MAKING PURPOSE PAY INSPIRING SUSTAINABLE LIVING PURPOSE OR SUSTAINABILITY: CONTENTS WHAT’S IN A NAME? There is a lot of talk today about brands with purpose, or sustainable brands, 03 A CONVERSATION WITH KEITH WEED or meaningful brands. The number of descriptions people use is exceeded only by the different interpretations people give them. Some simply mean brands that support a charity or, say, use ‘natural’ ingredients. At the other SUSTAINABLE 05 MAKING PURPOSE PAY: FAD OR FUTURE? extreme, people set up whole companies whose sole purpose is to ‘do good’. With so many terms in use, it helps to put some definition behind LIVING BRANDS the terminology. 09 GAINING INSIGHTS, DISPELLING MYTHS make a positive At Unilever we are in the business of helping people to live well and live within the natural limits of the planet, so we talk about ‘sustainable living’ difference to 11 FIVE GOLDEN RULES and ‘sustainable living brands’. For us that means helping to bring about society and our greater social equity and inclusiveness and helping people to: company purpose 22 DOVE: NURTURING SELF-ESTEEM • improve their health, nutrition and wellbeing • reduce their environmental impacts 24 BEN & JERRY’S: COMMITTED TO SOCIAL CHANGE • choose products that are better for them, society and the environment. SUSTAINABLE LIVING 26 SUSTAINABLE LIVING BRANDS GROW FASTER Purpose and product PURPOSE The concept of ‘purpose-driven’ brands is not new. Among our own brands, Lifebuoy and Ben & Jerry’s have had a social or environmental 28 GLOSSARY OF SUSTAINABILITY TERMS purpose at their heart since they were founded. But in today’s complex and interconnected world, having a powerful purpose is not enough. Brands must look at their impacts up and down the value chain and across the 29 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS public domain. For example, they cannot do social good while harming SUSTAINABLE LIVING the planet or improve the lives of consumers while ignoring the working conditions of the people who make them. BRANDS That is why our definition of a sustainable living brand is one that: • has a clear purpose that, over time, helps to tackle a social or environmental issue or cause SUSTAINABLE LIVING • produces products that reduce their environmental footprint and/or PRODUCTS improve health and wellbeing or livelihoods. In Unilever that means sustainable living brands make a positive difference to society and, ultimately, to our company purpose: Making sustainable living commonplace. For a full glossary of sustainability terms, see page 28 1 A CONVERSATION WITH KEITH WEED, CHIEF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER DOES Q: Is the idea of brands with a purpose just brands that understand them and speak to Q: Why are you sharing your research and the latest fad or is it here to stay? their concerns. Having a sustainable living insights – isn’t this competitive information? purpose enables brands to connect with A: Brands having a sustainable living them at a deeper, emotional level. A: When we launched the Unilever purpose is not a new idea. Unilever’s British Sustainable Living Plan in 2010 we said that PURPOSE founder, William Lever, launched Sunlight Q: How do you encourage more people to if we went down the path of creating a new, soap in 1880 with the purpose of making buy these brands? sustainable business model but only a few cleanliness commonplace, and there have other companies joined us, we would have been many more examples over the years. A: The main drivers of sustainable failed. So we have committed to helping What makes it particularly relevant now is purchasing are trust and social norms. other brands and businesses by sharing that the moral case for business to help fix Consumers need to trust the people who what we have learned about sustainable the fault lines in society and the business make the product and they need to feel it is living in the hope of inspiring others to PAY? case for doing so are aligned. a purchase that is valued by the people they do the same. Make no mistake, we see care about. But they don’t want to pay more competitive advantage in being a first mover. Q: What makes you so sure consumers or sacrifice performance. They want great But we also believe that a rising tide lifts all really want sustainable living brands? products that are good value for money and boats, so we want to encourage others to sustainable. That doesn’t mean they have to join us on our journey. A: We have two strong pieces of evidence. be new brands. They want the brands they Firstly, our own sustainable living brands already know and love to be sustainable. Q: What’s this booklet about and what’s in it grew 50% faster than the rest of our for the marketing world? business and accounted for more than 60% of our growth in 2016. Secondly, research A: In this booklet, we share the results we conducted that asked consumers about of our Making Purpose