Every day around 160 million people in 150 countries buy a Unilever brand. In 2005, Unilever set out to understand how these brands impact on people and the environment in the areas where they are sourced, produced, distributed and used. In their latest sustainable development review (issued March 2009), Unilever explains the company’s Brand Imprint program which aims to redefine brand value to include an understanding of the impact of brands such as Lipton, Axe and others on socio-economic development and sustainability. As Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, states in the introduction, this effort is helping the company embed "sustainability thinking into the day-to-day activities of our brand management and R&D teams."
The Brand Imprint program was started in addition to the company’s extensive country level studies of the company’s impact on poverty reduction in Indonesia (with Oxfam) and on economic growth in South Africa (with INSEAD)as a way to look more specifically at how addressing social and environmental issues could enhance the value of brands and build opportunities for the business. The company sees this program as critical to anticipating and adapting to consumer needs and demands. As the company website states, “companies that can develop products that meet the functional needs of consumers while taking into account these social and environmental challenges will be better placed to grow than those that do not.”
The Brand Imprint approach is about identifying a multidisciplinary team for each brand which conducts a detailed assessment, looking first at the direct and indirect social, environmental and economic impacts of the products, or their 'imprint', across the value chain. The team then gathers insights about the external influences on the brand's future growth, drawing from consumer, competitor and key opinion former research. Unilever’s major brands and categories have now completed a Brand Imprint. This has resulted in important commitments and inspired new ideas for addressing social and environmental issues.
Brand Imprint results include the development of social missions for Lifebuoy and Signal / Pepsodent / Close Up brands, and in the launch in June 2009 of an ambitious environmental plan for the company’s laundry category. This plan, named the ‘Cleaner Planet Plan’, aims to reduce the environmental footprint of the company’s laundry brands, design products that help its consumers to reduce their environmental impacts, and help and motivate people to adopt laundry habits that reduce their environmental impacts.
The experience gained through the Brand Imprint process also helped the company to develop the net stage of its approach. In 2008 Unilever finalised a Vitality Framework to help the company deliver its Vitality Mission in a systematic and measurable way.
The Vitality Framework and metrics (see picture below) help integrate sustainability considerations into the everyday business processes of Unilever’s categories and brands and sets out an approach to help brand managers explore opportunities to innovate and improve their brands in three ways:
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boosting people’s personal vitality and well-being
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addressing social issues
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reducing environmental impacts
Progress will be measured by measuring vitality metrics in these three areas. For the environmental element of the framework there are four indicators covering the priority areas of greenhouse gas emissions, water, waste and sustainable sourcing. These metrics seek to measure the brands when used by consumers, and takes impacts across the entire life cycle in consideration.
In December 2008, Santiago Gowland, VP Brand & Global Corporate Responsibility, Unilever spoke at Sustainable Brands International (see video feed from the event below) about the program and about the challenges and opportunities for business in the age of sustainability.
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