John Grant, co-founder of St Lukes and the Abundancy Partners analyses how Nokia, the mobile phone giant is managing to engage with sustainability despite its size
Nokia seems to get how to engage with sustainability and community. Nokia won the overall 2008 Grand Prix at the Green Awards, where I was judging. It was clear from this that they are taking sustainability into the heart of their business.
The company has set targets for CO2 emissions since 2006 and reports publicly how they are doing against these. Their phones are certified as free of conflict metals, such as tantalum from the Congo. Nokia has been named the number one electronics brand in Greenpeace’s Greener Electronics Guide. And it has won the phone industry’s first CEO award for Outstanding Environmental Contribution.
Given all of this it’s pretty impressive that Nokia has not been shouting about their green credentials in advertising. Rather than claiming green they have been doing green. For instance, encouraging people to unplug their charger- in some popular models Nokia fitted a finished charging alert and put recycling collection points into retail, including a major new push to establish this in India in 2009.
As far as green phones go, the Nokia Evolve is one of the best around, in energy, materials. I also like their Remade concept (made from old tine cans and other waste material). And another concept phone whose case is made from reclaimed wood. This brings the appeal of unique handmade crafts into a space, which is almost the epitome of mass production.
This was the question we posed for The Marketing Society Film Challenge, asking marketers to respond with a short film. At this week’s Marketing Society Green Think Tank we gathered to watch four of the short films from AMV BBDO, Meteorite, Natalie Griffiths Assoc and Verdant Consulting and Maher Bird Associates. Entries included AMV BBDO’s rousing ‘times of austerity’ film reminding us of the power of marketing during WW2 to encourage the British public to become more resourceful and Meteorite’s call for the marketing community to pledge time, talent and media space to save the planet on 11/11/2011.
We’re planning to showcase the films at this year’s Edinburgh Festival and will be building on these ideas as we continue to work in partnership with BITC and Start in our joint goal to encourage behavioural change in the UK Public towards a more sustainable lifestyle. We’d like to congratulate and thank our five film teams for their fabulous contributions. You can watch the films below. If you’d like to get involved with this important project join The Marketing Society Mayday Alliance and get involved in discussions here on the blog or on our LinkedIn Group.
The Marketing Society Film Challenge entry from Mark Graeme and Laura Etherington, AMV BBDO
The Marketing Society Film Challenge entry from Paul Beier, Sam Bone, Gavin Mackinnon-Little, Meteorite
The Marketing Society Film Challenge entry from James Devon, Maher Bird Associates
The Marketing Society Film Challenge entry from Natalie Griffiths, Natalie Griffiths Associates and Rosena Robson, Verdant Consulting
Founder of Dilmah tea, Merrill Fernando, shares his own beliefs about the true meaning of Fair Trade in today’s global tea market with The Challenger Project
To be ‘fair’ is to be free of self interest, bias or deception. In the context of trade then you would think fair trade would be free of these evils. Unfortunately it is not so and as Fairtrade, the organisation, has amply demonstrated, elements of the world’s trading systems are fundamentally unfair. It was not always so and I believe the solutions to the problem of unfair trade lie in learning from history and ethical behaviour.
I have devoted my life to tea; a passion that is now shared by my sons. As a family engaged in the business of growing, packing and marketing our own brand we have always understood that it is incumbent upon those that are blessed with success to share the benefits of their success with others who may not be so fortunate.
We never needed help in comprehending the basic concept that business is a matter of human service. Early on I did what I could within the modest scale of my fledgling business, to help my staff and their families. Today by the grace of God and the efforts of my staff and my family, our business has grown. It follows that my ethical obligation to share should grow in the same way.
A sea of acronyms, declarations and apparently well meaning organizations has arisen around the catch cry of fair trade. Yet, there is nothing complex about the concept of being fair that requires such extraordinary effort and analysis.
Organizations apparently committed to the cause of fairness in trade seem to be missing a fundamental point. In any context, human rights, worker welfare or social justice, whatever you wish to call it, cannot be assured solely by certification and the mountain of compliance documents that buyers heap on producers today. Fair trade is ultimately about the price that is paid to the producer for goods or services. Read the rest of this entry »
Jo Kenrick, chair of The Marketing Society Mayday Alliance wants marketers to create a positive view of a sustainable future to motivate consumers on sustainability issues.
So much of the communication out there about the ‘green’ agenda focuses on the terrible future that awaits our planet if we fail to act. While this isn’t wrong, everyone who is motivated by the fear of this outcome is probably already acting. (This is something I wrote about last month, with the suggestion of applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to the environment, see here).
For the rest to take action, we probably need to show them more of a positive view of what the future might be like so that they have something to move towards rather than just something to move away from. That’s why having a vision or a view of what a better future might look like is so important – with a future in mind we can get excited, have ideas, open up possibilities and be creative.
That’s one of the reasons why The Marketing Society’s Film Challenge interests me. Making films that show people something desirable and fun, which they then want enough to take action is exactly what marketers do well and I can’t wait to see those skills applied to a challenge on the scale of this one. We can take the future from being scary to being fun if we make the right films. Putting these pictures into people’s minds will trigger all sorts of ideas.
