In this episode, Feefo’s Nicola Renshaw is joined by Lisa Whalley-Smith from Ecoegg, Karen Waddilove from Amara Living and Merryn Chilcott from BAM Bamboo Clothing to discuss changing consumer attitudes toward sustainability, the issue of 'greenwashing' and how businesses can measure their sustainability success.
Feefo takes the guesswork out of growing your business and building the best customer experience. We give you the tools and insight to build relationships, improve your brand reputation and make informed decisions for the future.
Discover more at feefo.com
In this episode, Feefo’s Nicola Renshaw is joined by Lisa Whalley-Smith from Ecoegg, Karen Waddilove from Amara Living and Merryn Chilcott from BAM Bamboo Clothing to discuss changing consumer attitudes toward sustainability, the issue of 'greenwashing' and how businesses can measure their sustainability success.
Feefo takes the guesswork out of growing your business and building the best customer experience. We give you the tools and insight to build relationships, improve your brand reputation and make informed decisions for the future.
Discover more at feefo.com
24 Hi, everyone, welcome to our sustainability spotlight series, where this week we will be focusing on the retail industry. I am truly delighted to be joined by three brands who are truly setting themselves up to be environmentally Fit for the Future. 42 They're also three of our brilliant feefo customers. So I've got Lisa Wally Smith, head of brand and marketing at eco egg. Karen woody love head of communications and collaborations at Amora living, and Marin chilkat, sustainability and technical manager at bamboo clothing. Welcome, ladies, I'll give you a chance to say hi Introduce yourself in one minute. But I think we can all recognise that consumer attitudes towards the environment are massively changing. And in fact, research reveals that shoppers are making choices already based on environmental factors. And so why we're here today is to learn how brands like yourselves are ensuring that their offering is seen as contributing towards a greener future. how important that is if they want to be successful. So ladies, welcome to the podcast. Please introduce yourself to the audience. Lisa, do you want to say hi, hello, hello, I'm Lisa from eco egg. And I look after the Eco egg brand and also all of our marketing. Mostly, the channel that I'm kind of working most on is our online sales. So from eco egg.com so that's me. Brilliant. Welcome to the podcast today. Karen from American living. Hi there, everyone. Thank you Nicola V for for having me here. My name is Karen and I head up collaborations and communications@ammara.com. We're an online interior retailer, a purely purely online. And yeah, that's about it as an intro, I think. Brilliant. Thank you and Marin.
Unknown Speaker 2:35 Hi. And thanks. Thanks for having me as well. I'm Marian from bam. And I look after all things sustainability and technical. My background is sort of garment technology. And I joined about about three and a half years ago. And I've been kind of driving our sustainability agenda since then, as well. So my big focus is is our our big ambition to become an impact positive by 2030. So that's, that's what I'm really focused on day to day. So yeah, thanks for having me. No, absolutely welcome. And I love those sort of big targets that you're setting out right at the beginning there. And I think it tees up everything that we're going to talk about today and the objectives that many of our retailers are looking to achieve as well, sort of from supply chains, to material choices to packaging and those long term goals. I'm really looking forward to listening to what you guys have got to say. So let's jump straight in. And, Karen, maybe a question for you to kick us off? What does the idea of sustainability and being green actually mean from our living and your customers?
Unknown Speaker 3:39 Yeah, good quote, I think it can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. And obviously, as an international business as well, we're, you know, there's a lot of people that have opinions in this area. But for us as a business, we're working at the moment across all up pack are all our areas of touch points. So from packaging to our electricity provider. And at the moment, we are just in the throes of mapping out our compliance of the modern slavery act, as well as sort of putting into some targets around carbon footprint, we've got a long way to go just because of the type of our business we we supply and provide all the brands that you see on our website, Roberta Cavalli and myzone the like, so we have to go through all of those supply chains to ensure they're clean, and to make sure that all our messaging is on point and it's transparent and factually correct. So yeah, we're in the throes of doing all that and hope to have a statement up regarding one of those points later on this year. Hopefully in the next month or so. In fact.
