Citizen Brand

Peanut shells

This didn't take long. From the AP and MSNBC.com. And thanks to Average Jane for the heads up.

Peanut Corp. of America files for bankruptcy

Company at source of national salmonella outbreak succumbs

ATLANTA - The peanut processing company at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak has filed for bankruptcy.

The Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America filed Friday for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in bankruptcy court in Lynchburg, Va. The company said in the filing that its debt and assets both ranged between $1 million and $10 million.

The salmonella outbreak was traced to one of the company's plants in Blakely, Ga., where inspectors found roaches, mold and a leaking roof. A second plant in Texas was shuttered this week. The outbreak has resulted in more than 500 illnesses, led to one of the nation's biggest recalls and caused as many as nine deaths.

The peanut monster

Stewart Parnell is a monster. He is the owner of the Peanut Corporation of America. It's the company that has been distributing peanut products causing salmonella poisoning nationwide. Hundreds of people have become seriously ill. And today we find out he knew all the time.

A U.S. House committee today released emails from the company that reveal Parnell ordered his employees to send tainted shipments of product because he was concerned about lost sales. From MSNBC.com:

"At one point, Parnell said his workers "desperately at least need to turn the raw peanuts on our floor into money," and at another point told his plant manager to "turn them loose" after learning some peanuts were contaminated with salmonella."

"In a June 6, 2008 e-mail from the company owner responding to being notified that some of Peanut Corp. of America's products that tested positive for salmonella had been shipped, Parnell wrote, "I go through this about once a week. I will hold my breath again."

It is absolutely impossible to get your head around thinking and actions that are this inhuman. Imagine being a parent of a child sickened in the past months from these products.

From a business standpoint, a second plant was shut down yesterday.  More than 1,500 products have been recalled thus far. This company will be out of business soon. And now we know it is all because of one man's concern for the bottom line. And there is a domino impact on other, better known brands who use products from Peanut Corp in their products.

Let's hope some good can come of this. We should identify those companies who are ethical in all their actions and celebrate them. And we should hold up people like Stewart Parnell and punish them.

There endeth the lesson.

Odds and ends

A few things that caught my attention traveling around the 'net.

Our friends over at Audeamus discuss the three trends in social entrepreneurship we can expect to see this year.

Triple Pundit starts a three part series on the continuing evolution of cause marketing. Are we really beginning to make mainstream the needed move from transactional cause marketing to something much more sustainable and transparent. Great interview with Sarah Endline who started a company that is already there called sweetriot.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Rice over at Fruitful shows us some more evidence that we consumers really will pay more for ethically produced products.

As usual, Seth Godin has a bit of wisdom he calls "Solving a different problem."

And over at Adrants you will find an Australian PSA on child abuse that is so different, it cannot help but be controversial. If it gets people talking about the problem, a PSA is doing its job.

Moms love causes

The 2008 edition of the PRWeek/Barkley Cause Survey is published and any company who is not involved in cause branding today should take notice.  Why?  Because moms, who are responsible for more than $2.1 trillion in consumer spending this year like to spend with companies that support good causes.

The survey revealed that moms demand companies use their power for good, with 85.6 percent saying it’s important for companies to support a cause. With regard to their purchasing decisions, 58 percent say they would pay more for a brand that supports a cause, 69.2 percent say they would try a brand because it supports a cause, and 76.8 percent say they would recommend a brand that supports a cause. Overall, 66 percent of moms say they have purchased a brand because it supports a cause.

You can download a pdf of the survey and article along with a transcript of our 2008 Cause Roundtable by going to this link at the Barkley website.

And here is a link to a column on cause written by PRWeek's Erica Iacono who we work with each year to develop the survey.

In this economy, the companies that have established cause programs will benefit from the special relationship they are developing with their customers.  And those companies that don't have them, now is a fine time to consider starting one.  It could prove to be the point of differentiation that separates a company from its competitors.  And when the economy does improve, the difference will be even greater.

Green potato chips

One of my Barkley colleagues, Susan Shank, pointed me to a great story today about another brand figuring out that going green is not just the right thing to do, but is good for business.  In a New York Times story, we learn how Frito-Lay is going to totally convert one of its plants to become energy neutral.  Here is an excerpt from the Times.

