11 | Brands that are mission driven
and why they shy away from that message
My podcast discovery is hectic. I have a couple of standards that I subscribe to. I’ve also gotten into the practice of searching for episodes featuring interviews with interesting people I’ve read about (like this one with taste-making investigator W. David Marx)
Friends will also send me random episodes, like friend-of-the-letter Maartje Kardol’s recent suggestion of The Big Exit Podcast. Dutch-produced, it talks to founders who’ve exited their startups through acquisitions. It’s specific, and quick, and painless. And the hosts are totally fine.
But a recent episode on faucet filter company Tappwater helped me avoid an awkward, meandering anecdote to start this week’s letter (or did it?).
Founder Magnus was on, telling the story of how he and his partners built the company around an innovative filter system that removed microplastics from the tap water flowing through your faucet. This quote stuck with me: “The sustainability message that we had built the idea around, just didn’t resonate with consumers. So we changed it to focus on convenience and cost savings, and that made a huge difference on advertising.”
The Germans call this zuckerbrot und peitsche — sugar bread and the whip (so. very. Deutsch). We know it as the carrot and the stick. What does the brand story lead with? The education? Or the convenience and cool factor?
Stella McCartney’s Summer 2024 campaign: Hard to shake the Zoolander vibes.
For brands that are mission-driven, the whip is often what differentiates them, but that story might also hinder their reach. Who wants to be reminded that what they’re eating, drinking, or consuming is wrong?
It was Earth Day this week (yes, the Earth only gets a day, you see). You’ve noticed this because your feeds are clogged with virtue signaling from some of the world’s best and most polluting brands. Consumers — many of whom are too clever for it — may not be susceptible to bald-faced attempts at greenwashing anymore. But the example from Tappwater above suggests they’re not exactly receptive of mission-driven messaging either. So how do you thread the needle?
The brands below represent slightly different approaches. The newer one leads with sugar bread, and hides the whip The older one leans on its track record to mix the two.
👇🏼 some nice examples
Olipop🥤was started in 2018 by founders with an ongoing obsession with nutrition, fermentation, and prebiotics. The idea for the brand actually came from scouring clinical literature exploring the advantages that gut and microbiome health provided indigenous groups. They then began thinking of how to scale those advantages and, well — no surprise — came up with a tasty soda as the answer. The original branding had “digestive soda” prominently across the middle of the can. All that’s changed. Their can still features those words, but taking center stage in the package design are the delicious-sounding flavors: strawberry vanilla, cola, passion fruit. The tactic hit the right tone in their supercharged social strategy. They were on track for $250m in sales last year. Swipe around TikTok and bear witness to the numerous shittily-edited taste tests from their influencing Gen-Z fan base. Or screen shot their mocktail recipes and head to their web site to consult their Virtual Soda Sommelier. Nary a mention of gut health. This is a lifestyle play, pure and simple. Olipop as something to be enjoyed with friends, neighbors, randos on the street. They even borrowed a page out of Duolingo’s mascot costume playbook, with known TikTok creator Sara Crane and a colleague dressing up in a can costume to spread Olipop joy. Leading with fun to change the unhealthy soda drinking habits of an entire nation. For the gut health aspect? Listen to their founders on a dry and informative podcast.
Stella McCartney 👜 No surprise here. Since its founding in 2001, the brand has set sustainability benchmarks in the luxury fashion industry, debuting with a pledge to use no leather, skins, fur or feathers in their clothing. The brand’s recent innovations include a 100 percent cotton regenerative t-shirt and a handbag made with Mirium, a plant-based circular fabric created by a company supported by their $200m green investment fund. “The entire history of our brand has been this task force of activism, really. Of trying to dissect the industry and find positive solutions for the most harmful areas,” wrote Stella McCartney in the intro to the Brand’s 2023 Impact Report, as carefully put together as any of their campaigns. The fashion industry is estimated to contribute up to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Stella appears to view its pioneering role as a long-term effort to create systemic change, a counter to the criticism it gets for creating products that are accessible only to the few who can afford it and, well, making more stuff for people to own and discard. Their tactic is to own the role they play in the larger problem, and tell stories around the work they’re doing to improve it. Their recent SOS capsule collection (Save our Seas, Save Our Skies, Save Our Soils) reserves a portion of proceeds for the nonprofit Conservation International. The Summer 2024 campaign features clothing made “from 95% conscious materials”. It’s headlined by activist and actor Cara Delevingne and Quannah Chasinghorse, an indigenous model and climate advocate. They tell a consistent and informative story around fashion’s role in the climate change across every part of the campaign. And the shoot location itself is eyebrow-raising: a backdrop of crushed recycled materials at a London recycling plant, to show “the beauty that can come from waste.”
🛳️ Flotsam & Jetsam 🪸
Random links from this week’s haul
📰 The US Congress slid in a demand TikTok sell in recent aid legistlation. The New York Times offered a eulogy, of sorts.
🎧 I run regularly and battle lower leg injuries nearly as regularly. Did you know that’s because we’re running in shoes modeled on riding boots? Mind-blowing episode with a running shoe innovator.
📺 I’m wary of the recent trend in celebrity-produced documentaries (of themselves). But Steve Martin’s two-parter on Apple TV+ is still worth it.
Hey, what is this?
BRAND NEW STORY highlights smart strategies and good stories told by brands and humans. It’s penned by me, Andreas Tzortzis (or, simply, Dre) and draws on insights from my career at Red Bull, Apple, and in my own brand consultancy Hella. It appears every week or so because I write it, schedule it and hit send. I’m always on the look out for your ideas, so write me, and go ahead and forward it to folks who might find it interesting. Sign up and see the archive here.