Unknown Speaker 4:44 Fabulous. I love that. And Lisa 48 um, yeah. So, eco egg is this small business we have a range of environmentally friendly laundry products, of which the one
Unknown Speaker 5:00 It is best known as the laundry egg. So it's an environmentally friendly alternative to laundry detergent and fabric conditioner. 12 We launched actually, about 10 years ago, 17 a lot of people haven't heard of us, which is our main issue. But when we launched, the messaging is pretty much still the same as it is today, which is that the product the laundry egg, is kinder to the environment kind of to your skin and kinder to your pocket. Now obviously, the change in interest in environmentally friendly products has meant that we've become much more of a product that people are searching for looking for saying Blimey, you know what, why haven't I found this product before everyone should be using it. And what we've done is we've tried to be much more specific about what it means to be sustainable, what it means to be green, what it means to be environmentally friendly. So we've been a lot kind of tighter on the claims that we make, we have specifically looked at ways that we can reduce plastic in terms of our packaging in terms of our product in terms of how customers can switch from big plastic bottles of detergent and conditioner to our product, which is just a small laundry egg with mineral pellets inside it, we make quite a lot of plastic claims. In terms of how we can help reduce that we have the endorsement from the good housekeeping Institute, which is a kind of getting greener endorsement for reducing plastic. The other thing that we again have always stood for is that we don't use harmful chemicals. And by default, that means that what is going down your drain is not full of
Unknown Speaker 6:57 bleaches and phosphates and enzymes it's in everything is not harmful to the environment.
Unknown Speaker 7:07 We've also addressed things like our packaging, we've reduced the amount of cardboard that we use, we've got another product that reduces your energy consumption if you use a tumble dryer. 20 And we've also got a product that you can use in place of a kitchen of kind of standard kitchen role. So everything we do is about reducing the impact on the planet. And that's what we're finding our customers want. 36 We have to be super tight with our claims. Because our customers are becoming more discerning, they're becoming more more savvy. So we just make sure that everything we do can be justified can be proved can be substantiated, and that we've got kind of tests or certificates to back everything up. 57 Yeah, it's really important, isn't it? These claims that we make have to be really engaging for our customers and actually really relevant to them. You know, I think consumers struggle to make sort of big changes to their lifestyles, don't they? And they want their brands to empower them and help them make the right environmental choices.
Unknown Speaker 8:18 Marin, what are your thoughts at BAM? 22 Yeah, so. So I mean, I totally agree with the consumer piece. And we as a clothing brand, as I'm sure you're aware that we have a huge impact. And, you know, just inherently producing the products that we that we sell has has a massive impact. We also deal with really complicated global supply chain. So the issues that we're dealing with can be really complicated and trying to communicate those to customers in a really clear, 52 non green washy way is a real challenge. It's something that we we deal with every day, but probably just a little bit of background about bamboo. Bamboo started by Dave back in 2006. And the reason he started it was it was the you know, similarly to eco egg, the whole reason he started the brand was to to create a clothing brand that that didn't, you know, that kind of put the planet and the people that worked in the supply chain above profits. And when he discovered that bamboo could be made into a fibre that that worked really well for kind of active clothing that that was that was where he saw an opportunity. And we've been kind of growing steadily over the last 16 years. And over the past
Unknown Speaker 9:36 16 years, 15 years. And over the past kind of three years, we've seen that shift in consumer awareness and sustainability and that's really helped our business to grow. But it's also created even more challenges to make sure that we can, you know, being really tight with our teams, making sure that everything we say is credible, and making sure that we still continue to kind of stand out in
Unknown Speaker 10:00 In what is becoming quite a crowded market as someone who's who's doing doing sustainability in inverted commas, kind of authentically. And so yet, so, so a big focus for us and in making sure that we're doing it authentically is measuring everything, we spend a lot of time and a lot of resources, measuring our impact, and trying to understand I mentioned our impact positive ambition earlier, and that that covers six key areas of impact. And we try to measure and understand 27 what impact we're having across all of those six key pillars. 32 And then we're working on a multitude of different projects to try and reduce those impacts. 37 Yeah, and that's kind of our our big focus at the moment. And luckily, that gives us some quite sort of credible things, you know, we've got the numbers, and we've got the data to back up some of the claims we make, which is quite, which is quite helpful. I think that that can be really important as well. 52 Yeah, and I think, you know, you've all said there, it's, it's how we enable customers to take positive actions on issues that resonate, and will then have the biggest, the greatest impact on their behaviour, and then in turn, you know, the planet, because sustainability is increasingly becoming a greater consideration as part of the overall customer experience. And I guess it's how over the years, have you seen this develop within your company? You know, how are you doing things differently, perhaps, to when you started, in terms of your focus on sustainability? And the impact? I guess that's having on all that you do? Karen?
