Brands Going Green

With nearly every industry and company out there “going green” Two West decided to take a look at consumer reactions and the socially responsible efforts of different industries. Check out the podcast to listen to our interview with Mary Gorman, associate provost of Dartmouth University. Gorman discusses Dartmouth’s sustainability efforts and how they encourage students to “go green.”

There was a lot that we didn’t get to with this show. Check out “Man on the Street” interviews we conducted. Listen to real people discuss the greening trend and their own efforts towards sustainability.

In addition there were several surveys we weren’t able to discuss on the show. Let us know what you think of them. Do you agree with them? Do these brands ring true to being green in your opinion?

A 2007 ImagePower Green Brands Survey, conducted by WPP’s Landor Associates, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates and Cohn & Wolfe survey categorized the top 10 green brands:

1. Whole Foods
2. Wild Oats
3. Trader Joe’s
4. Toyota
5. Honda
6. Sub Zero
7. Ikea
8. Body Shop
9. GE
10. Aveda
    

The top 10 green brands in the UK according to a a survey of 1,000 UK marketing pros from Marketing Week and Yougov are:

1. M&S
2. The Body Shop
3. Innocent
4. Co-OP
5. ECover
6. Honda
7. Waitrose
8. Tesco
9. BP
10. Greenpeace
    

The bottom 10 are:

1. Shell
2. Exxon/Esso
3. McDonald’s
4. BP
5. BA
6. Ryannir
7. BAA
8. Coke
9. E.ON
10. British Gas

UPDATE 6/17/2008

Our friends at ImagePower® Landor did a recent Green Brands Survey for 2008, and we wanted to share that information as an update to our 2007 statistics from them. Their survey indicates energy and economic issues take precedence over the environment during challenging times. Consumers in their survey identified the top ten greenest brands in their eyes.

U.S.

1. Whole Foods
2. Burt’s Bees
3. Trader Joe’s
4. Tom’s of Maine
5. Toyota
6. Seventh Generation
7. Honda and GE (tied)
8. Whirlpool
9. Aveda
10. Method
    

U.K.

1. Body Shop
2. Marks & Spencer
3. Waitrose
4. Tesco, Sainsbury’s (tied)
5. Asda
6. Dove and Google (tied)
7. Co-Operative Bank
8. E.ON
9. Morrisons
10. Nivea and Toyota (tied)
    

Similar to the 2007 Landor ImagePower® findings, US consumers believe body care and grocery to be the “greenest” product categories, while travel and energy remain at the bottom of the list. One of the most significant differences between the 2008 and 2007 findings is the shift in thinking about the most pressing environmental concerns. In 2007, most consumers were concerned about global warming, and this year’s survey shows that energy and resource issues have increased in importance. What do you think about the trends in “green brands?” What do you think consumers are most concerned about?

Luxury Brands

Hailed one of The Brand Show’s best hour of radio in months (at least by our in-studio producer). What defines “luxury”? In America it is all relative and traditional luxury brands are slipping into a new arena of status brands by servicing their products to anyone who has the cash. True luxury brands are slipping in numbers as they “sell out” to the masses. Today we debate: what is luxury? We also critique the top ten luxury brands of 2008 and praise one of the world’s greatest luxury automobile brands: Rolls-Royce.

Man, what a great example to have had today...talk about brand considering all the elements of a luxury brand, down to where it’s manufactured and spending more on wages to assure it’s “Made in Germany.”

Healthcare Branding

The crew from the transformation design firm, Two West, took at look health care branding. While we’ve covered health care branding a couple of times, we know that this industry is facing a much different landscape. The Brand Show focused on the new face of health care – clinics in airports, wellness centers and health care customer service.

Sarah Manning and Andy Rich of Palmer Health came on the show to share their new ideas about what health facilities could be and how they are breaking into the Kansas City market. Check out the podcast to listen to the interview in its entirety.

In our Brand Rant, Two West spoke about how the Lenexa, Kansas-based Flagler Productions was not re-hired for Wal-Mart’s internal video needs. They have responded with airing Wal-Mart’s “dirty laundry” by posting these videos for sale. Here’s an NBC news clip showing some of the videos. Lou Lou on The Brand Show doesn’t seem to think that this will hurt their brand. What do you think?