CIPR Guest Lecture - Sarah McCartney 'Inside Out'

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• published: 19 Nov 2009
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VT2379 CIPR Guest Lecture - Sarah McCartney LUSH's Head of Brand Publications. The fourth lecture in the CIPR guest lecture series was led by writing guru, Sarah McCartney. Aside from writing the LUSH Times, which is read by over one million people, Sarah has also pursued her own interests, launching her Yogateds company with her mother, as well as writing a book called The Fake Factor, which focuses on her speciality - branding Sarah centred her lecture around her work with LUSH, placing emphasis upon how all of LUSH's PR is in-house and comes from the heart. It was evident that all LUSH employees are extremely dedicated and committed to the company and that they are all involved with the communications, offering ideas for campaigns on a regular basis. The company is unique in the fact that they don't spend excessive time planning their campaigns rigorously - Sarah explained that they could brainstorm an idea one week and have finished it by the next. LUSH is a company that places huge importance upon ethical and sustainable practise. Using almost no packaging and insisting upon being green, LUSH have a strong set of values, which are reflected in part of their mission statement. We believe in making effective products from fresh, organic fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics, Sarah explained. She also stressed that LUSH's key values are consistent and don't just change with the fashions. An innovative company, who are always ahead of the law, LUSH use a new soap-based formula in their products, as an alternative to palm oil, which is used so regularly by cosmetics companies that it is directly causing deforestation in Indonesia. Sarah spoke of how the business raises awareness of the company through campaigns, whilst implementing their values. As part of a campaign to enforce the fox hunting ban, LUSH created a limited edition paw print bath bomb, which symbolised their support for the issue. They named this product Fabulous Mrs Fox, coinciding its launch with the release of the film Fantastic Mr Fox. They gained coverage by organising for an employee to dress up as a fox and bombard the red carpet at the film premier in London's Leicester Square. This campaign proved very controversial, and although it caused some members of the opposition to smash shop windows and one activist to knock down displays in a store on three occasions, LUSH stuck to their values and continued with the campaign. Other campaigns discussed included Climate Rush, where LUSH rewarded public transport users with a picnic, 'Don't Destroy Our Family Tree,' which helped people living in areas of deforestation and the 'Charity Pot,' which is a product that's profit is used to help smaller charities. Even though LUSH is a successful multi-million company worldwide, it is clear that the employees are a small, independent and dedicated unit, who work together as a family. Sarah revealed that LUSH's main communication strategy is simply for all staff to be friendly and have a strong knowledge about the products and the values behind them. From a business context, the company has no stakeholders and owns all its factories and stores, explaining why LUSH can operate in their unique way. The lecture concluded with an intense question and answer session, with Sarah giving out a range of fabulous freebies.