Unknown Speaker 11:37 Yeah, it's interesting. I've sort of been I've been with Amara for 1012 years now. And I've seen quite a radical change, I think, in people's attitude, and specifically, consumers attitude to what they want. And it's their demands that driving it, which is great. I mean, I think, I don't know whether the other girls will, will agree that, you know, it wasn't, it was only a few years ago, that actually, even if you were putting anything, or doing sort of products around that sort of eco friendly or sustainability sort of tags, there wasn't that uplift or interest nearly as much as there is today.
Unknown Speaker 12:17 Which is, you know, it's all I think everything that is going the direction it should do is all very, very positive. The customer is definitely a lot more savvy when it comes to things like this, I think, I think both Lisa and Moran mentioned, it's the consumer needs to have clarity and honesty from brands. 37 It's all very easy for brands, especially in the digital world to put up statements that say, we are this better than the other and our carbon footprint is going to be neutral here. They're there and 50 but actually, to make sure those facts are truly factual. That's where the hard work is, it is really not I've, over the last couple of years been driving everything around the modern slavery act that we're doing.
Unknown Speaker 13:04 And sustainability, it's it's a lot of work. It really is for businesses, and it's become an almost department in itself, particularly in our business. You know, we've got teams now working on it specifically, you know, our buyers that are buying from globally, it's, the challenge is huge, the supply chain is massive, and you have to check every touch point, from the very person that's picking the cotton, right through all the factories that it touches the courier that delivers it, the warehouse it's sitting in. 37 So it's a big job for lots of companies. But it's so important that everyone takes it very seriously and does deal with it. You know, this is, you know, what we're all here to do we want we want life to be better for our future generations. So yeah, it's it's it's definitely something that's been driven more by the consumer, certainly from our perspective, you know?
Unknown Speaker 14:00 Yeah. And they are specifically asking those questions. They're asking sustainable credentials, and obviously other businesses as well as, instead of being a negative thing, I think it's a really positive thing when a brand that we're working with, whether it is an interior designer who wants to open a trade account, or whether it is a brand and agency that we want to work with. It's so refreshing when people come back and say, right, I want to see your credentials, I want to see where you stand on this viewpoint. I want to see all of those things and actually making us sign agreements and and state our vision and our where we are today. And I think that's really good and positive and it is definitely getting better. Yeah, and I think that's so true. As you've touched on their current it's not only all the suppliers and you know, and the customers being more aware and more focused on this. It's how brands inherently bring this in internally into their organisation is just
Unknown Speaker 15:00 Critical, you know, to represent, it's not just as you say something that you say, you have to live it and breathe it. And you guys are doing such a great job of that. But I think there are so many who who don't live that they just say that they're doing it and they don't who I think it has to start almost top down from the senior management and the CEO who really passionately believe in it. And obviously, that's how he co Ag and bam were formed by people who passionately believed that there was a better way. So Marin, any thoughts here? 32 changed? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think, well, in terms of the change in consumer behaviour, I think definitely how you've seen and when when bound was first started, there was almost a bit of a, you know, if you were if you were sustainable brand, people immediately thought that maybe your product wasn't as good or maybe it was a scratchy hempture. Or it wasn't very cool. I think that's when ban was started. That was kind of where sustainable brands were sitting that they weren't that cool. And now that has massively changed. And, and that can only be a good thing. But, but in terms of, yeah, within the business itself, it makes it so much easier when you have a CEO or a founder, or, you know, an executive team, senior team, that are absolutely behind everything you want to do. And I joined the brand and went from garment technologists through to sustainability manager, because the the,
