To B or not to B Corp
This is a guest post by my friend Danny Rosin who I wrote about here several years ago:
Danny is an unusual business owner. He leads with his heart and succeeds with empathy and compassion for his community. His company, Brand Fuel, which he co-founded with his childhood friend Robert Fiveash, recently announced that it became a B Corp.
Here is their story about why a company chose to become a B Corp.
B Corp is a business that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. – From B Lab
Change is afoot. And at Brand Fuel, we are thrilled to launch our next rocket. We have been on an ongoing quest to be an original in our commoditized industry. For 24-years, our business has been on an educational and enlightening adventure to address our customers’ ever-changing challenges.
We have a revitalized focus on quality branded merchandise – that lasts.
See for example, The Custom Love Bottle. Merch that tells a story with passion. On-time. On budget. And on-brand. Merch that is safe. Personal merch. Merch that positively impacts the world.
Today, we are headed in a more-focused direction
We feel in our gut that we want to help lead disruption in our industry in the best ways.
Here’s our question zero:
“What if branded merchandise was a force for good?”
How will we be a force for good?
We recognize that to do anything impactful, we must do the hard work of earning trust. And to be a trusted partner.
The B Corp certification is the grandest initiative and representation of pride in our company.
Our work as a B Corp will be our guidepost for everything. From hiring practices to the responsible sourcing sustainable branded merch and everything in between. This part of our journey as a B Corp will be a mixture of effort, education, dedication, patience, consistency, humility, focus, making hard but essential choices, and even having some fun.
B Good First
- Be credible as well as capable.
- Understand our customers better and assess what they want and need. “Strategy First. Product Second” is our calling card there. And we hope we can earn their trust with strategic thinking by challenging our clients to purchase smartly through online store programs and initiatives like phygital marketing.
- Be as much a tech company as we are a branded merch agency.
- Sell quality, safe products.
- Be good stewards of our industry and our communities.
- Have high ethical standards.
- Take care of our staff.
- Our work is not about what we say but what we do. And what we do is what will define us. To show versus to say.
What is a B Corp Certification?
B Corp Certification is a designation we have earned that states that Brand Fuel is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. To achieve certification, we had to:
- Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 (we received an 87.1%) or above and passing the B Labs risk review.
- Make a legal commitment by changing our corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status.
- Exhibit transparency by allowing information about our performance to be measured against B Lab’s standards and have it be publicly available on B Lab’s website.
This video breaks down the B Corp Movement:
So, what’s in it for our clients?
We are at our best when there is a symbiotic relationship with our clients.
Our vision for our clients includes a future with more substantial impacts and outcomes that help promote our clients’ purposes to the world.
Our B Corp Certification will help with measurement and validation.
Please stay tuned for an even more vigilant focus on sustainable products and services like Phygital Marketing to deliver impact, ROI, and ROC (Return on Community)
WHY are we headed in this direction?
Our industry is commoditized and unhealthy – with a reliance on cheap products from China. Yet, we are on a mission to feature alternatives – made from sustainable materials that last – so your brand and messaging last.
Our Promise.
- We will crush our nemesis – brand fill: branded merch ending in landfills.
- We will push clients to offer their end-users a choice. The choice is the first, easiest, and perhaps the most impactful step towards Sustainability: what gets used stays out of the landfill.
- We will be in the business of impact.
- We will express our values as a business differentiator.
- We will find clients that share our values.
- We will embrace “no-ing” and pass on opportunities that compete with our values.
- We will provoke strategic thinking and be gritty and bold.
- We will release fresh ideas early and often and retain a high threshold for pain.
- We will ask ourselves, “Will this end up in the landfill?”
- We will ask ourselves: “Would we wear, use or want this product?”
- We will focus on inspiration to the top versus a race to the bottom.
- We will stoke the fire of curiosity.
- We will ensure responsible sourcing to help create an industry halo effect.
- We will move clients from problem to possibility to journey.
You can read about some of the actions that we will manifest in these links: Responsible Sourcing , Code of Conduct & DEI and Corporate Giving Our high standards will continue to be the foundation for everything we do.
Please hold us accountable and if our approach appeals to you, come along for a more sustainable ride on our more sustainable rocket ship.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Tags: B Corp Certification, BrandGood, Business legacy, Certified B Corp, corporate social responsibility, a force for good, high ethical standards, marketing, No brand fill, phygital marketing, Quality Branded Merchandise, strategy first product second, sustainability
