It’s easier to market ethically when starting a business from scratch, but any business new or old can put ethics at the heart of what they do. That’s one of the key findings Chris and Jen discovered when they started helping businesses with ethical marketing.

Chris Thornhill and Jen Bayford formed Growth Animals to help business grow their bottom-line and their impact. But ethics isn’t something that can be added in later – it relies on a company culture that’s far easier to instil at the beginning than to change later.

That doesn’t mean that legacy businesses can’t take a new ethical stance, but they often face challenges around authenticity, and avoiding “greenhushing” (or the perception that a company might be greenwashing).

Some things to consider

• When considering social media channels, think about the value you can offer, not just the size of the megaphone.
• Do your values run the grain of your company, or are they just lacquered on?
• If the Internet were a country, it would be the seventh largest polluter in the world.
• Organisations should look at the good they’re already doing – or want to do – in practical terms, before seeking accreditation.
• Too much artificial scarcity erodes trust with the customer.
• Don’t wait until you’re squeaky-clean to start a campaign with ethics in mind.

Links

• Connect with Jen on LinkedIn
• Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
• Growth Animals
• The Progressive Leader’s Guide to Ethical Marketing (PDF)
• The Social Dilemma
• DFS advert from the 90s
• Atomic Habits, by James Clear
• Take the Growth Animals quiz