By Amanda Szylo-Duncan,
Strategy Director
The message from David Attenborough’s A Life On Our Planet was simple and clear: there’s never been a more critical time to rethink how we consume and create as individuals, as brands, and as a society.
In an era of pandemics, natural disasters, climate change and conspiracy theories, brands need to keep up with a rapidly changing world and fluctuating consumer sentiment. And while trying to keep pace, they must also boldly demonstrate their role in and stance on the future.
Brands today need to be radically transparent and radically honest with themselves, and with their customers — even if we don’t always want or ask them to be. They need to care about the impact they have, as they move from idea to shelf to pantry.
There’s never been a more critical time to rethink how we consume and create as individuals, as brands, and as a society.
We expect and demand more from our brands than ever before, and the groundswell is well underway. Thankyou and Who Gives A Crap are helping us do better while we consume. We’ve also been watching the CPG world with interest, even managing to spot a couple of homegrown brands shaking things up for good.
Here, we spotlight some brands that have led the charge by moving first, before the masses, and instead of just following the consumer dollar.
Changing perceptions by removing the compromise
Brands across all sectors are finding new ways to leave a lighter footprint (via innovations around packaging, service, energy, etc), without the consumer having to compromise. Until recent years there’s usually been some form of trade-off involved in choosing the lighter option, regardless of the category. Healthier a lot of the time means inferior taste; greener can mean more expensive; eco can be aesthetically challenged.
For brands to do better, it requires a vision, a new way of thinking, and creativity in bringing it to life.
The brands that have caught our eye in this space have managed to tackle the trade-off. Take Sunfed, for instance. What often stops people from getting on the Meat-Free Monday train is the taste of meat alternatives. But if you’re fond of the taste and texture of chicken, Sunfed is the meat-free option you’ve been waiting for. Established in 2015, they zagged from the traditional, plant-based ammo of replicating red meat (thanks, Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat) to focus instead on developing a genuine chicken substitute.
And with founder and CEO Shama Sukul Lee stating that the brand strives to create products that are “equal to or better than the status quo, in order to create real choice for consumers”, we’d have to agree they’re on the money. Using yellow pea protein and proprietary technology, they’ve defied the soy- or gluten- based substitutes of old and developed a cleaner, more authentic faux meat.
Rather than only target existing plant-based or vegetarian folk, they’ve developed a product and brand to entice the most avid meat eater to take a bite. By reframing ‘meat’ via its protein structure, rather than via its source (switching animal for plant), they’re creating a new type of narrative and hopefully opening a few more minds to the idea of animal-free eating, even if only for a meal or two a week.
Defy the category. Stand apart.
From the dinner table to the morning brew. We’re a nation of coffee lovers (and snobs). We’re also a nation that’s increasingly reaching for milk alternatives.
Enter: MILKLAB. Debuting in 2015, it changed the world of coffee for non-cow’s-milk-drinkers forever (though it also offers dairy).
Like Sunfed, it’s got a great product. The result of collaborations with baristas and coffeemakers, it’s a genuine, viable alternative that’s designed to be coupled with coffee.
Beyond what’s in the carton, they’ve also crafted a brand that’s now become common décor in coffee shop shelves around the country. Instead of focusing on natural or eco cues, or stories of ingredient provenance, MILKLAB accentuated the art and science of their product on their packaging, becoming a delicious driver of choice for those keen for a coffee with alt-milk.
Milk isn’t the only beverage category that’s seen major, positive change in recent years.
Soda is another. Science continues to educate us about the downsides of sugar — and one of the brands doing better (while keeping it sweet) is Sydney’s Famous Soda, which pairs a vibrant identity with a product that’s both sugarless and all-natural.
Then there’s alcohol. A decade ago, beer minus the booze content would’ve been unthinkable. And, in taste terms, probably undrinkable.
Consumer preferences have shifted a lot since then, with the low and no alcohol beverage market continuing to gain momentum.
One notable name in this area is Sobah, an Aboriginal owned brand that separates itself with eye-catching packaging and the use of native Aussie ingredients. It goes beyond just what’s in the can, though: Sobah also supports organisations that focus on and educate communities about mindful drinking and healthy living.
For brands to do better, it requires a vision, a new way of thinking, and creativity in bringing it to life. It takes a fresh approach to the traditional: be it redefining what meat means, getting people to subscribe to toilet paper, cracking a can of booze-free beer, or charming coffee shops into using milk cartons as ornamentation.
If Sir David can get onto Instagram for us (and break the internet in the process), we can certainly keep challenging ourselves and the brands we support to be, do, and celebrate the world of ‘better’, as we charge forward into our brave new future.
