Speaker 1: Hello and good morning, everyone. Welcome to another session of
Speaker 1: executive insights by media com. All right now, responsible consumerism
Speaker 1: and its impact on your brand. Right? What is it exactly?
Speaker 1: And why is it important for brands to get on
Speaker 1: board and how can brands develop strategies to promote being responsible? Finally,
Speaker 1: what is the bottom line implication we are going to
Speaker 1: talk about all this today with me are three very
Speaker 1: special guests and really no strangers to this topic.
Speaker 1: Now, first, we have Miss Serena Tan, the founder and
Speaker 1: managing partner of Brewer Consulting. She has a track record
Speaker 1: in leading award winning communication programs programs across Asia Pacific
Speaker 1: and is part of campaign Asia's 40 under 40 list. Hi, Serena.
Speaker 1: Hi, everyone.
Speaker 1: All right up. Next is uh Mr Teke Fong, founder
Speaker 1: of Binomial Consulting. Now with over two decades of experience
Speaker 1: in strategy and branding. Khong helps businesses to sharpen their
Speaker 1: strategic management tools to grow in a sustainable manner. Welcome
Speaker 1: Kai Fong
Speaker 2: morning morning, everyone.
Speaker 1: Lastly, Mr Kan Paris, Sami CEO and member of the
Speaker 1: board at Herber Farm. Now, Kan has a wealth of
Speaker 1: experience in the realm of responsible consumerism that he'll be
Speaker 1: sharing today. Welcome. And thank you for your time, Kan.
Speaker 1: Right? So my name is Jade, I head up trade
Speaker 1: marketing within Media Corp. Um Today, I have a different
Speaker 1: role that of a facilitator and moderator. I will also
Speaker 1: be taking your questions so please feel free to send
Speaker 1: them through and we'll try our best to answer. All
Speaker 1: right now, responsible, responsible consumerism is not a new topic
Speaker 1: at all. There has been a lot of awareness about
Speaker 1: being socially responsible, both as an individual and as a brand.
Speaker 1: But really not many are practicing it now from a
Speaker 1: brand perspective. What is the role when it comes to
Speaker 1: responsible consumption? How do we educate and what is the
Speaker 1: budgetary implications in the long run before we jump right in?
Speaker 1: Let's run a poll to get a sense of the rule.
Speaker 1: All right, you should see a pop up
Speaker 1: on your screen, right. The question is, does your brand
Speaker 1: promote responsible consumerism? Now, I want to cover this in
Speaker 1: terms of marketing, communications. All right, you can either choose. Yes. No,
Speaker 1: we will be in the next 3 to 6 months
Speaker 1: or don't know because we really don't know how to
Speaker 1: go about to do it. Like maybe we'll hang up
Speaker 1: for another 10 seconds before we close the poll. Yeah. Ok.
Speaker 1: We're gonna close the poll right now
Speaker 1: and let's see the results. Ok.
Speaker 1: Ok.
Speaker 1: Wow! Ok. It's interesting, like more than half of you actually.
Speaker 1: Said that your company do promote responsible consumerism right about
Speaker 1: now
Speaker 1: and a good about close to 40% said we don't
Speaker 1: know how to go about doing it. This is the
Speaker 1: webinar for you because we will definitely talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: the insights they advise the strategies that brand can take
Speaker 1: on board to promote responsible consumerism. Ok, I will, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hand over the space of Serena right now, right?
Speaker 1: She will deep dive into this topic about what is
Speaker 1: conscious branding and how can brands unleash the potential of
Speaker 1: responsible consumerism over to you, Serena?
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jade. Good morning, everyone. Thanks again for joining
Speaker 1: us this morning. Um As Jade mentioned, uh my name
Speaker 1: is Serina. I'm the founder and managing partner of Brewer Consulting.
Speaker 1: We're an award winning strategic Communications advisory firm that was
Speaker 1: set up in 2021. So, uh moving on to the
Speaker 1: next slide
Speaker 1: at Brewer, we're all about making a positive impact for
Speaker 1: our clients and society through the power of strategic communications.
Speaker 1: We work very closely with organizations of all sizes. So
Speaker 1: we've got clients from industry giants like Danon Aqua to
Speaker 1: innovative startups like Alaa Paynes, both of which I'll be
Speaker 1: sharing more about later through my work with diverse businesses
Speaker 1: over the last 20 years,
Speaker 1: I've actually witnessed the incredible potential for businesses to shape
Speaker 1: consumer behavior and vice versa. So today I'm delighted to
Speaker 1: be here, not just as a communications strategist and expert,
Speaker 1: but most importantly, as a firm believer in the transformative
Speaker 1: power of responsible consumerism and the positive impact it will bring.
Speaker 1: So as you can see from the video, there are
Speaker 1: dire consequences stemming from the overconsumption of our planet's resources.
Speaker 1: We are essentially living on borrowed reserves from our future generations.
Speaker 1: As consumers, our purchasing choices have the power to influence
Speaker 1: businesses and drive change. Now, moving on to the next slide,
Speaker 1: let's take a look at some interesting stats.
Speaker 1: Did you know that nine out of 10 consumers in
Speaker 1: apex are willing to pay more for products that have
Speaker 1: a positive impact. And eight out of 10 consumers actively
Speaker 1: promote their favorite sustainable products to their family and friends.
Speaker 1: And of these eight people, five in 10 are super promoters.
Speaker 1: So what these numbers show is that there is clearly
Speaker 1: an immense potential for businesses in this area, but this
Speaker 1: is not the only reason why your brand should care
Speaker 1: and moving on to the next slide like it or not.
Speaker 1: This wave of responsible consumption is here to stay. Consumers
Speaker 1: are expecting businesses to contribute to a better environment. And
Speaker 1: when businesses show a genuine commitment to promoting responsible consumer reserve,
Speaker 1: it does pay off in the sense that building trust
Speaker 1: with consumers. And you know what that leads to increased
Speaker 1: customer loyalty, positive word of mouth referral as you saw
Speaker 1: earlier and financial returns.
Speaker 1: So in embracing responsible consumerism is not only a moral
Speaker 1: imperative but also a strategic business decision by aligning your
Speaker 1: brand with ethical practices, you can attract and retain environmentally conscious. Consumers,
Speaker 1: differentiate yourself in the market and contribute to a better
Speaker 1: future for all. And now at this point, you might
Speaker 1: be wondering what role can your brand play in educating
Speaker 1: consumers to make uh to make educated conscious and responsible choices.
Speaker 1: So before I go into this, it's important to first
Speaker 1: understand three key areas,
Speaker 1: first consider the consumer journey, it's important to understand the
Speaker 1: different touch points of your consumer journey and see how
Speaker 1: you can influence your consumers at every part of their journey.
Speaker 1: From awareness, consideration, purchase and advocacy, both digitally and physically.
Speaker 1: So I won't dwell too much into the details as
Speaker 1: Ka Ka Fong will be speaking more about this in
Speaker 1: his segment.
Speaker 1: Second, have a good understanding of what are the most
Speaker 1: impactful channels to engage your consumer just like our planets resources.
Speaker 1: We all know that our budgets are limited. So do
Speaker 1: put your money into the channels that bring you maximum
Speaker 1: packed in this case. Um If you are looking at
Speaker 1: this chart, your brand product elements as well as online
Speaker 1: and social media because this these are the most common
Speaker 1: sources that environmentally conscious consumers turn to when looking for information,
Speaker 1: but adopt an integrated marketing strategy when communicating to your consumers.
Speaker 1: So what you see here on this slide is the
Speaker 1: Peso model which represents a paid earned, shared and owned approach,
Speaker 1: paid media is exactly what it sounds like. You pay
Speaker 1: to market your brand and product. Essentially advertising.
Speaker 1: This, this can come in the form of digital ads,
Speaker 1: sponsored content, lit jam or pay per click campaigns. Earned
Speaker 1: media is focused on pr so it can be anything
Speaker 1: related to media engagement, influencer, partnerships, thought leadership and compared
Speaker 1: to paid media earned media ranks higher in credibility and trust.
Speaker 1: And then we move on to shared media, which is
Speaker 1: social media
Speaker 1: from tiktok to Facebook, Instagram to reviews and forums, own media.
Speaker 1: Last but not least is for content that you own.
Speaker 1: So for example, your website, blogs, podcasts, videos, own media
Speaker 1: is really powerful because you are in control of the
Speaker 1: kinds of content you create and how you share it.
Speaker 1: So by considering the consumer journey, selecting impactful channels and
Speaker 1: adopting an integrated strategy, your brand can now educate, engage,
Speaker 1: convince and inspire your consumers to make responsible choices. Here
Speaker 1: is just some practical steps your brand can take. So
Speaker 1: you could look into transparent product labeling.
