We all utilise marketing in some way, shape or form. Businesses need it to sell their products or services. Governments use it to inform citizens about their policies and political actions. Individuals ‘market’ themselves to get a new job or to receive offers from universities or training programs. Here in the B Corp community, we love to see businesses going against the grain and making their mark on industries that touch all our lives.
Image: GoodSense (GoodSense team members)
Spurring on the movement of companies who are using their forces for good, newly Certified B Corporation GoodSense provides ethical marketing excellence to help businesses whose products or services benefit nature, people and their bottom line. In celebration of their recent certification, we sat down with the team at GoodSense to learn more about how they’re using marketing as a force for ethical impact in the world, and about how they’re committed to continually improve well beyond certification.
Tell us a bit more about what GoodSense does.
GoodSense supports organisations who do right by nature and people to grow their impact through marketing. We particularly love working with clients who are driving systems change or transforming their sectors. We only use marketing as a force for good, delivering and implementing strategies and coaching organisations to grow their business, tell their brand story, generate leads and to be ready for investors. By only working with clients who are positively impacting the planet and its people, together with them, we are reinventing marketing to grow a healthier, fairer, zero-carbon Aotearoa New Zealand.
Why did you want to certify as a B Corp?
Since we were established in 2010, we have been delivering ethical marketing excellence for clients. So, we wanted to walk-our-talk on the marketing power of third party accreditation and the B Corp certification was the most appropriate and rigorous certification we could find for our kind of business. We also wanted to lock in our practices so that we can keep on improving how we work as we continue to grow as an organisation that is positively impacting the world.
We love that now we’re officially ‘good’ at GoodSense, and that clients no longer have to take our social and environmental responsibility on trust!
Image: GoodSense (Founder & Managing Director, Kath Dewar and Director, Jo Patterson)
GoodSense’s focus on clients who are positively contributing to the world is fantastic. How does this, and other practices make your business unique?
As a team of experienced marketers we work together to use our powers for good. We work from a network of home offices, using collaborative co-creation approaches with our clients and have been Aotearoa New Zealand’s leaders in marketing sustainability since 2010. This light and nimble flexi-work approach means that we can support our employees quality of life and minimise our use of space and pointless travel.
We also stick to the mantra ‘buy little and well,’ to ensure that we spend our dollars well (from ink-efficient whiteboard markers, to durable technology).
Our clients also make our work meaningful, worthwhile and unique. We have worked with a range of businesses from NZ Post to YMCA and Auckland Whale & Dolphin Safari. Our work with Kaipātiki Project, an environment community enterprise, reflects what we’re all about. We developed a bold new tagline (“Share in nature’s revival”), created a brand strategy and planned and project managed their new brand identity and website. The vital impact this not-for-profit has in Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau is being increasingly recognised and the organisation now has a brand and online presence to reflect this mana (power).
Another organisation we were proud to work with was Ethical Investing NZ. As well as developing the new name and brand strategy, we project managed their new brand identity and planned, wrote and administered their new website. As a result, the benefits of using their expert ethical investment advisory team are now more clearly understood.
Image Source: GoodSense (Manager Janet Cole, Board Chair Charmaine Bailie and guest speaker Luke Wijohn from the School’s Climate Strike Aotearoa)
Having a defined purpose and being able to surround yourselves with a community of like-minded businesses is really motivating. Working with so many different organisations, is there any business practice you want to see become norm?
We would love to see every business decision being made to enhance upstream and downstream life for people and the rest of nature, as well as to deliver shareholder value. Upstream is what a business draws from; people, other animals, places, energy and other resources. Downstream is what happens after, or through, a business trading; how its operations and products or services impact staff, customers, other members of the public, the rest of nature and society’s systems. Currently most businesses take from upstream and degrade downstream. We want radical systems change in which businesses regenerate upstream and at the very least safeguard downstream from harm.
During your journey toward certification, was there a B Corp that you looked to for inspiration?
We’d been aware of US-based leaders like Patagonia for a while. We then did a project with Ian Harvey and the team at Collective Intelligence, who had just certified. They gave us the impetus to go ahead. We are also really grateful to Tim Jones and to Mike Carroll at Brightly for advice along the way!
Finally, do you have any tips for aspiring B Corps out there needing some motivation?
Allow more time than you expect and get advice on what choosing certain options can mean further into the process. Becoming a Certified B Corporation has been great for us, but no doubt it is certainly challenging. Now that we have the framework in place, we are looking forward to using it to build ongoing rigour into our processes and to keep growing our impact.
Image Source: GoodSense (Founder and Managing Director Kath Dewar, Practice Manager Louise Compton and Director Jo Patterson)
Congratulations to GoodSense for joining the B Corp community! If you would like to learn more about them or get in touch head over to their website: goodsense.co.nz
Want to learn more about recently Certified B Corporations? Checkout Circul8 or FORWARD who are making an impact in the digital campaign industries ↗
