5 Good Ethical Marketing Examples

We’ve talked previously on the blog about unethical marketing campaigns such as greenwashing and woke washing. But today, I wanted to highlight some companies with successful ethical marketing examples. As an ethical marketer, I see lots of terrible examples but it’s important to acknowledge and celebrate those businesses that are doing it right.

Ethical Marketing Campaign Examples

These campaigns highlight the two sides of an ethical marketing strategy; good business practices and ethical marketing campaigns.

Toms

Toms is a retail business focused primarily on selling shoes but with quite a different model to most for-profit businesses. Its most famous campaign, which comes from their core business principle and the marketing initiatives they do, is that for each pair of shoes their sell they will provide a pair to a child in need. Founded in 2006, Toms has grown to over a half a billion-pound company. Their marketing always features the charitable work they do and focuses on the community they have built around this approach. This resonates with their target audience who are looking to invest in products and services that serve a social cause as well as their profits. The one for one shoe swap campaign is that catchy line that hooks you and tells you everything you need to know about the company. There’s a great article on here about the marketing strategy of Toms for more campaigns they’ve done in recent years.

Who Gives a Crap

Another for-profit business that is focusing on a cause to promote its products and this time its toilets. As with Toms, Who Gives a Crap uses some of its profits to produce another related product for people in need. They sell toilet paper and donate 50% of their profits to helping build toilets around the world. This features heavily in their marketing, including their first-ever campaign in 2012, where the founder sat on a toilet with his trousers around his ankles to crowdsource their first bulk order. Since then their campaigns continue to be colourful, fun and packed with toilet puns. Their campaigns are great from a simple marketing perspective, engaging the audience very well, but it’s the core practices of their business that makes them so effective.

Patagonia

Patagonia is an established clothing brand from the 1970s that has always put sustainability at its heart. Their main priorities are on quality materials and manufacture, which means their products last. Their most famous marketing initiative was a campaign called ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket’ for Black Friday 2011. This was used to highlight the often wastefulness of the Black Friday Sales. It also encourages consumers to only buy their jackets if they truly need them. While this seems like a counterintuitive move, Patagonia has seen its profits rise phenomenally in the decade since. This is a great ethical marketing example from an environmental perspective.

Greenpeace & Iceland

In 2018, Greenpeace released a video campaign called “Rang-tan”. The cartoon video featured the story of a little girl who found a young orangutan in her room who tells her that they left their jungle home because of its destruction by humans, specifically for palm oil plantations. This video was used by the frozen food store Iceland as their main Christmas ad but was swiftly banned by Clearcast, the body that approves TV ads in the UK, because of Greenpeace’s ‘political aims’. However, this controversial marketing campaign could not be stopped. Shared on social media, even more so because it was banned, this created a big talking point for Greenpeace. It highlighted to consumers the issues with palm oil, including deforestation and plastic pollution. I believe this was a vital campaign in shedding light on the climate emergency to many.

Sanchos

I wanted to end this article by highlighting a smaller business that is using ethical marketing campaigns effectively. The campaigns and companies above were nationwide and global in some cases. However, the small companies that practice and promote social justice and environmental causes are just as important. Sancho’s is an independent, black-owned retailer with a focus on ethical, eco-friendly and inclusive products. Their social media profiles are an exceptional example of engaging with your audience and community on their level. They share products in an informative and entertaining way without being overly salesy. Frequently, they will highlight social justice and environmental issues because it’s clearly something the team believe in. It’s obviously working as they have a huge following, especially on Instagram. This shows what sticking to your values is right in principle and in practice because ethical consumers matter.

Start your Ethical Marketing Strategy

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about some of the good ethical marketing examples out there. Hopefully, this has inspired you to create some ethical marketing campaigns and invest in your strategy. If you are not sure where to start though, get in touch. I’m an ethical marketer focused on reliable, honest, research-driven campaigns. Let’s grow your business together.