“For there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it” - US Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman.

It was a fitting opening to our annual leadership summit last week, which this year was focused on Conscious Brands, a new era for branding.

“We believe it takes a different kind of brand to succeed in this environment: a conscious one,” says David Stevens, Wolff Olins Senior Strategy Director, who kicked off the event, alongside three incredible speakers, Barbara Martin Coppola, IKEA’s Chief Digital Officer, Tim Allen, Airbnb’s VP Design and Ulrike Decoene, AXA’s Group Head of Communication, Brands. They took to the virtual stage to talk our 200+ guests through the Six Signs of a Conscious Brand. 

These are brands that we believe have six characteristics: empathy, multi-sensory, habitual, reformist, a collective approach, and are moral in their actions.

We believe the landscape for brands is radically shifting from a consumer, industry, technology, channel, organisational and societal perspective.

“Conscious brands behave differently, alive to the mood of the world, deeply attuned to human emotions, ready to adapt instantly to changing customer needs,” explains Stevens. “In a word, we call this responsive behaviour. But a conscious brand is also mindful of its societal role, its impact, its faults, its duties, the difference it can make. In a word, responsible.”

Responsive and responsible

While few brands sit in the intersection between responsive and responsible brands, the opportunity is now here to go much further over the next decade.

There is a movement happening now, says Coppola at IKEA and people are becoming more aware of the effect companies can have. They're calling for them to rise and take a stand to become conscious, both from a social and planet-positive perspective.

“Instead of focusing on short-term profits only, they need to balance their decisions carefully to take a broader perspective and have positive impact in society and the world at large,” says Coppola. “We believe a human-centric conscious agenda is the way forward and we've already started. We're on our way to being planet positive by 2030.”

This sort of agenda will be a must have for any brand moving forward, she adds: “It's not only the right thing to do, but it also makes business sense.”

Business with a positive impact

Working for businesses that have a positive impact and a bigger purpose than the economic benefit is crucial to Coppola, who says that she chose to work at IKEA because of its value-based, very strong, human-centric brand. 

She explains: “It's a tremendous, conscious brand. And that gives meaning to my work in digitising the company, transforming the company into the next era, to suit many more people. Our vision at IKEA is to create a better everyday life for the many people. People are at the centre of everything we do.”

While people, as in customers, have of course always been crucial to IKEA’s success, it now gives wider meaning to ‘people’: they are customers, co-workers, but then also society and the planet at large.

“Every single decision we take has to have a positive effect in all dimensions to move forward. It gives me a lot of pride. I believe we want to lead a change. And I hope we will inspire many other companies to join us and follow us in the pursuit of a human-centric strategy and company overall,” explains Coppola.

Leaving us with a final piece of advice, she acknowledges that no one is perfect, but we must still act now: “As business leaders, companies and individuals we can easily fall into a sense of powerless. We hope that someone else solves the climate crisis or transforms business models to be fit for the future, or any other complex issue that we are dealing with in the world. As leaders we are driving change and sometimes it can feel overwhelming, but we must believe that this is possible.”

Here are the hot takeaways from our inspirational speakers:

Systemic purpose

• Brand leadership is changing, says Ulrike Decoene at AXA: “We need to act with more humility, tell customers we will try our best. As a brand we need to listen, learn, be humble and agile and accept we will make mistakes. This really is a new era."
• A shift we have seen since COVID is that frivolity is not so acceptable anymore, explains Decoene. Any messages now are about how meaningful and useful you are. What you are doing, rather than who you are, is really important.
• If you want to capture the attention of people you have to start to talk to them about themselves, where they are from, what they are rooted in, says Decoene.
• “We want purpose to become systemic and we have created a ‘purpose accelerator’ in our business. There are incredible ideas out there and we’re looking how we can scale them across the business,” says Decoene.
• During COVID might not seem the right time to launch your company purpose, but, according to Decoene, this could be precisely when it is needed, and it shows you are true to your commitments.

Prioritising sustainable consumption

• A human-centric conscious agenda will be a must have for any brand moving forward. It's not only the right thing to do, but it also makes business sense, says Barbara Martin Coppola of IKEA.
• Coppola explains: “We know people want to have sustainable consumption as our data and insights is feeding back to us 24 hours a day. Furniture as a service is something that we're putting in place and by 2030, we will have circular business models at IKEA for the many to enjoy when it comes to sustainability in general.”
• “We believe it is time to rewrite the contract digitally. We think that data usage should be respectful”, says Coppola. “That is why we developed a new contract that we call the customer data promise, allowing people to, at any point, understand what data is being used and actually control, delete, or continue allowing the usage of that data. Not in hidden menus, not in legal jargon. But in a visually simple way.”

Believe in the individual

• Another side of being a conscious brand is to treat your own people with fairness, keeping human rights at the core. That is why at IKEA 50% of managers are women.
• IKEA believes that it is good business to be a good business. “We are convinced that the actions and solutions needed aren't just good for the planet, they are foundations for long term business success. Sustainable innovation is the future for both business and society,” says Coppola.
• By being daring, believes Coppola, leaders can inspire and challenge others to follow and therefore increase the overall positive impact. “We must believe in the individual and the possibility to influence and really make a difference,” says Coppola.

Understanding humanity

• "Design is all about problem solving and Conscious Brands is about being moral, multi-sensory, empathetic and more, basically being human. So, great design is about understanding humanity," says Tim Allen of Airbnb.
• Community and empathy are at the core of Airbnb. When many from its host community were facing financial insecurity due to the pandemic, they still stepped up to help. Through the platform’s initiative, hosts are able to offer discounts, or even free accommodation, to allow healthcare and other key workers to stay close to their work or to distance from their families.
• “If you have the privilege of thinking about how to impact and improve people’s lives, whether you’re in UX or product or elsewhere, I think of it like that is the essence of kindness. That nuance starts to change the way you create,” explains Allen.
• Try to solve problems rather than push your product through that lens. COVID should be a catalyst not a filter, advises Allen.
• Understand who your enemies are; the enemies of trust are discrimination and bias. Airbnb wants to be a platform that goes beyond mere compliance, says Allen, to promote a culture of non-discrimination.