Navigating Veganism With A Vegan PR Agency
Vegans have long been perceived, falsely it’s worth pointing out, as being militant and in-your-face activists. People who revel in nothing more than in shoving the fact that they’re vegans down your throat. The truth couldn’t be further from this, however. Vegans are amongst some of the nicest people I’ve ever encountered; even if we are a little biased here at our vegan PR agency!
Many people simply feel insecure when they’re posed with an argument or lifestyle that’s contrary to theirs, especially ones shown to be as damaging as they are, environmentally speaking. It’s a worthy idea, then, for businesses to look to implement more vegan principles into their codes of practice and daily runnings. The team here at VerriBerri wants to talk about how to broach vegan concepts, but how to do it the right way.
THERE’S MORE TO VEGANISM THAN JUST FOOD
True veganism, often referred to as ethical veganism is the term for the lifestyle of a plant-based lifestyle and not just a plant-based diet. What may at first seem a subtle distinction yields a great deal more upon further inspection. If you’re not a food-based brand it can be easy to think that there’s not a lot of vegan principles which you can implement into your business. Right? Wrong. There are loads of ways you can go about it, however, and here’s just some of them for you:
What can you do?
- The beauty industry: Traditionally, ingredients like retinol and collagen have been the staple of beauty products, and those products are often animal-derived. Vegan alternatives are taking over, and people are preferring them! Retinol can be replaced with something called bakuchiol; vegan-based collagen alternatives are becoming more readily available. The keratin found in many shampoos can be replaced by Aloe Vera based treatments and cochineal can even be replaced with beetroot! There really is a vegan substitute for everything, if you’re only willing to look.
- The fashion industry: The fashion industry falls short in many areas; a lack of animal welfare concerns falls somewhere amidst sweatshop labour, moral exploitation and large-scale pollution as problems scourging the industry. In recent times, however, there have been efforts by leading fashion houses to implement faux-leather substitutes. Even luxury motoring giants are looking to use leather alternatives in their exclusive interiors.
- Sustainable packaging: ethical veganism goes beyond simply the process of killing animals directly, it entails the destruction of animals through the loss of their habitats. If you look at palm oil, rubber and glue production to name but a few, their production relies on incredibly damaging processes such as deforestation. Processes which are wiping some species out, almost to the point of extinction. So, looking to implement sustainable packaging into your business is definitely adhering to greater vegan ideals.
These are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of things you can do to operate your business in a more veganism-friendly way. Our vegan PR agency are more than happy to offer further consultancy on where else you can optimise your company in this regards.
Why Do You Want To Do It?
Now, forgive us for sounding a bit ‘therapist’ here; but it’s very important to probe your reasoning behind wanting to implement these vegan practices into your business or brand. If you’re doing it simply to look good to the general public, forget it. This vapid superficiality is seen through in a heartbeat. There are too many vegan brands and businesses out there for you to be able to use the trend as a means of publicity. If you want to implement it as a long-term part of your business model in an attempt for greater sustainability; then that is definitely worth pursuing.It isn’t just for your own peace of mind that you should be introspecting your motives; it makes astute business sense. If you only half-commit to vegan principles, then you’re more likely to make mistakes and slip up. If you slip up, this looks bad from a public perception point of view; and, depending on the scale of the mess-up, you could have a full-blown crisis on your business’ hands. Whilst it isn’t out of a vegan PR agency’s abilities to recover such situations; it’s something that everybody can be doing without. Make it your company’s first port of call, then, when looking at your strategy; to ensure your motivations are noble and show integrity.
Encourage Your Local Community
As a brand or business, look to your local area where you’re based, and see what vegan opportunities are out there already. If you find there aren’t many, then launch some incentives yourself! A vegan PR agency will easily be able to help you these sorts of incentives and campaigns. You could, for example, start monthly challenges amongst your customers – go a month without meat or dairy or see how long you can go without using single-use plastics.
The more you foster a spirit of togetherness, the more that something, which is often by no means easy to start with, becomes doable. The world today is an insular place. We’re more connected and yet less connected than ever. Finding ways to bring communities together through these vegan incentives is not only going to do wonders for your brand recognition, but do wonders for people as well!
We’ll find more and more vegans taking over the world as time goes on, and frankly, we’re here for it! It’s only going to become more of a necessity in coming years. Veganism isn’t some passing phase or fad, and the sooner realise that, the better. It isn’t something that’s scary or pretentious, it’s as inclusive as lifestyles come; after all, we all share the same planet, whether you like it or not!
So, if you’d like to find out more about our vegan PR agency, then get in touch! Call VerriBerri today on 01376 386 850. We’d love nothing more than to sit down and here what you have to say!