Speaker 1: How are you making it helpful and easy for consumers
Speaker 1: to make purchase decisions in store, be digital or online
Speaker 1: engaging in educational content? What kind of content are you creating?
Speaker 1: And what kind of content are you putting out and across?
Speaker 1: What kind of channels?
Speaker 1: Third um partnerships and collaborations. So this essentially helps you
Speaker 1: reach out to a wider pool that's beyond your current
Speaker 1: uh target audience. So thinking about how do you partner
Speaker 1: with communities on the ground think tanks NGO S that
Speaker 1: reach out to environmentally conscious customers
Speaker 1: and also think about how you are educating future generations
Speaker 1: of consumers. So this could be through partnerships with schools
Speaker 1: um or even thinking about partnering with different brands, other
Speaker 1: brands that reach out to a similar group of consumers
Speaker 1: and that gives you the opportunity to educate them and
Speaker 1: last but not least customer engagement, what you are doing
Speaker 1: in store and online. Um ok, so moving on to
Speaker 1: the next section, uh
Speaker 1: I'm just going to show you a case study that
Speaker 1: checked all these boxes. As I mentioned earlier, Danon Aqua
Speaker 1: is one of our key clients and I'm sure you
Speaker 1: heard of this household brand. It is the pioneer of
Speaker 1: uh leading bottled mineral water in Indonesia. It's got a
Speaker 1: 50 year history. So every day it serves more than
Speaker 1: 150 million Indonesians Daily. That's more than half of Indonesia's population.
Speaker 1: So from day one, Danon Aqua has always been a
Speaker 1: firm believer in building circularity. It's always been educated uh
Speaker 1: committed to education. In 1983 it introduced its first reusable
Speaker 1: packaging in 1993 the first recyclable collection products. And in 2019,
Speaker 1: Aqua was the first brand in Indonesia to launch 100%
Speaker 1: recycled pet bottle.
Speaker 1: Um So it wouldn't surprise you, you know, uh the
Speaker 1: stats that you see on this slide that Aqua is
Speaker 1: the leading waste collector in Indonesia. It collects more than
Speaker 1: 18,000 tons of plastic a year and it leads watershed
Speaker 1: preservation in Indonesia.
Speaker 1: All because Aqua believes in building a sustainable Indonesia and
Speaker 1: only when Indonesia is sustainable, then its business is sustainable.
Speaker 1: All of Aqua's efforts are really about future proofing its business.
Speaker 1: And I want to show you um this campaign called Beats,
Speaker 1: which is on the next slide.
Speaker 1: And uh in Bahasa means wise. And so this campaign
Speaker 1: is loosely translated into English as b plastic wise. As
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier, the plastic circular economy model is one
Speaker 1: of the solutions to tackling the plastic waste problem. So
Speaker 1: a little bit of background about this campaign aqua launched
Speaker 1: it five years ago to support the Indonesian government's bid
Speaker 1: in reducing plastic waste and
Speaker 1: and um the market is not a very mature market.
Speaker 1: So there is a lot of education required to, to
Speaker 1: make sure that consumers are doing the right thing and
Speaker 1: choosing the right thing. And for this campaign, a forged
Speaker 1: a number of strategic partnerships with NGO S and startups
Speaker 1: on the ground to drive innovation and plastic waste collection
Speaker 1: to educate the public, including school Children and local communities.
Speaker 1: And um in terms of the success of this
Speaker 1: campaign, it's reduced plastic waste by 12 tons a year
Speaker 1: since its rollout in 2019. As you can see from
Speaker 1: the video, this initiative with the Malu Dong community, it's
Speaker 1: a V V W O. It started in 2019. It
Speaker 1: focuses on the education and collection of plastic waste in
Speaker 1: the Balinese community. And it's not, not just about educating
Speaker 1: the Locusts. So going a further step um as you know,
Speaker 1: Bali is a popular tourist destination.
Speaker 1: So what Aqua did was that they creatively reached out
Speaker 1: to the many tourists there as well with a special
Speaker 1: 600 M L bottle that's only available in Bali. And
Speaker 1: if you look at the packaging, it's all in English,
Speaker 1: it's not in Bahasa. And um and the communications on
Speaker 1: the packaging was kept bite sized and simple to educate
Speaker 1: tourists on how their purchases will make a difference to
Speaker 1: their
Speaker 1: environment. So uh if you look at the slide, it
Speaker 1: says this bottle is made from other bottles, work with
Speaker 1: us for cleaner Indonesia. This bottle is 100% recyclable, plastic
Speaker 1: and recyclable with a call to action at the end
Speaker 1: on the far right. Recycle me. So keeping it very
Speaker 1: brief and short works. Um And now you just want
Speaker 1: to wrap up this case study with
Speaker 1: the next slide. And what Aqua believes in as I
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier is that every good thing they do will
Speaker 1: increase the company's growth and maintain the continuity and sustainability
Speaker 1: of Indonesia. And in the words of its CEO Conny
Speaker 1: Ang who is a Singaporean
Speaker 1: and she works in Indonesia as a company that was
Speaker 1: established and has thrived in Indonesia. Danon, AUA continues to
Speaker 1: strive to maintain, striking a balance between business sustainability and
Speaker 1: nature conservation for a healthier Indonesia.
Speaker 1: So the end of the aqua case study, so you
Speaker 1: know that that is really amazing results, right? As you
Speaker 1: can see now, 18,000 tons of plastic collected a year
Speaker 1: being a pioneer in the circular economy. You know, it's
Speaker 1: it's really nice to see a company selling bottled water,
Speaker 1: no being mindful to the environment and its impact on
Speaker 1: the community. Now, having said that is a huge company
Speaker 1: and some of the brands in the audience are maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit smaller. So what advice would you give
Speaker 1: for sme who want
Speaker 1: to get started? I I believe you have another example
Speaker 1: to share. That's great, great. Um Great point, Jade. So
Speaker 1: as you, as I mentioned earlier, we do work with
Speaker 1: huge companies. We also work with very innovative startups and
Speaker 1: that brings me exactly right to the next case study
Speaker 1: which is a local very creative homegrown startup um called
Speaker 1: Alora Pains. So a little bit of background about Aura
Speaker 1: Alora is an eco-friendly online Pain
Speaker 1: and Pain Supply brand founded just last year and from
Speaker 1: its inception, um what the Ceo Adrian called whom I
Speaker 1: believe is on um this webinar today. So from its inception,
Speaker 1: Adrian has decided that as an environmentally conscious consumer, he
Speaker 1: too would adopt environmentally responsible practices. And in Alora. So
Speaker 1: what Alora does is that it cleverly weaves environmentally
Speaker 1: responsible practices into every aspect of the company from product
Speaker 1: design to manufacturing, to packaging. So let me share a
Speaker 1: few examples. For example, uh it's uh got a 2.5
Speaker 1: liters um very special, optimally sized paint cans. It only
Speaker 1: contains sufficient paint for a feature wall in a H DB.
Speaker 1: What this means is that there's no, there's no wastage.
Speaker 1: And you guys, if you do a home Diy project,
Speaker 1: you'll realize that every time we paint and we cannot
Speaker 1: finish using the paint and we don't know what to
Speaker 1: do with it. And what Alora does is that not
Speaker 1: only does this packaging minimize wastage it on also saves cost.
Speaker 1: And at the same time, left, any, any potential leftover
Speaker 1: paint can be mixed with its paint hardener so that
Speaker 1: it can be disposed of responsibly in household trash without
Speaker 1: polluting the environment. So uh
Speaker 1: if you look at this slide, even though it is
Speaker 1: a startup with a limited marketing budget, we talked about
Speaker 1: resources being finite, right? You can see that aura is
Speaker 1: cleverly engaging its environmentally conscious consumers through product labeling, engaging
Speaker 1: in educational content, especially digital and online because it's an
Speaker 1: e-commerce company.
Speaker 1: Um So it's adopting a peso approach, the paid earned
Speaker 1: share and own approach. It's also having NGO partnerships to
Speaker 1: educate consumers on the ground. So this has brought very
Speaker 1: positive business outcomes. Actually, if you move on to the
Speaker 1: next slide,
Speaker 1: yeah, you'll see that uh it's got a good return
Speaker 1: customer rate. It's got uh seen an increase in the
Speaker 1: total number of orders over the last six months, double
Speaker 1: digit revenue growth. And because of that AA is already
Speaker 1: planning for regional expansion and further extension into its products,
Speaker 1: right? So, so maybe I'll stop you here, right? And
Speaker 1: just to answer the question, it came in from the audience.
Speaker 1: Now someone wrote, how can my business measure and track
Speaker 1: our impact on the environment and society? I think you
Speaker 1: allude you alluded to this in your two examples. Maybe
Speaker 1: you want to expand a little bit more on how
Speaker 1: businesses can actually use measurement tools to track the impact.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure. So, so um so we talk a lot
Speaker 1: about educating the consumer and we talked about the Peso model.
