Category Archives: Sustainability

The World’s Top Brand Goes to …

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And the winner is…

http://www.usageorge.com/Wallpapers/Commercial/Coca-Cola-Polar-Bear.html

None other than our polar bear loving friends, Coca Cola.

When I think of my experiences with Coca Cola, I think back of the House of Happiness that they had at Livecity for the 2010 Olympics. What I found the most intriguing was their promotion of “Healthy Living”. When we think Coke, we often think pop, soda, sugar, carbs, and almost everything unhealthy into one delicious can (typical of any junk food). Never have we ever thought of it as a healthy choice to be drinking Coca Cola.

As the world’s number one global brand, Coca Cola prides themselves on “Growth, leadership, and sustainability”. They recognized that society in general has gotten more health concious over the last few decades, and recognized in their SWOT analysis that an opportunity had presented itself. What a better way to promote their stride for a “healthy lifestyle” than to team up with the Olympics – the showcase of the world’s top athletes who are bound to live healthy lives. As well, Coca Cola recognized that they had recognized another weakness, in that their brand was not known for it’s sustainability either. The House of Happiness was filled with events and games that demonstrated these core values. What a better way to remind and educate their consumers than to put them through fun tasks that demonstrated what the brand really stood for.

Even the top brand of the world needs to constantly perform an immediate analysis and use tools like the SWOT analysis to clarify and re-establish brand clarity to both consumers, and the company itself. In doing so, companies remind themselves what their brands stand for, and most importantly, remind consumers why their brand has competitive advantages over leading competitors.

Here’s a snapshot of the runner ups:

http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/best-global-brands-2008/best-global-brands-2010.aspx

“and the black light doesn’t lie”

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Seventh Generation cleverly uses online social media to allow its consumers to see the “true colours” of both their own, and their competitors’ products. Its most recent venture, the eco-friendly detergent lacking in optical brighteners, was firstly marketed by mom bloggers whom used a dark light to compare two shirts one of which was washed with Seventh Generation’s product, and one which was washed with that of a leading competitor’s (with optical brightener). Seventh Generation also provides their own demonstration, it begins at 1:03 in the video.

YouTube Preview Image

As you can see, the black light doesn’t lie. It reminds me of CSI investigators using black lights to reveal blood trails that are left behind. In fact, Seventh Generation has been listed as a suitable brand for cleaning military uniforms so that they cannot be easily sought out in combat.

However, through all this strategic marketing, Seventh Generation has still generated less than 1% of the detergent market, while Tide holds an astounding 45%. Perhaps consumers believe that if their shirts shine under the dark lights, then it must shine under bright lights as well? In our fast-paced economy, encounters are brief, and first impressions are everything. Though it might not be the case in the military, having a bright shirt that stands out is often thought of as a good idea for an interview, a first date, or even just a stroll through the mall or the neighbourhood.

I thus counter their campaign of “she should glow, not her clothes” with

“when you look good, you feel good.”

Thus if our clothes don’t glow, then we don’t look good, which means…

My Carbon Footprint

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First off, the results:

carbonfootprint

What did surprise me about my results was the large portion that the food aspect had taken of my carbon footprint. Although this may be the “easiest” and less dramatic change in improving my carbon footprint, I’m not sure if it is much of a realistic component to change. First, I’m not the gorcery purchaser for my family, and when I am, it’s usually when I’m getting take out. I must admit, I do love steak, but in terms of shopping local, it’s much more of an issue regarding where and when. With everyone in my family working, grocery stops are usually to a big, one-stop store, whether it be Superstore or Costco. I could be wrong, but from my recollection, there did not seem to be many locally grown products for sale there. However, I’m willing to make a comittment to doing some research into finding out which larger grocery stores offer locally grown products.

In my opinion, the easiest component for me to improve on (even though it has the lowest contribution), is shelter. It’s  not a difficult task to turn down the heat (if not off) when noone is home, or when the weather has surprisingly grown warmer-you’ve got to love Vancouver weather!

Sustainability

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Sustainability, what does it mean to you? In a re-creation of Thursday’s in-class activity, I re-drew what I first thought of when hearing the word “Sustainability”. This time, I used my proper drawing hand to provide a somewhat more understandable drawing:

Step0001

# 1 represents the current situation. Trees are unhappy with the way the increasing air pollution. Heading towards #2, society is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of recognizing your carbon foot print, and has become more innovative in our ideas into improving sustainability. Lastly, #3 represents what I envision for our future. Trees are once again happy, and we can have a highly technological advance community while still sustaining our wild life and our natural resources.

Are we working at our fullest potential? No. Will this cycle take a while? Yes. Is it ever going to happen, I strongly believe so. I think that eventually, businesses, much like Helijet, are making it a social dimension in their business operations to contribute back to the welfare of society and its resources. Essentially, large companies are dominating the world’s growth and development, and it is through these socially concious and responsible companies that will make a change to bettering the sustainability of our future.

Money over ethics? Cheap cadmium over the cost of priceless lives?

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I stumbled upon an article, which was quite flabbergasting. The article reveals that many children jewelery have been dosed with high levels of cadmium-a white metal known to cause cancer. The world’s biggest public corporation, Walmart, has begun to pull any suspicious jewelry. A spokesperson has called this whole ordeal “troubling”. To many this news is shocking, who in their right mind would harm the lives of young children? How is this ethical or socially responsible?

Money, as you may have predicted, is of course the answer. Money tends to surpass the importance of ethics or social responsibility. The Chinese producers have turned away from the use of lead, and down the equally dangerous path of cadmium. The advancement of batteries have led to the decrease in cadmium, but the Chinese manufacturers have in turn, over dosed their products with cadmium. Subsequently, children around the world are being exposed to the 7th most hazardous substance to the environment. That is, seventh on a list of 257 high priority substances. I would not want cadmium to be lucky number seven.

Many countries look to China for cheap production, and cheap products. However, it is evident that along with reduced costs, their ethics and social responsibly have washed away as well. With that being said, what is being done to stop this unethical behaviour? Are we all guilty of having played a part in fueling this fire? Is it too late to put out the flame?