I’ve become a little frightened of late at the amount of stuff that is now ‘made in China’ or other faraway destinations and like many people, I’m interested in buying more local or authentic products from a destination. (Sorry China, nothing personal).

When I was over in Belfast last week I stumbled on an Irish retail brand called Avoca and instantly fell in love. Everything in the store is born and bred Irish, from the cups through to the clothing, the food label and an array of quirky, vintage products. It is perhaps what you would expect from a family-run brand that dates back to 1723 and a clothing mill located in the Valley of Avoca.

But I’ll go further and say this brand is much more than just about heritage. Their mission is ‘to create joy and have fun’ and this comes through clearly in their store concept. From the vibrant colours used in the foodhall, to the tea cup display lined up on the walls and really lovely staff.

Sadly for me their stores remain located mainly in Ireland and N. Ireland – apart from one in the US – but I was excited to see that their website offers a range of products and does a pretty good job of recreating the retail experience for me, backed up by their own Facebook and Twitter feed.

Here’s a couple of shots of the store – Go visit or browse if you can.

I’m in the midst of writing the new Juicy Mag at the moment, looking at sustainability and ethical trends from a business, marketing and consumer standpoint.

More and more companies are taking sustainability altogether more seriously, but it’s a complex field that impacts the entire value chain of a business and where authenticity and an honest approach are absolutely critical, especially if you want to avoid being slammed for greenwashing.

As CSR becomes a a more central part of business ethos and I believe a bigger factor in brand differentiation, companies are going to need bigger and more clever ideas to demonstrate the lengths they are going to.

On my information travels I stumbled on a really quite cool initiative by Electrolux called ‘Vac from the sea’. As you can probably deduce from the title, the company is producing a line of new vaccum cleaners using the mass of plastic accumulating in our seas. They have a blog showing you how this is being done and you can follow on Twitter @vacfromthesea

Electrical goods manufacturers have a big role to play in relation to sustainability. The product life span of electrical and white goods has undeniably been declining.

How many times have you tried to get a new spare part for your hoover or appliance, only to be told it is cheaper to buy a new one? I’ve been there a few times.

Although I’d like to see how their existing products could be made to last longer and/or reused better, it’s good to see a big company like Electrolux making an effort to clean up our environment and reuse waste as a raw material.

It’s central to its broader sustainability ethos you can read about here. However, unlike these rather confusing corporate pages, the campaign itself speaks volumes about the lengths this company is going to.

If you’re interested in finding out what sustainability is all about, check out this great little animation provided by @Fabianpattberg via @davidcoethica – great people to follow on Twitter if you’re interested in this field.

Buying good quality, locally reared meat has undoubtedly gained popularity on the shopping list in recent years. A combination of meat scandals, concerns over animal welfare, celebrity endorsements (think Hugh F-W) and a more genuine care for what we put in our bodies is championing demand for quality, good tasting meat. It may be pricier, but there are many who see value in going premium.

Enter…The East London Steak Company delivering the best cuts of steak direct to your door

Now there are not many food products that can achieve the wow factor, even before you’ve eaten them. Innocent has done it quite well, but really I can’t think of many products that interest me on the packaging front, especially in the food/foodservice department.

For me The East London Steak Company is one of them. In terms of an out-of-the-box experience, it is up there with Apple in my mind. Not bad for a slice of steak. Here’s why:

• All the meat is individually wrapped with a printed label that includes the customer name (lovely personalisation) plus useful information such as date it was packaged, used by date etc…
• Each slice of meat has a ‘provenance card‘ telling you exactly when the meat was killed, the farm it came from etc…
• It’s all in recycled paper/cardboard boosting my ethical halo
• It comes in lovely box that feels a bit like unwrapping a present

To me all these elements demonstrate real authenticity, but also the love and care put into getting the meat to my doorstep.

I suppose one of the key takeaways here is just how important food packaging can be to delivering a customer experience. Design is becoming such a more integral part of the product today and its great to see it translating into the foodservice world.

