-1 how will brands change the world

8/6/2019 -1 How Will Brands Change the World

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How will brandschange the world?The climate crisis, third world development, and the next rontier


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Interbrand | Pg. 2

How will brands change the world?:The climate crisis, third worlddevelopment, and the next rontier

At Interbrand, we have a mantra Brands

have the power to change the world. This

is a bold statement, but a true one. Brands

are everywhere, inuencing our daily lives.

We are shaped by the brands we buy into,

the opinions we align ourselves with, the

liestyles we aspire to, what we spend our

hard earned cash on. In act, our world has

been dramatically changed by brands.

We live in a world where more people know

Coca-Cola than Jesus. There are close to

one billion computer users in the world,

90 percent o which sit down to Microsot

everyday. Advertising has a grip on us all. Our

behaviors, our attitudes, and our opinions are

all inuenced by brands on a daily basis.

Bands have already changed the world, but

how might brands change the world in our

uncertain uture? How might brands aect

issues such as climate change, amine, or

human exploration or better or worse?

The hot topic

Brands are acing a tough time right now.

Climate change is on everyones lips. Brands

are under attack or issues such as carbon

emissions, power consumption, recycling,

waste disposal, and the impact o packaging.

The list goes on.A Havas Media report revealed that

consumers are calling upon brands to tackle

the climate crisis. They have long given up

on the government to solve the problem

and are turning to brands to create change.

Consumers are also wise to which companies

are credibly making changes and those that

are not. 79 percent o consumers would

rather buy rom companies doing their

best to reduce their impact upon the

environment, while 89 percent are likely

to buy more green goods in the next 12months and 35 percent are willing to pay a

premium or those goods. Brands are being

orced to embrace doing the right thing.

Research done by The Climate Group,

indicates that consumers are generally

receptive to companies that are working

to tackle climate change. In the UK brands

such as Tesco, BP, The Co-operative, Marks

& Spencer, and Sainsburys are being

praised or their leadership in tackling the

climate crisis.

Brands around the world are also takingnotice and taking measures to remedy the

climate problem. In Tokyo, February 2008,

12 leading companies including Allianz,

Sony, Nokia, and Nike signed the Tokyo

Declaration a commitment to reduce

emissions and the impact on the planet.

Brands are heeding the desires o their

consumers and acting responsibly and

taking action to combat climate change.

Meanwhile, due to a carbon ootprint

o two percent o world emissions, the

IT industry takes a lot o criticism or itscontribution to climate change. Apple,

HP, and Microsot have taken this to

heart and come out as clear leaders in this

sector. They have active environmental

policies and are able to communicate them

eectively to their market.

Apple has made a host o promises in

its environmental policy that includes

removing toxic chemicals rom products and

rigorous recycling program. HP has committe

to reducing its energy consumption by 25

percent, recovering two billion pounds oelectronics by 2010 and reducing the worlds

emissions with their energy ecient product

It strongly promotes its sustainability stance

encouraging consumers to ollow suit with

advice on how it too can help reduce their

carbon ootprint.

Increasingly brands are adopting

environmental policies and are promoting

them through advertising campaigns. This is

response to consumers desire or their brand

to be environmentally responsible. Businesse

have realized the potential o being sustainaband doing the right thing its proftable.

By communicating their commitments to

environmental responsibility, they win loyalty

rom consumers and proft. For this reason,

brands have the power to change the world

in a big way. I the brands are responsible or

the emissions and are now prepared to chang

their ways due to consumer demand, then

perhaps there is hope or the planet yet.

The third market

Brands and the developing world have

generally not been a success story with horro

stories about human rights, exploitation, and

harsh working conditions. But brands have

a tremendous power to change developing

nations or the good.

Simon Anholts book, Branding and Third World

Development raises an interesting idea about

how brands can beneft third word nations.

The idea is that third world countries export

by Chris Maclean


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How will brands change the world: the climate crisis, third world development, and the next rontier Interbrand | Pg. 3

too much raw primary produce or wealthier

countries to process, package, and sell as

brands. I these countries could reverse theprocess, producing the fnished product

themselves, they could export it or a

higher margin as a branded product. This

would raise employment and have other

economic benefts. Examples exist where

this has already happened such as the Indian

perume Urvashi, which is popular in Paris,

and Red Stripe beer, Jamaicas frst brand

which is exported all over the world.

