POP: Grimes And Stella McCartney Team Up For Sustainability

We're naturally big fans of Stella McCartney here at The Pier. She's one of the big voices calling out for sustainable fashion, and she walks it like she talks it. Her clothes have taken the lead in ethical sourcing with a clear sense of mission and forward thinking. She's a bit of a hero round these parts.

Like every other big-name fashion designer, Stella also has a range of perfumes. With the launch of her latest scent, POP (yes, it's all caps), she's amping up the sustainability message, with the clever use of a very unexpected face to showcase the brand.

It would be easy to get a music star on board to promote POP–the clue is in the name, after all. But instead of a boring mainstream choice, Stella has chosen to work with Claire Boucher, the edgy electronic artist better known as Grimes. Claire's latest album, Art Angel, has been lauded as one of the best releases of last year by many music journos, and she's become a pretty big name in the charts.

Grimes shares a lot of Stella's values. She's vocal on environmental issues and animal rights, supporting causes like The National Observer, a magazine that reports on the environment for whom she auctioned off artwork last year. The pairing of Stella and Grimes is a natural fit, and the just-released advert for POP makes the chemistry obvious.

The connection goes deeper, as in the ad Grimes explicitly talks about sustainability in fashion. It's a clever move, slipped into an advert that could otherwise have been a generic perfume promo aimed at young women. But the clues are there throughout. Stella has said of POP:

“POP is a spirit. It’s about capturing and celebrating that very special and exciting time when you are finding yourself and coming into your own. It’s about freedom, and starting your life away from judgments or labels.”

By choosing Grimes to front the campaign, Stella is making a sharp point about the fashion industry in which she is trying to make changes. It's not agit-prop by any means, but the message couldn't be clearer–sustainable fashion is a cool, smart choice for free-thinking girls.

Check out the ad below. POP is available wherever perfume is sold.

 And while we're at it, let's have a little something from Grimes' day job.

A Chokehold On Funding That Could Cripple Charities

There are twitchy times ahead for charities, as the public's relationship with them and the way they raise funds continues to sour.
It used to be simple. Charity boxes in the shape of guide dogs or kids with legs in calipers outside the newsagents. Perhaps someone with a red tin and a placard on the high street on a Saturday afternoon. Drop in fifty pence, and you felt like you'd contributed.
These days, charities are ever more inventive in ways to get us to give and keep giving. From TV ads to the Ice Bucket Challenge, sponsored walks to street workers with direct debit forms, it can feel as if you're constantly being asked to pony up for a deserving cause.
That's the feeling for a chunk of the general public, anyway, who are looking at charity cold-calling and street teams with increasing amounts of loathing. The Olive Cooke case has bought the issue into sharp relief. Olive, one of the British Legion's longest-serving poppy sellers, was found dead at the bottom of the Avon Gorge in May, following a newspaper article in which she had claimed she was suffering from depression brought on by the high number of donation requests she recieved. Some newspaper reports reported that over 270 such requests had come through her letterbox in a single month.
In the light of that, and the ongoing media furore (ever alert to the chance of a headline, even Prime Minister David Cameron has weighed in with a comment, setting his Minister for Civil Society onto the Fundraising Standards Board) public opinion has cooled yet further. A letter template requiring charities to stop cold-calling launched by BBC's The One Show was downloaded 18,000 times in a week. There are concerns that it's unclear how to opt out of a charity's subscription list, or that those lists are shared between organisations.
All of which leads to one conclusion: charities are out of control when it comes to getting hold of our money. Right?
Wrong.
There are very clear controls in place for how charities contact the public and opt-outs have to be in place on any communication by law. Horror stories like that of Olive Cooke inevitably lead to a spike in complaints from people who suddenly feel like victims of a pernicious cold-call culture, lumping charity calls in with PPI and utility suppliers as invaders of the sanctity of the English home. Worse still, this article in the Manchester Evening News lumps street fundraising in with unlicensed busking and even begging as nuisances that are to be cracked down on buy council officers in the busy Market Street area of the city.
It's possible that the Institute of Fundraising could become more involved in drafting and enforcing guidelines, but there is no clear sign that this is likely. Ministerial involvement is likely to be fleeting, fading away as soon as the cameras switch off.
But the damage has already been done. The increasingly poor image of traditional charity fund-raising has taken another hit, and leaves us with a worrying question. As the Third Sector is asked to do more to plug the gap in funding torn open by austerity measures, and at the same time are crippled in how they raise funds to do that work, how long will it take before charities start to fold and more and more vulnerable people are left out in the cold?