Unknown Speaker 16:26 the kind of senior team realised that we needed to put some real resources behind this, I think it's also as well as having a department or people that are leading that and driving the the projects around sustainability, it's just as important for that to filter through to the whole rest of the company and for every single department within the company to being engaged in in the process. Because one sustainability manager is not going to change your whole business on their own, every single person has to do it and buy into it. 56 And to take responsibility for kind of their their aspects of the brand, which in a massive organisation that's been around for years and is used to doing things a certain way and has a lot of red tape and bureaucracy and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, really difficult to change. Yeah, we've been so lucky at bandwidth with a smaller team and with real, you know, David Gordon, our founders just really, really believes in this stuff. And, and so yeah, thanks to him that we're making some real progress, I think. And obviously, Lisa, you're a slightly smaller organisation. In that sense, do you think it's been easier than to take your customers on a more sustainable journey? Or, you know, you still have those challenges and changes that you've seen? I think, I mean, the way I was going to address this question is, what we've found is that we've always had a nice little kind of niche position in the market, which is if you want a more eco friendly, environmentally friendly, plastic reducing skin friendly alternative to you know, the kind of typical, more traditional washing powders and liquids, you'd go to eco egg. What we're now finding is that those big boys, you know, the Unilever's of, of the industry, they're making similar claims. So they're like, oh, okay, so, you know, this product that used to be full of chemicals, and not very good for your skin, they're suddenly saying is plant based, or they've suddenly changed
Unknown Speaker 18:28 some of their packaging, so it becomes more environmentally friendly, you know, our little niche position is now becoming much more kind of mainstream. And, by default, and this is a bit a bit kind of chicken and egg, customers are demanding it, and the bigger players are supplying it. So it's now an expectation that every brand has a kind of sustainable story or, or environmentally friendly benefits that they can claim. So that actually has been quite hard for us, because that nice little nice position that we used to hold.
Unknown Speaker 19:04 We're kind of being sampled on a little bit by other video who, who are making similar claims. So you, luckily, you then have the savvy consumer who says, well, hang on, you know, this brand is making this claim, is this actually true, you know, can cannot be substantiated. And so for us, because we won't put any claims on pack that we can't substantiate, it means that we are really strong and confident in what we say. But we still have to build that kind of brand trust. It's actually the reason that we put feefo on our website was that we wanted some kind of customer recognition that they love our products, they love our brand, that there's there's kind of been a perception of our if it's eco friendly, you know, environmentally friendly, it's not gonna work as well. Well, we want to kind of
Unknown Speaker 20:00 Let potential customers know that it does work really well, here's what people say. And feefo allowed us to have that direct customer feedback, you know, honest feedback at the point of purchase, which is it quick.com. So, you know, we get customers who say, I love the fact that I can use this on my son who has eczema. And, you know, I'm not buying any more plastic bottles, and that's there and, you know, come from the mouth of someone that's purchased our products, and it does a great job for us. Because, you know, people trust what other people say that. That's what brands say. And for us, we've spent a long time building that brand trust, making sure we don't put a foot wrong making sure that, you know, everything we that leaves, leaves our warehouse, does what it says on the box. And we don't make any claims, we do not want to be put into that greenwashing
Unknown Speaker 21:00 kind of conversation, which 03 a lot of brands that are now being questioned, you know, can this brand really claim what they say that? Yeah, it's that level of authenticity, isn't it? That, you know, the brands who can do that, and really show their customers how they're doing that, that they're the ones that will really succeed? And I guess that leads us into another sort of question, which Lisa, you may be able to continue on. But how do you ensure that these values are across every touchpoint of a customer journey? So you know, it goes beyond I guess, what you what you sell, for example, you need to make sure your messaging is consistent at every point of interaction that customers have. Yeah, it's actually really hard because marketing, drive the communication, marketing, drive the messaging. And, you know, we try and make it the same messaging over and over again, and very consistent. We have brand guidelines that we issue to all partners or countries or distributors.