Speaker 1: So the important thing is measurement cannot only be tracked
Speaker 1: through output. And in um my field of public relations,
Speaker 1: we believe in this framework called the a a measurement framework.
Speaker 1: And we look at
Speaker 1: output is not just like what you do, how much
Speaker 1: money you pay into your ads, how many ads you
Speaker 1: put out, how many press releases you put out, how
Speaker 1: many announcements and interviews you do, right? So that's output.
Speaker 1: After you do the, after you look at the output,
Speaker 1: you need to look at the outtakes. What exactly um
Speaker 1: are consumers doing with your post? Your social media posts?
Speaker 1: Are they sharing, are they liking, you know, the engagement bit?
Speaker 1: And that's not it, then you look at the outcomes,
Speaker 1: you look at the outcomes and you look at business outcomes.
Speaker 1: So whatever communications and marketing efforts we adopt, we are
Speaker 1: always linking it back to whatever business outcomes and outcomes
Speaker 1: do not need to be only linked to dollars and cents.
Speaker 1: It can also be about trust and reputation. So if
Speaker 1: you receive like interest and partnerships, more visits to the website,
Speaker 1: things like that, it actually all brings back to outcomes.
Speaker 1: And last, but not least we want to measure impact
Speaker 1: organizational impact.
Speaker 1: So there are times when I say, for example, we
Speaker 1: put out uh a story. We, we, so so I
Speaker 1: have experienced a few times in my career. So uh
Speaker 1: there was once I was working with N US and
Speaker 1: then we put out a really nice uh article uh
Speaker 1: also with me and Poly, we put out nice articles
Speaker 1: about uh the faculty. And what happened next was that
Speaker 1: they got a like five figure sum donation
Speaker 1: and, and, and, and uh interest in partnership collaborations. So
Speaker 1: like um uh private sector, contacting the schools wanting to
Speaker 1: do something with the schools. So uh this is not
Speaker 1: directly linked to responsible consumerism, which is the topic today.
Speaker 1: But we are talking if we, we are talking about men,
Speaker 1: we need to look at it from a holistic standpoint,
Speaker 1: from a broader, broader point of view as well, right?
Speaker 1: And he has to be continuous, he can't just be
Speaker 1: at the end of a campaign or end of project, right?
Speaker 1: And I'm sure and would have a lot of to
Speaker 1: add to. Yeah. Can any, any inputs or any buys from,
Speaker 1: from both of you?
Speaker 1: Thanks Jade. Let me quickly come in. Uh very good
Speaker 1: morning everyone and I just wanted to say Serena, thank you.
Speaker 1: Uh But on measurement, uh on the environment part, we
Speaker 1: actually participate with the Singapore Environment Council. We did a
Speaker 1: course with them and they gave us a little very
Speaker 1: nice
Speaker 1: two and on which we just answered a variety of
Speaker 1: questions over a few pages and then we were able
Speaker 1: to score. So this measurement is actually very good which
Speaker 1: I will share on the last slide when I when
Speaker 1: it's my turn to present. But it is there out there,
Speaker 1: there are many tools out there. They're also very professionally done,
Speaker 1: but you don't need as a small sme to jump
Speaker 1: into all of that, you need to have traction. What
Speaker 1: you do there are tools out there. Thank you.
Speaker 1: What do you think?
Speaker 2: Yes, they are actually tools out there and to connect
Speaker 2: with what has said sometimes the issue is there are
Speaker 2: too many tools out there. There are many standards that
Speaker 2: you can align with in terms of measuring your own
Speaker 2: business as well as uh the comms, part of it,
Speaker 2: as well as products. Um One tool that I found
Speaker 2: quite useful so can mentioned the S E C one
Speaker 2: that's very useful. The Singapore Stock Exchange S G X
Speaker 2: also has a guide on uh E S G core metrics.
Speaker 2: So that's a PDF that you can download and I
Speaker 2: can share the link as well. Um They've tried to
Speaker 2: make it easy for people who are just starting out
Speaker 2: so you can get started there. And then as you
Speaker 2: get more advanced, start looking into all the G R
Speaker 2: I T C F D, all the various acronyms and
Speaker 2: how they look at the measurements.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yes. So as, as, as you heard, there's many,
Speaker 1: many tools. So if you are really interested to find
Speaker 1: out what some of these tools are, write to us
Speaker 1: and we'll send you the links. OK? All right. Back
Speaker 1: to you, Serena.
Speaker 1: All right. So um moving on to the next section,
Speaker 1: um we are at the conclusion of my segment. So
Speaker 1: as you can see from both the Aqua and Allora examples,
Speaker 1: it's clear that regardless of whether you are an industry
Speaker 1: giant or a small startup, as long as you
Speaker 1: set out to do the right thing and are smart
Speaker 1: in your approach, every effort, big or small counts and
Speaker 1: will eventually pay off both to your business and the environment.
Speaker 1: So um just a few key takeaways here by doing
Speaker 1: your part for the planet.
Speaker 1: You are future proofing your business as you would have
Speaker 1: seen from uh what we have from Dan on and
Speaker 1: a laura and effective communications and engagement is key to
Speaker 1: maximizing impact and driving change. So, looking at your consumer journey,
Speaker 1: deciding on which are the most impactful channels and adopting
Speaker 1: a Peso model to
Speaker 1: excite and convince your customers and also inspire them to
Speaker 1: take action. And last but not least you can successfully
Speaker 1: marry environmentally responsible practices with positive brand and financial outcomes.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Right. Thank you, Serena. That was really, really interesting. Now,
Speaker 1: if anything just remember Peso model paid
Speaker 1: earn, right? Uh What's next shared and owned and also
Speaker 1: the last three key takeaways, right? And uh Serena has
Speaker 1: also mentioned about two very, very different case studies. OK,
Speaker 1: very different examples, different budgets but similar results, higher brand awareness,
Speaker 1: better customer retention engagement, and most importantly, continued growth in
Speaker 1: terms of revenue. Now you've seen the why? Let's hear
Speaker 1: the how, how can you get started in this journey? Right?
Speaker 1: K from the space is yours
Speaker 2: morning. Thanks. Thanks, Serena. That was a great presentation. I
Speaker 2: established a case for why it's important for us to
Speaker 2: look at responsible consumerism, particularly push and promote that. Um
Speaker 2: My name is Kate Fong. I'm the founder of Binomial.
Speaker 2: We're a strategy consulting company
Speaker 2: and we looked at we we help businesses achieve long
Speaker 2: term growth and positive impact in four key areas. Uh innovation.
Speaker 2: We tend to help uh our clients look at new
Speaker 2: ideas to grow and to win. Then we help them
Speaker 2: sort out the the excess of ideas. Sometimes if you
Speaker 2: will figure out priorities and trade-offs,
Speaker 2: then we help them figure out. So how do you
Speaker 2: communicate and brand this uh externally obviously, but also internally
Speaker 2: as well. And recently we started saying, ok, if you've
Speaker 2: done well for the business, take a step back and
Speaker 2: see what you can do for the broader environment and community.
Speaker 2: And so that's very relevant to our topic today in
Speaker 2: terms of responsible com uh consumerism.
Speaker 2: Now, Serena's built the case. You can really as a
Speaker 2: business tap on the growing segment of responsible consumers. I mean,
Speaker 2: the stats are looking pretty good, 90% will pay more.
Speaker 2: Uh uh And I'm not sure if she mentioned this today,
Speaker 2: but she mentioned yesterday, 50% of uh the those consumers
Speaker 2: will become super promoters and they constantly become your champions
Speaker 2: and push your business forward. So that's real reasons to,
Speaker 2: to get into this space and look at how it
Speaker 2: can benefit your business um
Speaker 2: before all this money. Of course,
Speaker 2: it's the right thing to do. So I think she
Speaker 2: Serena has established that I won't go into that too much,
Speaker 2: but it's the right thing to do. I want to
Speaker 2: talk about the how because it will also help you
Speaker 2: grow the business beyond growing, beyond tapping on this growing
Speaker 2: segment of responsible consumers.
Speaker 2: You can also look at your own existing customers and
Speaker 2: use what you do um in the A S G
Speaker 2: and in responsible consumerism to drive loyalty and retention among them,
Speaker 2: we see that trend coming. If you really want to
Speaker 2: keep your customers, you have to answer some difficult questions
Speaker 2: they have about how are you helping make sure that
Speaker 2: I am a responsible consumer. I need your help because
Speaker 2: I'm buying from you. So help me out there.
Speaker 2: So that's the important bit for, for me in terms
Speaker 2: of the how the three key things
Speaker 2: uh that we want to look at.
Speaker 2: The first thing is to start with the right mindset.
