife, I might want a little more branding on this app- see post for Charmin and "Sit or Squat")