​SUSAN LAWSON ETHICAL THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
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Thought Leadership for Ethical Companies & Brands
When almost every company has been told they 'must stand for something' and when 'greenwashing' is rife, how can genuinely ethical companies and brands prove to increasingly cynical customers that they ACTUALLY care?
*LATEST THOUGHTS 30/03/25* - The Economist Impact's Ocean Summit is over but frankly I feel disheartened. I begin to question the point of such summits in the face of global backlash. Nonetheless I am excited to see Mark Carney become the PM of Canada, despite the fact that I've read some criticisms of both Carney and Sustainable Finance recently that rather take the shine off this Golden Boy. That being said, I still think that having the leading proponent of SF in such a prominent position and taking a vocal stance has to be a good thing when the Number One excuse for not doing Net Zero is financial. So I'm still looking to Canada for hope and guidance.
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23/01/25* - I don't know about you but I'm not entirely convinced by the latest WEF (Davos) - 'Collaboration for the Intelligent Age'. Are they claiming we were stupid until AI?!
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15/10/24* - I don't know if any of you attended the recent Economist Impact Sustainability Conference but if not, there were so many great Speakers. In relation to Ethical Brands it was fantastic to hear Nick Canney of Innocent Drinks speak about the lengths they go to in working with and supporting their Supply Chain. It was also great to see Tesco on the same panel proving that even the Big Players are taking sustainability seriously and the ESG Backlash doesn't seem to be affecting enthusiasm in the UK.
​​Why is Thought Leadership Marketing a fit with Ethical Companies?
Ethical, Sustainable, Cause-Led or Socially Responsible companies and brands today find themselves in a very different business environment than they did back at the turn of the century when many of the Market Leaders such as Innocent were founded.
Since then, Marketing 'gurus' have repeatedly told companies (yes, all companies) that they must have 'a stance', 'purpose' or 'cause' or 'stand for something'. I concur that it's great if a company has a purpose other than their own existence and imperative that they 'cause no harm'. Yet 'greenwashing' and what I call 'goodwashing' is rife and consumers are increasingly suspicious. In particular younger demographics can often smell faux-ethics a mile away.​​ And if literally everybody now stands for something, then, how can genuinely ethical companies prove themselves to increasingly suspicious audiences?
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The first question of course is whether you do, in fact, care. But I'm going to assume that you do. The second question then becomes: how do you prove it?​​​​
In the past, it could almost be enough to simply align yourself with a Cause by donating a certain percentage of your profits to a relevant charity (it's great to do this of course where you can but it's not enough on its own anymore to persuade people that you care - perhaps all it really proves in isolation is that your company is large enough to do so and puts unnecessary pressure on the profit margins and therefore existence of ethical Start Ups).
A more convincing way to prove your authenticity is to go in-depth and in deep with it – and this is where Thought Leadership marketing excels. Not only is it non-cynical (or at least it should be) in the sense that you are putting out there useful information without any guarantee of turning the reader into a buyer but the deeper you can go on a subject, the more you prove that your interest in the cause or issue is real, authentic and meaningful.
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Thought Leadership can also be invaluable for advocacy purposes and genuine advocacy is about as aligned and authentic as you get.
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I’m not saying that all ethical businesses must use Thought Leadership. In fact I can think of plenty who don’t, or at least, not in written form: I personally consider Innocent to be doing a form of Thought Leadership marketing because whilst they may not publish Long Form written materials, they are still very much leading thought and their use of visual and other branding methods is powerful. However, these are Market Leaders with a proven track record. Those newer to the market will need to battle through far greater levels of cynicism.
As such if you can get profound with it, if you're producing important reports on the issues you claim to care about, if you're genuinely and authentically digging deep behind your Straplines, ever more wary customers may, in fact, begin to trust that you really do have your heart (and mind) in the game.
If you want to start going deeper on the Cause you care about, and are interested in the idea of Thought Leadership, drop Susan a line direct at susan@susan-lawson.co.uk and we can arrange a complimentary Zoom or similar to explore, or just Book On for a Complimentary 40-Min Chat here.