As a quick reminder, The Film Challenge is looking for three-minute films answering the question: “Can marketing save the planet?” with the opportunity of your film being shown at The Edinburgh Festival in August. Remember low tech is good, use your iPhone, digital camera, there’s no need to hire a film crew… For those of you tempted to take part, here’s some stimulus, which may help trigger some thinking behind your film.
1. Imagine that water is more precious than oil, and way more expensive. What might the world be like and how would you encourage people to behave to nurture this precious asset?
2. The Good Life meets 2020 – what could self-sufficiency look like in the future?
3. Imagine it was illegal to travel by car unless every seat was filled – how might life be?
Consumers will increasingly look for brands with a social purpose. Consumers want to choose brands that are not only good for them and their families but are also good for others they care about. Global brands have the power to create a better future through the everyday buying and usage habits of people everywhere. Brands and businesses that fail to integrate consumer needs with societal well-being will struggle to grow in the future.
On last Tuesday’s Green Think Tank the audience were offered some ’Green’ stimulation with a demonstration of how ideas from the world of science fiction have often rapidly become science fact. The audience were then handed the challenge of presenting a behavioural change and product innovation covering seven categories that may be fiction now but fact in the next 50 years. This is what our candid audience came up with:
Food Behavioural Change – ‘Greater self sufficiency’ which encompasses a sustainable philosophy, examples including Urban gardens, food in tariffs and in-house hydroponics
Product Innovation – In home hydroponics where solar energy and collection of rain water provides 50% of a home’s produce/calories
Travel Behavioural Change – ‘Rethinking time and space’ where thoughts turn to bringing a holiday or meeting to the individual rather than taking the individual to the holiday or meeting.
Product Innovation – Teleportation to any destination
Lifestyle Behavioural Change – Making it practically and financially rewarding to think more ‘we’ than ‘me’ to spread better living for more.
Product Innovation – Convergence and integration of utilities/services to make sustainable activities easier to use and understand.
Learning Behavioural Change – ‘Knowledge to become the new value system’ so knowledge is more recognised, rewarded and pursued.
Product Innovation – Knowledge implants which we use to download and transfer knowledge, whether practical or mental skills.
I had an interesting meeting last week that changed my view on something. I met up with a charity called Global Cool (http://www.globalcool.org/). They have a similar aim to us at The Marketing Society Mayday Alliance – they want to get people doing the right stuff for sustainability and they focus on making those actions desirable by associating with cool people, celebrities and so on.
Anyway, they suggested applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to the environment. And of course it makes perfect sense. As you well know, the bottom segment of the pyramid is all about security and meeting basic needs, the middle levels (esteem and love/belonging) are about worrying about ‘me’, with the top self-actualisation layer about worrying about other people and the world at large too. Read the rest of this entry »
Interviewing Judie Lannon, editor of Market Leader
Judie edits The Marketing Society’s quarterly journal and will be joining our panel of advocates as a monthly blogger. Look out for her first article on Monday. Until then, a brief interview
What’s your golden rule? Shorter is better
Who has been your biggest influence? Stephen King at JWT. He codified the intellectual disciplines underpinning Account Planning and taught me how to think about brands and branding issues. Also in the ‘how to think’ category, Jeremy Bullmore (a model of how to write) and Charles Handy (profound insights into organisational culture)
What is your most hated business expression? Things to do with boxes: ticking (all of) them or thinking outside them, low hanging fruit and almost anything with hyphens: go-to-market, consumer-centric, etc. I also ruthlessly strike out clumsy words like pushback and, granular and wonder why ‘around’ has crept into the language replacing ‘about’
What’s the smartest business idea you’ve ever had? Agreeing to edit Market Leader and shaping the content to feature strategic marketing issues Read the rest of this entry »
Imagine having the opportunity to showcase your film at The Edinburgh Festival in August. Working in partnership with Antennae and Rob Poynton we’re thrilled to announce our Film Challenge, which poses the question: Can marketing save the planet? Teams of three to five people from within organisations are invited to develop a film of up to three minutes long on this topic. Watch Kathy Oldridge from Antennae offer advice to all budding society filmmakers.
What would your favourite marketing moment of the past 12 months be?
Was it when Alexsandr the Meerkat got half a million Facebook friends? Or more recently when Twitter came of age as a cloud of tweets descended around the live election TV debate between Brown, Clegg and Cameron? The Virgin Atlantic’s ‘Still Red Hot’ campaign? Vote now by commenting on this post or by messaging us on Twitter – @TheMarketingSoc
The most popular suggestions will be shortlisted at this year’s Marketing Society’s Awards for Excellence with the winner decided by SMS on the night of the awards ceremony on 7 June.
We're here to curate inspiring and thought-provoking ideas and perspectives from our network and the marketing world at large. Read, listen, watch, comment and be inspired. The Marketing Society is the exclusive membership network for discerning marketers to learn, develop and share knowledge.
John Grant, co-founder of St Lukes and the Abundancy Partners analyses how Nokia, the mobile phone giant is managing to engage with sustainability despite its size
e is one of the best around, in energy, materials. I also like their Remade concept (made from old tine cans and other waste material). And another concept phone whose case is made from reclaimed wood. This brings the appeal of unique handmade crafts into a space, which is almost the epitome of mass production.
