we are animals

An environmental start-up wanted to become the go-to brand for sustainability in the Spanish speaking world. This is how we helped.

OBJECTIVE identify the most promising positioning and design the brand identity.

CHALLENGE an improvised brand, tiny budgets, a crowded market.

INSIGHT the environmentally passionate were already onboard. To acquire scale, Sustentator had to recruit the 99% who were turning a deaf ear to the depressing news of melting ice caps and climate change.

SOLUTION first we re-positioned Sustentator as the Pragmatic Optimistic: when speaking of commuting by bike for example, we went from talking carbon footprint to calories lost and money saved instead.

Then we designed the brand identity, with a clear brand architecture: the Sustentator master brand on top, supported by distinct B2B and B2C business units, each with its own branding and online presence.

Today Sustentator holds annual conferences, provides solar energy solutions to an ever-growing number of farms and houses and LifeGuard stations along Argentina’s coast.

Facebook fans jumped from 5,000 to over two million and counting.

To thrive, social animals need clear understanding of their allegiances and hierarchies. Fashion provides the former, luxury the latter.

As social beings, we have always looked to define our place in society.

Whether by a system of casts, nobility, landownership or other, rigid systems gave us a sense of identity and order, for the greater good of the species. These structures were so useful that across the centuries and continents our place in society was passed down from parents to children.

With the invention of agriculture 12,000 years ago, ancient hierarchies disappeared but were quickly replaced by new ones, based by our contribution to the group: laborers, merchants, warriors, priests, artists and rulers. Then mass democracy and capitalism did away with those distinctions and true social mobility was born. Our own fate would no longer be limited by our parents’.

What hasn’t changed in these 12,000 years though, is our need to define our place in society, and this is where fashion kicks in: while luxury had always existed (kings and priests from Papua New Guinea to Machu Pichu have always relied on jewels to advertise their place in society), the idea of ever-changing tastes is relatively new, and has accelerated tremendously as our daily lives grow increasingly removed from the farming cycles.

In fact, some claim that fashion helps us regain a sense of “seasons”, in a world of farm factories.

In short, both fashion and luxury help us regain a sense of social order. But one does it horizontally (where do i stand vs my peers), while the other does it vertically (how high do I stand in the food chain).

Chaco Papers are executive summaries of extensive research conducted to inform our work for various projects. If you would like to learn more about this or any other Paper contact papers@chaco.cc.