An ongoing theme this week at Brand-Led Culture
Change
is unlocking the secrets to authentically engaging consumers on living more
intentionally and understanding the widespread impacts of our behaviors and
purchases on ecosystems around the world. We heard a
primer
on this from a variety of perspectives on day one — here are a few more nuggets
of wisdom that were uncovered …
Behavior-first culture change
Brands have a unique opportunity to create culture change through their ability
to influence their consumers. This is particularly critical to help consumers
make decisions toward a flourishing future for all.
On Tuesday morning,
Guy Champniss — Head of Behavioral Science of London’s Creative
Engagement Group — shared a novel framework of 7
‘levers’ that can help brands expedite ‘behavior-first’ culture change as well
as inspire people to think more creatively and robustly about enacting change.
Culture change is behavior change, he explained. There is an iterative
relationship between culture and behavior, where culture reflects the behaviors
that we see around us; and collectively, behavior determines culture. We can
change culture, Champniss said, by trying to change behavior first.
OK, Now What?: Navigating Corporate Sustainability After the US Presidential Election
Join us for a free webinar on Monday, December 9, at 1pm ET as Andrew Winston and leaders from the American Sustainable Business Council, Democracy Forward, ECOS and Guardian US share insights into how the shifting political and cultural environment may redefine the responsibilities and opportunities for companies committed to sustainability.
“Culture is a whole series of behavior changes,” he said. “A behavior-first
approach makes culture change more manageable and practical. It breaks off
little bits, focuses on different areas, and lights lots of small fires — all of
which together combine to be the culture change we want to see.”
Champniss laid out 7 areas of focus in a behavior-first culture change
framework:
-
Attitude — Attitudes can be powerful. However, Champniss explains that
attitudes ultimately predict behavior less than 50 percent of the time. Keep
this in mind when creating change goals.
-
Perceived control — Make sure that those we want to influence recognize
they have the capability to do what we’re asking of them.
-
Sense of self — In stimulating change, we need to recognize that we are
different people in different contexts; and our behavioral responses can be
different, too.
-
‘Mental shortcuts’ — We all use mental shortcuts to preserve our
cognitive energy in our everyday decision-making and processing of
information. Messages need to be simple and easy to understand. Change
efforts can increase the friction to disrupt unwanted behaviors or decrease
the friction to encourage desired behaviors.
-
Social influence — We’re heavily influenced by what we see others doing
around us (descriptive norms), or what we believe others around us would
like to see us doing (injunctive norms). Injunctive norms can be highlighted
for more visibility and to influence desired behavior change.
-
Experience — Change is reliant on having a great experience at the
moment of that change occurring. This means applying behavioral science to
the user experience.
-
Motivation — Ensure people are intrinsically motivated to commit to the
whole series of habits that make up the culture change. Instead of
externally incentivizing people to do something (i.e., compensation), the
specific habit or change it needs to ‘speak’ to them. Intrinsic motivation
can be stimulated through supporting people’s sense of autonomy, increasing
their knowledge (mastery), and confirming with them that making the specific
change makes them integral to their community (relatedness).
A behavior-first approach offers practical, targeted applications for creating
sustainable change. To lead the way in culture change, brands must be practical,
innovative, and creative, but not at the expense of due diligence. A
behavior-first approach couples verifiable metrics with the creative
maneuverability needed to effect lasting culture change.
5 paradigm shifts for brand leaders with an eye on a regenerative future
A global pandemic, compounded crises of climate injustice, income inequality,
fact integrity and more — this is the context global brands are facing. In a
concurrent breakout, BBMG, Inter IKEA
Group and Ben &
Jerry’s discussed how brands are shifting structures
within organizations and out into the world in an effort to move toward a
regenerative future — one in which the business world operates as a positive
force that repairs and adds value to natural and human systems.
The world is in a liminal
space
between an old mode that no longer serves and the building of a new one that
uplifts all, explained BBMG’s Raphael Bemporad.
“How might we as human beings, as organizations, as brands, navigate in a
liminal world?” Bemporad asked. “At BBMG, we believe we’re entering a new era
for branding, one that is no longer about just trying to understand and chase
small, incremental changes or shifts in people’s preferences.”
Branding and its relation to culture change uniquely represent societal system
design, Bemporad explained. At the same time, brands are vessels for stories of
understanding. Brands are on the forefront of a cultural reset and reckoning as
we shift to new paradigms.
“In this space between stories, we’re navigating stress and overwhelm,” Bemporad
said. “Young people are feeling this, and they’re looking to brands to help
navigate where we are and help design solutions for where we might go together.”
Based on BBMG research, Bemporad
identified five paradigm shifts brands and other leaders need to make to span
the liminal and create a regenerative future:
-
Power: Giving voice, choice and ownership to those with the most at
stake. A shift from centralized power over others to shared power with
others.
-
Space: Closing the distance between the people and places that make,
sell, and use brands. This minimizes externalities; distance between
production and consumption creates opportunities for exploitation of people
and the planet; so, brands must shift from a mindset of “over there” to
“right here.”
-
Time: Slowing down, moving with intention, and becoming good ancestors.
This embodies a transition from instantaneous to intentional — thinking in
terms of generations, not the next quarter.
-
Leadership: Welcoming vulnerability, embracing “not knowing,” and
turning challenges into quests — embodied by leadership
transitioning
from having all the answers to having all the questions.
-
Relationship: Widening the circle of connection to thrive together.
Interdependence is the new lived reality, shown vividly by climate change
and the pandemic.
