Trends to watch in 2010 - Embedded Generosity

Now that we're over the "best of" lists that look nostalgically at 2009, it's on to thinking strategically about the consumer trends that will impact the new decade we've entered and what it will mean for the brands we're working on.

One of the most inspiring trends to me as a marketer is the Generation of Generosity. This trend reflects a wide array of thinking - from companies that share everything they know for free - to bloggers and tweeters that share stories and information to help others. A great example of the former is Hubspot, a B2B company based in Cambridge Mass. that publishes all its methodology and even holds free "university" webinar classes so that people can learn new insights and technology in order to become better internet marketers. And of the latter, some of my favorite sites include presentation zen and harvard business where I'm always learning new information on topics that interest me or following #tags on twitter to be part of a larger converstion on a specific topic.

In the spirit of generosity, trendwatching.com (another favourite site) predicts that we'll see more of something they term EMBEDDED GENEROSITY. This trend ..."incorporates all giving initiatives that make giving and donating painless, if not automatic (after all, pragmatism is the new religion ;-). On top of that, with collaboration being such an integral part of the zeitgeist, expect lots of innovative corporate giving schemes that involve customers by letting them co-donate and/or co-decide".

This idea is not new - Starbucks has adopted EMBEDDED GENEROSITY as a way of doing business for years, especially around its Cafe Practices coffee sourcing program and most recently, in conjunction with Starbucks RED.

So does this feel like an evolution of "cause marketing"? Perhaps so. The point here for marketers is that EMBEDDED GENEROSITY works when its authentic and transparent. Done well, it provides a rich landscape for storytelling providing the consumer with the opportunity for more meaningful involvement. And if you're not doing it, well you might very well be standing apart from your competition.

Here is the list of examples from trendwatching.com from 2009, one of which (Campbell's) is a favorite that I've already featured on The Orange. Some ideas to spark inspiration for brands as we begin 2010.

• Australian Baby Teresa manufactures and sells a variety of 100% cotton onesies for babies, and, for each one purchased, donates another to a baby in need somewhere in the world.

• IKEA’s SUNNAN LED desk lamp is powered by solar cells. The product retails for USD 19.99, and for every unit sold in IKEA stores worldwide, another one will be donated to UNICEF to give to children without electricity in refugee camps and villages in remote areas.

• Still going strong, Procter & Gamble and UNICEF have joined forces for the fourth year running, in an effort to raise money for tetanus vaccines. Each time a pack of the Pampers or Fairy brands bearing a "1 Pack = 1 Life-Saving Vaccine" logo is purchased, P&G will donate the cost of one vaccine to UNICEF.

• TOMS Shoes donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair they sell online. As of August 2009, TOMS has given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children in need. TOMS shoes plans to give 1 million shoes by 2012.

• Sage Hospitality is encouraging consumers to complete 8 hours of volunteer service in exchange for 50% - 100% off published room rates in their 52 hotels. To take advantage of the 'Give a Day, Get a Night' scheme, customers must present a letter from the organization they worked for.

• Give a Day, Get a Disney Day aims to celebrate and inspire volunteerism. Disney is working with HandsOn Network to highlight a variety of volunteer opportunities with participating organizations across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. Starting this month (January 2010), those who contribute their time can have it verified by HandsOn and they'll receive a voucher from Disney for one day admission to a Walt Disney World or Disneyland theme park.

• Servus, a Canadian credit union, began handing out CDN 200,000 in ten-dollar bills, giving 20,000 people the opportunity to create a Feel Good Ripple by spending the money on someone else. By pledging CDN 200,00 to the effort, the company hopes to start a ' kindness movement' that will positively affect at least 20,000 people. Servus is distributing the bills through its branches throughout Alberta, and asking participants to write up stories of their kindness online.

• Campbell's Help Grow Your Soup campaign aimed to raise money to maintain farm buildings in need of refurbishment. The campaign asked consumers to vote for one of ten barns in need of work, and for every vote until January 2010, Campbell donated 1 USD to restore the five barns which receive the most votes.

• In October 2009, Twitter’s owners announced that they will begin selling wine through their label, called Fledgling Wine. The wine will be bottled from August 2010 and USD 5 of every bottle sold will go to Room to Read, a charity that organizes literacy programs for children around the world.

• Chicago's Hotel Burnham launched the charity based initiative 'Casual Blue' in 2009. A USD 10 room credit is given to patrons who leave a pair of (old) jeans, which are then donated to local charities.

