Founding father of green marketing steps down at The Co-op

The Co-operative Group is losing the architect of its green and ethical positioning, Simon Williams, after 20 years at the company.

Williams, director of corporate affairs and social goals, will not be replaced, with his role being split between the marketing and communications team (MW last week). He will now become an ethical marketing and corporate social responsibility consultant, but insists he is leaving the Manchester-based group in good shape, despite a run of “me-too” rivals mirroring its ethical credentials and crowd-pleasing green initiatives – which some believe has diluted its point of difference.

Williams was promoted to the newly-created role at banking arm Co-operative Financial Services in 1998, later expanding it across the group. He joined from brewery Bass in 1988 as headof marketing at Co-operative Bank, launching its biggest marketing drive in more than a decade in 1992, repositioning it as an ethical brand on the back of its refusal to invest in businesses such as those involved in animal testing and the tobacco and arms industries.

Williams says the drive, including the brand’s first TV ad campaign, was a “huge step” at the time of the biggest banking recession since the 1930s.

In 2004, the brand said it turned away almost £9m of business from companies it deemed to be unethical or environmentally unfriendly. Up to 49 businesses were denied custom at the bank that year, costing the Co-op almost £4m. Williams says since he took on the role, the bank has turned away £17m of business in total, adding/ “You have to be rigorous or you destroy trust.”

Only a few years ago, its stand on ethical issues attracted customers in record numbers. The group reported £132m in profits in 2004, 34% of which could be attributed to customers who had joined for ethical reasons. Williams adds: “There was no brand positioning. It was the beginning of our marketing department. But it was clear that clients had inferred something from our name and our structural difference.”

Heart and soul

Williams says the brand felt “in the vanguard” when CSR started up: “We were putting the soul back in. There was no profiteering when ethical issues surrounded it.”

But last week CFS announced profits were down in its banking division from £76.3m in 2006 to £50.4m in 2007.

Agency sources told Marketing Week last year that the Co-op – whose businesses span banking, holidays and supermarkets – had lost its powerful ethical visibility in the media and would need to boost its advertising budget to reinstate its ethical message, as bigger high street rivals, including Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and HSBC, begin touting their own ethical ambitions.

Consultant and former St Luke’s executive John Grant says the brand needs to innovate to survive competition from those emerging “green” companies: “Their heart is in the right place, but we are starting to see the agenda shifting to green as a luxury.”

Grant cites M&S’s £200m “Plan A” eco-campaign as an example of effective innovation: “What M&S did with Plan A set the bar for things like animal welfare and green issues.”

Williams says group marketing director Patrick Allen will not be challenged by taking on the strategic side of the role. He says: “We are part-way through rebranding and we are in very good shape. CSR needs to be at the heart of the brand and drive it. This is essential to its mission.”

In an era dominated by green issues and bigger, beefier rivals outgunning the Co-op in terms of spend and spin – and a danger of copycat marketing making consumers wary of “greenwash” – the Co-op will be hoping that its mission proves possible.