Speaker 2: Um And it's really seeing what responsible consumerism should be,
Speaker 2: then take a step back and look at your business
Speaker 2: from a value chain approach. There was an earlier question
Speaker 2: in the Q and A about how do I promote
Speaker 2: responsible consumerism uh across all aspects of my brand, this
Speaker 2: talks about that.
Speaker 2: And then number three, Serena mentioned it earlier. She talked
Speaker 2: about how you can use this in your marketing communication
Speaker 2: to really help drive your customers to become responsible consumers.
Speaker 2: So let's go into each of them very quickly. Uh
Speaker 2: Tom Fishman comic here, depending on which shade of green
Speaker 2: and green consumers are part of responsible consumers, not all
Speaker 2: of it, they are also, you know, ethical consumers and
Speaker 2: all that,
Speaker 2: but depending on which shade of green you want, that's OK.
Speaker 2: As long as you don't green wash and I I
Speaker 2: know this term has been brought up. So often that people,
Speaker 2: businesses like yourself must have heard it or could be
Speaker 2: familiar with it. For us, the right mindset is just
Speaker 2: finding that balance, what you want to do on one
Speaker 2: end is to get started, do something. Um And you
Speaker 2: want to be authentic and honest about it. And if
Speaker 2: you say, oh, I don't really don't
Speaker 2: take the opportunity to learn partner with others. They are
Speaker 2: nonprofits can mention S E C Singapore Environment Council. There
Speaker 2: are other uh organizations that you can partner with and
Speaker 2: work with to help you get started as well. So
Speaker 2: on one end, you just want to get started and
Speaker 2: get going. Uh Well, 56 of you are a percent
Speaker 2: of you are already looking at it. So I assume
Speaker 2: you're already on that journey. On the other end, what
Speaker 2: you want to avoid is obviously green washing. So
Speaker 2: this isn't a time to fake it till you make
Speaker 2: it or to sort of to, to boost it up
Speaker 2: in this space. Consumers are hyper sensitive. So say what
Speaker 2: you do do what you say, don't add in any
Speaker 2: flavoring and, and sauce for this part of the business.
Speaker 2: This isn't some sort of a financial forecast and, and
Speaker 2: it's time to be bullish. Uh No. So for this space,
Speaker 2: responsible consumerism when you're promoting it,
Speaker 2: just say what you do do what you say.
Speaker 2: The other thing to avoid also is because of all
Speaker 2: they say, well, I'm not going to get started. It's
Speaker 2: just too difficult. I there's so many metrics I could,
Speaker 2: could look at, I don't know, just get going. It,
Speaker 2: it's ok as long as you're authentic about the fact
Speaker 2: that you're starting on this journey or you're early in
Speaker 2: the journey perfectly fine. And the last thing I think
Speaker 2: Serena's established this as well. It is all our problems
Speaker 2: from individuals, as leaders as businesses. We can all make
Speaker 2: a difference. Um
Speaker 2: I volunteer at the Jane Goodall Institute and she always
Speaker 2: likes to say everyone makes a difference. You just have
Speaker 2: to decide what difference you want to make. Um So
Speaker 2: businesses can really move the needle,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I'll just stop you here for a while, right?
Speaker 1: Because as you say, you, you, you know, businesses need
Speaker 1: to walk to talk and you know, and avoid green washing.
Speaker 1: But a lot of times I do see that, you know,
Speaker 1: brands probably don't take the lead in changing certain behaviors
Speaker 1: because they don't see the
Speaker 1: demand for it. But on the other hand, right, consumers
Speaker 1: are actually waiting for a brand to walk the talk
Speaker 1: as you say and help them to be more responsible.
Speaker 1: So there is that disconnect there, I mean, what is
Speaker 1: your view on this? Should they just get started regardless
Speaker 1: or you know, they they adopt a wait and see approach.
Speaker 2: So the short answer is yes. Um I think brands
Speaker 2: and brands need to control the narrative is, is a
Speaker 2: single sentence answer to it. I think if you're trying
Speaker 2: to grow your business and you're serious about what your
Speaker 2: business is, you want to take the lead and be
Speaker 2: proactive in pulling the right segment of customers to you
Speaker 2: and nurturing customers to hit the right way. Um
Speaker 2: The we we as people as human beings, we need
Speaker 2: to care about E S G about climate change, about
Speaker 2: excessive consumerism. So there is the whole ethical, are we
Speaker 2: doing the right thing as business owners and leaders? So
Speaker 2: we got to check that box and then there's the
Speaker 2: judiciary duties. So are we growing our business doing right
Speaker 2: by our shareholders and stakeholders to check that box as well?
Speaker 2: It connects with all the numbers. We've seen consumers already
Speaker 2: indicate that if done, right? I would love to buy
Speaker 2: from you and I don't pay, I don't mind paying
Speaker 2: a bit extra.
Speaker 2: The whole problem is a lot of companies start to
Speaker 2: green wash and say, oh yeah, yeah, we, we, we
Speaker 2: saved the planet, the moon and the sun as well.
Speaker 2: Um So that's a huge pushback but don't let that
Speaker 2: stop us. I think on this slide, that's what we're
Speaker 2: trying to say with the right mindset. It's ok. It's
Speaker 2: ok to take baby steps.
Speaker 2: People will still reward you for it in a while.
Speaker 2: I'll talk about the value chain and we could see
Speaker 2: what are some baby steps. We can take.
Speaker 1: So three keywords here control the narrative. I think that's
Speaker 1: the most important thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, thanks. Um So if you've got the right mindset,
Speaker 2: uh what you want to then do is to say, OK,
Speaker 2: so I got my thinking right? How do I look
Speaker 2: at all this uh in terms of the approach of
Speaker 2: the mindset, uh there are many different types out there,
Speaker 2: this I strongly encourage, which is a circular economy. Uh
Speaker 2: Serena has talked about it in her Dan known example
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 2: Essentially, it basically takes a linear approach from raw material
Speaker 2: to product and sales and it loops it back to say,
Speaker 2: how can we ensure the the purple arrow here on
Speaker 2: the left, the waist uh remains as little as possible.
Speaker 2: How do we push things back? So the raw material
Speaker 2: stream becomes smaller every single step here is an opportunity
Speaker 2: for you to make a difference in your business and
Speaker 2: to communicate that difference to drive responsible consumerism.
Speaker 2: And that's the third thing consumers today, particularly younger consumers
Speaker 2: are very happy to hear about your story. It used
Speaker 2: to be that people didn't want to know what you
Speaker 2: did in the backroom like, hey, you just make the thing,
Speaker 2: I'll just enjoy it, right? So whether it's a product
Speaker 2: or service, I don't even know how you've done it.
Speaker 2: But if you look at what's going on in social
Speaker 2: media and all that these days, everyone is sharing behind
Speaker 2: the scenes, open the pop the hood. Let's see what's underneath.
Speaker 2: So every step of the way in your circular economy
Speaker 2: is an opportunity to share your journey and tell the story.
Speaker 2: This can be in terms of whether you've chosen to
Speaker 2: use raw material and products. Um whether you've designed for
Speaker 2: product life extension, you've sourced ethically
Speaker 2: in terms of manufacturing and packaging, whether you reduce the
Speaker 2: amount of carbon footprint, your pro uh production plants use,
Speaker 2: whether you give fair wages to people in logistics, partnering
Speaker 2: with the carbon neutral transportation partners optimizing your supply chain.
Speaker 2: And then obviously in sales and marketing, visual merchandizing, install operations,
Speaker 2: whether you can cut down carbon footprint. Again, this part,
Speaker 2: I'll talk a bit uh in the next slide of
Speaker 2: storytelling across all possible touch points and through partners like
Speaker 2: influencers
Speaker 2: and this last bit on after sales uh is slightly
Speaker 2: new for a lot of brands and businesses which is
Speaker 2: end of life. Typically, we rely on government to come
Speaker 2: in and regulate this. But increasingly more companies are looking
Speaker 2: at this more seriously. And if you think about a
Speaker 2: lot of new companies, startup companies, they start talking about
Speaker 2: end of life a lot more. Uh in Singapore. Uh
Speaker 2: recently e waste has been regulated in terms of end
Speaker 2: of life, uh produces responsibility,
Speaker 2: uh plastic packaging will come soon as well. Traditionally, things
Speaker 2: like tires have always been regulated. Um So you want
Speaker 2: to look into that as Well, now as you look across,
Speaker 2: I spent a bit of time on this slide because
Speaker 2: this is where you get to answer that question. Look
Speaker 2: at it across all aspects of your brand, simply to
Speaker 2: look at it from raw material all the way to
Speaker 2: end of life. Now I'll come back to this slide
Speaker 2: later on to talk about the, the quick winds or
Speaker 2: the low hanging fruits.