Unknown Speaker 22:08 But policing, those kind of brand guidelines can be difficult. And we obviously have values that we operate by as a business, which again, we try and instil throughout, everything that we do, every decision that we make, as a company should support our brand values. Sometimes, obviously, the financial side kicks in. And we are actually 33 a business that's owned by investors. So they're always looking at the bottom line as well. So that can be tricky. And marketing really drive a lot of a lot of what really supports the brand. One of the most recent initiatives is we are trying to address everything, which sounds really basic, but we've been away from the Office for quite a while now we're coming back into the office, we're really looking at more sustainable changes that we can make internally as a business as well. So it's not just for our customers, but we want to be able to show our customers that we're doing that we're making these changes, we you know, we've we've made a lot of changes, we talk about it, but it's almost like let's get really, really closer to this business. Let's, let's show them, you know, changing the light bulbs, let's show them going out and picking up litter from from the local Riverside, you know, and so we really want to make it a lot more
Unknown Speaker 23:31 just real and open and honest. And become really part of your customer, your culture, your company culture. Yeah, I think sorry, Lisa, Korea, I was just gonna say we've just partnered, we were quite lucky to kind of be while they contacted us. It's a new app called greener. And they've partnered with us, and it's an app that allows you to calculate your carbon footprint, and then the app recommends changes. So that's something that we're going to try and address the business. 59 Again, it's a challenge because there's always kind of other commercial projects that sometimes
Unknown Speaker 24:06 need to be prioritised as a business. 11 But, you know, marketing try their best to kind of drive these more sustainable initiatives. 18 Aaron? Yeah, no, I was just going to agree with Lisa and I think Marian touched on it earlier, which is the I think the most important thing is is actually having everyone within the business supporting this and, and bringing it to the forefront of their minds, it's education. And if you can do that, and you've got the support of your staff to drive it forward, because it doesn't, it's not down to one person or one tick one specific team. I mean, we found that with all the work that we're doing that, you know, you have to talk to every single person as an individual on what they're doing, whether it is as you say about light bulbs or our electricity provider. 58 So it it touches everyone within
Unknown Speaker 25:00 The business and I think if you can get that passion across and people understand why you're doing it and how you're doing it, then that's got to be good for everyone. Right? I mean, you know, if they can take that out into the big world as well, with those sorts of ethics and understanding, it's going to change their mindset and their consumer habits as well. So I think all of these things we do, you know, they, there's lots of lots of small things, but they will ultimately make a big difference. 27 And I was thinking about this, Karen, is it that, you know, when you're interviewing people for jobs and things, do you even you know, talking about getting it ingrained in your company culture? Do you even ask them about their sort of sustainability practices? Or it has it? Is it not as formal as that? I mean, I appreciate you know, yeah, no, judge people. But 49 do you look at that when you're onboarding new people? Well, I think I mean, obviously, I only will employ people in my sort of teams. But um, so I don't know what everyone else is. But we do generally, when we're interviewing people, it's probably a different conversation. But it's it is something that we try and find out about that person. And we try and almost talk about our business and what we do and our values, company values, and all of those things that matter to us as a business. And try and then engage with that person to make sure that they feel the same way because I still feel that you know, Marmara has grown significantly over the last few years, but we're still quite family orientated.
Unknown Speaker 26:30 And I think that's what keeps you moving all in the right direction. Yeah. No, I can see that. And Marin, how about you guys at bam, in? I mean, we've sort of slightly moved on really a bit. We're talking right now around Yeah, graining sustainability into company culture. But also making sure that for your customers, your messaging remains consistent throughout. Yeah, I think, yeah, there's a few points actually on on ingraining it in the culture, they all kind of linked together actually. Because, for us anyway, with the whole, you know, what I was talking about at the beginning about comms being really challenging, trying to explain things to your customers, because I'm a technical person, and I tend to over explain things or I tend to get too technical. And for a customer that can be not what they want. And it can get confusing. So in graining, and educating all of the different departments for, for example, the marketing department about what we're doing, and why we're doing it, if they've got all the background information, then they can help to find the best way to communicate it to the customer, because that's their area of expertise. So that's another reason why it's really, it's so helpful and important to kind of spread that knowledge around around the business. You know, I'm here with the technical knowledge, but actually, I'm not going to be able to communicate it in the best way to the customer, our marketing team is and and then when it comes to communicate the customer and putting it at those different touch points, I think, sometimes a really simple way to do that is using these kind of certifications and stamps and things. But then that brings up another issue which which, which Lisa was talking about earlier about when when you're a smaller business and sustainability is always been what you do, and now it's become mainstream, and now the bigger businesses picking up on it, then it's actually much easier for bigger businesses with with more budget more resource to just stick a stamp on something. And quite often, you know, the stamps and certifications and things are created by organisations which are funded by these massive by the much bigger businesses which which means that they're kind of they're, they're created for them. And it means that sometimes as a smaller business, who does maybe does things a little bit differently, or is doing something in a more progressive way or you know, they might be doing something differently. And you might not quite fit into the the executive certification that's out there. But the but that, but it's something that the customer can really recognise. And so that's something we really struggle we kind of well we grapple with it, I suppose on a daily basis is figuring out the thing that's going to land the best with the customer, the thing that is actually going to have the best impact as well, because for us, it isn't just about driving more sales, it is genuinely about doing the right thing. So we're always trying to find find that balance. And yeah, and that can be a bit of a really big challenge. I've sort of gone past all of the last three points. So I don't know where that brings us to. But yeah, that those are the things that kind of cropped up as you guys were talking. Yeah, I mean, I think there's so many issues to cover really isn't there but I I it's really interesting Marin, how y'all set up it with your sustainability hat on and your technical hat on and then you relay that to the rest of the organisation for them to then use
Unknown Speaker 29:42 to communicate in the ways that they need to communicate as part of their job roles. And I wonder if moving forward that's, you know, a way that brands could adopt or certainly if they haven't, they're not really in the sustainability kind of area at the moment they might think about adopting someone else.
