Denise Doyle discusses the importance of integrating sustainability into branding without falling into greenwashing, emphasizing the need for companies to adopt a clear brand purpose aligned with sustainable practices. The document outlines key steps to becoming sustainable, such as stakeholder persuasion, supply chain awareness, and brand strategy auditing. Doyle highlights successful examples and underscores that true sustainability requires long-term commitment and authentic actions rather than superficial claims.

1. www.brandandconquer.ie

2. Sustainability
‘Brand Purpose’ or
‘Greenwash’
Denise Doyle
Sustainability
Brand Purpose
or Greenwash?

3. • My name is Denise Doyle
• My expertise is branding, strategy workshops and communications.
• Marketing Graduate. I’m ex marketing for Unilever, Nestle, Britvic,
Eircom and Meteor. Enterprise Ireland Mentor Panel, I am the Brand
Course Trainer for Marketing Institute
• Currently – Brand & Conquer, founded in 2012 (aka Retail Republic)
• www.brandandconquer.ie 
About Me

4. … introducing ‘sustainability’ in a sustainable way to your
branding effort so you don’t become guilty of
greenwashing.
I want you to leave today more informed
about…

5. Definition: Brand Purpose
“Aka ‘green sheen’ is the practice of
making an unsubstantiated or
misleading claim about the
environmental benefits of a product
or service in order to appear more
green friendly”
“Beyond
Profit
it’s about
purpose”
Simon Sinek
Definition: Greenwashing
Clarification on key points

6. Going Green
Brand strategies to evolve
sustainably.
Exercises.
21
Business Context
3 Great Green
Examples
Brands doing it well
Three angles to todays talk…

7. What Is
Sustainability?
(business context)

8. The UN has defined sustainability as:
“focusing on meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs”
What Is Sustainability?

9. Is composed of three pillars
1. Profits
2. Planet
3. People
The Concept of Sustainability
Otherwise known as
1. Economic
2. Environmental
3. Social

10. In 2015, a collection of:
17 goals with 169 targets were
designed to be a “blueprint to
achieve a better and more
sustainable future for all”.
193 countries took the pledge to
achieving the 17 SDG’s by 2030
UN – 17 Sustainable Development Goals

12. It encourages businesses to frame decisions in terms of ‘years
and decades’ rather than ‘next quarter earnings’ and to
consider other factors beyond profits and losses.
How Sustainability Works – at Corporate Level

13. • Reduce carbon emissions
• Lower energy usage
• Offset versus reduction
• Source products from fair-trade organisations
• Dispose of physical waste with a reduced carbon footprint
Companies are Setting Sustainable Goals

14. Why Are Corporates Making Green Changes
CONSUMER DEMAND

15. “91% of this generation would switch brands for
one championing a cause”
“7 out of 10 – willing to pay more for brands with a
conscience”
Deloitte’s 2019 Millennial Study
Consumer Demand

16. When it comes to sustainability and company
‘attitude’… there are 3 types.
Corporate
Capitalists
Green
Machines
Evolvers
Aren’t Born Doing it Figuring it out

17. As Marketers…two congruent plans
Profits Purpose
Greenwashing

18. … to make your brand more sustainable?
As a Marketer, what can you do…

19. What Is
Sustainability?
(business context)
2
3 Steps to
Going
Green

20. 3 (initial) Steps to Going Green
1. Convince the stakeholders (Larry’s letters)
2. Know Your Supply Chain (informed, limitations and opportunities)
3. Audit brand strategy (brand exercises)

21. 1. Convincing the stakeholders
“We need to Go Green,
it’ll cost more but its
ok as the customer
said they will happily
pay the difference”

22. • Friedman, economics professor and author,
University of Chicago
• 1970 New York Times essay, “The Social
Responsibility Of A Business Is to
Increase Its Profits,”
• launched half a century of “shareholder
capitalism.”
• In this worldview, the business of business is
business, and the sole focus of the CEO is to
maximize the profits of that business
Milton Friedman
1. Convincing the stakeholders

23. 1. The Challenger – Larry Fink & his letters
Larry Fink CEO Black Rock
“Purpose is not the sole pursuit of profits but
the animating force for achieving them. Profits
are in no way inconsistent with purpose — in
fact, profits and purpose are inextricably
linked”.

24. • Last year, the ‘Business Roundtable’ lobbying group,
representing 180 of America’s most powerful CEOs, updated its
statement on the purpose of companies, declaring that
corporations have a responsibility to society.
• It was a stark change from the group’s previous position, which
identified stockholder returns as “the paramount duty” of
boards and management.
1. The Result of Larry’s Letters
Quartz: Business Journalism Site

25. 1. Where Larry goes, CEO’s follow
Quartz: Business Journalism Site

26. 2

27. • Research your supply chain – roadblocks to sustainability
claims
• Raw material costs
• Sources of raw materials - alternatives – are there any?
• Consider the view of supply-chain stakeholders – does
‘consumer demand’ feature in their day to day thinking?
• Operationally - how your product is moved through
manufacturing, distribution and out to customers
2. Know Your Supply Chain

28. Auditing your brand is making sure that you are not guilty of saying
one thing but doing another
Articulating brand ideals is crucial but some brands have trouble doing
this
Brand elements can appear similar and it’s difficult to work out the
purpose of each and what role each plays in the over all brand design
In their commitment to the cause, some brands have ‘shoehorned’
sustainability into at the wrong point – green sheen.
3. Auditing brand strategy from a sustainable
viewpoint