For many, sustainability is an unattainable luxury. But Inter IKEA Group is
flipping the script with good storytelling and systemic engagement.
“We believe it should be the norm for society,” said Malin
Pettersson-Beckeman, Head of Sustainability Communications & Engagement at
Inter IKEA Group. “It is our global commitment and is a holistic approach.”
From a systems change in its value chain to empowering customers to live
sustainably,
IKEA is setting a bar for regenerative brand leadership — embodied by a
corporate ambition to inspire and enable more than a billion people to live
within the boundaries of the planet by
2030.
Maximizing sustainable principles in its own value chain and empowering
customers by meeting their needs for sustainable living are key to IKEA’s
ambition. IKEA also enables circular living through its growing buyback
program,
and captures public imagination with the launch of a tool allowing open source
design of circular products for IKEA.
Meanwhile, Ben & Jerry’s has found itself in the center of a paradigm shift in
dairy. Its model recognizes the interconnectedness of water, soil, atmosphere,
biodiversity, workers and animal welfare. Internally, the company is committed
to dramatically increasing non-dairy ice cream sales and reducing on-farm
emissions
through regenerative agriculture practices.
Externally, Ben & Jerry’s continues to leverage its voice and influence to
create systemic change, actively producing social media
content to engage on key
societal issues.
“All of us have the ability to create momentum, to be that drop in the water,”
said Dave Rapaport, Global Social Mission Officer at Ben & Jerry’s.
Cracking the nut: The latest data on consumer needs and behaviors
Later Tuesday afternoon, four industry leaders shared insights taken from
up-to-the-minute research on engaging consumers and other stakeholders in a
variety of areas.
Noah Keteyian from WE Communications
explored bringing the net-zero transition down from the ivory towers of
politics, business and academia and into the lives of everyday people.
A just net-zero transition, he said, must:
-
Consider the needs of workers, the marginalized, and emerging communities
-
Share both the costs and benefits of the transition to sustainable systems
-
Provide citizens with good, stable jobs.
Keteyian shared five, far-reaching principles to help brands maintain their
social license and thrive in a just economy:
-
Close the gap between C suite aspirations and company-wide action
-
Expand your sustainability story and impact beyond your backyard
-
Debunk the myth that sustainability is too expensive
-
Embrace a global mindset and invest in the people and places that need it
most
-
Harness stakeholders’ willingness to play the “long game”
Claire Tassin of Morning Consult then shared
her firm’s insights into how consumers react to brand Purpose initiatives. Her
presentation focused on how to stick to values and engage in the public
conversation amidst consumer skepticism. Taking action is only the first step:
Shouting from the rooftops is the next — though, as she cautioned: “Consumers
can be quite skeptical when they see brands making big statements.”
A Morning Consult cluster analysis showed that 70 percent of shoppers say they
aren’t affected by a brand acting on social and environmental issues. But the
remaining 30 percent can be — and will make spending decisions based on brand
communications of ethics.
“The people that care about this are listening — and I want all of us to have
permission to be louder and take up more space on the initiatives we’re working
on,” Tassin said.
A recent joint
study
between Sustainable Brands™ and Ipsos focused on the changing
drivers and behaviors of mainstream consumers around the intersection of brands
and sustainable living. The research focused on the role brands play in driving
consumer behavior and closing the intention-action
gap.
Key learnings include:
-
People want to live more sustainability and are concerned with the climate
crisis.
-
Perception of what the most impactful sustainable behaviors are doesn’t
align with scientific consensus.
-
In the US, people are drawn to product labels aligning with their
understanding of sustainable behaviors.
-
Despite a lack in confidence, most consumers understand what a carbon
footprint
is.
-
There exists an ongoing role for education and focus on issues with promise
for significant positive impact.
96 percent of people try to live sustainably at least some of the time, showing
that sustainability is embedded in the mainstream. Brands shouldn't focus on
convincing the public that sustainability matters, but help them incorporate
meaningful actions into their daily
lives.
But recent global events have us distracted. Globally, 2 in 3 people are
concerned about paying their bills, and environmental issues are taking a back
seat to more immediate threats to personal health and safety. But despite
immediate worries of health and safety, 83 percent agree that the planet is
heading toward an environmental disaster unless serious changes are made.
The pandemic resulted in a spike in environmental concern for some major
economies as people reevaluated their values. And there’s something else we’ve
learned from the pandemic.
“All around the world, drastic action was taken to mitigate the impact of
COVID-19,” said Ipsos’ Steven Naert. “The world is capable of changing its
behaviors drastically in case of an emergency.”
But people don’t always know which actions to take. Globally,
recycling
is perceived as the best sustainable action to take, even though it is only the
60th most impactful sustainable
behavior. Clearly,
there’s room to help consumers understand which high-impact changes they should
adopt.
“The key is in making sustainable behaviors easy and
accessible;
so it can be a tiny change instead of a big, scary one,” said SB’s Rachel
Whitacre. “That will ultimately help people along their journey toward
sustainable living.”
Get the latest insights, trends, and innovations to help position yourself at the forefront of sustainable business leadership—delivered straight to your inbox.
Tina is a sustainability consultant with EcoNomics, Inc. She is a longtime surfer who is passionate about the world of waste.
Christian is a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and outdoor junkie obsessed with the intersectionality between people and planet. He partners with brands and organizations with social and environmental impact at their core, assisting them in telling stories that change the world.
Published Jun 9, 2022 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST