Have you ever wondered what makes people buy premium segment
goods, which face value doesn’t reflects its premium price? Can a company
making natural juices be entrepreneurial, responsible, commercial and generous?
It looks that companies incorporating standing for right
causes in day-to-day decision making and including social responsibility in
strategies can work out decent profits. An example is Innocent also known as “Europe’sfavorite little smoothie company”. The company from its very beginning
incorporated consumer’s engaging, true and fair approach in doing business. It
started from market research one could call “cheap and dirty”, whereas
start-uppers know the right wording is “lean and efficient” ;-). In case of first juice tasters they were asked to throw on
empty bottle to one of two recycle bins with “Yes” and “No” answering the
question “Should we give up our jobs to sell this juice?” And guess what which
bin was full? ;-)
Before the name Innocent become official, they were called “Fast
Tractor” to honor the local farmer, who was their chief ingredients supplier. Among
the reasons to drinking Innocent customers could find on the etiquettes not only
“100% recommended daily allowance of natural vitamin C” but also “looking more
attractive to opposite sex” ;-)
But what appeared to be the real blockbuster for Innocent
relates to nowadays iconic woolen hats on the juice bottles put on the bottles
in winter. Initially the hats were prepared by group by 40 grannies recruited
by company’s website and each 20 pence from bottle of juice with a hat sold was
donated to consumer’s favorite charity.
In general people went crazy about this cause-related
marketing campaign, and one can find another examples on engaging not mainstreamed
employees contributing to products success. Just take a look at thongs made with traditional crocheting technique from Koniakow village in Poland. G-Strings
from Koniakow had become Polish export hit for years together cult-classic products
you will find in custom free shops in Polish airports like Copernicus gingerbreads,
Wedel chocolates or Zobrowka, which also experimented with its product winter outfits ;-)
Innocent turned from start-up to business spotted later on by
Coca-Cola, which acquired 90% of it shares. Putting into brackets the fact
that all three founders of Innocent were friends from Oxford University and
worked in top management consulting before set up Innocent, what else can be better than the company
delivering products, services with value people want to identify with? ;-)
