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Weekend Links #14

The weekend links are the weekly roundup of what I come across on the web – blogosphere, twittosphere, and online media – and that are the most representative of what’s going in the CSR and Sustainability space. In few words, some online conversations that catch my attention!

Sustainability Conversations - Weekend LinksThis first link looks at the infinite possibilities of online sustainability reporting.

This second link offers a great deal of tips for all the job seekers and young graduates dreaming of a CSR job.

This is actually all for this week. Have a great one!

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A Sixth ‘C’ For Sustainability Branding: Consistency

Earlier this week, Change, a brand innovation agency in Canada, launched “MapChange2010“, a new study comparing the real efforts that brands are making in fighting climate change, and the perception consumers have of those brands.

The results of the study showed that, across every sector (i.e. 10 of the largest consumer-facing sectors in North America), a brand’s actual sustainability record does not correlate with consumers’ perceptions and awareness. This means that, down the road, all of a company’s investments in sustainability may not pay off in terms consumer behavior or even brand equity/corporate reputation, which is directly undermining the ROI of sustainability itself.

This disconnect, or perceptions gap, often results from the brand’s failure to “talk to walk” in a credible and meaningful way. Therefore, Change developed what it calls the 5C’s of sustainability branding – a series of principles to follow when creating sustainability branding strategies:

  • Consumer Facing: Looking at what the consumer is looking at.
  • Competitive: To compete, brands must innovate.
  • Core: Tying sustainability to a brand’s core business
  • Conversational: Leveraging two-way conversations, rather than one-way announcements
  • Credible: Sequence and objective credibility are key to sustainable brand success.

I would also add a sixth “C”: CONSISTENCY.

Consistency means a brand, a company undertakes sustainability initiatives that match the reality of its business and the image it conveys. This is critical for building trust, and durably affecting consumer’s perceptions and awareness. And ultimately consumer behavior. How?

  • First, sustainability has to be more than just an one-off campaign. Sustainability must be incorporated into the brand’s DNA. It must reflect the core values of the brand and contribute to delivering the brand promise over the long-term. This means that a brand cannot change its sustainability focus or ‘cause’ too often, or engage in too many non-related areas. Every brand effort has to be mutually supportive in order to achieve the broader sustainability brand promise.
  • Second, consistency is important in the sense that messages must resonate with the brand’s existing voice in the market place. More importantly, sustainability branding must be communicated at every possible customer touchpoint in a consistent way. The 2009 edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer indeed reported that people need to hear a message 3-5 times, from different channels or voices, in order to believe in it.
  • Finally, as brand and corporate reputation are increasingly converging, with consumers not only looking at a product’s sustainability impact but also the overall environmental and social performance of the operating companies behind the brands (see the GoodGuide for instance), sustainability branding needs to be aligned with corporate communications.  Such communications efforts have to be mutually reinforcing, not only with consumers, but also with a broader range of stakeholders such as employees, the media, etc.

And you, what do you think? Do you see any seventh ‘C’?

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Posted in Communications, Marketing.

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Weekend Links #13

The weekend links are the weekly roundup of what I come across on the web – blogosphere, twittosphere, and online media – and that are the most representative of what’s going in the CSR and Sustainability space. In few words, some online conversations that catch my attention!

Sustainability Conversations - Weekend LinksThis first link looks at how to drive and/or reframe sustainability communications in the COP15 aftermath, while the second link looks at the COP15 failure from a more holistic point of view.  Two very good recaps.

This third link lists the tops tactics for proving green’s worth. Straightforward tactics, but it also good to have a list handy when drafting sustainability messages!

This fourth link will take you to a brilliant analysis of Google’s ’s announcement that it will “review” its business operations in China.

Here we go. Have a great week!

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Posted in Weekend links.


Six Tips To Rise Above The Clutter In Sustainability Communications

riseclutterAs more and more companies seek to communicate their progress towards sustainability, it gets more and more challenging to stand above the average in the media mix. In today’s world of shortened attention span, increasing green fatigue and ever-changing media landscape, how can companies rise above the clutter? And do so with credibility and impact? What advices should we, comns and PR professionals, give to our clients?

This is the question Nathan Schock of the Greenway Communiqué tried to answer in an article published in the first PRSA Tactics issue of 2010: Communicate your environmental achievements in the New Year, by reaching out to the most prominent sustainability commentators, journalists and bloggers in the US.

