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Wednesday 29 April 2015

How Your Eco Credentials May Be Scaring Your Customers Away

eco labels

Profit is the main motive of most businesses, but there are also others that are guided by ethics. Offset Warehouse is only one among the hundreds of brands that deal in ethical and eco-friendly products, and strive to make a difference to the world.

When ethical trade is the focus of an organisation, it is tricky to effectively market the brand while also helping customers realise what you stand for. There are several reasons for this. With no clear definition of what “ethical” or “sustainable” actually means, consumers will not be entirely clear on how your brand is ethical. Added to this, with such broad meaning, every other brand can claim to be eco in some way too, and you may realise that your USP isn’t so special anymore. Some brands who claim to be “eco-friendly” may not be at all – read our article on the effects of Greenwashing to find out more. Often the general perception of eco goods is that these products are expensive, but low quality. Hence regular shoppers may tend to stay away from them. This affects the brands that are genuinely eco-friendly.

As a result customers, eco-savvy or not, are put off by products labelled “eco-friendly”, “ethical”,“green” etc, as these do not always live up to their expectations.

marketing ethics

Mariano DeGuzman of the eco-friendly knitwear brand Appalatch soon discovered that he would have to change his marketing strategy to survive. Appalatch was initially advertised as a green company with products aimed at environmentalists who were hooked to sustainability. But to their surprise, they discovered that this group was reluctant to pay more for a product based on it’s green credentials alone, even if they were higher-quality, longer-lasting clothes. DeGuzman was taken aback to find that instead, conscious customers seeking high-quality clothes were the ones attracted to the story behind their brand, as well as their high quality. This led Appalatch to change their marketing strategy. By focusing on the unique qualities of each of their products and sharing the emotional stories behind their designs, their sales increased by almost 20%.

Know The Pros & Cons of Marketing Your Ethics

Consumers understand the importance of sustainability and appreciate genuine products that conform to their expectations of green. Convincing them, however, is not easy. Environmentally responsible customers are wary of the word “green”. As I mentioned before, the word “green” doesn’t have a finite meaning, and many brands take that opportunity to claim to be sustainable when they aren’t. So marketing your product with these buzzwords may be your undoing.

What a business needs to realise is that being environmentally-friendly is great, but consumers care more about quality, price and the story behind the product. For example, let’s take a look at Ada Zandition.

Ada Zandition Couture Catwalk, Sring Summer 2015, London Fashion

This premier couture collection features futuristic and bold designs that boast creativity and originality. It is simultaneously an ethical brand that responsibly sources fabrics and collaborates with charities, but their marketing strategy focuses on their fashion forward design, which just happens to be ethically made as well. What we can learn from this is that we can communicate our story and the ethical stand of our organisation, but let our designs speak first.

How To Convey Your Ethics & Moral Stand To Customers

You may be wondering, if I let my “designs speak first” how do I let my environment savvy customers learn about my brand’s ethics? There are a few ways to inform and educate customers about the story behind our product: product labels, the company website and advertising campaigns. Here’s a look at each of them.

eco label

Swing Tags

Design garment labels and swing tags of your product in such a way that they discuss the ethically conscious stand of your brand. Fabric and woven labels may be small, but they are an incredibly easy way to share the product sourcing details and mission of the organisation. Such a small space requires concise and clear messaging – ideal for quickly conveying messages.

Website

Another place to cite your environmental credentials and discuss it in more detail is your company website. Use this space to define your concept of green, as it is a word that means different things to different people. Highlight the measures you take to ensure your materials are sourced ethically and the efforts you put in to make sure your brand is eco-friendly. State only the facts and strive to distinguish yourself from the other brands that call themselves green, by actually delivering what you claim.

Advertising

The third option is using effective advertising campaigns. Here is a brilliant advertisement by Patagonia. This ad, which was run in the New York Times on Black Friday, grabs attention with it’s provocative headline, “Don’t buy this jacket”.

patagonia-ad

This served two intentions. The first was to encourage consumers to lighten their environmental footprint by only buying clothes that they actually require. The second was to gain attention for the product that was advertised. This ad communicates the brand’s ethical stance and mission to find solutions for environment crises.  The team made sure that the jacket was noticed by this unconventional message and the jacket ended up as one of their best sellers. The cynical amongst you may be thinking – was this just a PR stunt? It made more people buy the jacket – not less – however you look at it is also a novel approach that gains publicity for Patagonia and tell’s their customers where their ethics lie.

