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Turning consumers into brand evangelists by doing good: lessons from Gap and Product (RED)

Published on 20/11/07
by ryan

Gap is in trouble. They’ve got a new CEO who is tightening the company’s belt a few sizes, as America falls out of love with its uninventive clothing line. According to the NY Times, Gap “has faltered badly over the last five years, with sales and profits slipping as it churned through looks and executives.” Regardless of Gap’s ability to maximize its margin, it is going to find a way back into the hearts of consumers to impress Wall Street.

While the Product (RED) campaign has its critics, I’ve supported it strongly since its launch. I believe that companies will increasingly compete for the business of consumers not by attention-getting advertising, but by doing good. We’ll buy the environmentally friendly car from the company we know invests heavily in turning dog turds into clean energy over the one we remember advertised with the hottest supermodel sliding around on its oiled up hood, because doing the right thing feels good, and we can’t do the right thing and feed the supermodel.

The shift from competing for consumer’s attention to build brand and influence purchasing decisions with interruptive (read: annoying) advertising to creating awareness, building brand, and increasing sales by endeavoring to leave society and the environment better off, with every dollar earned, is a substantial shift that I eagerly await. Gap’s (RED) campaign achieved this, but it forgot one vital ingredient.

  • Half of its profits on (RED) products went toward fighting AIDS
  • The awareness-raising, witty (RED) t-shirts were made in Africa from 100% African cotton
  • Gap shifted a significant portion of its advertising spend toward raising awareness from the campaign, becoming the most vocal player of the (RED) campaign

Product (RED) quickly appeared central in Gap’s social impact strategy, but it never made Gap a hit. It didn’t win consumers’ hearts. I thought I had seen the last of (RED) at Gap when it was replaced by some forgettable traditional campaign, and then it returned for Valentine’s Day. Still, no hope.

The problem was that the campaign, regardless of the authenticity of its aims, never seemed truly genuine. It relied on consumers to act first. In effect, it’s ad campaigns said “there is a huge problem in Africa, and we can fix it, but you have to buy our $28 t-shirts first.” Consumers, as natural brand evangelists, waited eagerly for Gap to take the spotlight and become a company worth falling in love with, but got stood up like nightmare prom dates. Consumers don’t evangelize for the bottom line, employees do that, and usually don’t get paid enough to care as soon as they head home from work. When was the last time you heard someone evangelize Exxon Mobil? There are plenty of examples of companies, however, that made conscious decisions to make doing good central to their corporate strategy. If you catch me at a bar where it’s on tap, I’ll usually order a Fat Tire and tell anyone who will listen about the New Belgium Brewing’s nearly maniacal commitment to making beer without the non-renewable energy aftertaste (buy me a Fat Tire sometime and I’ll tell you all about it).

Turn your consumers into evangelists by doing good. Now.

1. Your move first. No conditional commitments. If your company doesn’t have anything to lose, it probably isn’t worth talking about. Just go do it.

2. Responsible business has nothing to do with how your company spends the money it makes. It’s about how your company makes the money it spends (stolen from Kellie McElhaney, from the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business). If your company is a high tech engineering company, stop writing checks to neuter stray cats, regardless of the worthiness of the cause. It’s time to look deep within the core of your business and all of its operations and to drive social and environmental returns through these activities and competencies.

3. Share the story with consumers in an authentic way (no telling). There is no market for messages. CSR is a conversation. Start that conversation with consumers. It just so happens that we are working on the best way to do so.

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