Marketing for Good

The rise of ultra-transparency has placed CSR in the midst of a revolution, with huge implications for marketing.

Enron won a “corporate conscience” award from the Council on Economic Priorities five years before it went bankrupt. In fact, until its spectacular fall from grace – with employees found to have illegally shredded the evidence of the energy company’s astounding fraud – Enron was the poster boy for corporate social responsibility.

Consumers are no longer fooled into thinking that because a firm plants a few trees in Brazil that it makes them ethical corporate citizens

Thanks to Enron, and many other companies that have run superficial, one-off ‘for good’ campaigns, the term ‘CSR’ has well and truly lost its lustre. Consumers are no longer fooled into thinking (if they ever were) that because a firm plants a few trees in Brazil or pledges to help the polar bears, it makes them ethical corporate citizens.

With ultra-transparency now paramount, for companies to be taken seriously as ‘good guys’, well-meant corporate values must be embraced by every employee and sit at the organisation’s core. Fortunately, according to Business in the Community (BITC) corporate adviser Alasdair Marks, this is happening.

“There is a definite shift as companies are becoming increasingly sophisticated in terms of understanding corporate responsibility and sustainability,” he says. “We’re moving away from the idea that CSR is about managing your negative impact. We tend not even to use the term CSR any more.”

The role of marketing communications is also changing. In the past, some companies have been lampooned for spending hefty sums on telling the world about their good deeds, which, in many cases, has cost more than the actual CSR activity. Now, however, marketing budgets are more often used to encourage behaviour change and support consumers in living more sustainably.

This is reflected in the fact that BITC award entries for the category concerned with engaging consumers in sustainability have shot up by 250% this year.

“This is because more businesses are embedding their corporate responsibility work across their companies,” says Marks.

He cites as good examples, where campaigns are relevant to the corporate mission, Anglian Water’s drive to persuade consumers to use and dispose of water more care-fully, Marks & Spencer’s ‘Shwopping’ scheme, which involves the retailer asking customers to bring their old clothes to stores either to be recycled or donated to Oxfam, and Coca-Cola’s recycling initiatives.

81% of consumers worldwide want a company to take specific actions that both increase profits and improve the economic and social conditions of the community in which it operates

Marks believes that corporate responsibility “only really takes hold when companies understand that there is a commercial opportunity associated with sustainable growth”.

One brand that has done this, he says, is Jaguar Land Rover, BITC’s “responsible business of the year” in 2014. It has made significant, long-term investment in sustainable production lines and lighter, more-efficient vehicles. Marks also flags up Unilever as a pioneer in this field.

Research supporting this link between corporate responsibility and profitability is beginning to come to the fore. For instance, BITC conducted studies with financial-services company Legal & General between 2008 and 2013 that analysed the commercial value of a responsible business.

The findings showed that FTSE 100 companies with a proven approach to integrating responsible business across their operations outperformed their peers in total shareholder return in seven of the eight years tested.

In addition, the share prices of these companies were noticeably less volatile.

Social values

This result comes as no surprise to Marc Cave, co-founder of creative agency Green Cave People. “Doing good should never be put ahead of doing well,” he says. “It isn’t a separate and conflicting agenda.”

He claims his client Tetra Pak’s expansion of its milk-carton packaging outside Europe is a good example of this philosophy. As part of this strategy, the brand flew 10,000 Friesian cows to Riyadh to create the world’s biggest dairy farm. Alongside this, it set up long-term educational programmes to teach people about the benefits of drinking pasteurised and packaged milk.

“A generation later, Tetra Pak’s leadership of the global food-packaging market is emphatic, mal-nutrition rates in developing countries have fallen significantly, and, thanks to the introduction of a milk-drinking culture, teenagers in Thailand, for example, are now on average three inches taller than in the 1960s,” says Cave.

Another creative agency that has put responsibility at the heart of its business model is MediaBounty. When it started up, mid-recession in 2008, it pledged to buy one or more acres of threatened habitats via the World Land Trust for every client campaign undertaken, alongside the ‘basics’ of doing business responsibly, such as using only recycled paper and an energy supplier that worked with solely renewable sources.

Nothing is secret any more

“More than ever, businesses and brands are having to get their house in order in terms of their contribution to society and the environment, because consumers are asking different questions, especially millennials,” says Jake Dubbins, managing director of MediaBounty.

“Nothing is secret any more. From Swiss tax evasion to zero-hours contracts and loans to illegal logging companies, people-powered groups, like 38 Degrees, and environmental crusaders, like Greenpeace, are shining a spotlight on corporate practices like never before, and, crucially, forcing real change. [Combating] climate change is going to become the only game in town.”