The Volvo Safety Jacket: the way forward for cycle safety?

An interesting sidebar in ethical design is coming out of Sweden, inspired by car manufacturer Volvo. They've sponsored a competition with the London School Of Fashion to design futuristic clothing, taking cues from the new XC90. One of the winning entres might just save lives.

It's a jacket for cyclists that includes some innovative safety features. In three strands--Commuter, Competitive and Weekender--the students have created clothes that incorporate reflective fibres and piping, left and right turning indicators and even group tracking to allow a peleton wearing the clothes to communicate with each other.
There's a lot of thought in these new jackets, and Volvo certainly seem to be trying to do the right thing by cyclists in showcasing these new designs. It's not even their first foray into the field. The company recently launched a product called Life Paint, a reflective spray which allows cyclists to easily make their clothing and bikes visible.
But there are problems with Volvo's move towards cycle safety. For one thing, Life Paint is non-permanent, lasting one week between applications. With no proper release date as yet (so far it's had a limited roll-out as a freebie in a selected few bike shops, making it nearly impossible to get hold of) there's no way of knowing if it's anything more than a marketing ploy.
Cyclist groups remain unconvinced by Volvo's strategy, saying it's a move by a car manufacturer to shift the focus on road safety firmly onto the cyclist. The awful truth is that almost all bike-related fatalities in London this year have been through collisions with HGVs in broad daylight--conditions in which Volvo's innovations would have been no use whatsoever. Mikael Colville-Anderson of Copenhagenize Design points out the double-standards at play:

"Where are the Volvos of the world promoting motorist helmets, reflective paint on cars, airbags on the outside of cars that the Dutch have been working on since 2007 and yes, health warnings on cars, etc?"

This is not to downplay the achievements of the students, or to claim that cyclists shouldn't take their fair share of responsibility for staying safe on the road. It's nice to see cycling clothes that don't make you look like a day-glo bubblehead. But, with no indication of the Volvo Safety Jacket being anything other than a prototype, and with no details on pricing, it's no surprise that many commentators think that Volvo are steering cyclists into a dead end.

Trends For 2015

Happy New Year! With 2014 firmly behind us, let's look forward to the new challenges and opportunities that 2015 has to offer. What are the trends and movements that will take us through the next twelve months?
Fashion is going through a period of profound change. Driven by technology, the movers and shakers behind the big brand names are quietly repositioning their business models, redeveloping their supply chains and reconfiguring the way they deal with both their suppliers and their customers. As the public become more aware of the human rights and environmental abuses done in fashion's name, and become more strident in voicing their disapproval, the high street names are frantically working to make sure they aren't seen as villains. The awful realisation that their customers are both highly media-savvy and have weapons-grade bullshit detectors has scared them into doing the right thing by both the people under their care and the planet.
We're already seeing several trends emerging as the way forward over the next few years. Transparency is vitally important, but I think we'll see big brands embracing tech in new ways to take on the biggest challenge any multinational faces--taking full responsibility for their supply chain. It's no longer good enough for a company to claim ignorance about the conditions in the factories that make clothes in their name, especially when disaster strikes. Both Gap and Walmart faced significant consumer blowback after their mealy-mouthed attempts to wriggle out of compensation payments after Rana Plaza.
I'm not saying that it's going to be easy, of course. There's a complex network of suppliers and factories to tie together, from the fields of the cotton growers, to the mills where fabric is spun, to the manufacturers and suppliers of zips, buttons and decorations, to the factories where the clothes are assembled, to the shops where they are finally sold to the public. Supply chain logistics is going to be one of the biggest challenges of the next decade, and the first company to get it right will see massive benefits, as ways to streamline and smooth the production process become clear. You need the overview to be able to get things right. It's the difference between digging in your pocket for change, and taking it all out so you can get a good look at what you're carrying.
We will also, I think, see a step change in the way that brands interact with their customers. At the moment, there are stores like H&M that have ethical collections as part of their main ranges. However, they're seen as worthy offshoots from the main branch. You're supposed to feel good about buying them, and also applaud the brand for taking a bold step into sustainable waters.
The emergence of pro-social brands, where the whole business is based around an ethical core from which every decision is made, has yet to make it into the fashion mainstream. Think of food companies like Ben & Jerry's, or Innocent. The closest this sector has to a pro-social brand is, I suppose, Patagonia. The difference between an ethical and a pro-social brand is, as the Guardian points out, a campaigning nature that steps beyond simply promoting change and goes out of its way to actively seek it. Typically, donations to set charities or causes are baked into the profit margins, and the brands go out of their way to be fair to their suppliers. Pro-social is a way to show how importantly a brand takes ethical issues, and engage customers in a whole new way. Pro-social brands set the agenda, rather than be led by customer reaction or demand. They lead, and know that a conscious, engaged consumer base will follow.
In the higher-end of the market, you'll start to see clothes that push the artisinal agenda harder than before. Products produced to a high finish that have been created by highly skilled workmen will always attract a high price tag. As fashion in general becomes more interested in the people that make the clothes, the more exclusive end of the market will shift to take advantage of that new focus. Expect to see unusual material and styling choices using rediscovered skillsets: for example, Saigon Socialite's amazing shoes that team sleek French leather with traditional Vietnamese pagoda-carved soles.
There's loads more to talk about as we slip into the New Year, but I don't want to blow all my discussion points in one post. For now, I urge you take a peek at Ecouterre's discussion with a bunch of ethical fashionistas, who all have their own ideas about what 2015 has in store.

