The plethora of brands available in market today often leaves the customer dazed and consumed. The brands are also in a constant fight for more self-space, ‘mind-space’ and wallet share. Amidst this, a new concept of sustainable branding has emerged that focuses on environmental and socially conscious customers.It is today re-defining the concept of branding.
Brand
A brand is a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from other sellers’. Consumers today do not buy products, but buy brands. Consumers no longer ask for a shampoo, it’s a Pantene, a Head & Shoulders, L’Oreal or any of the other names.
Commercial Branding
Commercial Branding is the traditional techniques of branding a product through advertising, sales pushes and sales promotions. Most of today’s well-known brands like coco-cola, Adidas etc. have grown over the years by commercial branding methods.
Sustainable Branding
Sustainable brands or branding refers to products or services that are branded to signify a special added value in terms of environmental and social benefits to the customer. Sustainable products and services offer an improved social and ecological performance during the whole product lifecycle and at the same time satisfy consumer needs and wants.
The eight C’s of sustainability branding are:
Sustainable Vs. Green Brands
While Green brands mainly focuses on environmentally sound business practices, sustainability brands covers both the environmental and social dimension of sound and ethical business practices while delivering superior products at reasonable prices. It also takes into account the health and safety issues with respect to the product and the well-being of all the personnel involved and efficient usage of all the resources connected with the product. It adheres to the triple bottom line of ecological (environmental), social (equity), and financial (economic) sustainability.
Examples of Sustainable brands
Advantages of Sustainable Brands
Conclusion
“Sustainable brands sing when they are delivered with passion, speak to their customers in an appropriate voice, when they embrace true participation, and they never stop evolving. If you think of sustainability as a brand, it will free you up to new possibilities.” - http://parkhowell.com/tag/branding
Branding sustainability is about what you do, and not about what you say and sustainability branding is going to speak volumes, both through sales numbers and profits, for organizations that care for people and the planet.
This article has been authored by Geetanjali Maria from LIBA.
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