Speaker 2: But if you look across this, every single sort of
Speaker 2: diamond shape
Speaker 2: step in the process is an opportunity for you to
Speaker 2: tell the story. People want to know and you should
Speaker 2: tell it across different touch points, social media and website.
Speaker 2: Whether if you've got a store of your retail BBC company,
Speaker 2: put it in your store, visual merchandizing. If you sell products,
Speaker 2: there are opportunities to put it in your products as well.
Speaker 2: Um
Speaker 2: There is especially with the older companies a sense that yeah,
Speaker 2: let me not talk about all these things because people
Speaker 2: want to know what benefits my product have. I think
Speaker 2: the case here is
Speaker 2: one of the benefits that needs to be clearly communicated
Speaker 2: is what you're doing for responsible consumerism. The case is
Speaker 2: there that people care about it and the opportunities for
Speaker 2: you to communicate it. Yeah, I'll show you a case example,
Speaker 2: not a client of mine, I wish but show you
Speaker 2: a case example of one of the best practices. Um
Speaker 2: So this uh this case um is one of the
Speaker 2: best practices when it comes to
Speaker 2: helping consumers be responsible and then promoting responsible consumerism. They
Speaker 2: started all the way from the founding of the company,
Speaker 2: they baked it into their values. So internally, the first group, they,
Speaker 2: they sort of promoted responsible consumerism is uh to the staff.
Speaker 2: So they want to make sure people who join the
Speaker 2: company Patagonia,
Speaker 2: the
Speaker 2: they are aligned with these set of values in case
Speaker 2: you're not familiar with the brand. Let me just go
Speaker 2: back one slide. They do outdoor wear. So the guys,
Speaker 2: everything on him could be Patagonia. Yeah. So they encourage
Speaker 2: uh uh outdoor weather. It's hiking, trekking, climbing, snowboarding, skiing,
Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 2: surfing as well. Um So they're known for that.
Speaker 2: I'll show you a short video that, that communicates how
Speaker 2: they promote responsible consumerism.
Speaker 2: No longer. Can we assume the earth's resources are limitless?
Speaker 2: We wrote this in our first catalog in 1972.
Speaker 2: Nearly 50 years later, it's only gotten worse today. The
Speaker 2: clothing industry contributes up to 10% of the pollution driving
Speaker 2: the climate crisis.
Speaker 2: For as long as we've been in business, we've seen
Speaker 2: quality as an environmental issue. That's why we build clothes
Speaker 2: to endure. So you don't need to buy new as
Speaker 2: often
Speaker 2: we make gear with recycled materials, we grow food and fiber,
Speaker 2: the way nature intended, we promote safe and fair labor
Speaker 2: conditions for workers.
Speaker 2: There are some things you can do too when you
Speaker 2: want something new. Ask yourself, do I really need it?
Speaker 2: Look for one product you can use in multiple ways,
Speaker 2: repair what you wear out and pass things down
Speaker 2: demand, recycled
Speaker 2: demand, fair trade
Speaker 2: demand, organic,
Speaker 2: buy less demand more.
Speaker 2: So you can see with Patagonia, they are not about
Speaker 2: pushing their products first and you can see this on
Speaker 2: their website as well. If you type in Patagonia dot com,
Speaker 2: you probably see something like this. If you think about
Speaker 2: the first block of what a consumer would see on
Speaker 2: their website, it talks about their values and beliefs rather
Speaker 2: than their products, which is the next in line. You
Speaker 2: need to scroll down and there are links leading the
Speaker 2: the consumer away to other things. So this really sort
Speaker 2: of
Speaker 2: puts in practice their beliefs. So the website is part
Speaker 2: of it, the marketing campaign, this is an award winning ad.
Speaker 2: They did don't buy this jacket. They talk about repairing
Speaker 2: so they directly go against the green and say, yeah,
Speaker 2: please don't buy more from us. Our stuff are expensive
Speaker 2: but you can wear it for a long time
Speaker 2: and then they start saying, ok, well, the products part
Speaker 2: of it, let's also think about people and from their
Speaker 2: staff to the community, they start engaging uh like-minded individuals. Now, obviously,
Speaker 2: this has a knock on effect on their products as
Speaker 2: well on the sales as well because a community of
Speaker 2: champions and ambassadors will start buying your products and start
Speaker 2: introducing it to others.
Speaker 2: And finally, a couple of months ago in September 2022
Speaker 2: the founder Yvon Shana, he donated the company uh to
Speaker 2: collective which is a charity, a not for profit that
Speaker 2: focuses on climate change uh and saving the, the environment.
Speaker 2: So this is the ultimate right, the of, of how,
Speaker 2: how far it goes is essentially converting a for profit
Speaker 2: to a, a not not for profit in a way. Now,
Speaker 2: this is a great example and I encourage you to
Speaker 2: look at Patagonia a bit more in depth. Uh They've
Speaker 2: got sustainability reports, they talk about how they measure and
Speaker 2: track in a very rigorous manner to ensure that uh
Speaker 2: responsibility and ensure that authenticity. Um What I want to
Speaker 2: say to you here is we don't have to be
Speaker 2: Patagonia to get started. You could be selling products, B
Speaker 2: to C B to B services.
Speaker 2: They are in a high effort, high impact sort of space.
Speaker 2: So they invest a lot in and they get a
Speaker 2: lot out of it. Uh We can start small, it's
Speaker 2: perfectly to start with smaller things. So here this space
Speaker 2: is really to avoid analysis, paralysis, just get started and
Speaker 2: authentically start engaging your consumer.
Speaker 2: What you want to avoid is just to make sure
Speaker 2: you don't get into the, you put in a lot.
Speaker 2: But for vanity metrics or just for low impact stuff,
Speaker 2: and if you can find a low effort, high impact space. Well,
Speaker 2: that's the, that's the holy grail. But I guess what
Speaker 2: I'm really saying is it's ok to start small and
Speaker 2: just keep building up words, there are companies we can
Speaker 2: look up to and reference in terms of how good
Speaker 2: good can be.
Speaker 2: So I'm showing you this slide again just with quick
Speaker 2: wins because I, I want to connect back to my
Speaker 2: last slide and say so what are easy things you
Speaker 2: can get started in each of the areas.
Speaker 2: You could, you don't have to figure everything out yourself.
Speaker 2: You could partner with suppliers. Sometimes these suppliers are themselves
Speaker 2: promoting by uh uh their uh sustainable practices and responsible practices.
Speaker 2: So you can already read it off their website. You
Speaker 2: can get that information from them, you can choose them, right?
Speaker 2: Uh In terms of the manufacturing, water waste energy, those
Speaker 2: are easy things to get going, packaging, plastic packaging, particularly
Speaker 2: single use ones. Uh big topic there. Uh a lot
Speaker 2: of insights that you can get also in terms of
Speaker 2: how we can reduce it. And I know is gonna talk,
Speaker 2: give you an actual example of his company shortly. Um
Speaker 2: in terms of inventory and logistics partner with the right people,
Speaker 2: they a lot of logistics partners talk about their carbon footprint.
Speaker 2: Now have a look, choose the right one
Speaker 2: in terms of your own sales and marketing, huge opportunity
Speaker 2: to educate consumers. I mean that video from Patagonia and
Speaker 2: all the other stuff they do on their products in
Speaker 2: their stores, they publish books. Uh Those are all different
Speaker 2: opportunities you can tap on. Serena talked about Peso and
Speaker 2: how you the old part of it, your own
Speaker 2: uh channels are very powerful. Take advantage of all of
Speaker 2: that showcase your products and highlight attributes on your products.
Speaker 2: Those are all opportunities uh for quick wins. And finally,
Speaker 2: if you're not doing this offer, help with repair, find
Speaker 2: ways to help your customers recycle, resell their secondhand stuff
Speaker 2: and dispose of the the stuff when it has to
Speaker 2: be disposed responsibly. So
Speaker 2: this one slide for me is quick wins to get started.
Speaker 2: If you check some of these bullet points or boxes, great.
Speaker 2: If you haven't finished off the rest and then get
Speaker 2: going in depth into each of these diamonds. Yeah, my
Speaker 2: last slide um beyond all this, you know, I've done
Speaker 2: the quick.