If you have other favourites you'd like to add to the list, let me know!


Source: www.trendwatching.com. One of the world's leading trend firms, trendwatching.com sends out its free, monthly Trend Briefings to more than 160,000 subscribers worldwide.

Reaching the LOHAS Consumer

Here are some interesting demographics regarding the size, media habits and location of Americans concerned with issues of sustainability and health. The all important LOHAS segment (acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) represents a $200 billion rapidly growing market for goods and services that appeal to consumers who have a meaningful sense of environmental and social responsibility and incorporate those values into their purchase decisions. According to Ad Age, the nation's shelves will be stocked with more than 1,500 new products featuring green messages by the end of this year.

This is what the consumer environment, based on environmental values looks like*:

• LOHAS (19% of U.S. adults): LOHAS consumers are dedicated to personal and planetary health. Not only do they make environmentally friendly purchases, they are active stewards of the environment.

• NATURALITES (15% of U.S. adults): This segment has a strong personal health focus through consumables. NATURALITES are not, however, as committed to the environment nor driven to purchase eco-friendly durable goods.

• DRIFTERS (25% of U.S. adults): These consumers have good intentions, but factors other than the environment influence their actual behavior. They are, however, driven to sustainability based on the trendiness of the topic.

• CONVENTIONALS (24% of U.S. adults): This very practical segment doesn‟t have far-reaching green attitudes, but they do have environmental behaviors such as recycling and energy conservation.

• UNCONCERNED (17% of U.S. adults): Simply put, the environment is not a priority to consumers in this segment.

The NATURALITES are an interesting niche - a group that has a strong personal health focus but are not driven to purchase eco-friendly products. This is likely a group we’ll see more and more products targeted at with messaging around simplicity and transparency of ingredients. For example, in March 2009, Haagen-Dazs launched a new premium product line called Five. Five was developed with fewer, more recognizable ingredients (the name reflects the number of ingredients in the product: milk, cream, sugar, eggs and a natural flavor such as vanilla bean.) In just eight months, Five sales have grown to account for 10% of Haagen-Dazs business.

In terms of targeted media vehicles, it is interesting to note that the LOHAS segment are heavy users of both magazine and the Internet, while NATURALITES under-index in heavy usage of the internet but are heavy TV users.

Profile of LOHAS Consumers Heavy Media Usage
	% more likely to be a heavy media user
	LOHAS	NATURALITES
Heavy Magazine User	+16%	+6%
Heavy TV User	-23%	+6%
Heavy Internet User	+21%	-10%
Source: MRI 2009 Survey of the American Consumer

And if you ever wonder what the top DMAs for buying organic food are, here they are:

Top 10 DMAs in which reside adults who buy foods labeled natural or organic:

1. San Diego, Calif.

2. Seattle/ Tacoma

3. Philadelphia

4. San Francisco/ Oakland/ San Jose

5. Washington, D.C. (Hagerstown, Md.)

6. Portland, Ore.

7. Denver

8. Baltimore

9. Sacramento/ Stockton/ Modesto, Calif.

10. Colorado Springs/ Pueblo, Colo.


* source: MRI

Social Media Bullseye

It’s exciting to see how companies are leveraging new channels and new technology to build their brands. Facebook is a platform where marketers are eagerly trying to crack the code on how to leverage the high number of users that visit every day. Currently there are over 200 million active users and Facebook will only increase in importance as a community connection point as their user base grows.

One brand that has been doing a great job leveraging Facebook is Target. They had a great promo interacting with college kids in the Fall called “Dorm Survival Guide” and now they are back on Facebook, this time with a two week giving campaign called “Bullseye Gives”. The premise is that you can vote for your favorite charity amongst a choice of ten groups that Target supports: Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Feeding America, HandsOn Network/Points of Light Institute, Kids In Need, Parent Teacher Association, National Park Foundation, Operation Gratitude, Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital®. The “prize” is $3 million which will be split amongst the charities based on the percentage of votes they receive.



This wonderful brand and goodwill building campaign is a brilliant use of crowdsourcing with viral marketing upside for both Target and the charities. Because it’s on Facebook, it will drive huge cachet for the brand as a hip way to get involved. You can post your vote on your profile and encourage others to participate getting more people to join Target's fan base. Savvy charities are also posting links on their website homepages and are reaching out to their followers to join Facebook and vote. The competition is starting to heat up - two days into the campaign, there are 34,000 votes and twelve more days of activity to go until it wraps up on May 25.