As Alex Murphy, “head of getting it out there” at clothing brand Howies, says, this is nothing new for some, like his brand, which built its foundations on sustainability 20 years ago.

However, the difference is that then, companies such as these were the exception, disparaged by some consumers who labelled them tree-hugging hippies. Nonetheless, having a genuine social conscience, not an Enron-style one, is becoming vital to being able to operate at all in today’s market.

So what advice does Murphy have for other brands starting to follow Howies’ path? “Good word of mouth is better than good advertising, so engaging with people over your core ideals and following through on them is a must,” he says.

Profit from principles

Andy Nairn, one of the founders of agency Lucky Generals, which counts as a client renewable-energy supplier Good Energy, says: “It’s not about saying you’ll do more, it’s about actually doing more. Banks, for instance, are very good at saying they’ll do more in their soft-focus ads, showing how in  touch with babies they are, but people will judge whether they trust a brand, or believe it is on their side, through their actions.”

Stuart Butler, head of strategy at media agency Maxus, agrees. He argues that consumers are exasperated by much marketing today, especially that which is purposely ambiguous or too contrived, and they’ve had enough.

“We’ve got to a point where it’s feeling to people like exploitation. We’ve hit breaking point,” says Butler. “If we want our industry to continue to be, or be again, a cultural force in the way that bloggers are these days, we need to fundamentally change the way we do things, we have to credit the consu-mer with much more honesty and intelligence, rather than dancing around trying to impress.”

The burden of proof

A step in the right direction is the creation of the ‘B-Corp’ in the US, a stamp that measures companies on both their profit and social and environmental impact, according to Diana Sánchez, chief executive of strategic agency Savvy – Marketing for Good. With news now spreading globally in minutes, Sánchez concurs that companies should focus on ‘being’ what customers expect them to be, rather than ‘proving’ what they are saying.

She adds: “When a company feels the need to prove itself to consumers, there is probably something wrong in the back-end, or the company is not meeting the standards. This can happen, especially with products that are not necessarily good. Take Coca-Cola, for example. It has amazing CSR projects, it is a great place to work, according to its employees, and it communicates beautiful messages in its advertising, such as family values. Nevertheless, it carries a product that is not healthy, which gives the brand the need to prove itself to consumers to be able to stay competitive in this new, growing, sustainable market.”

What you do as a company affects not only your ability to sell product, but also your ability to attract the best talent. This is particularly pertinent as the millennials rise up the ranks, with a growing body of research showing that the younger generations are much more socially conscientious than their elders (see box, right). For instance, in the Deloitte Millennial Survey 2015, 77% said their company’s social purpose was part of the reason they chose to work there.

Charlotte Moran, who is in her mid-20s, is group marketing manager for Siemens Home Appliances. She is a case in point, as the fact that her employer has a strong record on corporate responsibility and searching for ever-more sustainable solutions means a great deal to her. She enjoys overseeing work such as Siemens’ ‘Futurology Series’, a tranche of videos produced by MediaBounty, bringing together experts from the digital and design world to discuss the future home in terms of technology and the environment.

“I’d find it very hard to work for a company that didn’t understand its impact on the environment and didn’t make an effort to change for the better. So would many of my friends,” says Moran.

“We do need to be more responsible. It’s pressing, especially given the fact that [the UN Climate Change Conference] is coming up later this year and we [as countries in the UN] are missing our global warming targets. I feel proud to work for a company that is acting ethically. That is part of the job satisfaction.”

The Rise of the New Cultural Diplomats:

The Cassandra Report

Pete Edwards, Engine’s chief strategy officer, who was involved in the research, says: “Millennials  are much more connected than any cohort before them. Their thoughts and ideas spread much more quickly, and wealth is much less of a motivator than it used to be.

That’s a function of the fact that it’s much harder to do things like get on the housing ladder or buy a car. They’re quite often defined by the friends they are seen with and socialise with, but also by the brands they conspicuously consume.

Brand choice is a life choice for them. If a brand is a cheat or behaving in an inappropriate way, and the marketing doesn’t connect with them, it is quickly discarded because it undermines the millennials’ personal brand. They are redefining marketing. Marketing will never die, but it will continue to shift
from being controlled by the brand.”

