It’s interesting that you use Unilever as your example because they own the Ben & Jerry’s brand, the poster child for corporate responsibility, even today years after Unilever purchased it. If you take a trip up to Waterbury, VT to the Ben & Jerry’s factory, you will find a monument to responsible capitalism. It’s a great place in a beautiful setting and your son will have a blast.

I still associate Ben & Jerry’s as a great product and a great brand even though they are owned by a multinational corporation. Unilever, itself, not so much.

In the end, I think it advances the company’s brand to be socially responsible and to take its role as a member of society seriously. If ultimately it is about brand reputation, it starts with great products, but it’s also about what you stand for as an organization.

Ron Miller
By Ron Miller Blog
http://byronmiller.typepad.com

First – the sustainability elephant in the living room is consumption levels. Marketing practice is to cajool us to consume so what we consume and how we dispose is a really central issue. Unilever is doing great work for example in innovating on packaging and collaboration w Wal Mart in particular. But also teaching and messaging and fulfilling needs for more sustainable consumption is important. Assuring us for example that clothes can be washed at low temperatures. (I note that Levis are saying jeans dont need to be washed and we are all washing them way too much already — a dilemma or innovation maybe for Unilever).

Second – differentiation, I always have had mixed feelings about the differentiation created by the Body Shop and Ben & Jerrys in times past. Its as if these brands could only be uniquely successful as clearly differentiated ethical brands because others were not which is not an ideal sustainability outcome in my opinion.

Today there are any number of product labels & certifications from Rainforest Alliance, FairTrade etc etc. Its easy for a consumer to be bamboozled. We saw that come to a head this year with the voluntary offset market in the UK. So trust and clear standards are key for the long term and Unilever can and does lead here. Without this we risk having such labels and initiatives dominated only by marketing and communications without the back end standrads and processes ever being properly embedded. Consumers might eventually tire of the concept OR lose trust due to the lack of standard and come to teh opinion they are being asked to pay a green/ethical premium for not much at all.

So I agree the social & cultural potential impact that Unilever can have just through sheer force of message is huge. Unilever can lead so that well designed standards and processes are lifting across the entire market and sustainability is not only communicated but embedded. Consumers then can actually transform their consumption habits and that the sustainability brand promise is fulfilled and perceived to do so.