Goodbrand

By Mike Thompson: Wise leaders are self aware, aware of their prejudices, their social conditioning and thus able to moderate the tendency to be over-optimistic with their intuitive instincts

Half an hour on the phone with Professor Mike Thompson and my mind is racing with big ideas of the ‘self’, ‘spirituality’ and ‘stewardship’.

GoodBrand's Dean Sanders and Richard Evans were invited to speak at the New Growth Conference in Hamberg in November 2012. Click here for full details of the conference or view Dean Saunders' speech (in German)

By Mike Thompson of Goodbrand

China's conspicuous consumption trend has unique local traits

Is Chinese brand attitude different to Western brand attitude? I think it depends on the category. Online brands like Baidu Inc and Facebook are prized for their functionality and innovativeness rather than the social status they confer.

But clothing and accessory brands are more sensitive to our social identity. Value brands appeal to price-sensitive consumers in China, as they do in Britain. And luxury brands have status appeal - or do they?.......Read more

 

(A review of Jim Stengel’s 2011 book ‘Grow: How Your Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the 50 greatest Companies’)

There’s a lot been written in the management and leadership literature recently about the importance of discovering an organisation’s true underlying purpose, as a way of building commitment from customers, employees and other stakeholders. A good example is Jim Stengel’s 2011 book “Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s 50 Greatest Companies” (Virgin Books, 2011)..... Read More

Our premise is that sustainability cannot be embedded in to an organisation without the right leadership, and that cultural change leadership programmes that do not embrace sustainability are ignoring the most powerful opportunity available to demonstrate the company’s values (internal factors) to consumers, customers and key stakeholders (external factors) through company behaviour. Companies who can connect the Internal factors with the External factors and demonstrate their CSR strategies through their behaviour are more likely to be seen as a positive force for good and therefore gain and retain greater loyalty from both customers and employees, whilst attaining significant competitive advantage.

The team at GoodBrand are delighted to have had the ‘Share Your Meal’ program that they created with DANONE Poland shortlisted, in the Best Consumer Engagement category, at the Ethical Corporation awards, the winners will be announced on the 25th of June.

GoodBrand worked closely with the team at Danone to develop a unique program which aims to actively contribute to eliminating child malnutrition problems in Poland, through cooperation and activation in local communities. This is achieved through donations made through products purchased and a national food collection. Since 2003, over 11 million meals reached those in need. 

The Best Consumer Engagement category award will go to the firm demonstrating how, beyond reporting their progress, the company is engaging consumers in sustainability messaging. Typical entries may include an advertisement or media output that demonstrates engaged and creative thinking in communicating sustainability.

Click here to read more.

 

We are delighted to be mentioned in the 2012 Marks & Spencer Plan A Report and well done to them for leading the GoodBrand Social Equity Index.

Follow the link to read the press release and to view the report.  They have also released a document which outlines what they’ve learnt around the business case for sustainability which you can access here.

Click Here to read more.

Based on the responses of over 5,000 UK adults, the GoodBrand Social Equity Indexprovides key insightsinto consumer perception of the social equity of 340 of the Top UK brands & companies. Is the brand you’re interested in seen as a “force for good”?

Click here for the report.

Michael Porter and Mark Kramer’s article in the January 2011 issue of the Harvard Business Review made ambitious claims for the concept of creating shared value, to the point of suggesting that it provides an approach through which we can redefine both capitalism and the role of corporations in society. The central premise behind creating shared value (CSV) is that the competitiveness of a company and the health of the communities around it are not in opposition but in fact are mutually dependent.

So, no longer is there a trade-off between “doing good” and “making profits”  - instead, the two are mutually inter-dependent. Moreover, Porter and Kramer argue that there are significant opportunities for the creation of competitive advantage from integrating a social value proposition into corporate strategy......

Click Here to read the full article

Yesterday, Lloyds Bank announced that Co-Operative Bank is the preferred bidder for the 630-odd branches that the EU requires Lloyds to sell, following the state aid it received in 2008. The acquisition would triple the Co-op's current size from 300 to 900 branches and is expected to boost competition between high street banks.

Co-Operative has been a star performer in the retail banking world for the last few years, with its distinctive “no shareholder” positioning appealing to more and more of the public, despite Co-Op’s relatively limited high street banking presence. 2010 saw a 79% increase in the number of current accounts switched to them, for example (source: Co-Operative Group Annual Report 2010).  And Co-operative’s customers are essentially not principally switching for a “hot deal” – they are moving for much bigger and permanent reasons. In short, they want to place their business with a bank that shares their values – something that they no longer feel holds true for the big 5....

Click Here to read the full article

Latest article from GoodBrand

Times are tough and we all need to make the money in our pockets go further and work harder. As one of our nation’s favorite supermarkets says, “every little helps”  - and it certainly does. However a recent BBC Panorama program entitled ‘The Truth About Supermarket Price Wars’ raised the question of whether these ‘not to be missed’ deals are all they really seem

Click Here to read the full article

Latest article from GoodBrand

Yesterday’s announcement that Virgin is buying the “good” parts of Northern Rock, and entering the world of branch banking for the first time, has been welcomed as potentially ushering in a new era of heightened competition and improved service in the world of personal banking. After all, Virgin’s track record in re-writing the rules of competition in favour of the consumer – across many of the industries it has entered, from airlines to mobile phones - is pretty strong.

Click Here to read the full article

latest article from James Cashmore

Bob Diamond, the CEO of Barclays Bank, took the opportunity of the inaugural BBC Today Business Lecture last night to set out his vision for banks to restore public trust by becoming – and, critically becoming seen as – more positive citizens in society.

Click Here to read the full article

 

The Ethical Consumer  - passing fashion or a new era for brand building?
The Goodbrand Social Equity Survey shows that becoming perceived as a positive force in society is closely associated with commercial success.  The top 10 European brands that lead on social equity are:

1. Migros supermarket - Switzerland
2. Co-Op - Switzerland
3. Marks & Spencer -UK
4. Co-Op - UK
5. IKEA - Sweden
6. Sainsbury - UK
7. Co-Op Bank - UK
8. Co-Op - Sweden
9. ICA - Sweden
10. Kantonalbank - Switzerland

 

Click here to read our report on The ethical consumer – passing fashion, or a new era for brand building...?

Click here to read the full Marketing Week article