All these interesting inputs and answers revolve around five key principles that I attempt to summarize below:

  • Be transparent. This is THE golden in sustainability communications. Greenwashing has resulted in increased skepticism and green fatigue. So, be honest. “Tell us the progress, but tell us the trade-offs, too. The cliché about this being a journey, not a destination, is true here,” says Martin LaMonica, senior writer at CNET News and CBS Interactive, blogger at Green Tech. This will help make your story human…and much more credible.
  • Think about the audience. “It’s a truism, but you have to craft your pitch to the journalist and his or her publication,” explains Todd Woody, contributing editor at Fortune and blogger at Green Wombat. Understand what matters to your audience, what are the top of mind issues, what the audience wants to know and read about. This often means focusing less on green features and more on benefits such as cost savings from energy efficiency, etc. depending on what means the most to your target audience, be it customer or investor. Marc Gunter, contributing editor at Fortune and blogger at Marc Gunther adds, “I’m looking for stories and blog posts that will not only attract readers but leave them feeling that they learned something new, different or provocative, maybe even something they would pass along to a colleague or friend.”
  • Prove what you say with data but still keep it clear. Facts and figures are indispensible key proof points. But don’t overwhelme the audience with it. As William Brent, senior vice president at Weber Shandwick, blogger at The Search for Cleantech advises, stay specific (don’t speak in often meaningless ‘green’ generalities) while making sure you speak in simple terms (frame your story in terms that people understand).
  • Provide a bigger picture as well. It is critical to put your client’s story into context, i.e. the bigger sustainability issues around it, how this fits into your client’s overall business strategy and sustainability goals, etc. “Too many PR folks spew facts without context, leaving their audience with more questions than answers and setting themselves up for charges of greenwash, or worse,” says Joel Makower, blogger at Two Steps Forward.
  • Don’t “pitch” bloggers—participate! As traditional media models are struggling with fewer reporters covering sustainability and green stories (and not only) and readers are getting most of their news via online channels, it is critical to determine how social media can best meet your needs. However, be reminded about the specificities of blogger outreach! Build relationships with individuals and communicate with one-on-one, personal messages. As Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, founder and editor of Sustainablog insists, “Don’t play the numbers game with green bloggers — blasting out press releases just doesn’t work very well in this space. Find a few you’d really like to connect with, and then do just that: try to build a relationship. Offer opportunities to talk with clients and have your client prepare for a genuine conversation, rather than a presentation of a scripted message.” This is also true for traditional media relations. Be a helpful resource to reporters or bloggers.
  • If you do participate, be ready to go a step further. Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation says it all: ‘The leaders will be companies willing to talk about the things their competitors are afraid to talk about.” This is probably the only way to truly cut through the clutter, isn’t it?

Image Credit: Getty Images

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Weekend Links #12

The weekend links are the weekly roundup of what I come across on the web – blogosphere, twittosphere, and online media – and that are the most representative of what’s going in the CSR and Sustainability space. In few words, some online conversations that catch my attention!

Sustainability Conversations - Weekend LinksThis first link explores human responses to environmental issues and the issues behind the state of news coverage of climate change. A MUST read. The second link looks at the state of public opinion on environment: confusion is the word. Perhaps the public opinion is just fatigued and does not see what in it for them?

This third link will take you to a very interesting conversation around CSR reporting, the GRI guidelines and the transparency / accountability issues with application levels and assurance.

This fourth link discusses the Copenhagen outcome and most especially the role governments and citizens have to play in the battle.

Here we go. Have a great weekend!

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Posted in Weekend links.


Social Media Is An Attitude, Not A Technology: Stay true to the CSR/Sustainability principles!

Social media offers great opportunities for stakeholder engagement, and, as CSR/sustainability professionals, we clearly see all the potential lying in digital communications to advance the sustainability dialogue and engagement whether with employees, consumers,  NGOs, citizens, etc.

As CSR/sustainability players are catching on, one truth is to be reminded: social media is an attitude, not a technology, as showed on the slide below extracted from SustainAbility’s interesting research on stakeholder engagement through web 2.0 (click here to download the slide deck).

Social Media is an attitude, not a technology

One of the many mistakes organizations can often make with social media is the mistake of getting on social media and learning the technology and the tools/platforms offered (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc.), but not learning the best practices of what is called social media behavior.

Social media is about conversations and relationship building. Revolving around trust, social media requires openness, transparency, accountability, and two-way engagement with an ability to listen first….. and this is even more important in our field as all of these elements are fundamental principles of CSR/sustainability strategies themselves!!

Before getting on the social media bandwagon, it is therefore important to “be and live social”. As David Armano noted in HBR’s Conversation blog:

“Social media’s not a product you foist on others, or some rigid business process that, if implemented, yields results. You shouldn’t treat social media like a temporary advertising campaign. Social media is more organic than that. It’s a way of thinking and approaching business that requires passion and commitment and, above all, willingness to participate in social spaces honestly and freely and by the rules of the social network itself. When someone ridicules your organization in the social space, unfiltered in real time, how do you react? If you are trying to control rather than participate in the discussion, then you’re not living social. When your own employees talk about your organization on a social network what do you do?”

What do you think? How do you help your organization or your client be and live social?

(Full disclosure: David Armano now works at Edelman, the PR firm that also employs me.)

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Posted in Digital Communications, Social media.

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