The Innocent Way

Just back from a talk by Richard Reed, one of the three guys who set up innocent drinks.  

I like innocent, although if I'm honest, not quite as much as I used to.  A couple of years ago you could probably have called me a disciple, such was my loyalty to their brand.  I didn't buy their smoothies so often, but I was a big fan of the way they wrote about themselves.  I've written about it before so won't go on.

I still like them, and it was a good talk.  I like the way they try to do business, their commitment to doing the right thing ethically and environmentally, and the cheeky chat on their bottles.  I like the way they really try hard to live their values - so that they're not just words on a wall.  I was particularly interested this evening to hear how they tried to work out what it would mean to stick to their values whilst making 25 people redundant - as they had to last year.

But I'm aware that I'm not so in love with them as I once was.  There's been the odd label - and the odd newsletter story - that's started to feel a bit formulaic.  I've noticed it with other similar brands too - I love howies clothes, but equally their we'd all rather be surfing chat on their labels is starting to grate.  

Getting your tone of voice right is tough.  I find it easy on the blog, but harder in my newsletter.  Perhaps because the newsletter is  partly about selling - come to this workshop, read this blog post - I find it harder to get the tone right.  It must be so much harder as a business expands.  

The thing I liked the most was his response to the question I'd wanted to ask - how you stay true to your values as you grow.  He reckons that they're more innocent-like than they've ever been - because they now have to work hard at making the values mean something.  When they were small, it just happened.  Now they have to work at it.  Food for thought for all of us who talk about how values matter in a business.  

Comments

[Charlotte Borger]

Hi there
Getting that 'tone of voice' thing right in different communications is tricky - even when you're a mission-driven business like Divine - where all of us live and breathe it. We've got lots of voices really - and hopefully over time people will come across more of them through our blog and new website (web 2.0 going live soon).
As an expert blogger - it would be great to have some feedback from you about our blog (in its infancy) at http://divinedelights.wordpress.com
I dare say this will be one of the issues discussed at the forthcoming SEL marketing conference http://www.sel.org.uk/index.php?content=event&include=no&event_id=320

[Trent Wood]

With a startup, primarily the content is written by one of the founding members or employee who has been there from the beginning. However, as a company grows and attempts to be scaleable, the original roles of the employees are cut back. The PR/Advertising/Business Development can't be headed up by one person. It is not surprising at all that the content is evolving. Also, I'm sure they are bringing in "experts" or perceived experts in branding and advertising field. I think you have a great point!!! Companies can fail because they stray too far from their roots. Hopefully, social mediums such as blogs, twitter, facebook, etc. will bring this to their attention and they will consider trying to stick to their founding values. It is extremely difficult for the content to not evolve overtime with the changing company and authors employed.

[Rob Greenland]

Thanks for the comments - and for the bigging me up Charlotte! I'll have a look at your blog next week.

Trent - they're good points. I'm not sure whether they're bringing in experts, or doing it themselves still (Richard is a marketing man so I imagine he's still very involved). But it's inevitable that the tone of voice will falter from time to time - I suppose the key thing is how aware they are of it - and how quickly they put it right. But also, how much should the tone of voice evolve? Maybe I'm getting bored of it because it hasn't evolved enough?

Interesting to see you're at socialinvestments.com. I should take you up on your offer and meet for a coffee!

Rob

[Nick Temple]

What about now, Rob?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/06/innocent-drinks-sell-stake-coca-cola

[Rob Greenland]

Yes, it's an interesting one Nick. Stonyfield Yoghurt (a US company) is an interesting one to look at in this context. Danone (well known for their social business partnerships elsewhere) recently bought an 80% share - but left Stonyfield's founder in charge of the Board. They recognised (at least according to the book I read) where they were strong and where they weren't. It'll be interesting to see how the relationship develops between Innocent's founders and Coca Cola executives.

Here's a review of the book:

http://thesocialbusiness.typepad.com/the_social_business/2008/06/stirring-it-up.html

Also brings to mind ColaLife - an example of where Coca Cola's incredibly good logistics operation could be used for good:

http://www.colalife.org/

Thanks
Rob