"Move the money, change the world."
This is the philosophy behind Chris Baker's brilliant book Obsolete: How Change Brands are Changing the World.
In this episode Chris inspires us with his journey from co-founding Change Please and then Serious Tissues, to writing the book and now helping to bring together a consortium of Change Brands for collaboration and scale.
This is quite a capitalist view of changing the world.
Since January 115 brands have signed up to work together as an informal holding company or 'Rebel Alliance' as Chris describes it in the book. He says 'the benefits of collaborating out weight the benefits of competing against each other'.
We discuss many of the Change Brands, such as Tony's Chocolonely, Oatly, Smol, Suri, Liquid Death and Deep Green, covered in the book and a winning formula for creating Change Brands.
When talking about the current backlash against ESG and DEI (especially in the US), Chris quotes Sun Tzu "in the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity".
When asked where to start with creating a Change Brand Chris says that 'making the right choice aspirational is really powerful'. He advises us to:
1) Genuinely give a shit about what you are creating (for example read the founding story of Trip Drinks)
2) Explore categories where there is a decent margin and where minimum order quantity isn't too big (Change Please vs Serious Tissues)
3) Look at who are the players dominating your space (the founders of Suri knew there was no love for Oral B and Philips, the two big players in their market)
Retrofitting purpose can be like the ugly stepsister trying to squeeze into Cinderella's glass slipper.
Change Brands are taking risks and leading the way for others to come along and copy. And they make it easier for governments to legislate for positive change by showing what's possible.
Chris believes in impact over purpose, words over actions. Brands should create minimum footprint and maximum impact.
For anyone interested in the power of Change Brands read the book, vote with your wallet and if you have any questions you can find Chris on LinkedIn.
This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner and Anna Mullenneaux, co-founders of the MarketingKind community.