Stumptown Branded Doc

I'm intrigued by this series of short films by the coffee brand, Stumptown. In one film, they travel to Kenya to shadow their green coffee buying team, and in another, they take a trip to Columbia to document how they source their products. If you're not familiar with Stumptown, the Portland-based coffee company is well-known in the US among aficionados. What's interesting is that rarely do we get a behind-the-scenes look at how a company procures their products. Many brands and companies are secretive, but Stumptown shows that they have developed real working relationships with the growers and communities they procure from. While highly-involved, experiential brands today are turning to tome-like sustainability reports, often, they forget that visualizing the supply chain for their consumer can help to tell the story of the brand. It shines a light on the local communities (which brings attention to that culture and its needs) and conditions, and demonstrates the ethics and values of the brand.
Thanks to CoolHunting for bringing attention to this series.

Thank You

As we head into the holidays, I just want to pause and say THANK YOU to all my readers. I started Think See Do Differently over 5 years ago now and its come along way. I've thousands of readers who appreciate the odd story I share about marketing. Recently, I've become focused on how to make social good marketing beneficial to brands and society alike. I'm meeting amazing social entrepreneurs and have become reinvigorated by the power of storytelling to affect positive change. I hope that as you celebrate a happy, fun, and safe holiday season, that you are able to reflect on the GOOD you provide people everyday, and that you can share the message of  creating shared value with your colleagues.

Now, for something completely different! Turducken!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

COMMON Creates Umbrella Brand for Social Change

Two brilliant social good creatives recently spoke at the PSFK Conference about my favorite topic, creating shared value. I highly recommend you take a look at COMMON if you want to work with an existing creative community and umbrella brand to make social change a part of your organization. You can quickly add a social program to your organization, however you're providing value to the COMMON brand and not exclusively to your own, but then, that's the point of sharing value.


COMMON: The New Industrialists

PRWeek Next Panel Reveals Shared Values Brand Strategies

I attended an informative panel yesterday on trends in cause marketing at the PRWeek Next Conference. "Why Doing Good Is Good For Business" featured Susan Arnot Heaney, Global Director of Corporate Responsibility at Avon, Linn Parrish, VP PR and Cause Marketing at Panera Bread, and Scott Beaudoin, SVP NA Director of CSR Marketing at MSLGroup.

Heaney lead off with an in-depth description of the history of Avon's work in the space, beginning with their commitment to stopping Breast Cancer. Recently, Avon has taken up the cause of ending domestic violence, and this move she noted was predicated by  a desire to get into a less-crowded space, but one that was appropriate to the brand and Avon Foundation for Women. To Avon's salesforce of women, this issue mattered deeply. She suggested that some of the salesforce on calls had witnessed or sensed something amiss in the home--but couldn't say anything (for safety reasons).

Heaney talked about the need to continually make the argument for CSR even within a committed organization and that there was work to be done to convince Wall Street of the business case for strategic philanthrophy. "Institutional investors aren't valuaing this, and we have to start talking their language."

When asked about the "results" of Avon's cause marketing, Heaney made a point to refer to metrics and ROI as particularly persuasive tool to gaining corporate support. "Without ROI, we would still be doing it (cause marketing), but there are efficiencies and cost-savings that can't be ignored."

 Linn Parish added that Panera Bread saw results too from their programs to stop hunger,  not just among the needy, but among their own employees. "Its a virtuous circle, if we do good, people will do good by us...and we've had employees say they feel better about being at Panera because of it."

Panera's "Pay-What-You-Can" campaign was highlighted as an example of the CEO's mission to go beyond "writing a check" to doing something that made use of Panera's unique set of skills. 60% of customers are donating the suggested price at cafes that operate a pay as you wish approach, 20% are paying more, and 20% are paying less.

Scott Beaudoin, of MSL Group, deftly noted that his agency's survey revealed that even if consumers weren't particularly interested in a brand's cause, that if the cause made sense to the brand and to the business, they are more likely to do business with them. "The cause, has to be authentic to the brand."

MSLGroup in fact has named given their CSR practice the task of "going beyond purpose" to work with their clients to match the business strategy and cause strategy together. Beaudoin is a big proponent of "creating shared value" and noted that while some companies were still determining their purpose (why they exist), at this point, purpose-driven brands should be heavily into digital. "If you don't have a digital/social strategy in cause, you're losing a lot of points...it should be about increasing engagement now."

It appeared that Heaney didn't have time enough to impart her wisdom from implementing cause within organizations, but she had one clear lesson for the audience of PR executives, "Do not stop and start.. .you need to spend as much time as it takes...a one-off (campaign) does not make for authenticity...everyone wants to feel they touched another life, not another concept."

