This is the story of the highly successful company Innocent Drinks - a company that claims to have been ethical in all aspects of its business. Innocent makes fruit smoothies - and is now using its healthy image to carve out a unique position for itself in the drinks market.
HOW IT ALL STARTED: The company was set up by three young men in 1998 who knew each other at college and always wanted to have their own business. The early days were difficult - raising the start-up money was a particular problem. Business boomed and the firm's turnover is now running at over ¡ê70 million.
A NEW WAY OF MARKETING: Their main market is people like themselves - the cash-rich, time-poor. At the heart of their marketing approach is the language they use to sell their drinks - engaging with customers in a lively, jokey, informal way. Customers chat back with e-mails.
NEW PRODUCTS: Building on the success of their smoothies, the company has launched a range of other products, all with a health-related angle. They moved into the children's market in 2005. It's been a big success -- in one year they've seen ¡ê10 million revenue from selling kids' smoothies alone.
ADVERTISING: Their first TV advert they made themselves with their own video camera. The second they made out of "recycled" existing clips and footage. The accent, as in all their marketing, is, they say, on a simple, homely, honest approach - "the innocent way".
THE INNOCENT WAY: Grass covered vans, grass even on their office floor and fun events like "Fruitstock" are all part of the Innocent way. But it also takes an ethical approach which includes giving 10 per cent of its profits to charities which run community projects in the countries it gets its fruits from. But is 10 per cent enough?
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS: Innocent outsources the actual manufacture of their juices to other companies. Innocent claim they are pushing them to be ethical, too - but would not allow the film-makers to visit their factories.
HOW GREEN IS MY COMPANY: The firm has its own "sustainability squad" whose job is to monitor and reduce the company's carbon dioxide emissions. Their cars and vans are hybrids or run on bio-fuel, they use green electricity in the office and they're introducing 100% compostible packaging.
BUT IS IT ENOUGH? But how much difference does one off-beat company like Innocent make in the scheme of things? Is Innocent part of a trend to healthier eating and drinking, and more environmentally friendly ways of doing a business? Or a mere drop in the ocean of the big companies and the capitalist system?
AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW: But exactly how innocent is Innocent? How healthy are their products? Dietician Catherine Collins outlines her own reservations about the company and argues that they stand guilty of misleading marketing.
|