Case Study: EcoVadis

Corporate Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives have grown over the past few years and this growth is expected to continue. Having an ESG strategy has become important not only to organizations, but also to employees, customers, and investors. In addition to the benefits of improving the planet and society, research has shown that improved ESG performance can positively impact company performance by increasing profits, enhancing internal processes, uncovering product innovation, improving employee engagement (due to internal, cultural alignment with ESG values), and achieving market differentiation by strengthening brand positioning.

To further highlight the increasing focus on ESG initiatives, B2B International’s Superpowers Index study found that several ESG-related decision drivers have become significantly more important to business decision makers when choosing a company to do business with.

3 of 7 business decision drivers that have grown significantly in importance between 2022 and 2023 are:

• “Takes care of its suppliers, business partners, and communities.”
• “Is committed to reducing its environmental impact.”
• “Has a culture of diversity and inclusion.”

In other words, being a force for good, is good business.

EcoVadis is a purpose-driven organization with a mission to provide reliable, globally recognized business sustainability ratings and insights that enable companies to reduce risk, drive improvement, and accelerate positive impact on our planet and society. Hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide partner with EcoVadis to assess their network and monitor sustainability performance.

EcoVadis’ customer ecosystem comprises two primary groups:

1. Requesting companies: typically large multinational organizations and OEMs with extensive global supply chains
2. Rated companies: suppliers to the OEMs.

EcoVadis has become the world’s most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings by focusing on, and building relationships with, the buyers, or Requesting companies. Buyers often carry significant influence over their supply chain partners becoming rated, but the Rated companies represent a much greater opportunity for EcoVadis – and planet and society – as the number of these organizations is substantially larger.

However, many supplier organizations lack the awareness of how to become rated and the associated benefits. EcoVadis was therefore seeking a brand and marketing strategy to:

• Raise awareness of EcoVadis’ mission, services, and solutions among supplier companies;
• Differentiate EcoVadis from other ratings agencies and sustainability assessment providers;
• Demonstrate the benefits, both social and business related, of suppliers engaging with EcoVadis.

To inform its brand building strategy, EcoVadis required a baseline understanding around its own brand health (particularly related to awareness and perceptions) among prospective Rated customers relative to other providers so that the company could effectively measure and monitor progress over time.

Insights have shown that EcoVadis’ brand health is relatively strong compared to its immediate peer group of sustainability ratings providers. The research also revealed that while EcoVadis’ brand positioning aligns well on its strategic attributes, there is opportunity to make a stronger connection with key market attributes.

The EcoVadis brand and marketing team are leveraging the research findings to develop EcoVadis’ brand value proposition, brand architecture, and short-term brand marketing campaigns to reach a broader audience. While the insights will be ultimately used for guiding demand generation efforts, the desired outcome is to inspire action among Rated companies and to increase organizations’ commitment to sustainability to make the world and society a better place.