Ethics in Business a New Marketing Trend?

^{Photo courtesy of Abhinaba Basu via Flickr}

American Express recently conducted a study to find the year's most important retail trends. None of the results are likely to surprise readers of this blog. (Spoiler Alert: Groupon is successful.) However, one item on the list caught my attention: ethical companies are gaining popularity, and this popularity is expected to continue to increase.

By "ethical companies," the authors mean companies that donate to charity or in some way work to protect the environment. Just as the breakaway success of Groupon sparked an explosion of copycat daily deal sites, the success of a few hip, ethically-minded companies must be the cause of a recent string of attempts by large retailers to be--or at least look like--one of the good guys.

These attempts range from pretty convincing to downright pathetic. Read on to discover the most high profile examples.

Tom, Meet Bob

TOMS Shoes is the prime example of an ethical company that fought its way to the mainstream. TOMS makes simple slip-ons out of canvas, hemp, and other hippie-approved materials. They look like The Official Shoes of Hacky Sack, if that gives you some idea. But what really sets them apart is their innovative One for One policy: for every pair sold, TOMS will donate one pair to a child in need.

This caught on, and eventually caught the eye of Sketchers, a little mom and pop shoe company with over one billion dollars in revenue. Now Sketchers has released their answer to TOMS: Bob's. Like TOMS, Bob's are simple, flat slip-ons. For every pair of Bob's sold, Sketchers will donate a pair. Finally, Bob's also sounds like it was named after somebody's uncle.

Unfortunately for Sketchers, and for Bob (if that is indeed a real guy), this has attracted the scorn of the internet. For an example, check out this indignant reaction from digitalmomsblog.com.

Warby Parker - Charity = Eyefly?

As Allegra wrote previously, Warby Parker is an affordable way to buy glasses online. For about a hundred bucks, you can get a complete pair of stylish prescription glasses. As if that wasn't enough, Warby Parker has adopted TOMS One for One business model. Buy a pair of glasses, and they'll donate a pair to someone in need.

Enter Eyefly. Eyefly belongs to Bluefly, a large internet fashion retailer. They sell Warby-Parker-style thick rimmed lenses, over the internet, for about a hundred dollars. Ordinarily this wouldn't earn much criticism, except that Eyefly: a) does not donate any glasses to charity, and b) launched with promotional photos taken from Warby Parker's website.

Eyefly has since apologized and taken the offending photos down, claiming it was an honest mistake. We'll see how the internet takes the apology.

For the record, TOMS is getting into the eyewear game, too.

American Apparel, Kmart Style

When American Apparel started out in 1998, a big selling point was that their clothes are ethically made. Workers get excellent benefits including free transportation and massages, and all the fabric is made locally. Now that pristine image has faded, thanks to negative publicity surrounding Dov Charney, American Apparel's somewhat creepy founder.

This hasn't stopped Kmart from trying to look like American Apparel in a new advertising campaign. The photos in the ads attempt to reproduce AA's trademark style: lo-fi photos of "real" people, posing in apparently "fun" and "spontaneous" ways.

Fortunately for Kmart, this has not attracted the scorn of the interwebs. Unfortunately, it hasn't attracted much attention at all.

The Great Urban Outfitters and Etsy Turf War

This entry might be the odd one out on the list, because Etsy doesn't resemble a typical ethical company. The site doesn't sell anything directly, and it doesn't promote any particular cause. Instead, it provides a place for local, independent craftspeople to sell their hand-made creations directly. It's considered ethical just because supporting the little guy is considered ethical.

Urban Outfitters, though it may have its finger on the hipster pulse, is definitely not the little guy. Which is why, after Urban Outfitters sold a few pieces of jewelry that resemble those of a popular Etsy merchant, there was a big backlash. This was quickly followed by other claims that Urban Outfitters steals designs.

The debate is ongoing. While it's unlikely that Urban Outfitters had the design first, it's also not clear that the Etsy seller created it. And there's no way to show that anyone owns the rights, or that the alleged theft hurt sales. In this case the jury might be out, at least until all the shouting dies down.

Have your own examples of big companies appropriating ethical consumerism? Please share in the comments.