Wednesday, January 8, 2025

[conférence] TO WHAT EXTENT CAN COMMITTED BRANDS EXTEND THEIR REACH FOR REAL CONSUMER DISRUPTION?

Gifting is typically an area where sustainability practices are stretched thin.

Gen Z is looking for sustainable desirability. Rather than a punitive approach, they respond to pleasure, gourmandise and rewards

Vincent GRÉGOIRE,
Directeur Consumer Trends & Insights de Nelly Rodi

“It is increasingly difficult for brands to juggle societal and CSR commitments, given their marketing strategy and commercial practices,” stated moderator Mike O’Rinel in introduction to the conference. Before a panel from Guerlain, Diptyque and Champagne Telmont detailed how they balance sustainability, gifting and/or sampling strategies, creative agency Nelly Rodi outlined the needs of Gen Z consumers, often a target for these marketing campaigns. “Gen Z consumers are all looking for sustainable desirability. Rather than a punitive approach, they respond to pleasure, gourmandise and rewards.

Some now also expect virtual gifting, such as rewards or coaching. If we want to change mentalities, it is not by stigmatizing, or ostracizing, but by rewarding,” affirmed Nelly Rodi Consumer Trends & Insights Director Vincent Grégoire.

Guerlain adapts its Art of Gifting
Guerlain Head of Sustainable Innovation Jeremy Alonso notes that the brand developed more sustainable versions of its Art & Gifting gift boxes. With a larger variety of formats dedicated to e-commerce, Guerlain’s Iconic Gift Box comes in outer boxes made of recycled cardboard or in 100% paper sachets (including the handles).

The Minimal Gift Box in 100% recycled cardboard acts as the outer box itself. It is decorated with water-based inks and features a bee-shaped cut-out. Guerlain is also streamlining its gifting offer for loyal customers. “For these products, we will have halved the amount of metal used by 2024, with the aim of getting close to zero in the next few years. This means reinventing formats without metallized closures and forgoing metal branding.
For textile sourcing our strategy is to choose certified, natural or recycled textiles”. More experiences and digitalization of gifting are also a focus. In the area of sampling, Guerlain aims to do “less but better”. For the launch of the Aqua Allegoria fragrance, the brand developed 100% paper samples with ID Scent that have now become its standard for press sampling.

Diptyque’s “smart sampling” strategy

Diptyque operates a “smart sampling” strategy for testing new products in-store and at e-commerce. “Samples exist for all almost our scents, as well as many of our skincare products,” explains CSR Director Pauline de Rodellec, adding that the brand’s samples are now tracked. Diptyque reduced its sampling ratio (the number of samples given out for a product available in sample format) from 1.73 in 2019 to 1.52 in 2021.

As for gifting, Diptyque no longer distributes miniature products linked to animations. It now has a range of institutional gifts related to the buying experience, such as a candle lid or matches for the purchase of a candle. Experiential gifts such as engraving are upcycling ateliers are also on offer

The best packaging is no packaging. We make Champagne, not gift boxes

Ludovic DU PLESSIS,
Champagne Telmont CEO

Champagne Telmont : « No packaging is the best packaging »

For Champagne Telmont, “sustainability is not [just] a priority, it’s an obsession,” noted CEO Ludovic Du Plessis. “If we want to reduce our carbon footprint by 90%, we need to tackle both Champagne bottles and their packaging.”

In light of this, the brand now only uses classic Champagne bottles rather than bespoke formats due to their lighter weight. A program to reduce bottle weight from 900g to 835g was put into place and Telmont worked with glassmaker Verallia to further lighten the bottle to 800g. Taking this rather revolutionary strategy a few steps further, the brand has banned the use of transparent bottles, which require virgin glass, and has also removed all secondary packaging. “The best packaging is no packaging,” declares du Plessis. “We make Champagne, not gift boxes.”

Article based on the conference TO WHAT EXTENT CAN COMMITTED BRANDS EXTEND THEIR REACH FOR REAL CONSUMER DISRUPTION?with the intervention of Vincent GREGOIRE, Directeur consumer trends & insights – NELLY RODI, Jeremy ALONSO, Head of Sustainable Innovation – GUERLAIN, Pauline DE RODELLEC, CSR Director – DYPTIQUE, Ludovic DU PLESSIS, CEO – CHAMPAGNE TELMONT.