Here are some pics:

Would love to know if you have any examples of food/drink products that wow you in the packaging department? Or even outside the food industry.

We all know that consumer-generated content dominates on the now ubiquitous video channels like YouTube and Vimeo, but marketers are making much more use of video content as well.

Recent research from eMarketer highlights the growth of video content by corporations and marketers and highlights that in some verticals, like retailing, it is no longer a luxury but a necessity to have video content online.

• Forrester reports that over two-thirds of the top 50 US online retailers now have video content, up from less than one-fifth in 2008. But it’s not just the marketing dept doing all the work.

• One-third of Fortune 500 companies are now doing some kind of video blogging. (Sourced from same eMarketer article)

A critical transition seems to be the creation of ‘video content’ as opposed to just ‘video advertising’. For years now we’ve had TV ads and virals on the web, but with the ‘social web’ developing at a pace, marketers are exploring other ways of using video as content to engage, inform and entertain.

One example I quite like is from Strada, the Italian restaurant chain. Strada uses video content to show us how to re-create their recipes at home. Step-by-step tuition is given by its top development chef on how to make a range of  Strada recipes by following the video online.

Not only do these videos connect us more intimately with the brand and its products, but they encourage more time to be spent engaging with the brand.

And you know it works! I now know how to master the art of making the best bruschetta al pomodoro.

An extra benefit is accessibility and shareability. You can download the videos via iTunes to watch on the iPod or iPhone and then share them with your social networks.

Do you have any other examples of video content – as opposed to advertising – that works for you?

If you’re in the business of marketing in any shape or form, I’m sure you know just how important it is to understand and harness the megatrends impacting your business.

The infamous BCG (Boston Consulting Group) has been studying the megatrends shaping our worlds for a number of years. It defines this simply as those elements that “hold the power to reshape the landscape of economic opportunity and risk.” And there are many that continue to exert tremendous impact…

According to BCG, 62 of the 78 megatrends it monitors continued to grow during the recession in terms of influence on markets worldwide. Many bearing heavily influence on the performance of multi-million dollar industries.

Trends that have strengthened:

• Technology: Growing online usage; transition to mobile
• Health and wellness: driving organics; nutraceuticals
• Demographic shifts: ageing population in developed economies; middle-class growth in rapidly developing  economies (RDEs)
• Downsizing consumption: trading down

Overall, BCG highlights two ‘cluster trends’ that are pivotal to many industries:

• Asian ascent: Underlining the rising power of RDEs, growing consumer affluence and the power of companies within these economies
• E-migration: Reflecting the fast migration of commerce from physical to online channels. This is obviously a biggy in terms of the extent to which it is quite rapidly reshaping industries, not least publishing.

The full BCG Focus report is called Megatrends: Tailwinds for Growth in a Low-Growth Environment. More details on how to get hold of a copy here.

Recently, I’ve been trying to adopt more of a River Cottage experience when it comes to eating. For those of you unfamiliar with the phenomena, it was created by the now well-known British foodie, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingshall.

The essence of River Cottage centres on creating really tasty food with fresh, sustainable, seasonal and local food, ideally grown in your back yard. There is undoubtedly a big ethical slant in the RC approach, but its first and foremost about dumping the convenience foods for more homemade food to create a more enjoyable food experience.

Despite grocery budgets still taking a beating, there is an undeniable shift in attitudes towards people wanting to eat better, and taking time to enjoy it properly, even if they can’t afford the organic option.

Of course this is by new means anything new. Most baby boomers and gen X’er was brought up on spending a lot of time around the table, dedicating time to food and the social experience of ‘dining’.

But over the past few decades, changing lifestyles have put an ever greater focus on convenience eating. So it’s good to see the good old times returning to a degree… for me it’s about restoring an element of authenticity to eating. And it really is worth the effort.

Eat Slow Britain is a new book from Alastair Sawday, which encapsulates the essence of enjoying  food when travelling. The book outlines special places to eat, inspirational chefs, organic producers…celebrating the very best of food experiences when on the move and encouraging us to take time to enjoy it.