The New Normal

We've talked before about the need for ethical fashion to become more than just a niche product. At the moment it's a kind of worthy sub-genre that, if we were in the movie world, would be world cinema or documentaries when compared to the giant ugly blockbusters that the fashion behemoths spit out.
Worse still, ethical fashion can be seen as not just worthy but expensive. By the simple act of paying artisans a proper working wage, unit costs go up, which means the price of the finished item goes up, which means you can never be seen as a cheap and cheerful everyday choice.
It doesn't help that, if brands do decide to launch ethical collections, they do so while effectively ghettoising the range. It's kept in its own little stable away from the main shop floor, where its poor delicate sensibilities might be ruffled by the clothes on the rest of the racks. By making these collections 'special', 'exclusive' or worst of all, 'limited edition', the best intentions of the big-name store are ruined. The range withers on the vine, excluded, ignored and eventually cancelled for want of sales. "We tried," the brands will say, "but no-one wanted to buy the clothes." Not surprising if the stuff's 20% more expensive and stuck on a standee at the back of the store.
In order for ethical fashion to succeed, it needs to become, well, normal. It needs to become the choice that people make without thinking, the item that people reach for because it's the first thing on the rack, and isn't unusually priced. We have a long way to go before that happens, of course. But one way of getting the message out, counter-intuitive though it might seem, is not to get the message out. Rather than push out the message about how eco-friendly and socially responsible your clothes are, why not just make the best clothes you can to the highest ethical standards you can, and see what happens when they are forced to stand up for themselves?
There are few people out there that will buy clothes because they're worthy, and the era of the eco-warrior who was proud to wear itchy, badly-dyed goat-hair jumpers is, thankfully, past. People don't wear clothes because of the label. They buy them because they're comfortable and they look good. I'm not saying marketing isn't important. But a piece has to be more than its advertising campaign.
A recent piece in the Guardian highlighted designers at London Fashion Week who were working with short supply chains, a close relationship with their factories and clever use of recycled materials without making a fuss about it. These guys are start-ups, but they see a sustainable model not as a choice, but as the only logical way of working. Daniela Felder of German label Felder Felder says:

"Working closely with our factory is crucial to get the right result but also because of the relationship we work with people we trust, it’s personal, there is genuine love and care."

More importantly, though, these smaller operators can move quickly and have the ability to experiment and try new things. Here, perhaps, is the key. Ekatherina Kukhareva, for example, is using computer-controlled flat-knitting techniques to cut her waste output down to scraps. There's no need to compromise. They can see the cracks in the current model, and manoeuvre smoothly around and through them. As pioneers for potentially game-changing working practices, designers like Felder Felder and Kukhareva are shaping the future dialogue between fashion house, factory and consumer, making sustainability the new normal.

