What brands are still getting wrong about sustainability

How can brands incorporate sustainability into their brand positioning, brand purpose and brand comms? And what are some of the most common misconceptions and mistakes in sustainability-related marketing? In June’s webinar, Natalie Swanson and Matt Allen present some surprising lessons they’ve learned from conducting a wide range of industry studies. This is alongside insights gained from work for brands such Arla, Lurpak, Cravendale, Jörd, Vanish, Beiersdorf, The Tofoo Co and Borough Market.

How can you make the best use of your sustainability initiatives in communications? Through experience working for brands such Arla, Lurpak, Cravendale, Jörd, Vanish, Beiersdorf, The Tofoo Co and Borough Market, Natalie Swanson and Matt Allen have plenty of insights to share. 

Using industry examples, they’ll pass on some surprising key lessons including:

• How and why consumers are lying to brands massively about sustainability, which has clear implications for research methodologies
• How and why brands don’t get credit for sustainability initiatives consumers expect them to be doing anyway
• How sustainability initiatives won't motivate most consumers (despite what they tell you), and the benefits that actually will

This thorough webinar will end on clear guidance on effective research approaches to get a more realistic understanding of what will and won’t drive consumer behaviour.

What you’ll learn:

• The potential issues with research in this area and how to overcome them
• Common mistakes to avoid when you use sustainability in marketing activity
• How to identify a hygiene factors/ratings factors/sparkle factors framework when viewing your sustainability initiatives
• How you can effectively harness sustainability initiatives in communications

Speakers:

Natalie Swanson and Matt Allen are the joint founding directors of Folk Research, an agency that specialises in brand development, positioning and communications research. They’ve both worked in consumer insight for over 15 years and between them have helped a huge range of clients to optimise their sustainability strategy and comms - often at the level of brand purpose. Many of these challenges are particularly tricky, from helping to reframe the narrative around dairy to encouraging consumers to re-wear instead of buying new clothes.