Creating Change Brands with Chris Baker
"Move the money, change the world"
This is the philosophy behind Chris Baker's brilliant book Obsolete: How Change Brands are Changing the World.
In our March You’re MarketingKind gathering Chris inspired us with his journey from co-founding Change Please and then Serious Tissues, to writing the book and now helping to bring together a consortium of Change Brands for collaboration and scale.
Since January 115 brands have signed up to work together as an informal holding company or 'Rebel Alliance' as Chris described it in the book. He said 'the benefits of collaborating out weight the benefits of competing against each other'.
We discussed many of the Change Brands, such as Tony's Chocolonely, Oatly, Smol, Suri, Liquid Death and Deep Green, covered in the book and a winning formula for creating Change Brands.
When talking about the current backlash against ESG and DEI (especially in the US), Chris quoted Sun Tzu "in the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity".
And when asked where to start with creating a Change Brand Chris said that 'making the right choice aspirational is really powerful'. He advised us to:
1) Genuinely give a shit about what you are creating (for example read the founding story of Trip Drinks)
2) Explore categories where there is a decent margin and where minimum order quantity isn't too big (Change Please vs Serious Tissues)
3) Look at who are the players dominating your space (the founders of Suri knew there was no love for Oral B and Philips, the two big players in their market)
He said retrofitting purpose can be like the ugly stepsister trying to squeeze into Cinderella's glass slipper.
Change Brands are taking risks and leading the way for others to come along and copy. And they make it easier for governments to legislate for positive change by showing what's possible.
Chris believes in impact over purpose, words over actions. Brands should create minimum footprint and maximum impact.
For anyone interested in the power of Change Brands, read the book, vote with your wallet and if you have any questions you can find Chris on LinkedIn.
You can listen to the full discussion in our podcast including Tom’s ‘wicked’ question for Chris and you can watch the edited replay below.