Doing It For The Kids

In a recent article for The Guardian, fashion activist Rachel Kibbe makes the case that ethical brands need to engage with a growing and influential market: the so-called Millenials.
Or as we used to call them, teenagers.
Although there's not a great deal of fresh meat in Rachel's piece, she does make a couple of interesting points. However, there's a whacking great hole in her central argument. By asserting that ethical brands need a more active social media presence to attracts the youngers, she ignores the fact that they are largely an online phenomenon in the first place. Brands like People Tree grew up on the Internet, and don't need to rely on bricks and mortar stores. The Ethical Fashion Forum is a vibrant online community that allows free online access to tons of useful resources. Most of the brands that I've covered and dealt with have solid Twitter, Instagram and Facebook presences.
However, is this enough? In some ways, Rachel's right. Pop into Primark on a Saturday afternoon, and the place is groaning with teens. Are any of them aware of the problems with fast fashion's ethical and environmental model? Do any of them care?
The thing is, Millenials have always had the web, have grown up online. As Rachel says, they're more than capable of researching an issue and making up their own minds. Is it, then simply a case that ethical brands need to use one of the oldest tricks in the book: getting a pop star to endorse their message? That's a slightly more tricky prospect, with the ever-looming chance of backfire: check out Lana Del Rey for H&M, advertising angora sweaters just as the scandal over the way the stuff's harvested kicked off.
If Rihanna or Taylor Swift made the case for ethical fashion, and urged their fans to hit the stores and demand change, what would happen? Would we see a fashion revolution? Social media can of course be a driver for change. What Rachel doesn't seem to realise is that it's already happening. Greenpeace's Detox initiative has caused a major shift in the way huge fashion multinationals deal with their industrial waste, and War On Want's campaigns regularly make the headlines. These are projects whose core engine is the power of social media.
Millenials are smart, engaged and incredibly media-savvy. There is still work to be done to ensure that they see that there's more choice out there when it comes to fashion than the big-box brands, and of course celebrity endorsement can help. But I think it's borderline insulting to suggest that ethical fashion needs to up its social media game. We're already here. And the message is getting out, albeit a little slower than Rachel--and indeed the rest of us--would like.

Putting The Spotlight On A New Pier32 Venture

At Pier32, we believe in doing our bit for the environment. I've always seen emerging technologies as a way of becoming smarter about the way we handle our needs, as we move into a century that's likely to have some major challenges to the way we live now.

For example, did you know that lighting can account for up to 25% of a building's energy costs? With the advent and development of LED technologies, it should be a no-brainer for businesses to replace their lighting with newer, cleaner solutions. But take-up is slow. No-one wants to suffer the downtime of putting in new lighting structures. And of course, there's still a stigma attached to low-energy bulbs: that they're unreliable and take forever to come up to full luminance.

I'm happy to report that those rumours are very old news, and that putting in new eco-friendly lighting is a lot simpler than you might think. But tell you what, I'll let this nice chap with the Pro-Markers write it all down for you.

The benefits are obvious, and we're putting our famed customer service to bear, making sure that fitting LED Eco-lights is a low-fuss installation that starts saving you money and energy from your first bill. It's an exciting new venture for us, and we think it fits in with our mission to bring an eco-friendly message to businesses across the UK. If you'd like to know more, visit our dedicated Eco-light page or just chat to Gerry The Voice directly. We think LED Eco-lights are a brighter way to help lighten your energy bills. We hope you'll agree.

LED Eco-lights From Pier32

(Allow me to toot my own horn for a second: that film was a one-man creation: that man being me. I even did the voiceover. Well, if you want to do something properly, you have to do it yourself...)