Likewise, with climate change, consumers

are ready to back brands that are making

attempts to do the right thing. Proo o thiscan be seen with projects such as (RED), a

not-or-proft brand, co-ounded by Bono,

that distributes medicine to AIDS and HIV

patients in Arica. Leading brands release a

limited edition (RED) product and donate a

percentage o the profts back to (RED) to

distribute medicine, at no extra cost to the

consumer. Brands that have become (RED)

include Apples iPod, American Express,

Emporio Armani, Converse, Dell, and

Microsot Windows. (RED) is keen to point

out that it is not a charity, but a businessmodel. Proo again that brands recognize

the fnancial gain rom sustainability. The

act that consumers are willing to back

brands that participate in changing the

world points to a promising outlook. I

consumers can shit brands attitudes to

world issues and vice versa, there may be

hope yet.

Bill Gates has taken a major step down rom

his position at Microsot to concentrate

on giving his billions to charity. The Bill

and Melinda Gates oundation has an

endowment o US $38.7 billion and it

intends to enhance healthcare and reduce

extreme poverty globally. In the United

States, the oundation aims to expand

educational opportunities and access to

inormation technology. It must donate at

least fve percent annually which amounts

to a minimum o over US$ 1.5 billion. Is

the oundation not only an attempt to do

the right thing, but also to develop a new

customer base or Microsot? No doubt IT is

on the agenda or developing Arica.

Initiatives have already begun to capture

this lucrative market. The One Laptop PerChild Association (OLPC) is a non-proft

organization responsible or overseeing the

creation and distribution o an aordable

educational device or use in the third

world. Sponsors o the project include eBay,

Google, and News Corporation each o

them donating two million dollars. The

XO-1 is the current project a low cost

laptop, previously called the Hundred-dollar

Laptop. It can be hand cranked or power

and has a specially designed operating

system based on Linux;

an open source operating

system, meaning it is open

or developers to add to, or

improve the code.

Apple had originally oered

its OSX operating

system or ree but

the designers declined

because they wanted an

operating system that

could be tinkered with.

However, ater a deal with

Microsot, the XO-1 will now be oeredwith Microsot Windows alongside an open

source alternative. It seems that Microsot is

showing a very keen interest in this market,

as are a ew other big IT companies. But are

they attempting to solve the third world

problem or karma or or commercial gain?

Time will tell.

The fnal brand rontier

Nearly orty years since Neil Armstrong

uttered those amous words on the

surace o the moon, there has been little

advancement in human space travel.

When President Kennedy captured the

imagination o the world with the space

race, it was an exercise not only to put a

man on the moon, but also to stick one to

the Russians giving the voters what they

wanted on two counts. In todays political

climate, heavy investment to land a man on

Mars seems unlikely. The estimated cost o

the space race in the 1970s was about 100

billion dollars in todays money. Counter tha

to the 600 billion dollars spent since 2003 o

the Iraq war. It seems unlikely that the US

will be repeating such a world-uniting act inthe near uture with overheads like that.

We need to look to alternatives to

government unded space programs i

space exploration will continue. Private

enterprises, or brands, have the unding or

commercial space travel. This may sound

like antasy until you discover that the

frst venture or commercial space travel,

SpaceShipOne, is solely unded by none

other than Microsot co-ounder, Paul Allen

The crat was developed by aviation legend

Burt Rutan and built by his company, ScaleComposites. It will carry six passengers on

ights that will last two and a hal hours,

reaching a speed o Mach 3, into suborbit o

a ew minutes o zero gravity and to see the

humbling sight o the earths curve.

Richard Branson has recognized this

hugely untapped market and Virgin will

be the worlds frst brand to license the

SpaceShipOne technology with a new

company Virgin Galactic. It is expected

that around US $120 million will be

invested in developing the new generationo spaceships and ground inrastructure

required to operate Virgin Galactic.

Virgin expects to create around 3000 new

astronauts in the frst fve years. The price

o a ticket, which includes three days o pre

ight training, will be about US $200,000 o

the frst 100. The next 400 will pay a deposi

between US $100,000 and US $175,000.

All passengers ater that will pay a deposit

o only US $20,000 each not your average

beach holiday and initially only or the

super wealthy. However, the cheapest seat

As with climate change,

consumers are ready

to back brands that are

making attempts to do the

right thing.


