After the Volkswagen Scandals comes the Danone Scandal
In the western countries, we all know that it is advised to breast feed babies a minimum of 6 months or one year to protect and immunize them. When French journalist Elise Lucet tried to interview Mr Faber the Director of Danone for her famous Cash Investigation program on France 2, National French Television, he did not want to answer.
Danone could say "We are sorry, we will offer the milk or restore the situation" but they did nothing.
We have sent Mr Faber a proposal for launching a campaign in Indonesia and other South East Asia countries to tell women it is so important for their babies' health and immunity to breast feed them. Let see what his answer will be.
Following the Economist: Trust in Brands is Declining
Since the global crisis of 2008 trust has moved to the top of the brand agenda. In response to the new world of economic uncertainty people are being drawn to brands that display qualities like authenticity, honesty and truth, the raw ingredients that trust is built upon.
This elevation of trust goes hand in hand with the ubiquitous mobile device. We are increasingly living an ‘always on’ life. The connected consumer sees the mobile device as an extension of their own body, providing the information and power to choose like never before.
While brands can readily engage with consumers via their mobile device, consumers get to decide which brands to allow into this most intimate part of their everyday lives. Only brands that make a truly valuable contribution to peoples’ lives — those that are transparent and can be trusted — will be granted permission to enter. As soon as a brand abuses that trust or is deemed not to be authentic or relevant it will be shut out with a single click.
In this era of the connected consumer, the status of trust as a critical brand value is underlined by the increasing trend for consumers to turn to their social network for advice and recommendations. Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Survey of more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries said that 92% of consumers around the world trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising; an increase of 18% since 2007.
Does your Brand has a Stronger enough Sense of Purpose ?
Most start-ups tend to have a strong sense of purpose but as they grow more people get involved and the founder’s vision is easily lost. A brand’s purpose cannot just be a mantra written on a boardroom wall or hidden in the confines of a corporate identity guide. A strong sense of purpose is only real if it translates as brand behavior, something customers can feel through direct personal experience.
Brands should be warned. In the future there will only be two types of business: the trusted and the extinct.
Will you be leading this New Economy ?
Leading the New Economy is demonstrating that your brand is transparent, acting in ethical ways, and producing products with respect.
Changing is not easy, which is the reason we are here : to help brands to move forward, self-evaluate, clean up and renew like the sphinx from its ashes. This is why we have created the New Luxury Code to support brands audit .