Pay research, the their attitudes to sustainable living and Research has shown insights it has given us, the lessons we have compared what they said against their till learned from integrating sustainability into receipts, showed that over 50% of people our leading brands and the work we have now buy or want to buy brands that are more been doing to measure their impact on sustainable and we expect this to grow. our business. I believe sustainable living brands represent a huge opportunity for the Q: Why do you think consumers want marketing world to build strong, sustainable brands with a sustainable living purpose? OVER 50% growth and enduring consumer relationships of people now want to in an increasingly resource-constrained, A: As marketers, we know that the best transparent and untrusting world. It’s also businesses understand their consumers buy brands that are more a wonderful opportunity for marketing to intimately as individuals. They are not just sustainable rediscover its original, noble purpose of a pair of armpits looking for deodorant developing brands that are good for business or a head of hair looking for shampoo, and good for the world, and reposition our but real people with real lives and real profession as a powerful driver of positive anxieties. People want to engage with social change. Keith Weed, Unilever’s Chief Marketing & Communications Officer 2 3 MAKING PURPOSE PAY: FAD OR FUTURE? Brands with purpose or sustainable brands may be talked about a lot but, so far, evidence that they contribute to growth or increase trust has been thin on the ground. Unsurprisingly, many brand specialists Most surveys that have appeared measure households were interviewed across two and marketers remain to be convinced. consumer attitudes or claimed behaviour. different categories (tea and laundry) in two Do such brands, whatever they are called, These show that consumers say they want markets (Turkey, United Kingdom). Data really make a meaningful difference? Do to buy brands whose causes they believe in was gathered on their general and category consumers really care about sustainability? and claim to prefer products that in some sustainability beliefs and behaviours. Over 50 Does it drive market penetration or brand way are better for the environment. “But, questions were asked covering a wide range loyalty? And, crucially, does having a as we all know, people don’t always do what of social and environmental topics, such as purpose lead to increased sales? they say or say what they do,” says Sue, “and recycling, travel, water usage, energy saving, there has always appeared to be a big gap treatment of workers, opportunities for “At Unilever we have put a lot of effort and between what consumers reply when asked women, responsibility for taking action, and reputational capital behind our big bet that and what they actually do at the point of shopping for Fairtrade products. consumers want their favourite brands purchase.” to be more than just responsible and will These were mapped against what increasingly prefer brands that connect Other surveys, notably by Nielsen and they actually bought and the reasons they with their personal values and concerns,” the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), have gave for their purchase decisions. This explains Unilever’s EVP, Global Sustainable measured sales. An analysis of products study was then added to by quantitative Business & Communications, Sue Garrard. in the United States in 2014 showed that research with Europanel in Brazil, India and “Or, to put it more simply, people want 16.5% of US consumer goods were what the United States on attitudes and beliefs to brands to do more good, not just do less bad. BCG called ‘responsible products’ and ensure our findings were globally relevant, that they were growing by 9% each year, and with qualitative research in the UK, “Consumers are becoming much more outpacing the market. At that rate of growth, Turkey and Brazil by consumer and cultural aware of the positive difference brands can they predicted these products would account insight agency Flamingo, to understand make to social and environmental issues for 70% of total grocery growth in US and the deeper drivers behind the attitudes and also the difference they themselves Europe by 2019. and purchasing behaviours we observed can make through their everyday shopping quantitatively. Across the study, 20,000 choices. This has been fuelled by the Until now research has been based either on people were interviewed. growth in social media and the opportunity consumer attitudes and reported behaviour, it provides for people to have closer, more or on measured sales behaviour. “So we intimate connections with brands. This in decided it was time to carry out bespoke turn creates a growing need for brands research to connect these two types to generate content that resonates with of research at the consumer level.