Since
we started our monthly Concerned Consumer brand tracker three years ago (a
regular question on consumers' perception of 15 high profile consumer brands),
we have seen plenty of changes in how companies are ranked by consumers, but at
no time have we seen a fall quite like BP's. If you needed evidence of how
important your social and environmental performance is in maintaining consumer
trust, look no further than this month's CCI index. At the end of last month,
confidence in BP had fallen 12 points from this period in 2009 to 34 (a 35%
fall), putting it at the bottom of our Brand Tracker for the first time. It's
been said before, and I am sure I'll say it again, but in the world of
sustainability a simple case of rebranding will not do, real business change
must support it - a point that Marketing Week is quite happy to make.
As
BP sets about the enormous task of rebuilding consumer and investor confidence
(while also dealing with the vast environmental damage), could the rest of us
use this as a catalyst to change how we view our relationship with fossil
fuels? Jean-Michel Cousteau, one of the world's leading ocean explorers,
certainly thinks we could. This could be a pivotal moment where the rules of the game change and we can
either take advantage of that, or miss the boat like we did with the financial
crisis.
One
piece of encouraging news this month is the continued growth in the ethical
investment movement. According to EIRIS, at the beginning of 2000 there were
200,000 retail investors holding about £2.4bn of ethical savings products. At
the start of this year this number has swelled to 750,000 with assets worth
£9.5bn. It may be a small slice of the financial markets, but looking again at
the potential returns from this form of investing certainly looks attractive
when you see what BP shares are doing to pensions across the UK. Check out David
Prosser's recent article in The Independent.
And
this type of investing is likely to become all the more attractive if we see
the promised return of the Operating and Financial Review (OFR) materialise.
The Con-Lib government are planning on reinstating the OFR, after it was scrapped by Gordon Brown in an embarrassing u-turn in 2006.
Designed to improve transparency and encourage more open communication between
companies and their shareholders, this legislation will put social and
environmental issues firmly onto the board's agenda. But don't expect this to
be just a recycled version of what was proposed last time. With a wholesale
review planned of just how it works and what will be expected of business, this
promises to generate plenty of discussion around the boardroom table, and in
the broader NGO and stakeholder community. Watch this space.
Perhaps
this call for greater transparency and accountability, will ensure a recent global survey from Ernst & Young is backed up with action. 70% of companies
with a revenue of $1 billion or more say they plan to increase spending on
climate change initiatives in the next two years.
The
question is, will they start with their employees? According to recent research commissioned by the office stationer Avery
for Green Office Week, 90% of office workers believe it is important for
businesses to be environmentally responsible, but only half of businesses have
a green policy in place. Just 54% of employees think their employer does enough
to help the environment. As our work with many of our clients show, if you want
real change you must engage your employees at the start.
Or
maybe even tap into your consumers. A
recent report titled 2010 Cone Shared Responsibility Study , found that 84% of the 1,045 American consumers surveyed believe that their
ideas could benefit businesses' sustainability offerings, although only 53%
felt encouraged to engage at any level. This is probably the thinking behind
the recent launch of Myoocreate,
a company running competitions to find solutions to companies' social and
environmental challenges. Could these sort of crowd sourcing ideas help solve
problems like those facing BP?
But
engaging with your customers doesn't have to just be about getting them to
help. As we all get a little older (and a little lonier according to a recent report), it's reassuring to see TalkTalk launching a new service designed to offer UK
pensioners a "free weekly natter". The new service, called
"We'll Call You", will see TalkTalk staff calling an over 65-year-old
customer that lives alone for 5 minutes at a set time once a week. If you're a
lonely client reading this, Good Business has a very similar service designed
specifically for you!
Our
next Concerned Consumer Index focus will look at cars. With Toyota's safety
issues, the rise of the electric car, and the end of the scrappage scheme it
will be interesting to see what has changed in the last 12 months. If you would
like to see more data from our most recent surveys on supermarkets and mobiles, or want to find out how to add your
own questions to the next one, please email David on david@goodbusiness.co.uk.
Well that's about it for this month. Enjoy the football (for those of you that are interested) and perhaps next time we're in touch we might have won the World Cup - we're ever the optimists here at Good Business!
Until the next time.
Best wishes,
Giles Gibbons
Founder and CEO |