"At Frito-Lay’s factory here, more than 500,000 pounds of potatoes arrive every day from New Mexico to be washed, sliced, fried, seasoned and portioned into bags of Lay’s and Ruffles chips. The process devours enormous amounts of energy, and creates vast amounts of wastewater, starch and potato peelings.

Now, Frito-Lay is embarking on an ambitious plan to change the way this factory operates, and in the process, create a new type of snack: the environmentally benign chip.

Its goal is to take the Casa Grande plant off the power grid, or nearly so, and run it almost entirely on renewable fuels and recycled water. Net zero, as the concept is called, has the backing of the highest levels of corporate executives at PepsiCo, the parent company of Frito-Lay.

There are benefits besides the potential energy savings. Like many other large corporations, PepsiCo is striving to establish its green credentials as consumers become more focused on climate change. There are marketing opportunities, too. The company, for example, intends to advertise that its popular SunChips snacks are made using solar energy.

“We don’t know what the complete payoff for net zero is going to be,” said Indra K. Nooyi, PepsiCo’s chairman and chief executive. “If this works even to 50 or 60 percent of its potential, that is fantastic, and it’s so much better than what we already have.”

Stop the presses!  A Chairman/CEO that has authorized a major change in business operations without knowing exactly what the payoff will be.  Pass the chips please!

One news cycle

Back to the keyboard after a summer hiatus and it took just 45 minutes with Tuesday's New York Times  to make it happen.  Whatever page I turned to there was example after example of questionable, even unethical decisions by people and organizations.  One news cycle produced some of the worst examples of bad citizen brands I've ever seen.  Consider just a few of them:

In 2005, corporate America received huge tax breaks to bring home their offshore profits and create jobs in America.  Drug makers were the biggest winners bringing home $100 billion while paying only six percent taxes instead of the 35 percent they would have paid prior to the '05 legislation.  Any new jobs created?  Hardly.  Instead tens of thousands of people have been laid off by drug companies in the past two years.

Without even leaving the front page, we see that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has himself in a bit of a sticky wicket.  The man who used to make Wall Street titans tremble finds himself on the defense after a couple of long time aides decided to use the New York State Police for a little political tomfoolery.  Seems the Governor's nemesis - State Senator Joe Bruno used some police helicopters for trips from Albany to New York City.  Turned out not to be a problem, but the Governor's helpers saw an opportunity and solicited the acting Superintendent of the State Police to help them make a case against Bruno.  By the way, the acting Superintendent is vying for a permanent appointment so he did what any good public servant should do - he helped try to make the case.  Anyway, given Spitzer came into office seven months ago pledging to clean up New York state government, it seems apparent he will need to start with his own staff.

Of course the sports pages these days read more like bad reality television shows.  From Michael Vick and fighting dogs to the critical question of whether or not baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will be in the stands for Barry Bonds' record home run it's amazing that sports writers still find time to report scores of games.

The perfect sports commissioner, David Stern of the National Basketball Association , has a small gambling problem.  He doesn't wager himself, but seems he has a referee who got in over his head with some betting debts and began to make some interesting calls that turned a game or two or ten.  A good betting scandal is needed every ten years or so just to purge the rookie gamblers out of the system.

And then there is poor Sergio Garcia .  I love golf and I truly love the Open Championship.  It looked like Sergio was finally going to win his first major.  He was 0 for 35 coming into the British Open.  He is now 0 for 36.  Unfortunately his major drought is apparently starting to eat away at him.  He was not the shining example of a gracious loser in the press room at Carnoustie on Sunday.  He blamed bad breaks and other golfers in front of him for losing a four stroke lead in the last 14 holes in the final round.  Golf is one sport where no one else has anything to do with the way you play the game.

A handful of news stories in one newspaper in one news cycle.  All examples of either a lack of common sense, common decency or ethical behavior.  And proof that it's time to crank up Citizen Brand again and look for some good examples.  I know they are out there.

Good to be back.

Cause Potpourri

Some interesting opportunities to think about from a morning of soaking up news and info from a variety of sources.