Generation Y is:

Big2bn of them globally

Influential worth $2.5tn by 2020

Powerful52% of the world’s population is under 30

Group-oriented/inclusive69% of UK Generation Ys say it is important for them to have a lot of good friends

Demanding of brands56% of UK Generation Ys say it is important that a brand communicates directly with them, and 72% say it is important that a brand helps them become happier or better

Green77% of UK Generation Ys are concerned about the environment as a global issue and are three times as likely to want to use socially conscious brands, rather than luxury ones; 40% would pay more for eco-friendly products

More concerned with meaning than money only 23% of Generation Ys say being very wealthy is a life aspiration and 86% would rather be healthy than wealthy

Research by Engine, September 2014*

*3044 respondents, between the ages of 18 and 34, across 10 countries, including the UK and US

Original Article by Suzy Bashford, published at http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/

Cloud Computing World April Edition now available FREE

CCW is the UKs first digital publication totally dedicated to the subject of cloud computing. CCW reaches an audience of over 15,000 individual subscribers on a bi-monthly basis, delivering them up-to-date information on this fast paced subject, enabling them to use the processing power of the cloud and its unlimited opportunities for collaboration to enhance and grow their businesses.

CCW is edited by the industry-known business and IT journalist Steve Gold, who has been writing professionally for more than 25 years, during which time he has researched and written about a wide variety of emerging (and now mainstream) topics – including the cloud computing arena, well before the term became commonplace around the turn of the century.

LGN Media seeks to adopt a totally fresh approach to magazine content.

There will be no mass reprinted press releases, but fresh, bold and original content. In a world where B2B media has become – frankly – a little jaded, LGN Media seeks to set a new standard in IT publishing.

The team are driven by a passion for what they do, and their pride in being somewhat different from the mainstream.

Link: http://www.joomag.com/magazine/cloud-computing-world-april-2015/0899761001430132162?short

Centralized Office Copier/Printers Replace Water Coolers As Place To Chat And As Sources Of Productivity Loss

The centralized copier/printer can significantly curtail productivity in the workplace and dramatically affect employee behavior.

Compared with offices that have a greater number of shared printers, employees at offices with centralized copier/printers spend, on average, an additional three minutes each day on printing. Over the course of a year, this means an extra 13 hours spent at the printer. For a company of 500 employees, this could translate to 6,500 wasted hours.

Centralized Copier/Printers Lead to Distractions

Waiting in the printing queue, walking a long distance to a printer and distraction by other people while walking to or waiting for the printer can all lead to distracted employees and lowered productivity in the workplace. In fact, 61 percent of employees surveyed stated that they have conversations at the copier/printer and that they are four times more likely to always engage in conversations compared with just 31 percent who have conversations at the water cooler.

In addition, those who engage in non-work conversations at the printer are 98 percent more likely to stop by other colleagues’ desks to chat about personal things, but only 28 percent more likely to chat about work. And they are 42 percent more likely to get intercepted by those wanting to chat as well.

Using centralized printers has an impact on printing behaviors as well. The survey also revealed that those that use centralized copier/printers are more likely to minimize printing because walking the distance to pick up is inconvenient. They are also more likely than those not using a centralized printer to forget to pick up documents after sending them and attempt to attend meetings without hard copies of documents.

As print volumes change, we know that many small- to medium-sized businesses may be underusing their copier/printers and have placed them ineffectively leading to cost and productivity implications. The survey findings further demonstrate how ineffective placement can promote behaviors that may ultimately lead to significant productivity loss. This strengthens the balanced deployment solution, which helps SMBs optimize their printing environments for better productivity and cost savings.

The Solution for SMBs: Don’t Supersize. Optimize.

Surveyed employees with printers located within their own departments were far less likely to lose productivity, and they were 36 percent more likely to engage in mostly work-related conversations while waiting for a print job to finish compared to those who also have printers outside their department.

More than half of all employees surveyed want their company to replace centralized copier/printers with more efficient devices for more user-friendly printing. And at 48.5%, nearly half of those with centralized printing would prefer a shorter distance between their desk and the copier/printer/scanner.

The survey also revealed that workers with more shared printers are more digitally engaged. More of them say that their companies encourage the use of digital documents, use multiple screens, find reading on screen easier, use more mobile devices than they used to and are more environmentally conscious. Those that have centralized printers are more than two times more likely to say that their company printers do not work well and that they take too long to finish printing jobs.

Research Methodology
Research conducted by independent research company Clarus Research Group (http://qorvis.com/clarus-research-group) between September 5^th and 11^th 2014. Sample size is N=1,000, aged 18 – 64, working full time in an office, more than 10 people in the office, using shared printers. In some instances, results have been rounded to the nearest tenth of a percentage point.

3D Printer Market Disappoints in The 1st. Quarter of 2015

As the 3D printing community entered the new year on a wave of innovative ideas and interesting products from late 2014, the future seemed very bright in January of 2015. The International CES was also very kind to lovers of 3D printers, but all that optimism has slightly ebbed away as the results of the first quarter of the year are coming in. In fact, it appears that the worldwide 3D printing market (though most data is from North America) has not done as well as many people expected.

