How to Tell the Story of Your B Corp Certification: Athleta’s Process

One big question that many B Corps are asking today is: How can we remain authentic while communicating our mission and our impact? Allbritten shared how Athleta tackled this challenge.

“After we went through the long process of attaining our B Corp Certification, the exciting next step was to go out and tell people about it. This was a bit of a struggle for us because the challenge and the amazing thing about the B Corp Certification is that it covers your entire business—everything from your factories, employees, products, and customers. This entire view is hard to synthesize and make digestible to consumers.

“The easiest sustainability marketing is to have one message and stand behind it: ‘Hey, many of our clothes are made out of XYZ recycled materials.’ Great, customers understand that, and it’s easy, but we wanted to encompass all the many factors that go into the B Corp Certification to our customers. The first thing we did was determine how to break the communication into areas of focus. We asked ourselves: What do we want to focus on? What do we want our customers to know about us?

“We decided to focus on three areas: sustainability of our products, reducing waste, and empowering women and girls. We’ve always had a focus on women and sustainability, so we pared our messaging down into these buckets of focus and added an education element about what is a B Corp.”

Read the rest of Allbritten’s advice here: Emily Allbritten of Athleta On Telling Your B-Corp Story with Authenticity and Heart

Purpose-Driven Marketing: Anthea Kelsick, CMO of B Lab

Kelsick has noticed that while the fundamentals of marketing certainly still apply in the impact space, B Corps and impact-focused brands face a few unique challenges that have shifted her approach to marketing in a few key ways. One of her tips was the necessity for B Corps to “engage other stakeholders to tell the story.”

“One mindset shift that is critical to marketing in the impact space is to open the tent and allow others to help you amplify your message. This is necessary for reach, but also often necessary to help supplement what are usually smaller budgets that can’t accomplish goals on their own accord.

“At B Lab, we often look to the B Corps as the megaphones for stories of the movement. Whether it’s telling their own stories or the story of the movement, as is the case for Vote Every Day, it’s the B Corps themselves who have the authenticity and the reach to carry the message. We are also exploring partnerships with other organizations and entities within our ecosystem to help drive the story.

“So a few questions to ask yourself: How do you engage all of your stakeholders in carrying the message? Whether it’s your investors or your investees, your community or employees within organizations around you — how do you actually allow others to take the message and tell it for you? There is power in engaging the collective voice to tell the story.”

Read the full article here: Purpose-Driven Marketing For Greater Impact: Tips From Anthea Kelsick, CMO of B Lab

Partnering to Build Your B Corp And Your Movement

In the Q&A that followed the panel discussion, one of the audience members asked Kelsick: “What are the differences between marketing an organization and marketing a campaign to catalyze a movement?” In her response, she emphasized partnering with a variety of allies to amplify your brand’s messaging while working collectively to build your movement.

“Movement building—and particularly purpose-driven, mission-oriented movement building—brings more credibility when it comes from a collective voice. It’s not always easy to craft a single message that can represent the voices of many, but when you do, the more powerful it is. The reason it worked for Vote Every Day was B Corps themselves were at the center of the journey, from conception to implementation. I think the tricky part of that is, how do you allow your brand to ideally live within that message?