How to make your customers care?
In this week’s episode, we delve into the world of sustainable consumer choices, where one in four Australian consumers is inclined to choose eco-friendly options as long as the price is reasonable. We highlight the remarkable journey of the brand “Who Gives a Crap,” and explore some of the strategies that propelled them to success.
Good morning. My name’s Kiri. I’m the Business Growth Strategist here at Tiny Hunter, and this week we’ve been talking a lot about purpose-led challenger brands. Brands out there doing things differently, shaking things up, raising really important issues and getting lots of attention. These are some of our favourite kinds of brands, and it seems that we’re not the only ones.
We now know that 1 in 4 Australians prefer to buy a sustainable option, provided it’s not significantly more expensive. And we’ve seen this to be true with the hugely successful brand, Who Gives a Crap. These guys made purchasing toilet paper trendy. They were the first online toilet paper business and their colourful packaging is now really recognisable. It’s made from recyclable fibres and 50% of their profits go to charity. Who Gives a Crap – proof that consumers are now becoming more conscientious. To date, they have sold over 300 million rolls of toilet paper in 36 different countries, and they’ve given over $11 million to charity. But so much of the brand’s success and loyalty comes down to their marketing and their communications. They’ve found a way to make quite a boring product interesting and cool, and in the process, they made people care about the environment and human rights issues. As a brand, it’s really important to build your own personality that differentiates you from others, and your tone of voice is only one small but really important part of that. You need to think outside the box and everything you do needs to come back to your values and what you stand for. Authenticity and transparency are key. The walk first, talk second approach is a bit of a game changer here.
So rather than bombarding your audience with promises, take direct action that shows your commitment to the cause. Consumers are becoming more and more aware of their purchasing power, and they’re choosing ethical brands that align with their values and are actually doing good in the world. It’s not easy to be different and to be bold and to stand out. It takes courage. But what the success of brands like Who Gives a Crap shows us is that people are supporting ethical choices in the products that they buy because they actually do want to make a difference in the world.
That’s it from me, it’s time for brekkie.
Written by: Kiri White
Published: November 15, 2023