Mondelez’s Emanuel Gävert: Why Brands Should Focus On Being A Force For Good
31 Mar, 2021
Brands should take small ethical steps today that will lead to an overhaul of business models in the future, says Toblerone Global Brand Lead Emanuel Gävert - the latest guest on MAD//Fest's partner podcast, Shiny New Object.
Mondelez’s Emanuel Gävert ended up in marketing after being a youth activist, bringing with him a strong desire to make a difference through the work done by the brands he looks after.
His Shiny New Object is using business as a force for good, starting with the small steps that make a difference today, and ultimately overhauling business models to create more sustainable consumption patterns.
Thinking about how he’d like to be remembered, Emanuel is certain he doesn’t want the world to recognise him for the achievements he’s had in marketing, but as someone who wanted to take on the industry and make it a force for good.
In consumer goods, he realises that the resources and platform that brands like Toblerone – for which he is the Global Brand Lead – have are so powerful, having the potential to reach millions of people daily. Through this impact, Emmanuel wishes to make it easier for people to have a good end-to-end experience, that also benefits the world around us: “If it’s good for [the consumers], it’s good for the world.”
Emanuel’s mantra is “Don’t settle with just selling more stuff.”
For Emanuel, using business as a force for good is all about shifting the corporate mentality beyond just creating more value for shareholders. He believes brands should focus less on financial gain and and more on how to improve the end-to-end process and business model.
“In a resource constrained world, we must make sure that when consumers get our product in their hands, it’s genuine and it doesn’t have any negative impact on the environment and the world,” says Emanuel.
How can this be achieved? In Emanuel's view, we need to change from “mindless consumption pattern” to a mindful one, in two steps.
First, consider what small steps can be done immediately to make a positive impact. Second, create a roadmap to where you’d like your brand to be and work towards that for the longer term.
In the long term, Emanuel believes that the act of doing good must be part of the business model. This is why he plans to champion Toblerone's original ethos of being “a triangle in a world of squares” and celebrating people’s differences.
He intends to make Toblerone take a stance against anything that shaves off our edges as people, where our edges are what defines us. He’s also planning to map out the brand’s end-to-end carbon footprint, all with the aim of ensuring that his brand is a force for good within the world.
To find out more about Emanuel’s top marketing tips, how he deals with overwhelm and what is favourite resilience practices are, listen to the podcast here.