Speaker 2: What else can you do? Um I think there's the
Speaker 2: short term things we can do the quick wins. You
Speaker 2: can start thinking in terms of midterm and long term
Speaker 2: as well. Start doing some planning in terms of where
Speaker 2: can my business grow? If I start putting on a
Speaker 2: lens of promoting responsible consumerism,
Speaker 2: then you want to. Obviously, I showed this in my
Speaker 2: second slide after you've done the work, a good brand
Speaker 2: reflects a good business. So you can talk about branding,
Speaker 2: you want to engage your people that's your, your staff,
Speaker 2: your uh customers and even the broader community. So they
Speaker 2: become your advocates, look a bit more at product innovation,
Speaker 2: continue building the community. So you can see you can
Speaker 2: do more and more and more. But I wanted to
Speaker 2: start with quick wins, you can get going and then
Speaker 2: a sense of what else you can do after that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So that's all from me in terms of the, how
Speaker 2: you can promote responsible consumerism.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you. OK. That was a lot of great information.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm I'm looking at the questions that
Speaker 1: are really coming in fast and furious. So um I'm
Speaker 1: going to hold off some of your questions towards the
Speaker 1: end because I think they will be answered when you
Speaker 1: hear from Hanna next, right? Because so we're going to
Speaker 1: hear from a brand that is really
Speaker 1: committed to deliver a responsible consumer experience and the process
Speaker 1: it went through to get to where they are and
Speaker 1: the results of that just switch in mindset. So looking
Speaker 1: at the questions, there are questions about, you know, government subsidies,
Speaker 1: government uh partnerships, car. Can we ensure that our vendors
Speaker 1: and uh partners are
Speaker 1: uh prioritizing responsible consumerism? Um There is a, a question
Speaker 1: on um price competitive, competitiveness as well. So I think
Speaker 1: Canon will actually answer all the questions in his contact.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna hand that over to can over to you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jade. Firstly, very quickly, I think Serena, your
Speaker 1: model and Peso is very, very well. It, we uh
Speaker 1: we have paid a, we do a lot of that
Speaker 1: stuff and so is we're gonna talk about that in
Speaker 1: our brand and then uh very nicely, you,
Speaker 1: we did the road map that some of this, we
Speaker 1: have already do some accidentally. So as a small sme
Speaker 1: this is uh our lives. Ok. We over farm and
Speaker 1: uh we are in the healthy lifestyle space. If you
Speaker 1: can just go to the next slide. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Yes. In a healthy lifestyle space, we've been around for
Speaker 1: 20 years. The company was founded by Vigen Gun, a
Speaker 1: very adventurous person. But more importantly for our point here,
Speaker 1: uh environmental friendly person, he really concerned about the environment
Speaker 1: and people. That's how this business was started. And that's
Speaker 1: why we, our main goal is to offer healthier choices
Speaker 1: for people to have products that can make them live healthier.
Speaker 1: So in the 20 years, we have been able to
Speaker 1: sell 3.2 million products and we have made 600,000 deliveries
Speaker 1: as Serena's uh earlier presentation would have said to you, 70%
Speaker 1: of greenhouse gasses is produced by businesses. So we actually
Speaker 1: contribute to that. So we feel somewhat responsible to try
Speaker 1: to help this
Speaker 1: situation changed. So we, we have taken this responsibility from
Speaker 1: the onset. So we have 50 other staff here, but
Speaker 1: I'll very quickly tell you about this part of the
Speaker 1: social impact of our staff.
Speaker 1: More than 60 more than 80% of female, more than 50%
Speaker 1: are in their seniors age. We have got 46% of
Speaker 1: them who have been with us for more than 10 years.
Speaker 1: This is the state state of our
Speaker 1: stuff that keeps us going. So we are doing something
Speaker 1: right that when people want to stay with us, we
Speaker 1: have got 50,000 loyal customers, 35,000 of them regularly buy
Speaker 1: from us. 15,000 of them are buying every now and
Speaker 1: then and usually uh by the next year continuously and
Speaker 1: this is how this happened. But very quickly, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you about 60 year productive. We can go to the
Speaker 1: next slide.
Speaker 1: This is a lifestyle diseases. So we, we are responsible
Speaker 1: in that way that we don't keep selling what other
Speaker 1: people sell. We do have our vitamins and all. But
Speaker 1: we focus on lifestyle diseases like diabetes, your because of
Speaker 1: eye abuse, your eye health, 70% of our revenue is
Speaker 1: from sales of nutraceuticals. The rest comes from healthier choice,
Speaker 1: fast moving consumer goods. If we can move to the
Speaker 1: next slide. Thank you.
Speaker 1: All right. So what are we here for? Why? Why
Speaker 1: are we invited to speak about responsible consumerism? Because we
Speaker 1: are a company that has put purpose before profits, right?
Speaker 1: We are healthier choices in the Singaporean sustainable lifestyle space
Speaker 1: is uh known people know us for that and we
Speaker 1: just want to make the world a better place. You
Speaker 1: might think it's lofty, but it's inspired by something if
Speaker 1: we can move to the next page.
Speaker 1: OK. We are inspired by Ray Anderson, right? He's a
Speaker 1: known in the corporate sustainability industry and he said about purpose.
Speaker 1: If you are just going to make profits, you see
Speaker 1: something is wrong with this picture. We cannot exist just
Speaker 1: to make profits. We must exist for a higher good.
Speaker 1: And then uh a literate from um
Speaker 1: the father of Japanese literature. Mr Sauro said individually, we
Speaker 1: are one drop together. We are an ocean. So with
Speaker 1: the right mindset, the object is we can find ways
Speaker 1: to make the world a better place. That's our inspiration.
Speaker 1: We have been like this from the onset. All right.
Speaker 1: So now we come to this little thing about responsible consumerism.
Speaker 1: So where we are in with regards to this same
Speaker 1: thing we procure, we have vendor management. Let's quickly talk
Speaker 1: about this vendor management question earlier that was asked.
Speaker 1: So what we have done is we have tightened up
Speaker 1: in the last 5 to 6 years. Our vendor registration,
Speaker 1: we make sure our vendors are qualified. We ask them
Speaker 1: sustainable questions. Where do you source from all this? So
Speaker 1: it's just not about price anymore. It's about what they
Speaker 1: do and how they procure. So it's like some of
Speaker 1: our products that we buy from America. It comes with
Speaker 1: the GMP stamp.
Speaker 1: So you won't find vendors with all these green labels
Speaker 1: and all that. They may have the green label GMP stamp.
Speaker 1: They may also have the green labeling but GMP stamp,
Speaker 1: the GMP itself, which is a good manufacturing practices. So
Speaker 1: they have got sustainable requirements for you to get that stamp.
Speaker 1: So if you have that stamp, you probably are already sustainable.
Speaker 1: So we try to do our best. All our products
Speaker 1: have the GMP stamp
Speaker 1: and we also check on freight. How far are you,
Speaker 1: what are the impact on moving this stuff to us
Speaker 1: and stuff like this? But sometimes these things have to
Speaker 1: be done. This is a pain that we have to take,
Speaker 1: but we get responsible throughout the rest of our lives. Ok.
Speaker 1: So packaging wise, ok, we, we started packaging. We are
Speaker 1: small company
Speaker 1: and even though we are environmentally friendly, we had to
Speaker 1: shrink wrap and all we have removed all of this.
Speaker 1: Now we have changed better and we have come now
Speaker 1: with operations as well. So our coo Luge Shiva Prakash.
Speaker 1: So she was and she's an operation guru if you like.
Speaker 1: So I asked her to help us digitize the business,
Speaker 1: she digitized this.
Speaker 1: So this changed our way. We work paper trail. We
Speaker 1: save 1.1 ton of paper by digitizing our offices. We
Speaker 1: have two premises. Now we can operate in with a
Speaker 1: touch of a button before we had to deliver stuff
Speaker 1: and all that very archaic. But that's the, the beauty
Speaker 1: of digitization.
Speaker 1: So, before I go further, we have plans to do
Speaker 1: a refilling station. All right, we sell the oldest soap
Speaker 1: in the world. It's called the A soap 800 years old.
Speaker 1: It comes in bath form. We have tried to influence
Speaker 1: the market and we have, we sell it well, it's, it's,
Speaker 1: it's true. We sell it about 100 200 pieces a day.
Speaker 1: But the usage is still very commonly shower gel. So
Speaker 1: we got the manufacturer to exclusively make for us shower
Speaker 1: gel
Speaker 1: in this a form, right? Very, very difficult, very different.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna do a refilling station in our new showroom.
Speaker 1: We are revamping it. It's gonna happen in the coming months.
Speaker 1: These are all helps to become responsible. So we partner
Speaker 1: with people who know how to do this, right? We
Speaker 1: partner with zero waste S G, we partner with the
Speaker 1: W W F, we partner with anyone else who wants
Speaker 1: to help. For example, the Sing Post initiative
Speaker 1: asked us to do this bag thing, right? So they
Speaker 1: package our bag, they give it to the customer, the
Speaker 1: customer returns the package. So we don't have to keep
Speaker 1: manufacturing packaging bags. However, we still have to have a
Speaker 1: little slip where the customer has to see the order
Speaker 1: and the rider who delivers this at to see
Speaker 1: because we are trying to solve that. We are working
Speaker 1: with a polytechnic to try to come out with a
Speaker 1: solution for a re highly non plastic solution for this.
