Join us for our upcoming webinar entitled ‘The Silent Revolution in Beauty and Hygiene’.

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General Electric recently released an online campaign encouraging Chinese entrepreneurs to partner with them to address China’s most pressing environmental and resource challenges.

A noteworthy aspect of the campaign, titled “Future Folklore”, is how environmental issues are grounded within Chinese history and culture.  This departs from a persistent stereotype which encourages local consumers to fight against Chinese tradition to achieve environmental outcomes.  The typical tone is often condescending – where normative behaviour is inevitably Western and Chinese are asked to “get in line” and “abandon ancient thinking”.  Read more…

In China a common way to distinguish people is by the generation in which they are born.  The terms “post 80s” and “post 90s” have become the default to define different values of Chinese who have grown up in the period after the politically disruptive Cultural Revolution (which ended with Chairman Mao’s death in 1976).

These terms are so widely used, that brands have consciously started to deploy them to target specific age groups.  Li Ning, a local sports apparel giant, presented a provocative campaign in 2010 that suggested “no-one understands the post 90s”. The relationship between the post 80s and post 90s is relatively caustic.  The post 90s argue that the post 80s are out of touch with new China. While the post 80s dismiss the post 90s as selfish brats who are selling out to the “West”. Read more…

Welcome to Issue 30 of Branding for Good News, Added Value’s newsletter focused exclusively on sustainable marketing; the challenges, opportunities, our solutions and points of view.

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Luxury and sustainability: two opposing concepts? At first glance, perhaps. After all, the word luxury derives from the Latin word “luxus” and conjures up images of ‘pomp, excess and debauchery’. Whereas sustainability, by definition, invites us to ‘meet the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs’.

The two sound paradoxical indeed. And consumers seem to agree. In a recent survey by Salon 1.618, consumers put the luxury industry last in a ranking of industries associated with sustainable commitments; ranking lower than the financial and petrol sectors.

So should the luxury industry admit defeat and never embrace sustainability? We think not. For several reasons: Read more…

Luxury Trash
Will Spring 2012 see the well-heeled wearing discarded fish skins on their feet?  Marcia Patmos and Manolo Blahnik have teamed up to create the sustainable Marcia Patmos for Manolo Blahnik collection of shoes for the spring — made entirely of discarded tilapia skins, cork and raffia. This is the first eco-friendly endeavor for Blahnik, who has worked with Patmos on two styles, a double strap, open-toe flat and a strappy, high-heeled sandal in color combinations of electric blue, black, nude and yellow. Each creation will retail for $895 at Manolo Blahnik stores.  

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Leslie Pascaud (Added Value’s sustainable marketing practice) and Melanie Skotadis (Added Value’s prestige brands practice) ask what shifting value systems, brought on by the global recession, mean for the luxury industry.  

The age of ostentation nominally ended when Chanel boss Karl Lagerfeld announced in 2009 that “bling is dead” and called for “a new modesty”. The global financial crisis and the recession which followed, brought with them a rejection of excess, replaced by concerns for the environment and a new view on waste. Read more…

Experience has taught us that most people want to be more sustainable and responsible, but often don’t behave in ways that are coherent with their declared desires. Marketing services can help to align desires with behaviours by:

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Leslie Pascaud, Sustainable Marketing Director Added Value Group was interviewed by Karine Viel, for the Guide for Responsible Marketing 2011 – Comité 21 editions.

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Leslie Pascaud writes for GreenBiz.com and asks where sustainability issues are on the corporate agenda? Has sustainability gone mainstream, or are businesses still just paying lip service to all things ethical?

As the French media geared up for the 10th annual celebration of Sustainable Development Week, we were asked (again) by a French journalist: Is all this green stuff just a fashion or is it a long-term trend?

Or, to put the question another way, if sustainability has a fabled tipping point, have we tipped?

In some ways, it feels like the green communications trend in Western Europe has come and gone…at least at a superficial level. Read more…