Nice in the noughties

With the zeitgeist turning towards caring, sharing and social responsibility, today’s brand guardians do well to remember the old joke about finding a maggot in your apple and how it’s much worse to find half of one. Should consumers discover an element of rot in a brand they’ve already bitten into, the turn-off is utter and complete.

The Noughties consumer is into soul-searching and expects to find squeaky-clean ethics and a healthy provenance at the heart of a brand. Cause marketing is back on the right side of holier-than-thou and brands have to be seen to stand for something and care a bit about the world we live in.

This might be the Noughty trend but don’t mistake it for Nice: despite every outward appearance of altruism, we believe the trend stems in part from the seismic shift in value perception where high prices no longer directly relate to high quality and cheap has never been so chic. If you can get the label for less, or wing it with a more affordable equivalent it makes you savvy. Paying over the odds for the real thing, well that’s more chavvy.

So back to those shining ethics and worthy causes.
In many ways they’re simply added value: something extra to justify the price tag for a product or service.
But undeniably, good is the new bad and brands must look right to the very core of their offer and infrastructure to make sure they stay on top.’