Author: Cherie Leonard

Foresight and Sustainability Insights, North America Division @ Colgate-Palmolive

How does Colgate navigate all these different aspects of sustainability – beyond just products/packs, but across the production process and the entire business?

Posted on by Cherie Leonard

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That question has become so much more complex even in the last few years. I think we take a very cognizant approach to peeling back the onion. One of the things we’ve done internally is that we really focused on greater collaboration and conversation between the different groups to make sure that we’re not operating silos. For instance, we have consistent forums where we have people come together across our functions that are focused on sustainability, whether that’s marketing or supply chain, finance, legal procurement. We really want to make sure that we use those forums to surface any opportunities and challenges.

It’s just a great way to think about our pipeline and how we keep sustainability integrated into the everyday fabric of the business.

The second thing we do more externally is keeping a pulse on where consumers are at, especially through COVID-19, but certainly, beyond as well – thinking about how people’s perceptions of sustainability have changed and how they’re evolving, and what people’s behaviors and challenges and what’s on their radar screen.

Have you noticed that some sustainable product claims perform better than others?

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Yes, absolutely. The work that you did around the space was really insightful and pretty consistent with what we see as well.

One of the key best practices that we have is really keeping it simple – in sustainability and manufacturers were living and breathing this all day long, and we can get a little bit technical as we think about describing the claims and talking about the different sustainability processes and benefits. But at the end of the day, the reality is – somebody is standing at the shelf in a store or online. So, we just want to be simple, clear, intuitive, and easy to understand.

One of the best practices is pulling away some of the jargon and really being crystal clear and telegraphic about what the claim actually is.

That said, we also want to make sure that it’s easy for people to learn more, so part of the challenge is greenwashing, and rightfully so. As a brand, how can we give them an opportunity to learn more? One way that we’ve done this is to put a QR code on the pack after your crystal clear, easy-to-understand claim. People can click into the QR code and go and learn more, whether you’re talking about being made in a plant with renewable energy or being made with 100% recyclable plastic.

With a ‘choice’ of either tackling pollution or directly investing in fighting other issues such as global warming – how should brands choose what to focus on?

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There are a lot of potential opportunities out there. One thing that we do is make sure we’re pretty grounded in what people’s actual barriers are. We’ve identified two key barriers for consumers, and the first is what we like to think about as the input.

It’s the fact that sustainability can be overwhelming and confusing; even people who are pretty engaged with it are just confused with something as easy as recycling.

For instance, can I throw my wine bottle with my magazines or with a water bottle? Or do these have to be separated? There’s certainly a barrier on the input side of it, but then on the other side of the coin is the barrier in the output. This is an important one as well because even if people are dedicated and engaged and put in the time to figure out the ins and outs of what they can be doing, it’s often frustrating for people because they feel like the impact of this isn’t enough. “I’m just one human being.” “This is just one straw that I didn’t get with my ice coffee,” so it can feel like even the impact that we have isn’t meaningful enough in the whole big picture, so we look at both sides of this coin of these two key barriers as we’re trying to decide which issues to focus on.

What are some of the good examples of sustainable products improving consumer experience?

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Sephora has done an excellent job of making it easy to shop and navigate. They have their ‘Clean by Sephora’ logo that’s easy to find in-store or if you’re online. It’s easy to click in and filter, and it gives you peace of mind that everything that’s labeled is eco-friendly and good for the planet. Thrive Market is another one that I often hear when I’m doing consumer interviews, as a place where people go just because it’s almost a mental shortcut. They know that if they’re buying from Thrive Market, it will be eco-friendly, not toxic, good for their bodies, and good for the world. Another example on the brand side is Ethique shampoo bars. They started as a solid shampoo, but now they’ve launched into other adjacent categories and waterless solutions.

From the moment you enter their website, their direct consumer experience online is clear and easy to navigate.

It’s in the very human and culturally relevant language. Then, when you get the product shipped home, they make the unboxing spirit fun. Some of the shampoo bars are heart-shaped, which is just a great thing to experience when you’re taking on a new sustainable product form. Finally, the product usage itself can be quite pleasant. That’s an example for me of a brand that’s gone above and beyond delivering on basic category benefits, like cleaning into an experience that actually surprises and delights people along the way.

What is the first step to making a new sustainable product truly competitive?

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The most important step is to fully understand the job to be done with the product. At the end of the day, a product has to work, or people won’t use it – even if it’s the most sustainable option. An example we have is the Colgate toothbrush. It’s called Colgate Keep. It’s called that way because you keep the handle, and you only change out the brush head, so it’s a great solution for a manual toothbrush where you’re using 80% less plastic because you keep the aluminum handle forever. But again, we had to really make sure that the product performs as somebody would expect a normal toothbrush to perform – so we did a lot of work on the brush head to make sure the performance was there. We really had to make sure that it delivered on cleaning and a comfortable experience. Then we talked about sustainability as an added benefit.

That’s one thing that we’ve learned – leaning fully on sustainability isn’t enough. It might drive novelty and trial, but it’s not enough to drive repeat.

You really need to fulfill a consumer’s job to be done in order to continue them on in the process.

How should brands employ social media to create a positive association with acting greener? How does Colgate do it?

Posted on by Cherie Leonard

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One of the things that we do is really use social media to help us amplify our voice – and not only talk about what we’re doing as a brand but also

help people spread the word and spread sustainable ideas amongst themselves.

One example is Tom’s Of Maine – this is a brand in our portfolio that’s very dear to my heart. They do an excellent job with social media and using it not only to drive energy and excitement for what we’re doing as a brand but also provide an opportunity for our brand enthusiasts to build momentum amongst themselves and talk about what they’re doing in a sustainable world. They can share their tips and tricks, showcase some of the things that they might be doing along with the brand or separate from the brand to help drive sustainability and messages home.

I think it’s a really great example of how we leverage word of mouth to drive credibility but also to continue the enthusiasm around the sustainability topic more broadly.

Given the increasing conversation on climate change, have you noticed any emerging consumer trends?

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First of all, I think climate change has really become much more tangible. In the past, we’ve heard it as something that seemed a little bit fuzzy, a little bit vague, maybe something that would impact the next generation. It didn’t feel as real or here and now as it does today. Two big trends have emerged.

  1. The first is urgency. People have a significant urgency to take action. We see this not only because people are seeing the good, cleaner air and skies, especially through the early days of lockdown, but also because they’re seeing the bad. I heard from so many consumer interviews that through COVID, it suddenly became very apparent to them how much trash they produce as an individual and a household. In the pre-COVID world, your trash on any given day would be spread between home and the office, school, restaurant, and gym, etc. And all of a sudden, we’re in lockdown, and every bit of trash you create is sitting in the kitchen trash bin – that was a very rude awakening for people, and it really helped drive an urgency to take action.
  2. But the second trend is that consumers are feeling a little bit stuck. People just aren’t sure where to start, and that really helps us think about what we can do as a manufacturer to make sure it’s easy for people to be unstuck.