Unknown Speaker 30:00 like yourself to then, you know, be the champion of it throughout the business, versus Karen, who's trying to get it, you know, embedded into everyone at the outset. You know, there's there's really different ways of ensuring that that message comes across because you also brought up Marian rightly, this emotional engagement with customers, you know, and I think that's, it's, you know, we're more discerning, we're more digitally savvy, we're more aware now as consumers. So how do you really engage customers with these environmental issues that are close to you? Are there initiatives and campaigns that you run? And how do they kind of, as you said, before, like get under the skin of the and have more of an impact or only on the environment, but in terms of against the big, bigger players that you're competing with? Karen, do you? Yeah, I was gonna search for Yeah, the, we're a purely online retailer. And it's always been a big driver of ours to commute, the communication is always key, it's putting a personality with the brand forward to the consumer, and they understand who we are and what we're all about. And customer care is always set very much at the front of that. We don't hide from anything in terms of, you know, very hard to communicate with, you know, we have phone numbers, live chat, emails, everything to speak, speak to people in the business very easily and readily. But we did launch early this year was our, what's called one planet initiative.
Unknown Speaker 31:31 And that basically was driven more by just trying to tell consumers how to live every day, and how, you know, nobody's perfect, but just trying to bring it home in terms of real life and what how the how everyone is living individually. So we had one planet. So we had, basically, we've launched it, and it's there and on the website. And it's being updated with information and news all the time. But we did do a Insta live session over the month of April for World Health Earth Day. And we had different sessions each week, the consumer conscious consumer, we have some brands talking about their philosophy and how what they're doing within the business store, and reimagine repurpose, with purpose and recycle in style. And it was so good to see, you know, actually people talking and asking questions, and just learning really. So I think that's something definitely we'll move forward with and invite people to talk to customers, if they want to hear it. If they don't, it's that it's recorded. It's there for people to then
Unknown Speaker 32:38 be involved within and see it as and when they want. But yeah, so that's for us is trying to get those messages to people and not have a flat fronted screen with no personality and No. So the consumer doesn't understand who we are as a business and what we're trying to achieve. Yes. And obviously, that was really successful. merona though, the theory that that you've been doing? Yeah, yeah, I was just that that reminded me of of a campaign that that we ran, we ran it for the first time last year and we'll be running it again in August, called the data were longer campaign. And the reason we we started that campaign was because once we once we'd done the big kind of LCA, measurement, lifecycle analysis, measurement of our product of the impacts of other whole lifecycle of our products, we realised there was a huge portion of it that was coming from, from the laundry, which I'm sure knows more than me about this. And it would actually be interesting to maybe collaborate on this campaign with you guys, because a huge portion of the impact of garments lifecycles coming from the way that they launder it. And the great thing, the great thing about bamboo is it's super absorbent. And so it tends to not get smelly as as as quickly as as kind of synthetic clothing. So we started doing a campaign called dare to wear longer to try and get people to wear their t shirts for seven days without washing them at that height of summer to kind of try and get people into the mind, not you know, watching your teacher every single time you wear it, because the impact that it's having is actually much bigger than you realise. And with the campaign this August we're going to be trying to collaborate with with other brands that are doing kind of good things with laundry. So it would be really interesting to talk to you later about that. Because Yeah, I think that's a really important thing that we can do as a brand is help customers to understand what their impact is and the little changes that they can do that can can start to reduce their own impact even just wearing a T shirt for a day longer before you wash it. But I think that's that's that's just brilliant marinara. I think it's you know, it's we all know about obviously the five p for the plastic bag, you know, initiative that was bought in but it is more of the tactical things, isn't it? That can really have an impact on a consumer because
