In 2016, when Lindsay McCormick worked as a reality TV producer and took a different flight every two weeks, it bothered her that she went through countless trip-sized tubes of toothpaste. As a former surf instructor, she had troubling memories of the plastic littering the ocean and the beaches where she taught, and she wanted to avoid contributing to the earth’s waste.
McCormick looked for alternatives to solve his toothpaste dilemma, but everything on the market was wrapped in plastic. Although she stumbled upon plastic-free toothpaste tablets, the ingredients they contained included harsh chemicals. And so, she started taking online chemistry classes in the evenings and weekends and talking to dentists and hygienists to formulate her own surrogate.
It was a hobby, not a business. She just wanted an effective toothpaste to combat her vegan lifestyle, as a high-carb diet tends to cause more cavities and reduce her own environmental footprint. Eventually McCormick found the right combination of ingredients, bought a $ 1,000 hand-held tablet machine, and figured out how to package toothpaste in a glass jar.
“I saw this solution, and I thought it would have incredible niche appeal. I assumed it would be me, some of my hippie friends, my parents – who are always going to support me – and maybe some of my fellow TV producers wanting that stuff, ”McCormick says. “I thought it would be an Etsy store, and I would also sell it on Shopify for the purpose of just getting my money back from the equipment I bought.”
McCormick, now founder and CEO of an oral care brand called Bite, was wrong.
Like many other executives, she has found that consumers are increasingly drawn to businesses with purpose. In fact, they even demand accountability on issues such as environmental impact and greater racial and ethnic diversity in the brands that retailers carry or are represented in C-suite offices.
This cry from consumers leads more and more merchants to promote sustainable products or practices, to focus their mission on charitable giving, to take a stand in favor of social causes such as racial justice and to commit to give people of color better access to management opportunities and wholesale partnerships. And retailers say these engagements lead to positive social media mentions, lower customer acquisition costs, higher conversion rates, increased customer loyalty, and increased revenue.
There is “clear and strong” evidence that consumers assess businesses through the prism of their own belief systems – a trend that has been …
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