Experience Matters

Canadians blame themselves. Again.

So, how do you identify a Canadian in a bar room brawl? He’s the guy who apologizes when you punch him in the face.

In other news, Canadians are now blaming themselves for the state of the environment. According to a survey of 10,000 people conducted by Harris/Decima Research, 76% of people believe the environment will be a dominant issue for years to come and that 74% say that “the current focus is not going far enough”. 82% believe that individuals and industry share the responsibility for protecting the environment equally.

Should it come as a surprise? Maybe. Despite our national obsession with self-blame, similar surveys from the last “Green Wave” in the late 80’s apparently said Canadians thought it was the responsibility of industry to address environmental issues.

So we may be entering a time when individual consumers will start scrutinizing their consumption more closely (again). And before you ask me what this has to do with digital (again) …

Here’s a great example. As someone who owns a few too many bits of outdoor clothing, I’ve always wondered about what havoc I might be personally wreaking on the environment. It’s a nasty irony that time spent (comfortably) in nature seems to require a lot of stuff made with less environmentally friendly materials.

Digital is still the consumer’s best tool for research and two major outdoor manufacturers are attempting an open dialog about their practices. Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicles is a rich media experience that provides a stepping stone to a new level of transparency into rating the impact of their customers’ purchases. Canada’s own Mountain Equipment Co-op takes a different approach with their Ethical Sourcing blog. Here, they discuss the challenges and complexities of ensuring that MEC products adhere to the triple bottom line. Both companies believe that their consumers care enough about to research the subject and both companies use digital as the place to try to start a conversation.

So who does a better job? MEC looks well researched and thorough (in that earnest way that we Canadians seem to have). But reading Patagonia’s corporate blog, the Cleanest Line, I saw a much more lively dialog about the Footprint Chronicles (with both positive and negative feedback) than I did on MEC’s Ethical Sourcing blog. Judging by the reaction, Patagonia has engaged their customers in a conversation that many other manufacturers would envy. It speaks a little to the power of a rich experience. It suggests how different tactics like rich media and blogging can work in concert can work in concert. And with apologies to the sincere efforts of MEC, it highlights the risks of potentially blogging your customers into boredom.

Brand loyalties aside (official disclaimer: everything I wear outside has a Co-op logo), the Footprint Chronicles left me with more interesting questions for the future. How much time is it before Patagonia figures out a standardized method for measuring the impact of their manufacturing processes and assigning ratings to their products? How will Patagonia use digital to discuss the results with their customers? I think Patagonia is the company to watch here.