Oh and if you’re interested…Today I enjoyed the delights of ‘lemony courgettes on toast’ and my tastebuds are still tingling. The recipe was taken from Hugh’s ‘River Cottage Everyday‘ book.

Some interesting stats out today looking at the rising popularity of herbal supplements in the US. Research from the American Botanical Council shows that amid recession, US consumers’ appetite for herbal additions like cranberry and echinacea have resulted in pretty robust sales growth – up 5% in value terms for 2009 and the strongest growth rate in ten years. Not bad performance given the troubled economic waters State-side.

Whilst the swine flu epidemic in spring 2009 undoubtedly played a part, a lot of it comes down to the influence of a more mainstream interest in health and wellness, desire for more natural remedies and a requirement to self-medicate for treatment and prevention of ailments.

Older consumers (boomers) are noted to have become more ‘obsessed’ with their health and wellness, playing a role in this market.  The report all suggests that in some cases, Americans that have lost health insurance may have been electing supplements instead of ‘costly prescriptions.’

Hi – just a little note to apologise for lack of content on the blog. It’s been a crazy few months due to some personal issues. Rest assured, Juicy is very much alive ‘n’ kicking, even if I’m flying at half mast on the social media front. We’ve been working on some great projects and focusing on keeping our clients happy. Big thanks to all my lovely clients for their support.

Suzie

These days there is no room to hide if you’re a company of any magnitude that dares not to be transparent about how you do business right across the value chain.

We are in an era where ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) is paramount in business and there is a growing body of evidence that supports this trend. Last year a poll across 15 countries by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International found that half of consumers are ‘active ethical consumers’ demanding companies to act responsibly.

Increasingly, we are migrating to companies that take a proactive approach to putting information out there, showcasing the good and how they are overcoming the bad. It’s a trend gaining traction across different industries and regions of the world as more companies seek to become more transparent as a way of building trust with their customers.

So what is CSR exactly?

Wikipedia has a lengthy definition, but this part seems to hit the nail on the head:

…”the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honoring of a triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit.”

CSR is by no means a new trend, not by a long shot. Forward-thinking companies like The Body Shop have put CSR at the core of their business for years. But today there is a clear impetus to focus more on CSR and an even greater need to communicate these corporate intentions in an honest and authentic way.

Some of the factors driving today’s CSR agenda as reported by CSR Asia:

• Growing environmental consciousness in the face of climate change
• The growth in brand and company conversation via the social web
• Government regulations are forcing greater compliance – particularly in relation to climate change
• Corporate governance has become big on the corporate agenda driven by ‘a new breed of socially responsible investor’
• Reduced trust in corporations has also been widely reported following the financial crisis

Communicating the CSR policy

Aside from ensuring that you can actually follow through in your intentions, perhaps one of the most important challenges is how to communicate these CSR values to stakeholders. This has big consequences for the humble corporate website, the traditional ‘go-to’ place for corporate content.

As a researcher I spend a lot of time using company websites, so I’m familiar with the standard format. Over the years, I’ve noticed an obvious transition towards CSR content becoming more centre-stage – either on the home page or on specific microsites – but the social web is propelling further movement.

Last week, Best Buy re-launched a new type of corporate site (in beta of course).

As stated on the new site at www.bby.com its pledge is to provide ‘All the news from the brands and operations worldwide of Best Buy Co Inc”. The site is definitely no substitute to its main corporate website, which has product information and investor relations and is very much in beta. But I can see they are trying to create a clearer picture of who Best Buy is, what they are doing, how to communicate with them and the people behind the business.

This seems to be another tool in its social armoury. Best Buy has been proactive in embracing in the social web, introducing its Twelpforce and crowdsourcing ideas with its Idea X platform.

As you may be aware, there’s a growing band of discussion around what some contend as ‘the death of the corporate website’ as we know it. I’ll point you in the direction of Simon Mainwairing who delivers a poignant analysis of how corporate sites will change as they are “replaced by their social equivalents.”

Perhaps the transition has already started? Love to get your thoughts.