29. 1. Positioning
2. Brand Purpose
3. Drafting A Proposition
4. Brand Behaviours
3. For next 20 mins, we will look at…

30. • A positioning strategy is when a company chooses one or two important
key areas to concentrate on and excels in those areas.
• A firm's positioning strategy focuses on how it will compete in the market.
• An effective positioning strategy considers the needs of the customers and
market and the position of competitors.
• Ultimately positioning is what comes to mind when they think of you –
minds eye
Brand Positioning

31. Companies typically compete on the below –
relative to the competition.
Why your
organisation
does what it
does – as a
driver of
awareness,
consideration,
advocacy
Who you and
your talent are
– as a driver of
awareness &
consideration,
advocacy
How your
organisation
does what it
does – as a
driver of
awareness &
consideration,
advocacy
What your
organisation
does – as a
driver of
awareness &
consideration,
advocacy
Where & When
your
organisation
does what it
does– as a
driver of
awareness &
consideration,
advocacy
If you are leading with Sustainability – you are here.

32. Purpose - the reason why you do what you do (beyond profit)
Compelling brand purpose’s relate to the product / service itself
Eg: If you are in the business of toddler education, your purpose
is “to help children to learn and shape their future”.
Your positioning (how you compete in the market place) will be on
the how you do it.
Brand Purpose

33. Positioning and Purpose – opposite ends of
potential starting points

34. POSITIONING
VALUES
MISSION
VISION
PURPOSE
Milton Friedman
Corporate Capitalists
& Evolvers start here
(the place in the market where we
can compete with competitors)
Green Machines
Start here
Why we do what we do.
Starting points differ by company attitude to
positioning

35. • Marketers ‘conflated’ position and purpose (combine into one)
• Brand managers decided to introduce storylines they imagined
would appeal to customers’ sense of virtue/moral standing.
Blurred Lines between Positioning & Purpose

36. Cause Related (purpose) Goes Wrong

37. What Went Wrong?
• The timing was right
• #metoo in full swing
• rise in ‘protest culture’
• Anyone know if P&G donated
to Aware, Pieta, Men’s Sheds?
• #backitupgillette
“I just want
to have a
shave in the
morning”
Gillette's value
written down by
$8 billion – true!
Youtube
Likes
Dislikes

38. • Having a purpose that is cause-related signifies a plan to
connect your brand’s message to underlying drivers of societal
change.
• Fine line between ‘empowering’ the target audience and
‘offending’ by brands who wade into to social conversations
uninvited.
• Sustainability is an example of cause related purpose
Marketer beware: ‘cause-related’ purpose

39. Back in the day, brands positioned on ‘benefit’ using ‘benefit
ladder’
Starbucks - Positioning on Purpose

40. • Got to ‘customer benefit’ and weren’t satisfied
• Began (and still are) positioning on ‘purpose’
• Current brand mission says “inspire and nurture
the human spirit – one person, one cup and one
neighbourhood at a time”
Starbucks – Positioning on Purpose

41. Your Turn
Exercise Time

42. Brand workshop exercises are designed to help you understand
every aspect of your brand.
Today we will focus on two:
1. Writing a Proposition Statement
2. Brand Behaviours
Brand Workshop Exercises

43. A ‘proposition’ needs to communicate
‘what you do’
and
‘for who’
and
the ‘benefits’ to the customer
Brand Proposition Development

44. Exercise 2
We are _______________________________________________
For _______________________________________________
So that they can ________________________________________
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Describe what your company does
for a customer or a customers
business (think about the impact of
consuming your product or service
has on the customer i.e. save time,
feel safe, live happier, feel part of’
(your name, customers, industry
segments or customer users)
(company name, category title,
describe your service – “leaders in
xyz”,)
www.brandandconquer.ie Denise: 086 0414454
Writing your Proposition

45. Brand Behaviours
Brand behaviours reflect your core values about how you go
about your daily business
You could be the company who always acts with integrity or fly
by nights there to make a profit
Things to stop doing
Things to continue doing
Things to start doing

46. Continue
doing more of
Stop
doing what we don’t like
Start Doing
the things we want to do
For our customers
For our staff
For our suppliers
Brand Behaviours Exercise 2Exercise 4

47. “Years and decades” – your ability to make sustainable claims at
brand level’ could take years
Start immediately with promoting your ‘sustainably led brand
behaviours’
Sustainability – start with Brand Behaviours

48. • Anyone like to share? 
Thoughts from the floor

49. Brands Doing
It Well
Brands who
are nailing it

50. Since 2005, VEJA has been making sneakers
differently infusing each stage of production with a
positive impact. Raw materials sourced from organic
farming and ecological agriculture, without chemicals
or polluting processes. Sneakers that treat humans
with respect, are produced in dignified conditions, in
direct consultation with producer associations and
manufacturers.
Green Machine – Veja Trainers

51. Green Machine – Veja Trainers

52. Sustainability is for the betterment of the next
generation

53. Ornua #eachforequal
This initiative
from Ornua
demonstrates
how brands can
show support
through
behaviour goals
i.e. equality and
diversity goals

54. Certified B Corporations are a new
kind of business that balances
purpose and profit.
B Corp provides a Certification
https://bcorporation.net/

55. In Summary

56. During your brand evolvement …
• You can’t claim ‘green credentials’ until you can
• Start at the source - supply chain changes
• ‘Years and decades’ – mammoth task
• Brand behaviours – start now
Going Green takes time

57. Goals that span decades don’t happen
overnight
How do
you eat
an
elephant?

58. Let’s prioritise - Sustainability
Finally ….

59. Thank you
Stay in touch!