Marketing in the News
A recent article, How P&G and Lush pursue brand activism with authenticity by Chris Kelly, covered a marketing strategy used by the brand P&G and Lush. P&G makes many products such as shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, laundry detergent, dishwasher soap, and many other products while Lush makes different cosmetics products. I thought this would be interesting to read up on because I knew I use P&G products pretty frequently, and the article was talking about trying to have a better marketing strategy with authenticity, which was intriguing to me as I think of authenticity as a fabulous trait when I am looking for different brands to buy from.
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| P&G Products |
The article talks about how brands try to boost their image with activism in different issues, but whether or not the company actually does anything to help the cause depends on the company. One of the main points of this article is how consumers know whether or not the company actually follows through activism, or if they just say they do for the publicity and marketing aspect. Another point is that the activism needs to be a foundation of the company, something that they start with and build off of, not just talk about. We see an example of this in Lush with responsible sourcing, and how the founders built the company off of getting products without animal testing and other animal cruelty. Finally the third point is that the companies need to take part not only in the community and to the public, but also within the company itself. Such as with Lush, the article gives an example of how they align with trans rights, and they incorporated more accepting trans rights within their own company as well as supporting people and groups outside the company.
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| Lush Cosmetics products |
In this article, they talk about the new strategies that P&G and Lush are participating in in order to draw in more loyal customers. In order to do this, the companies have decided to act on “Activism with authenticity,” meaning they will be honest about the different things and causes they support, and showing through their actions if they are being truthful about their claims. In order to accomplish this, the companies have not only made different ads that include their support for different causes, such as supporting the LGBTQ community, but they have also adopted different policies within their own company to support their employees and faculty that relate to the cause. By doing this, they are proving to their customers they are trustworthy, which is an admirable trait to many people. People who also know this about different brands and companies tend to buy more from that specific company or brand, thus bringing in more customers and keeping them, which ultimately increases sales and profit.
With this whole situation, Lush and P&G are facing the challenges of reputation, and what that does for a company. A reputation is huge for a company, and can ultimately be the death of it if the company does something to ruin the reputation, such as lying about their participation in activism. Thus being said, Lush and P&G are trying to prevent that issue with making sure their customers know they are serious about the causes they support, and showing their customers that they truly are an honest company that cares about the human race, and other animals. This is attractive to many consumers as other companies just say they support different causes simply to get the sales and to make the money. Knowing that the company actually does what they say because they care about our communities, rather than just saying it to earn the dollar, could be the deciding factor in deciding what product the consumer wants to buy. While this isn’t necessarily a new thing, still not all companies participate in this idea of transparency and honesty making it still widely attractive to many people--especially if they support the same causes. Such as with Patagonia, they are well known for their activism and support for climate change and their efforts in reducing their carbon footprint. So while their clothing may be more expensive, they are still a widely sought after product, especially here in Oregon, as many people want to support a business that is trying to manufacture their products that is safer for the earth and for their employees who are making the clothes. P&G and Lush are trying the same type of thing, standing out because of what they believe in and their involvement with those different causes.
I believe P&G and Lush’s marketing solution is a great way to attract customers. This type of strategy appeals to people’s pathos, or emotional thinking which is what can get people to buy a product without really thinking too much about it. If the customer really supports a cause, and knows which companies stand behind that cause (and are actively taking steps to help make that cause more well known or accepted both internally and externally), chances are the customer will actively be buying those products as long as they exist.
When thinking about if and how I would change this type of strategy, I looked towards the end of the article. In this part of the article, it says that the P&G company has a “Very senior team” that makes all of the decisions. I think instead of having a senior team make all the decisions, I would ask the front line workers what they would like to see happen in terms of activism and participation. I would see what the workers of the company would think more people would respond to, and use them as a resource for getting a feeling of how the people would respond, and then use this in the different activism. In doing this, it shows the company would actually listen to the multitude of workers rather than just pay a few people a lot of money to make all the decisions.
To be completely honest, in reading this article I realized that every company probably has a stand on some sort of issue. It made me think about all the different products that I buy, and makes me want to go see what brands I buy from, and what their stand is on certain issues, and whether or not I agree with them. I also realized how much my different beliefs and companies' different beliefs would influence my purchase decisions if I knew more about the companies, and makes me want to research the company before I ever buy something from a specific company again considering I would rather support the causes I believe in rather than the ones I don’t.
Link/Citation:
Kelly, C. (2021, April 08). How P&G and LUSH pursue brand activism with authenticity.
Retrieved April 12, 2021, from
https://www.marketingdive.com/news/how-pg-and-lush-pursue-brand-activism-with-auth
enticity/598010/
(https://www.marketingdive.com/news/how-pg-and-lush-pursue-brand-activism-with-authenticity/598010/)
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