Commentary
Green: Branding
- by Brad Stewart , May 26, 2010
According to Interbrand's Best Globals Brands ranking for 2009, the top 100 brands in the world are worth well over $1 trillion. According to some estimates, brands make up an average of 33% of the value of a company. In Google's case, 80% of its $125 billion market capitalization is attributed to its brand. Pretty impressive that this much wealth can be contained in something that is entirely ideological and emotional! Talk about a large economic impact for a non-existent carbon footprint.
Though there is a lot of potential for brands to embrace green in a substantial and genuine way, the BP fiasco confirms the pessimist's view that brands are nothing more than a way to greenwash an otherwise dirty company or industry. However, some major companies are literally becoming green, even at risk of annoying consumers, losing their attention or (gasp) loyalty.
PepsiCo should be on everyone's radar, if it's not already, as a company that is taking risks with well-established brands. This is the second time it's been mentioned in this column as a leader in green or social initiatives. It created significant buzz this year by not advertising in the Super Bowl, instead opting to engage in the Pepsi Refresh social initiative.
I literally stumbled across another PepsiCo initiative when pulling a bag of Sun Chips out of my two-year-old son's reluctant hands. I didn't need to read the label to know that this bag was -- to some degree or another -- biodegradable. It had a dry texture and was much louder than regular chip bags. A quick glance confirmed my tactile suspicions.
According to its site, Sun Chips has introduced a package that's 100% biodegradable. The Canadian site claims that it is "the world's first 100% compostable chip bag." Sun Chips is attempting to gain as much leverage as possible from this initiative by including myriad multimedia and social media elements on the site.
A video shows a time-lapse of the bag "nurturing nature" as it returns to the soil. The brand also includes useful information about composting for consumers, thus clearly positioning itself as a green educator. A Google search for "compostable" brings up the microsite as the number one hit. Talk about strong brand association.
As many of us in the ad and marketing world know, companies are extremely protective of their brands. Rightfully so, as the weight of entire empires is built on brands' shoulders. What's so encouraging about Sun Chips' move, is that it is changing the actual face of its brand, despite the packaging being extremely noisy and somewhat dry-feeling.
From a purely tactile perspective, the new bag is simply not as appealing. To me, though, this elevates Sun Chips' even more in my mind, because it is clearly taking a risk for the sake of the environment. I have to honestly admit, I'm going to have a hard time turning down this product the next time I'm hit with a serious case of the munchies.
Here's hoping that Sun Chips is just the beginning of brands that embrace the environment as a constituent element of their products. PepsiCo has set the bar very high once again in terms of leadership and lock-stock-and-barrel adoption of this emerging trend.
As the largest consumer and supplier in the world, the U.S. populace has the most to gain by rushing headlong into clean branding as a core industry. Reduced waste, emission, and subsequent buttressed credibility are all keys to avoiding a multitrillion-dollar brand bubble while preserving landfills and water tables. Now pass the Sun Chips!
As a Sun Chips eater, my guess is that PepsiCo's rationale was both altruistic and profit-oriented.
Brad may think the bag is unattractive, but may things deemed unattractive yesterday are "in" today.
As a marketing tool, the strength of the bag is that it is different. It marks Sun Chips out from the crowd. Evidence is that such differences -- combined with a proven product (a good tasting chip, in this case) -- reinforce brands and drive up sales by consumers who could care less about landfills vs. compost.
In sum, Sun Chips now has:
1. A great tasting food product.
2. A very unique container.
I don't think this is a case of a big corporation sacrificing for the environment (don't worry, the ecocrats at the EPA will make sure they, and we, sacrifice enough).
While packaging has been seen as a major opportunity to reduce waste, and "green" a product, and I don't want to diminish its recycling importance, but in terms of social and environmental sustainability issues it pales in significance - think obesity, toxins in our air and water, climate change. I'd hate to think that marketing professionals are colorizing and arranging the deck chairs while our planet sinks. What's in those sun chips anyway and what's their value as food?
Pepsi truly has been marching steadily toward a healthier, more sustainable future for some time. From our standpoint, perfection is not the point, but trajectory. Here are a couple of insightful videos, 1 on the Sun Chips brand journey, including the story of the bag: http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/video/06022009/thomas_oh_sunchips_sustainable_brand_marketing_packaging_advertising, and one, and interview we will be posting this week with PepsiCo's Chief Science officer talking about their efforts to innovate on the nutritional front: http://vimeo.com/12006916. As more and more information is available from companies on the challenges and successes of their sustainable brand journey, it's as incumbent on us to understand the genuine good that is going on as it is to understand the blatant green washing taking place by some. We advocate for giving a company a break so long as they are demonstrating authentic commitment and forward momentum toward change. The goal is sustainability which includes economic and well as environmental and social success over the long haul for us all. We're thrilled to be sitting in the front row of this progression in corporate America as we work to facilitate faster innovation for profitable sustainability.
You make some interesting observations about Sun Chips but its important to understand what it means to the environment when a package is biodegradable. It means that it is intended to go into a landfill and will decompose over many years. Biota, the bottled water company, promoted itself on the same premise a few years ago. Landfills have environmental consequences. Biodegradable packaging is not necessarily superior to packaging that can be recycled.
Fiona: The package is compostable, not just biodegradable. I don't know if this changes things. But, I do see your point... The energy it takes to create the bag must be taken into account as well as other factors. "Green" is often not as clear cut as we'd all like to believe.
Ruth Ann: My point was precisely that marketers are creating trillions of dollars of value (and hence jobs, etc) from zero emissions. Relatively speaking, if this much value can be had from "arranging deck chairs", then so be it. Also, if Sun Chips does see a return from healthier products, then I'm sure they'll head in that direction. The proof is in the pudding, in terms of their recent initiatives. You wanted 100% compostable! They delivered.
Chris: I agree. Profit oriented, with altruism as a secondary (albeit real) motive. Hopefully this is welcomed by the market as change worth supporting.
KoAnn: "Trajectory".... Absolutely. In the right direction, in other words. I think this sums up the issues we see here very tightly. "Not enough" "Undesirable motives" "Unhealthy" BUT, a) creating trillions of dollars of 0 emission value, and b) in the right direction.