A responsibility revolution is underway.
“We are entering a period of social change…we are recalibrating our sense of what it means to be a citizen, not just through voting or volunteering but also through commerce: by what we buy.” – TIME magazine
Here at The TrendWatch, we’ve been digging around, exploring what’s fueling this social change. In search for answers, we revisited the 1970’s when corporate social responsibility (CSR) began. Around this time, we stumbled upon the following cultural insight and basis for our theory:
“Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist
What’s driving today’s responsibility revolution is that a few committed citizens are using social technology to coordinate responsible consumer behavior. And what’s game changing is how their approach triggers responsible consumer & corporate behavior at the point of purchase where the battle of good vs bad is ultimately won.
Here are a few good trends, started by a few committed citizens, to watch:
Disrupting the incentives:
Carrot Mob is a method of activism that leverages consumer power to make the most socially-responsible business practices also the most profitable choices. Businesses compete with one another to see who can do the most good, and then a big mob of consumers buys products in order to reward whichever business made the strongest commitment to improve the world. It’s the opposite of a boycott.
Shifting the balance of information and power:
Developed by a professor at UC Berkeley, Good Guide sifts through the health, environmental, and social profiles of everyday products and the companies that manufacture them, distilling hundreds of pieces of data into a simple 10-point rating system accessible on goodguide.com and a bar-code-scanning iPhone app (note: Fast Company recognized Good Guide as one of the 50 most innovative companies).
Making it easy to buy good:
At first use, the Good Guide app is pretty cool, but we wondered if it would be practical for ‘bustling moms,’ the prized target of CPG brands? Would they whip out their iPhones and scan packages of cookie dough with a screaming baby in tow? Maybe some would, but most likely not enough for the tool to reach critical mass. So we were happy to discover that Good Guide is expanding its scope. In a smart move, they recently partnered with Alice.com, a startup designed to make sure bustling moms never run out of essential goods. What makes Alice unique is that she helps moms find the best price, applies available coupons automatically, offers free shipping and makes it easy to find and buy the ‘good goods’ thanks to the integration of the Good Guide rating system. The partnership between Alice and the Good Guide may only be the beginning. Imagine if companies like Amazon jump on board?
The bottom line is that as more consumers embrace social technology, it will only get easier to purchase ‘good’ consistently and so much harder for brands to produce bad. Could responsible consumer behavior (RCB) be the new CSR? Either way, the responsible revolution is forcing the next evolution of business.
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