Branding Strategy Insider

Opinionated Branding Proves Powerful

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were long-time friends and hippies when they established Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. True to the hippie-dom of which they were a part back in 1978, their brand continues to be driven by a well-informed social and ecological conscience. Some months ago, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream released its anti-nuclear ice cream. A fun novelty for some; a responsible message of the most serious type for others. The ice cream sold out in days. Visit Ben and Jerry's website and you’ll discover another expression of this corporate responsibility in action. “Help Lick Global Warming With Ben & Jerry’s New Flavour” is the invitation issued alongside the flavor sensation known as Fossil Fuel. The “sweet cream ice cream with a yummy chocolate fudge swirl and handfuls of chocolate cookie pieces” even comes complete “with four species of chocolatey dinosaurs to unearth”. Buying the flavor supports Ben & Jerry’s global ‘Lick Global Warming’ campaign which raises awareness and money for climate change research.

The Ben & Jerry brand is based on the founders’ opinions about business, society, the environment, and the way in which all three benefit each other. And, even though the brand has changed hands and is under the directorship of Unilever, Ben and Jerry’s forthrightness and its social mission remain driving forces.

Richard Branson painted “No Way BA” on his entire fleet of aircraft when he characteristically made a clear display of animosity towards his formidable adversary, British Airways. This was Branson’s answer to British Airways subterfuge, BA having been caught making free with a Virgin database by mailing false messages to Virgin customers to secure their business.

Social Responsibility: The Nike Story

An odd couple was featured in the 1992 edition of Harpers Magazine. One was a sports phenomenon called Michael Jordan. The other was a young Indonesian worker called Sadisah.

Sadisah, the article revealed, earned 14 cents an hour making Nike running shoes. After working six days a week, 10 hours a day for a month, he earned enough money to buy a single Nike shoe at its US retail price. The article also claimed that Sadisah would have to work for more than 44,000 years to earn as much as Jordan had recouped from his Nike endorsement deal.

The darkest chapter in Nike's history and a new era in brand management had begun. Over the next five years Nike experienced a remarkable public backlash. Critical reports appeared in publications as diverse as The Economist and Rolling Stone and charities such as Oxfam and Christian Aid joined in.

Around the world, the opening of NikeTown retail stores were turned into tense, often violent, standoffs between local police and protesters. On US university campuses, students protested against Nike's links with slave labour working conditions and forced their sports teams to sever lucrative sponsorship deals with the now infamous sportswear brand. The internet was ablaze with anti-Nike sites, many featuring cleverly altered versions of Nike's identity such as the 'Swooshtika' and slogans such as 'Nike: Just Don't'. As then-chief executive Phil Knight observed in 1998, the brand had become 'synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse'.

For decades, Nike had tendered almost all of its production to factories in developing markets, but so had almost every other big clothing company. Why was Nike so heavily criticised?

Great Moments in Social Responsibility: Newman's Own

When the idea came up, (Newman's Own) I said, "Are you crazy? Stick my face on the label of salad dressing?" And then, of course, we got the whole idea of exploitation and how circular it is. Why not, really, go to the fullest length, and the silliest length, in exploiting yourself and turn the proceeds back to the community?

                        - Paul Newman

Branding and Social Responsibility: Where do you stand?

This week in Kiev, Ukraine we (The Blake Project) will be delivering a presentation on Branding and Social Responsibility to a wide range of business leaders and marketers at the 2006 Brands Point Conference. While to many in western markets a link between branding and social responsibility has become an expectation, in emerging markets’ it’s a very new concept.

Where do you stand on this? Should companies have responsibility to anyone other than their shareholders? Is it right to trigger people’s deepest fears to sell them things? Is it a company’s role to sell people what is good for them rather than what they desire? Are people willing to pay a premium for socially responsible brands?