Communicating responsibility takes to a new level

This text has been making its appearance for a while. Sustainability issues have always been at the heart of my work in communications, but now they are at the heart of my day-to-day work. In the end, the change has happened quite quickly. Until a few years ago, the focus was entirely on how to communicate responsibility or, in the worst case, marketing communications was given the task of generating a more responsible image of the company than what it actually was. Now, more enlightened companies are focusing on how to actually act responsibly. Communication, however, has rarely been involved in this discussion.

The pressure to act more responsibly comes not only from legislation but also from consumers. Customers are more aware than ever. During the Covid pandemic, Spotify found itself in a situation where its content was not perceived as responsible. The controversy was sparked by an open letter signed by 200 health professionals who took a stand against the Covid-related content published by Spotify. The letter led to the withdrawal of a few huge artists from the service, followed by customers voting with their feet. Spotify learned what happens when customers don’t perceive the brand as responsible or in line with their values.

Communication – a filter between your business and your customers?

Responsibility has therefore become the core of business, but communication still needs to find its place in the overall framework of responsible business. It is still somewhat far, as processes are refined to be more sustainable or when new business functions, products, or services are developed in the product development unit. We have become accustomed to marketing and communication when everything is ready to be published.

I’ll throw down a challenge: could the role of communications in building a responsible brand be more of a filter between customers and the company – in both directions?

In the case of Spotify, as in many other similar stories, communications cleaned up the spilt milk: the company decided to increase transparency about the rules of the game for future content creation on the platform. The crisis was brought under control.

Personally, I wonder whether the whole situation could have been avoided if communications had been more closely involved in creating the platform’s strategy (i.e. also the content strategy). Would communications have then highlighted the customer personas that consume the service and the underlying value dimensions? Would these have been used to make different strategic choices – for example, who would qualify as content providers for the platform?

Three tips for a responsible brand

While working on branding, I have had a motto: a company’s brand is the sum of how the company operates and how customers perceive it. So, from a sustainability perspective, it’s a pretty simple summation.

But how do you get started if your brand has already clocked up a lot of miles? Here are a few tips:

1. Customer insight: research and update your understanding of the values of current and potential customers and their perception of sustainability. Respond to their needs with your own activities and link your work to your brand.
2. Trend mirroring: which parts of your business are in line with sustainability trends? A good example of this are log building companies, where some long-established companies have been able to rebrand themselves by tapping into trends within the construction industry.
3. Brand communication: sustainability is not a separate part of communication, but part of the whole. Carry the sustainability theme throughout your communications.