Per Rosengren. Photo: Cristiaan Dirksen
Credible Communication
15:47 25/08/2011REPORTS & TRENDS
Sustainable development and environmental issues as a part of the customer promise. What challenges does this involve, for the organisation as a whole and more specifically for work on marketing and loyalty? At the Coop food retail chain, they have the answer.
Coop’s work on environmental issues and sustainable development has largely developed from its members’ commitment, not least in terms of demand for organic and eco-labelled goods.
“The basic prerequisite for sustainable development is sound finance. We must be profitable if we’re to succeed in our undertaking – to make it possible for members to contribute to sustainable development through their consumption,” says Per Rosengren, Director of Sustainable Development in the KF Group, which owns Coop. “It was, for example, pressure from members that led to our own Coop Änglamark product range.
“And when we organised our big members’ panel in 2009, we received more than 43,000 responses. Of those, 93 per cent stated that it is very or quite important that the fish sold in our stores is not threatened with extinction. We then developed a new strategy and consulted with experts to draw up a list defining which species of fish we will sell in our stores.”