e-bay recently launched World of Good – a corner of their site dedicated to products that are certified as sustainable according to criteria available on their site.
So what? you might ask.
So they’ve saved you a mountain of work. In launching their “sustainable” stream, they have teamed up with non-profit organisations that deal with community and environmental issues, as well as certification bodies. Not only does their method ensure that they capture the relevant issues to their company – it ensures they capture the issues relevant to some of their key external stakeholders. And the fact that their method and criteria are transparent means that you can get a leg up for free – a good approach, a good model, carefully thought through, whose rationale is available for you to base your work on.
Furthermore, while they have taken no ownership of these methods – preferring to leave ownerhsip of standards to the non-profits, they have branded them: “Trustology” and “Goodprint”. So while they aren’t seen as being particularly dominant and perhaps domineering, they are getting full value for their good works. And thereby, they have turned their natural critics into ambassadors.
This parallels what we see with retailers such as Wal-Mart, and manufacturers such as Interface, who have teamed up with environmentalists and other sustainability advocates in developing their programmes. In this way they ensure that the work they do stands up to scrutiny from experts in the field. But by branding it themselves, they ensure that this is an e-bay product with explicit e-bay value.
So, they have non-profit organisations eager for greater credibility and visibility, helping them establish their own profile in the sustainability domain. And then get free marketing and credibility from their partners.
Smart partnership. Smart business.
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