ESG Is Your Opportunity: ISPO Leaders Summit, Patagonia, The North Face & Above The Clouds
Uppdaterat: för 3 timmar sedan
Turning Consumer Paralysis into Brand Equity
Let's start with a popular myth: The Consumer Doesn't Care.
On 3 November I took that popular myth to the ISPO Leaders Summit in Amsterdam, in front of C-suite leaders from the global sports and outdoor industry. I shared the stage with Nina Hajikhanian, General Manager of Patagonia EMEA, & Hap Klopp, founder of The North Face to talk about how ESG Is Your Opportunity.
Every brand leader has heard it in some form. We tried, we invested, we changed the product, and it did not sell the way we expected. So the conclusion is drawn: the consumer does not care, because they don't behave as we wish.
The myth about the consumer deserves a closer look because it misreads a signal. Behind that misreading sits one of the clearest opportunities in brand building today: ESG brand equity. A line from Nina has stayed with me: “Progress over perfection. Start, share the messy middle and bring people with you.”
The Iceberg Effect: Why Hesitation Is Not Indifference
What we read about every week sits at the tip. Green fatigue, price sensitivity, secondhand, activism, and a sense of being overwhelmed.
These signals are real. But they are also manifestations of our time.
Below the surface the picture changes. In my Care For The Outdoors study of 3,800 consumers in Germany and the Nordics, 8 in 10 identify with a sustainable lifestyle. The same 8 in 10 feel we are heading for an environmental disaster. That is not a passing preference. It is identity and fear, two forces that do not fade with a trend cycle.
When a consumer holds both, hesitation at the shelf is not a verdict on the cause. It is a signal that something stands between intention and action.
A brand that responds only to the tip of the iceberg chases trends. A brand that understands what sits beneath it builds on needs that are not going anywhere.
The Translation Gap: From Care to Action
Between care and action sits a paradox. 7 in 10 feel they are already doing all they can and that it makes no difference. The result is paralysis: worried, willing and unsure what a single choice changes.
Ask what stops them, and the answers sound like price. Too expensive. Hard to know what is sustainable. Too few options. No idea where to start.
Look closer, and most of it is not a money problem. It is a value problem. People cannot see what an innovation is worth to them because the features, causes and claims were never translated into meaning.
Knowledge follows the same pattern. 8 in 10 want to know more about living sustainably. 7 in 10 feel overwhelmed by the volume of claims already coming their way. They ask for clarity, and the market answers with volume.
Under that pressure, people reach for whatever is simple and easy to understand. Escapism is a rational response to noise. So the opening for brands is not more and louder claims. It is a clearer meaning.
ESG Is Your Opportunity: ISPO Leaders Summit, Patagonia, The North Face & Above The Clouds
Once you move beyond the claim, you are no longer competing on compliance. You are building a brand belief system.
Consistency: You Cannot Be a Vegetarian In-Between Meals
I put it this way to brand teams: you cannot be a vegetarian in-between meals. You do not get to choose the moments. Trust is built when there is a steak on the table.
Trust is built by repetition. The same position, the same standards, the same voice, in the season where it is convenient and in the one where it is not. Consumers read consistency as character.
Silence is not a safe place either. 6 in 10 assume a brand is hiding something when it does not communicate its actions. The reward for staying the course is a position that is hard to copy. Anyone can launch a campaign. Few can show a record.
Relevance as Strategy: Where Obligation Becomes Opportunity
Consumers have a clear view of who should act. 6 in 10 say a brand is obligated to act on issues it could positively impact, helped cause or would profit from addressing. Tie a brand to three of those connections, and it rises to 8 in 10.
In plain terms: the closer an issue sits to your business, the stronger the mandate to act, and the more credibility you hold when you do.
Responsibility also travels upwards. 9 in 10 expect brands to openly support environmental and social organisations, yet 8 in 10 do not do it themselves. They hand the work to the brands, and they reward it. 7 in 10 respond positively to brands that back relevant causes, and 6 in 10 would join a brand-led initiative if it mattered to them. At the same time, 7 in 10 are tired of green communication.
Relevance and tangible action beat messaging.
Three moves follow.
Start where your business touches the issue. Durability, chemistry, plastics, materials. Biodiversity has ranked first among the causes consumers want brands to support for three years running, which makes it a sound place to begin if it fits your core business.
Show the messy middle, progress over perfection. The question consumers ask is what you are doing about it, not why it matters.
Always offer a way in to action. A grassroots partner, an organisation to back, a place to take part. Consumers want to act and need a door. Collaboration also shares the risk and the reward.
The Investment Logic: Building ESG Brand Equity, Not Cost
There was also one question from the Q&A that stayed with me: what is the greatest myth within brands that stops them from acting? Our answer to that was that many brands still think it costs too much. That framing treats ESG as a cost of business as usual, a cost on top. The sharper frame is that this is an investment in brand equity; it builds trust, authenticity, and connection to causes.
A cost is spent and gone. Equity accumulates.
Or as Nina said it: at Patagonia we treat it as business un-usual.
Hap also shared a number from when The North Face launched a lifetime warranty: its true cost never exceeded 1½% of sales. A promise that sounds expensive in a budget meeting proved to be, not so much, in the ledger. There is also a clock running. 3.8 billion people are Gen Z or Alpha, nearly half the world’s population. The equity a brand builds now is the equity those consumers inherit.
The Long View: Differentiation Built to Last
Handled with relevance, consistency and patience, ESG is a differentiator. Not a compliance line, and not only a way to protect the planet. It is how a brand builds equity, shapes its business model and creates long-term value.
Hap closed our session with the line that holds the rest together: “No wilderness, no business. Do what is right and have the patience to let it pay off.”
For an industry that lives in the outdoors, that is simply true. The brands that act on it
will be the ones people believe, and that belief is the lasting form of ESG brand equity.
ESG Is Your Opportunity: ISPO Leaders Summit, Patagonia, The North Face & Above The Clouds
If you want to turn this into a plan for your own brand, there are three ways in: a Sprint Session (short and focused on one clear priority), Planning Support (building the strategy and story into next season’s/year's calendar), or a full Winning Game Strategy with positioning, playbook, and formats.
Reach out and we will find the right fit.
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