Celebrate: It’s B Corp Month
B Corps, or Benefit Corporations, are companies committed to meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Prioritizing more than just profits they also aim to make a positive impact on society and the environment.
B Corps are important because they prioritize social and environmental goals alongside financial ones, promote accountability and transparency, drive innovation, and build consumer trust.
At W5, our extensive work in the consumer space continues to prove consumers are increasingly concerned about the social and environmental impact of the products and services they buy. B Corps provide a way for consumers to identify businesses that share their values and are committed to making a positive impact. They are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
Here at W5, we’ve had the opportunity to support B Corps through our curated suite of research solutions. Examples of how W5’s marketing research can support B Corps include:
PROFILING
Go deep with consumers—learn who they are and how they think
Need to understand who is buying your products so you can find others like them? Segmentation research can uncover distinct groups of consumers with similar needs, characteristics, or behaviors to tailor marketing strategies to specific segments.
INNOVATING
Disrupt the marketplace with new ideas and opportunities
Looking to uncover white space for a new product? Research that allows you to co-create with consumers can help identify unmet needs in the market to inspire product development.
EVALUATING
Capture feedback on messaging, products, services, and features
Have a new ad campaign? Research can test the campaign to determine what works, what needs improvement, and whether its strong enough to impact behavior.
TRACKING
Identify shifts in awareness, consideration, usage, and loyalty
Interested in tracking awareness of your cause over time? A tracking study will establish, and track, key metrics to help you understand how marketing initiatives are performing over time.
Interested is seeing how W5 supported a North Carolina B Corp uncover, engage, and implement segmentation research to grow their business? Check back soon for a video Q&A and case study presentation in partnership with our client East Fork.
In the meantime, here are 5 B-Corp Fast Facts you may not know:
Three friends founded the idea, pitched on New Year's Day 2005―two of the friends were co-founders of AND1 and wanted a positive change in the industry.
California has the most B-corps of any state, with 478 certified businesses as of 2023.
Organizations must apply for re-certification after a three-year cycle of certification to demonstrate updated compliance with the B-Corp standards.
B Corporation is taught at academic institutions around the world. B-Corps’ World Leadership School partners with K-12 schools to empower future leaders with new ideas and solutions to address global issues.
Want to know more about the B-Corp movement? Check out https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/ for more information.