Hollywood big shot Michael Douglas appeared on ABC's This Week and talked about Global Nomads.  It is a program that brings together youth from all over the world using video conferencing to have a real time conversation about the issues of the day.

While perusing the New York Times online, this ad popped up talking about Ready, Willing & Able.  Here is what this organization is all about:

"The Doe Fund’s Ready, Willing & Able program offers life-changing opportunities to homeless individuals through paid work, transitional housing and comprehensive support services. The beloved “men in blue” who clean more than 150 miles of New York City streets every day have become integral to the quality of life in our city. They are supported by thousands of community residents who recognize and respect the hard work they do to rebuild their own lives while making New York City a cleaner, safer, more humane place for everyone."

And don't forget to think about attending the Social Marketing University hosted by Nedra Kline Weinreich.  Visit her blog, Spare Change for more information.  And readers of Citizen Brand can have a $75 discount by using the code CB75 when registering.  Thanks Nedra.

Personal foul in the Red Zone

I understand the need for companies to protect their brands and proprietary products but I think the Heinz Company is offsides in asking the Red Gold  Company of Indiana to stop a charity program because of trademark infringement.  The brouhaha started a week ago or so - The Indianapolis Star tells the story for us.

"The H.J. Heinz Co. of Pittsburgh has filed a complaint with the Colts over the NFL team's partnership with ketchup and tomato products manufacturer Red Gold of Elwood, Ind., over some informal naming rights.

Red Gold says in a statement today that Heinz filed a cease-and-desist order with the Colts objecting to Red Gold being a sponsor of the Colts' "red zone" during team's time on offense. "Red zone" is a nickname for the defensive team's area of a football field inside the 20-yard-line.

For the past four seasons, Red Gold, which is an official Colts sponsor, has donated 136 tons of canned tomato products to Indianapolis area food pantries each time that the Colts have scored a touchdown from the “Red Gold Red Zone” during home games.

Red Gold officials today say Heinz filed a legal challenge claiming ownership of the term “red zone.”

Details of that legal complaint were not immediately available. The news release says that the “red zone” is not trademarked but became accepted vernacular of the game 22 years ago.

Heinz sponsors the “Heinz Red Zone” at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers."

So Heinz says it's  a trademark infringement.  Red Gold and the Colts say no way.  The Red Gold Red Zone program in Indy has filled local food pantries with 136 tons of food over the last four years.  The Heinz effort appears just to be a branding program for themselves.

It always amazes me when these kind of David and Goliath scenarios crop up.  And they seem to do so with regularity.  Goliath just never seems to learn his lesson.  Heinz looks like the big bully and Red Gold, a regional brand, gets tons of awareness and good will they would never have paid to get.

Another reason to cheer for the Colts in the Super Bowl.

FightHunger.org

I wrote about this incredible project several weeks ago and now the videos to end child hunger by 2015 have been produced.  This one gets my early vote although all the ones I have watched thus far are powerful.  See the rest here.

People are hungry down the street and on the other side of the world.  Donate to your community food bank now and next month and the month after that.  No child should go hungry.

Barkley & Fast 50

Besides our great new offices, we have something else we are excited about at our company right now.  Barkley has been named a finalist by Fast Company magazine for its 2007 Fast 50.

This is what they are looking for this year and you can read our entry to see why we think we are a good fit.

"THIS YEAR'S FOCUS: Our sixth annual global readers challenge will spotlight businesses that are helping to save the world. We're looking for profit-driven problem solvers--people and companies out to address the planet's woes and make money at the same time. Tell us about yourself, someone you admire, or someone you work with. But make sure your nominee is using new strategies, new ideas, or new technologies to tackle issues like global warming, pollution, sustainability, access to healthcare, poverty, trade impact, child labor, and other concerns. No charities, please. We believe that business--capitalist business--is a profound force for positive change. Help us prove it."

We humbly ask for your consideration. 

Regardless of the outcome, I'm so glad to see this emphasis on companies doing good being good for their business.  The evidence keeps mounting and we will continue to push to make consumer and corporate philanthropy to become the normal, not the unusual thing to do.