Uncharitable Behaviour

Charities are in a tough place at the moment, and it's not going to get any easier. They are expected to pull up the slack as the public sector has its belt forcibly tightened in a governmental wedgie. They are expected to do this as their funding is cut and as donations drop due to the prevailing economic slump.
It amazes me that charities can do their jobs, not just in the current chilly financial climate, but at all. They're subject to one of the most unfair paradoxes around. We expect charities to raise money, but there are screams of horror should they hold any of it back for administration or, god forbid, growth.
Duncan Green of Oxfam lays out the problem neatly in a recent article for The Guardian. Charities, he says, are caught between a very big rock and a very hard place. They can't afford to attract the sort of managerial talent that would enable them to make more money for their chosen cause. Any charity that is seen to be "profligate" with their funds are in for an instant PR hosedown with raw sewage. How dare they hold back 3% of their funds to pay for staff and premises? How dare they think about actually growing, or investing in the future? Won't somebody think of the children?
This isn't just wrong-headed, it's actively dangerous. One in ten charities recently polled think that they will be drawing down the shutters in the next twelve months. Horrible, but hardly surprising when they're actively discouraged away from modern business practices that might just make the difference between survival of a much needed resource, or yet another cause on the scrapheap. Is it coincidental that the most successful charities (and let's be clear about the definition here; success in raising funds for their cause is what I mean) are the ones that have managed to rise above the snark and cant and run themselves along well-proven business lines.
Any charity that's worthy of the name will be doing all they can to minimise costs and maximise their usefulness to their chosen cause. That's straightforward enough. But if there is an opportunity to significantly raise their game, either through the hiring of skilled managers or investment in infrastructure, then surely it's a no-brainer to take a bit now and pay it back with interest later? The small-mindedness with which people view charities boggles my mind, and it's frankly unsustainable nowadays. If you want charities to succeed, if you want them to be part of The Big Society (gone a bit quiet on that front recently, hasn't it?) then you either need to give them appropriate funding, or the freedom to be able to raise it in whatever way they feel fit.
It really is about time that we gave charities a break. We need to wise up, and see them as business entities with responsibilities to their stakeholders, who need them to survive and thrive. A healthy Third Sector is a vital part of the UK's social welfare programme. We don't have the luxury of treating it with disdain or patronising neglect any more.
To finish, a repost of a TED talk that will always bear repeating, from financier, charity maven and activist Dan Pallotta.

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Every Conversation Helps Conservation With WWF Wildlife Mobile

The World Wildlife Fund's latest money-raising initiative is one of the most innovative I've seen in a while. In association with Digital Spring and Vodafone, they've launched their own mobile network!

WWF Wildlife Mobile is a SIM-only plan that's incredibly cost effective. Bundles start at £9.50 for a ton of calls, texts and data, and you don't pay a penny extra to donate to the charity. 10% of every call charge is paid by Digital Spring to help conservation causes.

Let's do the maths. A 10 minute call on WWF Wildlife Mobile could pay for six tree seedlings to help restore critical and vanishing areas of tiger habitat. Just two weeks of regular usage could cover the costs of a three-person community based anti-poaching patrol in the field for a day, protecting Tigers and Rhinos in Nepal. That sort of basic usage can add up fast and makes a real difference to vital conservation projects across the globe.

Digital Spring are keen to work with charities like WWF to create complete digital services. It's a whole new way of fund-raising without having to rattle collection boxes, and I can see other big charities moving up to join them. As the system works in conjunction with probably the largest UK mobile service provider, there's no feel that your support for a worthy call means a drop in quality--in fact the whole point is that you shouldn't notice any difference in either picking up a call or to your pocket. As WWF Wildlife Mobile offer some of the cheapest rates around, the effects can only be beneficial.

This is clever stuff, and marks a new waypoint in the way people buy phone and data services. Brand loyalty is, as we know, incredibly important, so why restrict that to phone providers and supermarkets? Donating to your favourite charity doesn't just have to be a phone call away any more--it can be part of every phone call you make. Switching is simple, free and you can keep your old number and phone. I'm tempted to look into this myself when my latest Sim-only deal comes to an end in the summer.

I think WWF Wildlife Mobile are ringing in a new era of smart, effective fundraising. Let's see where it takes us. For more info, and to sign up as either a Pay As You Go or bundle customer, check out the website.

WWF Wildlife Mobile

One of the cute bundle mascots

 

Ke$ha: Keeping It Real With Fake Fur

I can't pretend that I'm much of a fan of rave-pop songstress Ke$ha or her musical stylings, which come across to me as having the appeal of the business end of a dentist's drill. Sorry, old fart roots showing.

But I'm more prone to think kindly of the girl knowing that she's the Global Ambassador for Humane Society International. Even more so, that she's starting up her own line of clothes that will heavily feature faux fur.

Now, I'll admit to wearing the odd bit of leather, on my feet mostly. I'm agnostic about animal products in general, and downright enthusiastic when they're in a pie in front of me at dinner time. But fur coats have always had an element of squick, and I applaud any attempt by public figures to make the point that actually, there are perfectly good alternatives to chopping the tail off a raccoon to make your jacket look a bit more fancy. Lady Gaga sadly feels somewhat differently, and is as carnivorous in her fashion taste as ever, as anyone who's seen her raw meat coat will testify.