Speaker 1: Our recycling efforts are very legendary. I will show you
Speaker 1: little pictures later, but 270,000 cans we sell uh a
Speaker 1: year
Speaker 1: and 68,000 of them are recycled. That's about 25%. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that's about 25%. Right. I mean, I just did
Speaker 1: a quick math. I mean, there's still a big gap
Speaker 1: even though the numbers are great in as a great start.
Speaker 1: What do you think companies can do actually to bridge
Speaker 1: the gap between knowledge and putting it into practice? Firstly,
Speaker 1: I think you must accept that
Speaker 1: some of these are because of logistics reasons why they cannot.
Speaker 1: But you can notice uh it is inspiring people to recycle.
Speaker 1: You continue to educate them. If the con if the
Speaker 1: brand continues to show commitment to this, people will change.
Speaker 1: If you look at the commitment the government has done
Speaker 1: with the neighborhoods, you look at how much of recycling
Speaker 1: opportunities they are. The
Speaker 1: blue color bins, neighborhoods, private public, everywhere you see this
Speaker 1: is commitment. So you keep seeing, you will eventually change.
Speaker 1: So if you don't, all the numbers are poor, you stop,
Speaker 1: I think then we are in trouble. You have to
Speaker 1: believe in something. We all can see the traction is there.
Speaker 1: If you continue, it will be fine. I think people
Speaker 1: will change
Speaker 1: and we are delighted with this. It's still big numbers
Speaker 1: and it's two ton, actually two tons of cancers a year.
Speaker 1: All right, if you can go to the next slide,
Speaker 1: I will share a little bit more about this.
Speaker 1: So this is our cans. If you look, it's I
Speaker 1: going to tell you on the left you'll see. Diamond
Speaker 1: is uh we sell 60,000 bottles a year. It's a
Speaker 1: plastic bottle. It's transformed from the middle one is from Chile.
Speaker 1: The last one is from our later supply in Asia.
Speaker 1: So we actually shaved off vast shipping
Speaker 1: roots as well. So we uh we do think about
Speaker 1: these things. It's not just about price. The other one
Speaker 1: I wanted to show you is the aesthetic finish from
Speaker 1: the plastic to that aluminum. Look at that pan on
Speaker 1: the right. Sorry if I say so myself, I think
Speaker 1: it's lovely. There's so many colors and it's aesthetically beautiful
Speaker 1: and I think the sales hike in sales for that
Speaker 1: product could be because it would look beautiful. But of course,
Speaker 1: the product inside
Speaker 1: that is also good. Huh? So let's go to the
Speaker 1: next one, please. And then, you know, just now you
Speaker 1: say uh that's, that's a phrase that you say it's
Speaker 1: not just about cost, right? That there is some questions
Speaker 1: that talk about the balancing going green with the rising
Speaker 1: cost of materials. I'm sure aluminum costs a lot more
Speaker 1: than plastic. So how, how does Herbal Farm actually balance
Speaker 1: that bottom line, you know, strike a fine balance between that.
Speaker 1: OK? Like I told you, right? Uh As our founder
Speaker 1: said to us, this is what he wants and this
Speaker 1: is what our business wants. This is why I joined the,
Speaker 1: the company and why we want to do this is
Speaker 1: because if we are going to tell, we have to
Speaker 1: be responsible, we have to be sustainable. This is good.
Speaker 1: We cannot just sell out plastic bottles. It's so in
Speaker 1: your face wrong. And that's a solution. If there was
Speaker 1: no
Speaker 1: solution, we have to accept it, there are solutions. So
Speaker 1: we went for this solution. It cost us more. I
Speaker 1: will show you a financial impact at the end. It
Speaker 1: definitely cost us more every time you want to go
Speaker 1: do good. It is always harder, it's always harder. But
Speaker 1: that's when it comes. If you want to do good
Speaker 1: really or you just want to do good to make money.
Speaker 1: If you want to do good to make money, something
Speaker 1: is wrong,
Speaker 1: right? So we want to do good really? We believe right?
Speaker 1: Very well. Yeah, sorry, sorry. So it's very well said, right?
Speaker 1: So being responsible and being honest in terms of your
Speaker 1: marketing communications, it it starts internally, it starts, you know,
Speaker 1: right within ourselves, right? So um it is a prerequisite
Speaker 1: to being uh to showing how consumers can be responsible
Speaker 1: towards the end. So continue kind of
Speaker 1: OK, sorry. This one I think uh Serena has touched
Speaker 1: in a little bit but uh fog beautifully. I cannot
Speaker 1: do any better. But this is our journey. We had
Speaker 1: to do a feasibility study with the limited resources. We
Speaker 1: had a few people, our founder myself, a few other people.
Speaker 1: We had to do a feasibility study. We have
Speaker 1: current inventory plastic. We have to finish those. How fast
Speaker 1: can we sell? Do we sell it cheaper? So we,
Speaker 1: we did uh some marketing and we said, ok, we
Speaker 1: brought in, we brought in four tons of aluminum cans
Speaker 1: because the minimum order was tough. So these were some challenges.
Speaker 1: We had to do the feasibility study. We had to
Speaker 1: find the right
Speaker 1: procured uh customer. We found them in Chile, but they
Speaker 1: had high in my M O Q. We had to
Speaker 1: do redesigning. They only allowed six colors on our can.
Speaker 1: We had 30 different different products to design and then
Speaker 1: the reception. This is why it is all worth it.
Speaker 1: Customers loved it. Sales increased by 13% a year on
Speaker 1: year since 2019. When we launched the aluminum cans every year,
Speaker 1: we have grown our business by at least 13%.
Speaker 1: It is tapering after it went really higher during the
Speaker 1: COVID period, but it's tapering but it's still decent, right?
Speaker 1: So responsibility wise, I think
Speaker 1: we have to be the change driver. We will live
Speaker 1: up to our ideals, leading more responsible consumers who can
Speaker 1: then embrace responsible consumerism. If we ourselves don't practice responsible consumerism.
Speaker 1: How do we ask the cons consumers, the customers who
Speaker 1: buy and sustain us to do the same? I think
Speaker 1: it's a bit offside. I mean, that's why we are
Speaker 1: very rigorous with the way we do things. If we
Speaker 1: can go to the next slide, I can show you
Speaker 1: a little bit more on
Speaker 1: some of the challenges. I've already spoken about this but
Speaker 1: I want to talk about this. Uh some of this
Speaker 1: that we have to talk mostly internal. I think I've
Speaker 1: already covered it but the customer education, but in order
Speaker 1: to put the customer education in perspective, do they care
Speaker 1: how to make them care? So let's look at some
Speaker 1: stats arena. I borrow your uh can you go back please? Yeah,
Speaker 1: this week, eight out of 10 customers in
Speaker 1: Asia Pacific want to buy from responsible banks. 25% of
Speaker 1: customers uh Jade, you already mentioned that I think the
Speaker 1: gap is a lot of them may be recycling themselves.
Speaker 1: We throw in a kicker. If you bring back some stuff,
Speaker 1: I give you $5 off and stuff like that. But ultimately,
Speaker 1: people want to recycle. 5% of customers participated are reusable bags. Ok?
Speaker 1: You might think that's a lot.
Speaker 1: Very little. That is still 2000 people. This is still
Speaker 1: something we have done for the earth. 80% of our
Speaker 1: customers that visited our showrooms brought their own bags. They
Speaker 1: participated in, bring your own bag. I think that's again,
Speaker 1: very good numbers. These are, we're talking about few everyday
Speaker 1: 2030 people coming to our stores. They are practicing this
Speaker 1: if you can go to the next slide. Now,
Speaker 1: these are some of our campaigns we use reuse to reduce,
Speaker 1: we embraced all four of these reuse, reduce refuse and recycle.
Speaker 1: Then we have the bags below in the middle. You'll
Speaker 1: see in our showroom, this is a recycled container, acrylic.
Speaker 1: We had no choice again. Like I said, when there's
Speaker 1: no choice, we have to use these materials. It's filled
Speaker 1: with our recycled cans. This is cleared daily and we
Speaker 1: fill it up every day with the customers coming and
Speaker 1: putting it in
Speaker 1: on our right. We have a statement here. We do care. We,
Speaker 1: we tell our customers properly in every channel that we
Speaker 1: can every time that we can, we tell them this.
Speaker 1: We do not hope that to heart, sell to them.
Speaker 1: We hope to tell them this is us. We are responsible.
Speaker 1: If you are responsible. If you like this brand, please sell,
Speaker 1: we speak more and we sell more to the heart. Ok.
Speaker 1: If we can go to the last few slides. Now,
Speaker 1: this is the financial impact jade. I would I promise
Speaker 1: to touch on you. We brought four tons of
Speaker 1: aluminum can. We had to find storage for this outside.
