07 Nov Sustainability Sweet Spot #2
It’s by no mistake I gave you some breathing room to digest Sustainability Sweet Spot #1: Laying Your Sustainability Groundwork for Strategic Growth. There were some very important questions to ask yourself and your team in my last email.
May I reiterate that this is the first, most important step in creating a solid sustainability plan for your business. If you skip this critical step and go straight to strategy, you are in danger of skimming the sustainability surface, and ultimately being perceived as a greenslosher, er… greenwasher. Today’s very smart Millennial consumer can smell that a mile away. So do your homework and take some time with Step #1.
Sustainability Sweet Spot #2
Now that Step #1 has been explored, it’s time to Define Your Sustainability Strategy and Work It. In order to do that, let’s take a look at the four components of sustainability that need to be addressed:
1. Protection of the environment
2. Care of cultures
3. Social responsibility
4. Economic viability
All four of these need to work together with your product, service or initiative. This essentially is the roadmap for your sustainability strategy. Let me give you an example.
I had the rare opportunity in the last nine months to create a true sustainable product from scratch and prepare its Go-To-Market strategy. What was beautiful about this process was there was no retrofitting or retooling an existing product to fit into a preconceived sustainability strategy. From the very beginning, every inch of this sun care product was thoughtfully examined through a sustainability lens. In other words, sustainability was in its DNA.
How did we build the components sited above into this brand? Here is a taste of what we did.
From an environmental standpoint, the formula was non-toxic and contained no chemicals that absorb into your bloodstream (human health) or hurt our coral reefs and marine life (environmental health). Its packaging was refillable and made out of ocean plastic waste so it would never end up in a landfill again. Our brand message therefore was “Protecting your skin and the oceans we love.”
The social responsibility component was inherent through and through, and baked into the core of the business model. For instance, part of what we imagined is using this product as a teaching tool for the younger generation to learn more deeply about ocean health and how it effects our culture and society. Plans were made to create academic modules that teachers can incorporate into their lesson plans and bring alive in the classroom.
In our research and marketing outreach, we were careful to meet the needs and sensitivities of different cultures. We asked questions across cultures on how this product may impact their lives, what do they like about it, what would they change, what are we missing, does our mission and vision resonate with them, how can we be more inclusive?
And finally, the economics of it all. As a long-time sustainability professional, I know that only 19% of the population (but growing) would pay a premium for an eco-product. But we wanted our product and the message delivered to mainstream America.
So, to make this sun care product more economically feasible and appeal to a wider range of people, we partnered with our formula manufacturer and received very competitive pricing, almost at cost, to compensate for the premium we were paying for the ocean plastic packaging. We were still more expensive, but with the inherent promise and vision we built into this product, we felt it would allow for this slight bump in price.
Our Go-To-Market strategy was a Kickstarter because we knew that we would be able to prove our concept, tweak our brand, determine pricing, expose it to a Millennial audience, and raise awareness and initial capital — all at once.
This sun care brand is just one of many sustainable products we have helped launch at Mind Over Markets. To get a glimpse of other products and services, check out our case studies here.
Got questions? Feel free to reach out to me here and we’ll set up a time to discuss your sustainable brand or idea.
Coming up next: Sustainability Sweet Spot 3 – How Collaboration Can Advance Your Sustainable Strategy.