Yes, sure, Ke$ha has a new album out next week, which makes it very easy for critics and cynics to claim publicity stunt. I prefer to think she's using her status to push issues that she cares about, and hey, why not. I say keep animals off the backs of celebrities, and on a plate with some chips and salad where they belong.

The ABC of Custom Clothing

Why would you choose custom clothing for your business, charity or club? Isn't it a bit of a luxury, an expense that could be better spent elsewhere?

Allow us to disagree. Custom clothing is important. The reasons why are as clear and simple as ABC.

A is for Awareness. Awareness of your product, your organisation, your event. It's a great way of making sure that people know the reason you're around.

B is for Brand. We all have an item of clothing somewhere in our wardrobe that bears the logo of a manufacturer or designer. It makes you aware of the brand. It also helps with identification of staff in a store, restaurant or hotel. Has anyone ever asked you to find them something in a shop when you don't work there? Branded custom polos or t-shirts helps to avoid those embarrassing moments.

C is for Community. Custom clothing can help clubs and organisations to bond, to feel that they're part of something bigger. Look at the clothes that the T-Birds wear in Grease. Or the cool shirts ten-pin bowling teams wear. Custom clothing can help you show support for a cause or an idea, too. Look at the shirts that Fact Fashion put together raising awareness of third world poverty. Or Katherine Hammett's Choose Life shirts.

I think there are three great reasons for choosing custom clothing right there. If you need more, why not check out the Pier32 website? It's so easy. Tell 'em, Michael...

Hubcap Creatures

Meet Ptolemy Elrington. He's the master and commander of Hubcap Creatures, a company that retasks one of our ugliest examples of urban waste into objects of real beauty.

His work takes the idea of recycling and uses it to talk about the nature of value - a process he calls redesigning. Hubcaps are carefully designed and well-thought out objects that abruptly lose their worth once they are separated from the car. Ptolemy gives those objects a new lease of life, a reassertion of value.

 

He gets his hubcaps from donations after years of kerb-surfing, including a recent gift of 1000 from the Eden Project. He also works in scrap metal, providing some striking objects for the show that are already photo-opportunity favourites.

 

Ptolemy is a lovely chap with a real sense of what's important in the workplace. His enthusiasm for the craft is absolutely infectious. You might notice that he's wearing a Pier32 top as well. We believe in sharing the love around.

For more, including details on how Ptolemy could make your own commissioned hubcap creature, check out his website.

Hubcap Creatures

 

A Weekend Away

I know it might seem a little early to start thinking about the weekend, but that's exactly what we're doing here at The Pier. No, we're not slacking. You see, the Eco-Technology Show is on in Brighton this weekend, and Pier32 will be there.

It's your chance to meet Guru Ian and I, and see our ethical take on the promotional clothing scene. We're proud to be a part of this national showcase for green technology and innovation. It promises a unique mix of business, decision makers, subject specialists, policy makers and buyers over a two-day event that's guaranteed to inspire and excite you! There's free workshops, a sustainable food market and lots more.

It's on at the Amex Stadium in Brighton on Friday and Saturday. You can find us at Stands E1-E2 in the Information, Education & Lifestyle Zone in the East Stand, and we'd love you to come and say hi. Let us entice you with our special offers and rates for the show. And don't forget, we're still offering free tickets (normally a fiver) if you book through the Pier32 website.

For more on what to expect, the Eco-Technology Show website has all the news. See you there!

The Eco-Technology Show 2012

Labs, Labels and Shwopping: M&S crank Plan A up a gear

While H&M have made a lot of noise about their sustainable credentials, with results that are at best open to question and at worst to accusations of blatant green-washing, Britain’s other store that can be abbreviated to two letters and an ampersand is quietly making some big changes.

In the past couple of weeks Marks and Spencer have announced three major new initiatives that put them very much in the lead when it comes to greening the High Street. A Sustainable Fashion Lab, run in association with the London School of Fashion, is running now until May 9th at the Old Truman Brewery in East London, holding talks, workshops and the chance to design your own pieces. Entrance is free, as long as you bring an unwanted piece of clothing that can be repurposed on site or donated to Oxfam.

On that subject, M&S have also just launched their ”shwopping” campaign, headed up by comedy fashionista Joanna Lumley. The idea is simple, and hooks into their earlier collaboration with Oxfam. Bring in an item of clothing when you buy something new from M&S and you get entered into prize draws and competitions. The eventual aim is for the chain to recycle as many clothes as it sells - 350 million items a year. It's a big idea, and if it takes off could have massive implications for the way we shop.