Speaker 1: We pay for this and we have to start moving
Speaker 1: our products, the plastic because we are eager now, right?
Speaker 1: We are eager wanna sell the aluminum. So we get
Speaker 1: discounts on our plastic bottles and we moved it out 2019.
Speaker 1: It came all the way from South America. We started
Speaker 1: to sell, they said 30,000 per brand per product. It
Speaker 1: is hard. But we did all of that.
Speaker 1: But you can see 2020 when we reordered from them,
Speaker 1: the price dropped, we were paying double what we paid
Speaker 1: for plastic and don't forget the quantity we had to
Speaker 1: pay much more. But we invested in this 2020. The
Speaker 1: price dropped to plastic bottle levels. But unfortunately, I had
Speaker 1: to drop the vendor. We moved to a vendor closer
Speaker 1: in Asia. We now pay slightly lesser. We get better
Speaker 1: quality
Speaker 1: and quicker and the M O Q s are less.
Speaker 1: So we manage this better. I'm hoping it continues to
Speaker 1: be more because it sells more. But that is not
Speaker 1: what it is and we managed to do it in
Speaker 1: two sizes. We had to do it in three sizes
Speaker 1: now in two sizes,
Speaker 1: but this is where it comes to play, right? What
Speaker 1: it's all about if you are a brand is about
Speaker 1: making profits. We are not Saints guys. We are here
Speaker 1: to make money, right? But it is not the first
Speaker 1: thing on our list. The first thing on our list
Speaker 1: to make people live healthier, make the world a better place,
Speaker 1: then comes profits. We are talking about 15% of our
Speaker 1: operating cost was saved 15%.
Speaker 1: This tend to profits for us. We shared it with
Speaker 1: the people. We have a very high social and sustainability
Speaker 1: angle as well. We do a lot of charity and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. OK? We can go into the last slide,
Speaker 1: OK. This is where it comes about the sustainability report,
Speaker 1: the measurement that we did, you can see our score.
Speaker 1: We have a good, I actually I thought 85.2 was
Speaker 1: going to be excellent, but it's ok. I cannot win everything,
Speaker 1: but that's the scoring, right? They won 90. So we
Speaker 1: still can aspire. So in terms of cost versus competitiveness,
Speaker 1: the question I must answer very quickly. If you invest
Speaker 1: in this, I'm not saying everyone has a nice happy
Speaker 1: ending here.
Speaker 1: However, if you are sincere and if you make the
Speaker 1: right choices, you cannot just say, oh sustainable, I will
Speaker 1: do everything. I think that's silly. It's not prudent. You
Speaker 1: have to be prudent. You need to know what you
Speaker 1: can change, how you can change, sourcing. You have to
Speaker 1: have deep, deep research avenues, you have to consult people
Speaker 1: of the network and then you make decisions. And I
Speaker 1: think you can see this is a validation of our efforts.
Speaker 1: This is by the way, yeah, it's only two months ago,
Speaker 1: we did this, by the way, we attended a sustainability course, right?
Speaker 1: And now the other one on government grants, I must
Speaker 1: tell you, that government doesn't give you grants to do
Speaker 1: this sometimes. Uh
Speaker 1: I think for electric vehicles, there's some grant when you
Speaker 1: buy it. But for companies they have what is called
Speaker 1: a career conversion program. They have other schemes like that.
Speaker 1: I attended a sustainability course, me and our Coo Lucas
Speaker 1: attended and we both had heavily subsidized fees for that course,
Speaker 1: it was an eye opening cost. The fact that I'm here,
Speaker 1: I think is because of that cost and there you go,
Speaker 1: you see, the government
Speaker 1: gives us this kind of opportunities, opportunities to defray the
Speaker 1: cost of you learning and therefore understanding better. So you
Speaker 1: don't make wrong decisions when you're trying to be responsible.
Speaker 1: But that is something that I must say nobody is
Speaker 1: out there to give you something to do and do good. Right. Exactly.
Speaker 1: I think it's not Singaporean if you like what I mean?
Speaker 1: So the other one about why you must be sustainable.
Speaker 1: I think the answers have already been there and you
Speaker 1: can see brands like a, we are so far from
Speaker 1: that brand, but still
Speaker 1: the intentions are the same. They want to make the
Speaker 1: world a better place. And so if you have a
Speaker 1: better world, you have better health, you have a better you,
Speaker 1: which is uh what Hubble farm stands for, I think.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for giving me this chance to
Speaker 1: inspire you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. That, that is um that is really amazing.
Speaker 1: Results and the process um Herber Farm went through. Now
Speaker 1: we are actually overrunning on time, but I want to
Speaker 1: quickly wrap up. Now. There's a, there's a couple of questions, right?
Speaker 1: That I want to also highlight there's one question about
Speaker 1: how can brands communicate about its effort in an authentic
Speaker 1: way to avoid being hard selling or self promoting, which
Speaker 1: I E green washing.
Speaker 1: Uh Remember the three words during K speech control, the narrative, right?
Speaker 1: So you need to control the nar narrative throughout the
Speaker 1: value chain as well to make sure that you're being honest, right?
Speaker 1: You're being responsible in terms of your marketing communication. Don't
Speaker 1: talk about things that
Speaker 1: it's yet to come or don't do what things that
Speaker 1: you are not even sure that you are going to do, right?
Speaker 1: Be sure in what you want to achieve. Be sure
Speaker 1: in what you want to communicate to the audience. Um
Speaker 1: There is a question about
Speaker 1: consumers being price sensitive and how can we actually balance
Speaker 1: that when we want to go greener? Because of course,
Speaker 1: um you know, in Kan's case, aluminum costs more than plastic.
Speaker 1: So how can we manage that? Maybe just a quick
Speaker 1: wrap up from each of um you, Serena K followed
Speaker 1: by
Speaker 1: just as a wrap up for the entire session?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm happy to go first. So thank you
Speaker 1: everyone um for being so sticky with us today. And
Speaker 1: uh it's been a pleasure and I learned a lot
Speaker 1: even from, and
Speaker 1: um, I guess from the consumer education perspective, I've seen
Speaker 1: a few questions about um, the cost involved because we
Speaker 1: are running a business at the end of the day. Right. So,
Speaker 1: really start off with quick wins, starting from your own assets.
Speaker 1: So thinking about, you know, if you look back at
Speaker 1: the Peso model, look at your own channels, what can
Speaker 1: you control? And if you look at the four key
Speaker 1: things, right? Um It's really um you don't need to
Speaker 1: spend a lot of money. If you look at product labeling,
Speaker 1: you just need to communicate clearly. If you are looking
Speaker 1: at engaging content, you are looking at content for your website.
Speaker 1: For example, if you are looking at partnerships, you know,
Speaker 1: if you go into clever partnerships and collaborations, um you
Speaker 1: will be able to reach out to a wider audience
Speaker 1: and then install an online customer engagement.
Speaker 1: So, so we are not asking you um you know,
Speaker 1: to spend a ton of money, but uh it's always
Speaker 1: important to go for the quick wins, go for the
Speaker 1: low hanging fruit and um measure measure along the way,
Speaker 1: do not only measure at the end of campaign measure
Speaker 1: and refine along the way um test, test out some
Speaker 1: of your uh creative ideas and see if it works.
Speaker 1: And then after that, uh elevate what you're
Speaker 2: doing, I completely agree with, with Serena. And I think
Speaker 2: if you think about that two by two, I showed
Speaker 2: that you can figure out what is impact that you
Speaker 2: like to put in for the returns that it's all
Speaker 2: we are businesses. So we always do, do R I
Speaker 2: um analysis. But the key thing is if we have the,
Speaker 2: the right mindset um just get, just get going, just
Speaker 2: get started.
Speaker 2: It is possible to do good and do well, I
Speaker 2: think that would be the, the, the key thing I
Speaker 2: leave with everybody.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a brand. Uh you guys
Speaker 1: the same, right? I learned so much just from listening
Speaker 1: to all of you and also the questions because it's real, right?
Speaker 1: This is what we is all about. We have to
Speaker 1: sustain ourselves first. But um I think the intention must
Speaker 1: be good. You must have an
Speaker 1: intuitive team to understand what we are trying to achieve.
Speaker 1: Don't try to be lofty in what you're trying to do.
Speaker 1: Sustainability is not going to go away and the world
Speaker 1: is not going to change for the better immediately. It's
Speaker 1: been damaged for a while. So these efforts we take
Speaker 1: is a step by step. So, but
Speaker 1: even one small step in the right direction is going
Speaker 1: to lead us, excuse my language, but to the promised land.
Speaker 1: Uh Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Uh
Speaker 1: It has been a very fruitful discussion and we are
Speaker 1: just going to end the webinar right now. Thank you
Speaker 1: for your time and I hope to see you at
Speaker 1: our next webinar. Thank you so much.