I hope this gives you some inspiration on best way to market your eco-credentials without compromising sales. Understand your target consumer and plan your strategy so the product appeals to them. This way, you not only encourage them to take an ethical stand, but one that they think is the best quality and fashion choice as well.

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State only the facts and strive to distinguish yourself from the other brands #eco #marketing
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The post How Your Eco Credentials May Be Scaring Your Customers Away appeared first on The Swatch Book.



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Monday 27 April 2015

Eco Fabric Company Is Hiring – Part Time Sales Exec Required

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We’re looking for an energetic, experienced freelance salesperson to join our small team. 20 hours per week available, flexible schedule. Hourly wage and target based commission. Must be UK based with quick access to London (London-based preferred).


@OffsetWarehouse is looking for a part-time Sales Exec. Get in touch! #job #hiring
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Overview

Offset Warehouse is an ethical textile company looking to broaden our reach with the addition of a face to face salesperson to our team. The hours are very flexible, ideal for working parents and students, with a requirement of 20 hours per week, over any weekday at any time suited to you. We’re also happy to be an additional income stream for a freelancer, as long as there are no competing products involved in the other roles.

The Role

  • Self-directed research and lead generation.
  • Telesales, including cold calling and follow up calls.
  • Email outreach
  • Face to face client meetings, showcasing our ethical textiles.
  • Raising orders in our backend system.

The Type Of Person

  • A love of sales – absolutely essential!
  • Organised – this job is extremely busy and varying and requires a candidate to is adept at prioritising and organising a number of tasks at any given moment.
  • Confident & experienced at pitching for business with a clear passion for textiles. At least 1 years experience in a similar role and excellent proven sales record.
  • Financially motivated and target driven. Commission is purely target based – so a drive to hit and exceed targets will increase your salary.
  • Self-starter, highly motivated: All of the work will be self-directed, so you must be able to manage your own time.
  • Quick learner. We use several online CRM systems and order management software, that you will be required to use. Knowledge of all our products is also essential. Training will be provided for both.
  • Happy to work independently. Most of the work will be done independently from the team, so you must be happy working on your own. As our products are ethical textiles and most of our clients are fashion designers and interiors designers, knowledge of the industry is required.
  • Easy to talk to and a great listener.
  • Punctual and professional. As a client-facing employee, you must represent our brand with the utmost professionalism.

Fabric SalesmanAbout Us

Charlie Ross is founder and Director of Offset Warehouse.  She began the company in 2010 in response to the lack of ethical textiles available on the market, particularly for smaller designers and retailers.  We’re dedicated to selling textiles that are socially and environmentally responsible. This includes products that are ecofriendly, organic, fair trade, made in cooperatives and so on.

We are a friendly, passionate team, who all work independently, with monthly breakfast and lunch meetings in Central London. Each employee has a direct impact on the business – and as such, every single person adds value. Every team member can make suggestions and decisions that directly improve the way that the company works. We work efficiently and can adapt quickly.

To Apply: Please visit our website for more details and information on how to apply. Please ensure you understand our ethos, and have the relevant experience before applying.

The post Eco Fabric Company Is Hiring – Part Time Sales Exec Required appeared first on The Swatch Book.



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Sunday 26 April 2015

If you love fabrics like we do, then sign up for monthly...



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Have an amazing Earth Day everyone. I found this quote, and...



Have an amazing Earth Day everyone. I found this quote, and thought it was quite beautiful and resonated with me. I’ve never been one to sit back and point out injustices and wait for something to happen. I had problems sourcing responsibly produced textiles - so I started Offset Warehouse!

So, this Earth Day, in whatever form resonates with you, I encourage you to take action - yourself, right now, right here on this earth.

#EarthDay #happy #happiness #takeaction #fashrev #ecodesign #sustfashion #ecofashion #designer #creative If you love fabrics like we do, then sign up for monthly updates!


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Are You Greenwashing? How Greenwashing Destroys Brands

What Is Green Washing

The Definition of Greenwashing

We’ve all heard about whitewashing: trying to cover something up that is unsavoury or unwanted, and hoping that no one sees through the white paint. It’s a metaphor meaning to gloss over or cover up vices. It’s leaving out an important detail in a story, or distracting people from mistakes that have been made. Greenwashing, is cleverly derived from “whitewashing” to describe a more modern concept: pretending to be more environmentally friendly than you actually are – hence the “green”.


Greenwashing is when a company suggests they are more eco-friendly than they actually are….
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How Can You Tell?

what is greenwashing

It can sometimes be very difficult to tell whether or not a company, a fashion designer, or a government is “greenwashing” over their actions, but there are often many key signs that you can look out for.