Finally, a small thing that shows how attention to detail can have surprising benefits. M&S have announced plans to make their labels from recycled PET (shredded plastic bottles melted and spun into yarn) instead of virgin polyester. Which might not seem like much, but they make 300 million of the little blighters a year. The new labels will also carry a reminder to use the M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange, which offers rewards to customers that donate old clothing to Oxfam stores in exchange for an M&S money-off voucher.

The Plan A initiative that M&S began to roll out a couple of years ago has seen the retailer embrace change and innovation at all levels of its business, from factory to store room to shop floor. These new announcements show a company that's confidant and forward thinking, and fully aware that when it comes to high street sales, green means go.

Spreading The Word

As social media becomes a bigger and bigger part of everyone's lives, it's interesting to see how big companies are taking the opportunity to communicate more directly with their customers. I'm not just talking about spam or money-off vouchers. Twitter and Facebook can be a brilliant way to let people know about less tangible benefits--like sustainability.

The second Social Media Sustainability Index, published yesterday in The Guardian, shows some astonishing growth in the use of social media for that purpose since last year. More than double the amount of major companies have an online presence that specifically addresses their ethical and sustainable projects. Blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook Pages are all helping to get the word out as the big corporations realise that it's a great idea to shout about their good deeds. Sustainability, to put it simply, has become sexy.

This can, of course, be more than a simple PR exercise. Companies that are genuinely pushing towards true sustainability, and are communicating about it in a clear and engaging way have a real advantage in social media. Some, like Renault and BBVA are putting together communities of like-minded people through their social media projects. A great example of this is @myurbangreen from M&S, a project that I wrote about last week that's engaging whole communities in taking care of their own green spaces. Even the name has Twitter connotations.

We live in a world where it's straightforward to communicate with your customer base, but tricky to do it in a way that doesn't feel pandering or patronising. Get it right and do it honestly and transparently and there are big rewards to be had.

This blog is, I like to think, a good example of what I've been talking about. And the Pier32 Twitter account, run by Guru Ian, is well worth a look: Pier32UK gives you the very latest news from The Pier.

Marking Out A Green Space with M&S

Marks And Spencer have spent the last couple of years as the front-runner in the move towards a greener high street. Their Plan A initiative has quietly revolutionised the brand's business model. Without disrupting their core values, good old M&S has made sustainability an integral part of how we as consumers view one of our most venerable shops.
That move is now spreading beyond the stores. M&S have launched @myurbangreen, a new project in conjunction with environmental charity Greenwork. The plan is to help communities to get involved in developing, managing and maintaining local green spaces. They're taking this seriously; by the end of September M&S plan to have been involved in 850 green space activities and events. They also plan to support 300 "Friends Of" groups, helping them to support and grow their local urban green space.
This is interesting stuff. M&S are already working closely with charities like Oxfam on clothes recycling projects, but @myurbanspaces (shame about the name) is more, dare we say, Big Society in outlook. It's a huge corporation actively seeking to give back to the community in a way that isn't connected with the core business. Sure, you could argue that it's simply corporate sponsorship writ large. But it's a logical step forward, given the work that has already been done. Working in lockstep with a respected environmental charity shows that this isn't a simple brand awareness exercise. I'm genuinely enthusiastic about this, and I'll be keeping an eye on how it works in parks, allotments and green spaces around the country.

If You Lead, I Will Follow

I talk a lot on this blog about how customer power is leading the slow but inexorable shift towards a greener, more sustainable high street.  But that's only half the story. Retailers need to be on board, as well--and it seems, they need to be one step ahead of their customer's wishes.
At a conference last month hosted by The Start Initiative, a charity to promote sustainable living chaired by Prince Charles, the problems and challenges faced by retailers in this new arena were thrown into sharp relief. Large brands like Asda and M&S are reporting that their customers are looking for information on sustainable products. But at the same time they're expecting the stores to lead the way.
This kind of public information, which until recently would have been seen as a government responsibility, is more likely these days to be dealt with by the retail sector. Whatever we think of that shift in educational focus, it's an opportunity for switched-on brands to show their customers that they share values and concerns.
The trick is how you introduce and present yourself. Come across as preachy or worse, fake, and there's trouble in store. The key, it seems, is a soft touch, allowing change to emerge slowly.
Adam Elman, head of delivery for Plan A and sustainable business at Marks & Spencer, puts it best when he says:

"The key is to be one step ahead of the customer, not two. Otherwise they won't come with you."