Magic's Message

Twenty years to the week. That's how long its been since Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive, changing the face of the epidemic, changing the face of basketball. HIV became "real" for many blacks that day, myself included. Johnson's brave decision, in the midst of so many other shortcomings at the time, changed his destiny as a leader. But it was in Johnson's next act, that I draw real inspiration. After becoming a business leader, educator, creating an aids research foundation, Johnson tirelessly sets an example that businesses, brands and people can learn from today.

I was privileged to get the opportunity to work with Magic in 2007 to develop a campaign with Abbott and the Magic Johnson Foundation to bring awareness of HIV/Aids issues to black America. We supported with Abbott, and Fleishman-Hillard, the award-winning "I Stand With Magic" campaign with spots, shot by Spike Lee (I was running Spike's ad agency at the time).

Let me tell you about Magic. The man looms large. His presence onset at the Beverly Hilton hotel, and that of his wife, Cookie, brought a sense of gravitas and mission to the few television spots we had to film. Spike shot with little fanfare, no gratuitous moments. This work--had the potential to save lives--and it demanded focus.

Sure, there was always a time for fun when I worked with Spike--we made riotously-fun, entertaining commercials for Topps, MLB, New Era and TNT together...a sportslover's dream. -But for every brand, and every marketer, there comes a time when certain messages are so important, it feels like you're on a mission. When Magic came onset, that's how it felt, like he was a man on a mission.

There we were and there were no gimmicks, no Spike trademark shot of an actor floating on a dolly--just Magic and Cookie in a chair with a tough-to-swallow message. About half of all new cases of HIV were among African Americans. That shocking statistic was meant to invoke surprise and disrupt the usual thinking--a reminder that we are disproportionately affected, and to act to get more information.

After more than a dozen years on Madison Avenue, I've acquired the skills to make brands famous, to get the "cool kids" buzzing, to send videos into the viral stratosphere, but what good are those skills if they don't make the world a better place? Its incredible to see how Magic's work today unites business and society for a common benefit. The Magic "brand" can easily be said to create "shared value". Magic Johnson is worth $700 million and Magic Johnson Enterprises mission combines economic and community empowerment with real business results. MJ Enterprises specifically works to create opportunity in urban areas through the Magic brand and partnerships.

 My hope in choosing to work with brands and companies that are purpose-driven, and in starting my own consultancy, Shared Value Strategy, is to re-apply my brand-building skills toward real positive change--one that benefits brands, consumers and society. I take inspiration from Magic's recent statements about his original announcement, "I've always been a leader, and this is how God said you're going to lead today, and I didn't look back."

Inspiration of the Day: RSA Animate

Watch this. You'll tend to agree with Dan Pink, author of Drive, people are better motivated by Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.

Science shows we care about mastery, want to be self-directed and are better motivated when we have purpose instead of carrots and sticks.

The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress for over 250 years.

To learn more about the RSA, visit: http://www.thersa.org/
Check out the entire RSA Animate series for more.

Joel's Shared Value Picks for PRWeek Next Conference

I'm impressed with the title of the 2011 PRWeek Next Conference--"The Mission is the Message: Authentic. Strategic. Transparent. Now that's bold for a PR conference. Seriously though, this is exactly where clients are heading and what they're looking for from their agencies. Never has there been a higher outcry from consumers and businesses for this type of messaging. Fortunately, many companies are well on their way--refining their core propositions to include Purpose and shared value--where the mission really is the message and the benefits are in profits for the brand, great products and service for consumers, and positive societal impact. The conference is Nov, 8 and 9 in NY.

I recommend:

DAY ONE

3.40pm - Panel: The Shifting Media Landscape and Modern Content GenerationSponsored by Porter NovelliThis session will provide exclusive insights into the world of content creation and influence, prompted by PRWeek and Porter Novelli's groundbreaking 2011 Media Content Survey. Leading journalists and content creators will debate the trends in modern media that are fundamentally changing the way brands and corporations communicate with their audiences and stakeholders.

Speakers
Janet Rollé, CMO, CNN
Terence Samuel, deputy political editor, The Washington PostMichael Calderone, senior media reporter, Huffington Post
ModeratorNick Charles, EVP, global content, Porter Novelli

DAY TWO

11.35am - Panel: Why Doing Good Is Good For BusinessSponsored by MSLGROUPAs transparency, responsibility and the authenticity of a company's mission take on greater importance, communicators and marketers need to get out of the selling business and into the business of helping others. Tomorrow is about purpose-led marketing where there is no longer "them", only "us." Having a purpose was once considered nice, but now it is crucial to winning in business.

Speaker
Scott Beaudoin, director of cause marketing and CSR, MSLGROUP North America
Susan Arnot Heaney, global director of corporate responsibility, Avon
Linn Parrish, VP of public relations and cause marketing, Panera Bread

Moderator
Rose Gordon, senior editor, special projects, PRWeek