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How will brands change the world: the climate crisis, third world development, and the next rontier Interbrand | Pg. 4

to date or a space ight on a government

spacecrat cost over US $15 million.

Bransons ticket is at least competitive, yetyoull most likely have to pay or the cost

o a sandwich on top o that. Interestingly,

among the frst wave o passengers will be

William Shatner, Sigourney Weaver, Steven

Hawking, and Paris Hilton spot the odd

one out.

The whole project came about by the X Prize

oundation, which gives prizes to teams

that ulfll a pre-set goal that will beneft

humanity. In this case it played the role o

President Kennedy oering US $10 million to

the frst team to launch a reusable, mannedspacecrat, to an altitude o 100 km, twice in

two weeks. In 2004, SpaceShipOne claimed

the Ansari X Prize.

The ollow up spacecrat, SpaceShipTwo,

will begin taking passengers in 2010. But,

theyre not the only player in this game.

Amazon ounder, Je Bezos has privately

unded Blue Origin, a suborbital space

tourism operation due to take passengers

once a week starting in 2010. Armadillo

Aerospace is a startup aerospace company

that plans to not only join the suborbitalspace tourism market, but has also stated

plans or orbital space travel. Other

competitors include Rocketplane Global,

Inc., which plans suborbital space tourism

ights or about US $200,000, and EADS

Astrium, which are expecting to begin

ights in 2012 at a cost per ticket o about

US $315,000. Space Adventures has been

operating space tourism ights since 2001,

albeit at a cost o US $20 million a seat.

We are about to enter a new era o space

tourism and within a decade or two

commercial space travel will be a possibility

or a large number o us. Maybe well see

brands such as Qantas, British Airways,

or American Airlines take to the challenge

o competing in the low orbit space travel

sector. Branson has already stated his goal

to give access to space or many countries

across the globe so competition seems

inevitable.

In years to come space tourism could

become a highly proftable business as

brands start to look urther afeld or holiday

destinations. Failing active research

and development rom governments,

brands may invest their own profts intoadvancement beyond earths orbit. Who

knows one day, maybe Mars? Perhaps

space exploration will have to be driven by

private enterprises, or brands.

Only recently, Virgin and Google have

joined orces to launch Virgle a

project to colonize Mars. In the absence

o a contingency plan or when Earth

becomes uninhabitable, these two brand

powerhouses have announced their

100-year plan to set up the city o Virgle

on Mars. The frst manned mission isplanned or 2016. The plan is to terraorm

the planet to make the atmosphere

breathable. Colonization will be in its

advanced stages by 2108. So, it seems that

brands might have the power to change

other worlds too.

The uture is bright

It is clear that brands will undoubtedly play

a major part in shaping our uture. But can

they counter heavy carbon ootprints with

proactive environmental responsibility?

Anything is possible. Because consumersare open to supporting environmentally

riendly brands, brands could play a major

role reversing the problem with their own

action and their message to consumers.

Brands are also recognizing the potential

or doing the right thing or the third

world. As Simon Anholt suggests, branding

itsel could be the answer to improving

economic wealth by allowing nations to

export fnished product rather than raw

produce. And as more brands begin to

associate themselves with aiding the thirdworld understanding that consumers

support brands that are actively creating

change or the better they may

contribute to fnding a way out o the

poverty and economic struggles in this

region as well. The IT industry, in particular,

seems interested in developing Arica and

other developing nations. Perhaps their

interest in this untapped market can get us

all on the same page technologically.

A number o brands are interested in

picking up where governments have ailed

to deliver and are pioneering a new waveo space tourism experiences. With brands

at the helm o space tourism research and

development, who know where they could

end up taking us? One things or sure

wherever it is, youll still be able to get a Big

Mac and Coke.

It seems the uture is bright. The utures

green, healed, developed, and ed. Perhaps

when brands have cracked the worlds

problems we can get back to what used to

be important developing humanity. That

really would be giant leap or mankind.Maybe, one day, brands can take us there

too.


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Creating and managingbrand valueTMinterbrand.com

Chris Maclean

As the Creative Director or Interbrand

Australia, Chris Maclean is responsible or

the creative output o both the Melbourne

and Sydney oces. Chriss approach to

branding is always about ideas ideas

that make you think, amuse, and engagean audience. Chris is a contributor to

Marketing magazine and has been the

recipient o numerous prestigious design

awards including D&AD, Type Directors

Club, New York Festivals, and the

Clio Awards.

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