So Target isn’t just doing good, but through an innovative use of using social media, they are growing and strengthening their online community whilst building their brand.

note: thanks to Mashable and MyTechOnline for research/info

Stir it up on Earth Day

For Earth Day I thought I'd share the very inspiring story of Stonyfield farms - the organic yoghurt people from New Hampshire. This video was shot last year while Gary Hirschberg, Stonyfield’s CE-YO was on tour with his book "Stirring it up". His mission is to raise awareness of how both companies and individuals can save the planet by reducing their carbon footprint.

In 2008 Stonyfield enjoyed sales of over $300 million and compounded annual growth of 26.3% over 14 years – in a category that only grows between 3-5% annually. Gary Hirschberg believes that this growth is due to Stonyfield’s commitment to sustainability and giving back to the community. He uses the success stories and best practices of Stoneyfield and other companies to demonstrate that through enlightened self interest, companies can both reduce their carbon footprint and become more profitable.

Gary believes that any company that wants to be serious about addressing climate change needs to embrace four steps. While each step is important, addressing the supply chain is where the lion’s share of a company’s carbon footprint lays and is thus the most impactful. Here are the four steps:

1) Measure your carbon Footptint
• What you’re burning (vehicles, furnaces, etc)
• Electricity
• Supply Chain - inflow of what’s coming into the business.

2) Reduce emissions, energy efficiency, incorporating renewable energy – both direct production and supply chain

3) Offset emissions (i.e. carbon credits)

4) Educate and advocate – all stakeholders, consumers, supply chain, policy makers, etc

Gary gives some great examples of Stonyfield successes, from reduced packaging to waste management. He also shares some marketing best practices and how they get employees engaged to support their goal of achieving a neutral footprint.

My favourite quote – "anyone who thinks they are too small to make a difference has never slept with a mosquito in their bedroom".

There is now a scorecard that rates leading companies' efforts towards tackling the climate crisis. It's published annually by Climate Counts, a non-profit organization. We can bring about change by using our wallets to vote and our actions to make a difference, individually and collectively.

Think about it – if we don’t take steps to save the planet, who will?

Or as Gary says, ask yourself…..Why Not?

Why did the chicken stop in the middle of the road?

To fix a pothole?

Last week, KFC launched a campaign addressed to city mayors offering to patch potholes for free. In return , the company wants to leave behind a chalk stenciled logo on the patch informing people the road has been "Re-Freshed by KFC."

"In honor of our "Fresh Tastes Best" campaign, we want to come and Re-"Fresh" your roads!" KFC president Roger Eaton says in the letter. "Every patched pothole comes with the Colonel's very own stamp of approval."

I’m all for corporate citizenship, but as a branding and marketing professional, this just feels wrong. This promotion runs counter-intuitive to supporting the brand promise of “fresh taste best” and feels like old-school self-serving corporate citizenry.

Let’s use the checklist I put together from Jay Heyman’s book (All You Need is A Good Idea) to see how this promotion fairs.(See book review below)

Could I understand the strategy? Yes

• KFC wants to be a good corporate citizen by filling in potholes

Was the idea unexpected yet relevant?

• Unexpected yes, relevant to the brand/product – no. Road works and fried chicken have zero in common

Did it have the power to make me smile?

• No - this made me scratch my head

Does the promotion tie in with the brand promise?

• No. Fresh taste and refresh the roads puts gravel in my mouth and smells of tar

Does the promotion help differentiate the brand from competitors?

• yes – but not necessarily in a good way

Is the idea brand building & campaignable?

• Absolutely not
  

Based on these answers, I would not recommend this promotion.

So here’s the question. If KFC were your client, what promotion would you recommend that would be more in keeping with their brand promise and would build awareness while doing good?

Here’s mine. Please share your ideas!

Get citizens involved in a “fresh thinking” campaign

Using a tool such as “A Better Project”, get people to submit and vote on ideas on how to “refresh” their city by providing grants to the best ideas. KFC would be able to create a groundswell of involvement that would not only build brand equity but be better aligned with their brand strategy.

In the end the winning idea might be to fill in potholes. The difference is in the how – by getting people involved in a new way that taps into a fresh approach of getting folks involved in supporting their city.

Share your idea.