A big tell: has a company suddenly made a huge statement that they have promoted heavily in advertising, but do not seem to have much evidence or statistics to back it up? This is very common when it comes to greenwashing, as it is a lot cheaper to spend a little money on marketing and advertising that states that they are green and eco-friendly, than actually investing a huge amount of time and energy into transforming their practices to greener methods.

Examples of Greenwashing

There are many different examples of how a company can greenwash over their unethical and environmentally unfriendly policies. For example, some will use an advert that purposefully misleads the audience in an attempt to convince them that they are actually much more environmentally aware than they are. Some will even include visuals and statistics that seem to back up their claim – check the very bottom of the screen for small print sentences. Sometimes this can highlight more information about the numbers that they are quoting, and suggest that the figures  are actually not useful or meaningful.

Many examples of greenwashing are just vague statements that include buzzwords that sound great, but have very little actual meaning. Lastly, there are many examples of greenwashing in which a company will leave out important information in order to make themselves look a lot greener than they actually are.

Fast Fashion

model-pic

Many fashion companies are jumping on the green bandwagon and questions are often asked about the legitimacy of their green policies. Can an industry based on consumerism ever be truely genuine with their green efforts?

H&M are an interesting example to look at.  For the past few years they have been very vocal with their eco-conscious collection using organic cotton and recycled polyester for example, and have put a lot of funding into green innovation.  They also have a promise that by 2020 100% of their cotton will be sustainably sourced.

They are making big steps towards ‘greening’ their brand, and some may say are doing a lot more than other fast fashion brands. But, as their business model is still based on super fast turnover of stock, 30 to 40 trends a year, producing cheap disposable clothing- many of their detractors think that until they put effort into stopping this conspicuous consumption, they can never really be truly green. It really is for the individual consumer to decide.

One way to check up on the ethical policies of fashion brands is to take a look at the Greenpeace Detox Fashion project. They are encouraging a toxic-free future for the fashion industry and are calling on “companies to adopt and implement an individual Detox solution, committing to eliminate the use and release of all hazardous chemicals from their global supply chain and products by 1 January 2020.”  They are also calling out the brands who are ‘greenwashing’ their efforts.

How To Avoid Greenwashing As A Designer

Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg

Saying you are “Green” can be a double edge sword. It means you are under much greater scrutiny, often much more than a company making no effort at all. You can be making all the effort in the world to be as green or ethical as possible but if you slip up in one area, or are proven to be not quite green as you first said it can all come crashing down.

You may remember the Elle UK, Fawcett Society and Whistles “This is What a Feminist Looks Like” T-shirt controversy from last year – The Mail on Sunday ‘exposed‘ the working conditions and low pay of the garment workers making the t-shirts. This overshadowed the whole feminist campaign, and even though the campaigners later released statements proving they were made in ethical conditions. It is not what everyone remembers about the issue.

So, as a brand what can you do? Firstly, be honest. Don’t make promises that you can’t keep, don’t make claims that you cannot demonstrably prove with honest statistics, and be honest about the areas which your fashion work is struggling to be green about. Consumers appreciate honesty. Being totally upfront will also mean that your customers can see the changes and steps you’re making to being even more green – which can be just as powerful as being green to start with.

Avoiding greenwashing is not simple, and you may think it is easier to gloss over the facts – but being seen as a greenwasher can destroy your brand.  Be honest about your work and not only will your practice be greener, but your customers will trust you more too.

If you like these articles, then please do sign up to our monthly newsletter, where I round up all the latest posts.  You can tweet the article using the tweet buttons throughout the article and below.


Can an industry based on consumerism ever be truely genuine with their green efforts? #greenwashing
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To avoid greenwashing don’t make claims that you cannot prove with honest statistics…
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Be honest about the areas which your fashion work is struggling to be green #brand #eco…
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The post Are You Greenwashing? How Greenwashing Destroys Brands appeared first on The Swatch Book.



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Wednesday 15 April 2015

The Best Fashion Revolution Day Events – Get Involved!...





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Monday 13 April 2015

Oh burgundy thread what shall I use thee for?! Swooning over...





Oh burgundy thread what shall I use thee for?!

Swooning over all the organic threads back in today- literally feel like I’m in a sweet shop!


Being added to the site shortly… http://www.offsetwarehouse.com/ethical-haberdashery-notions/buttons-embellishments.html


#organic #organicthread #sew #sewer #design #designer #DIY #sewing #sewist #craft #crafty #create #creative #textile #maker #material #ecostyle #ecofabric If you love fabrics like we do, then sign up for monthly updates!




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Wednesday 1 April 2015