This result was slightly expected, especially as we learned of the announcement that Makerbot has failed to hit certain economic targets and is forced to close down its three retail stores and lay off a fifth of its personnel. As Brian Deagon over at investors.com clarified, the market for 3D printer slowed down near the end of the first quarter. Not only is this apparent from the much more aggressive sales tactics and creative financing used in the last couple of months, but also from feedback from 3D printing resellers.

The feedback is especially telling. Piper Jaffray, a U.S. investment bank and asset management firm, got in touch with 62 3D printing resellers of printers and 3D printing service bureau operators (of which 82% were in North America), and all reported a similar picture. Piper reportedly asked resellers about their sales cycles , and about sixty percent of participants reported that sales have remained stable. While not sounding too bad, the last quarter of 2014 reported a stability of 68% and the quarter before that clocked in at 70%. ‘Total system sales in the March quarter were a bit discouraging compared to prior periods, with 23% of surveys responding with an above-plan quarter vs. 35% indicating they were below plan, which produced a net negative of 12%,” Piper analysis Troy Jensen wrote.

The two biggest manufacturers of 3D printers, Stratasys and 3D Systems, also haven’t been doing very well on the stock market. On yesterday’s market, stock of 3D Systems stock was down 4.2%, near 31.13. Stratasys, meanwhile, was tradigin near 53.46, down approximately 5%. However, the survey by Piper was more positive about Stratasys than about 3D Systems. ‘Regarding 3D Systems, demand was once again poor, and the story remains the same with resellers unhappy with the company’s channel management and product demand,’ Jensen wrote. He has a neutral rating of both, with Stratasys stock with a price target of 64 and 3D Systems of 32. Both companies unsurprisingly missed previous estimates for revenue and earnings.

So what’s going on in the 3D printing market? As you might recall, MakerBot’s misfortune was attributed to overly optimistic estimates about growth opportunities and that is basically what seems to be going on across the market. Growth can definitely be seen, but 3D printers aren’t catching on at the rated that was expected, while the existing market is becoming saturated. 3D Systems in particular also happens to suffer from production delays and reports of mismanagement. Jensen further added that demand is also suffering from price increases and competition from low-end 3D printers. Perhaps the time has come for 3D printing businesses to stop reckless expansion?

by Alec

Fuji Xerox pushes services stream with new printers

Fuji Xerox Printers has launched a new range of printers which it says will enable resellers to tap into a higher level of revenue and ongoing profit stream.

The Smart Series range integrates product and software solutions to deliver what Fuji Xerox says are the same benefits as complex devices at a fraction of the cost.

“These compact devices enable partners to leverage the rising demand from small to medium businesses for sophisticated and affordable print solutions with a significantly smaller footprint,” the company says.

Anthony Toope, Fuji Xerox Printers head of channel operations and marketing, says the Smart Series range supports the reseller shift to solution selling.

The printers can be integrated with advanced cloud storage, authentication and cost recovery and automation software from Western Digital, YSoft, Equitrac and Objectiflune, who Fuji Xerox is partnering with.

Toope says channel partners are facing increasing price erosion and are under enormous pressure for revenue and margins as printer prices get cheaper and cheaper.

“For the end customer, printers have never been more affordable and they’re getting a higher feature product. But that’s putting a lot more pressure on resellers.”

Toope says the new offerings are targeted at the SMB market – a prime opportunity for ANZ resellers and one Toope says is often overlooked by major vendors who focus on tier one corporate and the government sector.

“A4 products have never offered the functionality had in A3 in the past but we do with the product we are launching.”

While the hardware itself offers higher functionality, Toope says it is by offering complete product solutions that partners can create new revenue streams, expand existing accounts and gain opportunities to enter new segments.

By aligning products with leading software solutions, resellers can add more value for end-customers, increase close rates and average sell prices and generate new leads, Toope says.

In partnering with software providers such as cost recovery solutions companies YSoft, Equitrac and PaperCut, Fuji Xerox is providing partners with a complete suite of product solutions.

“You can expand your footprint with an end customer and broaden your sales revenue,” he says. “You can create new sales leads, increase the sales price, gain ongoing services and annuity and improve close rate.”

The vendor has just announced it has partnered with Western Digital to provide anytime, anywhere accessible cloud solutions, providing resellers with ‘solid hardware-based cloud offerings with pre-configured ready-to-go NAS systems at a one off cost’.

Simon Whitford, WD APAC senior marketing manager, says the SMB printing and storage markets present a ‘huge opportunity’ for resellers.

“A key concern for business owners is anytime, anywhere access to cost-effective storage, especially when it comes to secure document management.

“WD has a full suite of NAS solutions that complement the Fuji Xerox Printers Smart Series range and provide small businesses with secure centralised NAS solutions and control over their own data.”