Unknown Speaker 35:00 It is something that you can embrace every day into your life. And also, it makes you feel good because you're doing something for the planet. And it also is good for you guys, as brands, Lisa, have you got any, you know, there's a collaboration there on the doorstep with BAM for you guys to get involved with, you know, yeah, probably things that you're doing as well aren't me. And we do a lot of collaborations because it just makes sense. It makes sense to support other small brands like ourselves, it makes sense to share our kind of social media platform reach with other small brands, it's pretty much you know, we'll help you, you help us. We run kind of competitions, with similarly minded brands, pretty much every month, my digital marketing executive looks after all of those kinds of collaborations. And we always support other brands will always put other brands in our email communication, in our blogs, you know, on our social channels, they know this is all about kind of collaborating together and trying to try to reach the same people or trying to reach the same people, we're not competing in terms of products, we're just, you know, wanting to tap into
Unknown Speaker 36:13 people that would be interested in our product. So we work with all sorts of other products who are, you know, have similar values to us. So collaborations, definitely thumbs up. And the other thing that we tend to do is we tap into awareness days, it gives us, it gives us a structure to our kind of promotional calendar, plastic free July, zero waste week, birthday, national refill day, any day that's relevant to our products allows us to talk about the benefits and link them to an environmentally, you know, linked Awareness Day, there's already chat about these days on social. So we want to be part of that chat, and it would be wrong not to be. So we kind of gear all of our messaging and our promotional
Unknown Speaker 37:04 discounts, or bundles or pre product or whatever, around environmental days. The other thing that we have found is using influences. I hate the whole kind of, I'm gonna pay you to talk about my brand. We don't do that we have a lot of 25 mommy bloggers, environmental bloggers, again, small, small kind of social media accounts that come to us and say, Oh, my God, I love your product, I'd love to review it for you. We're like, for sure. Here you go. And we send out products for free for people to review, we don't tell them what to say we just say use it, you know, he go use it. And they can say whatever they want. 46 We did our power game by working with an agency who would put us in contact with people that had a higher kind of level of social media followers. But again, we don't really tell them what to say, and we don't ram the products, you know, through their front door. The products are available for them to choose to sample should they wish. And we work closely with the agency to make sure that those people who wish to use our products and therefore might review them again, there's no direct money that goes to these influencers because we don't, you know, we're not paying them to review our products. We're just saying look, they're available if you'd like to. And you know, we've had some big names that are spot on for us just to throw one name into the pot is Julia Bradbury, Jr, Barbary, she tried our products, and she absolutely loved them. And so she kept posting about it on on her socials which we were so grateful for. Because for someone else to say something about our products is so much more powerful than us saying, you know, what, when we say the same things over and over again, when somebody who has, you know, a relevant following absolutely says what we would love her to say, and we've not told her to say it. It's you know, it's just brilliant. And that's that's what I love is that kind of very natural and organic way of working with influencers. We don't pay them, we don't send them a script, we just say look, our product is available, should you wish to try it.
Unknown Speaker 39:17 That I absolutely love. We've just worked with a just started working with a creative agency and we've got such an emotional, you know, 26 I absolutely love it new creative campaign that will be coming out towards the end of the year, that again, just taps into 35 our consumers what we're about as a brand, and also the environment. And it's probably one of the most exciting kind of creative capital probably the only campaign actually that eco like as a brand has has embarked on. So I can't wait to kind of share that with you later down the line as and when we're kind of at that stage, but it's all about tapping into the emotional side of
Unknown Speaker 40:00 why people choose
Transcribed by https://otter.ai