I was reading Jane Park’s blog about the Burt’s Bees brand and how they are now owned by Clorox. While I do agree with Jane on the fact is it important to understand who owns these brands and their motives for acquiring them, I also feel that these larger companies are motivated strictly by profits and because of that it is in their best interest to maintain the competitive adnvantage of the company they acquire. Therefore, some might see Clorox acquiring Burt’s Bees being negative but I think it is actually quite positive for consumers and for the environment that larger firms are looking for ways to diversify into organic and eco-friendly products. I say this because,they will have an incentive to continue creating products using environmentally friendly production methods and natural ingredients because that is what the Burt’s Bees brand have used to differentiate themselves in the market and create a competitive advantage.
Furthermore, Jane also addressed the issue it is almost impossible for some brands to reposition themselves as environmentally friendly or “green” and that is why they try to buy a company or brand to achieve this. I do not feel this is done to trick consumers or the public as it is generally easy to find information about large company acquistions but more to do with economic and finincial factors. It can be much more efficient to buy a company that already has green production methods and goodwill toward the brand or company rather than try to renovate or update your own existing plants, which may still be quite profitable. Marketing campaigns to overhaul the image of a company can also extremely expensive so it becomes more of a strategic business move to acquire a company.
So even though large mutlti-national firms who buy smaller companies that have capitalized on “green” brands may not be doing it to help the environment or become more sustainable but rather to increase there shareholder value or bottomline they will have to operate these companies sustainably to retain consumer confidence in the brand and therefore it does not matter if who owns or manages eco-friendly brands or companies as long as the culture and objectives do not change.