Baby steps, then. Plan A is a good example of this, as most of the changes M&S are making to create a sustainable business model are taking place behind the scenes, and over a five year period.
Clever ways of getting the customer to adopt new ways of thinking towards their purchases have benefits for everyone. For example, the M&S partnership with Oxfam, where donated clothes trigger a discount voucher, keeps the brand and it's values in the customers mind, sparks a return visit to the store and keeps perfectly good clothes out of landfill.
The green High Street is still a long way off. But it's great to see big-name brands taking the challenge seriously, and helping to lead the way.

More on the Start Conference over at the Guardian.

The Ethical Directory

You can find Pier32 listed on more and more worthwhile ecolistings sites these days. The latest, we are happy and proud to announce, is The Ethical Directory, part of The Offset Warehouse.

They are the the first UK online retailer to bring together all the elements needed to create ethical clothing and interiors. Bringing together a wide range of eco-friendly and fairtrade fabrics, haberdashery, garments and resources, The Offset Warehouse are dedicated to making it easy to be responsible and fashionable.

Of course, that's always been the motivating factor for Pier 32, so it's great to be recognised and promoted by an initiative that shares so many of our core values. You can find our page of the Directory here. While you're at it, why not see what else The Offset Warehouse have to offer?

A time for courage in marketing.....

Times are tough, we are talking ourselves into a recession. As we will hear often, it will be survival of the fittest. But what makes you fit to survive?

The latest Bellwether survey (just published by the IPA, the Institute of Practioners in Advertising) makes for depressing reading - "in Q3 annual marketing budgets were revised down to the greatest extent ever recorded in the survey’s nine year history". Moray MacLennan, IPA President, said “I doubt these gloomy results will come as a surprise to anyone. In light of current headlines the biggest surprise may well be that 12% of companies’ budgets were revised upwards"

People will go on buying, after all the GDP will probably only fall a percent or two before we claw back again. But that percent or two will shake out some under-performers and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that a major contribution to failure is a lack of courage in maintaining marketing spend. In fact, when competition to get a new customer increases, can it make more sense to increase marketing spend?

So returning to the 12% spending more, what evidence is there to suggest that increasing their marketing budget is a good thing? I've done a bit of digging:

The Smeal College of Business conducted a survey in 2005 called "Turning Adversity Into Advantage: Does Proactive Marketing During a Recession Pay Off?" The survey interviewed more than 150 senior marketing executives from a variety of industries about the effect of the last US recession in 2003. It found "firms entering a recession with a pre-established strategic emphasis on marketing; an entrepreneurial culture; and a sufficient reserve of under-utilized workers, cash, and spare production capacity are best positioned to approach recessions as opportunities to strengthen their competitive advantage". Dr. Gary Lilien, one of the authors of the study is interviewed at the BNET Intercom blog. It seems that spending more will not work for everyone but if the existing culture is to value marketing, the nerve is there and you have the capital to give you the confidence to do it, then the outcome from the last recession suggests that increased marketing in a recession substantially strengthens the relative competitive position when coming out of it.

A well written piece by Millward Brown entitled "Marketing During Recession: To spend or not to spend" highlights anecdotal and survey evidence that cutting back on marketing is often a bad idea. He highlights an IPA analysis that suggests that "While companies that cut marketing spend enjoyed superior Return on Capital Employed during the recession, they achieved inferior results after the recession ended. During the recovery, the “spenders” achieved significantly higher return on capital employed and gained an additional 1.3 percentage points of market share." What's going on? Well, among other factors, cutting costs almost inevitably increases profitability in the short term, but if you keep marketing the brand during the recession then the relative profile of your brand increases. You can gain a brand advantage and then when there is more money available more of it is spent in your direction.

And here's some commentary on a report by media and communications group Carat: "the main point ... .. is that maintaining a marketing presence during economic downturns pays big dividends when better times return".

The message being repeated is that bold but wise spending on marketing becomes an investment in market share, that pulls in custom now but comes into its own when we emerge from recession. Much of the expenditure of the companies that showed post recession gains must have been on confidently marketing their brands. A longer term strategy winning out over the temptation to go short term cost cutting.