Container Store enlists stakeholders for new campaign

The Container Store has kicked off a new purpose-driven marketing campaign focused on its values-based approach to business and conscious capitalism with full-page national newspaper ads as well as videos on the company’s new YouTube Channel.



The campaign is capitalizing on momentum generated by the company’s having made Fortune magazine’s list of 100 Best Companies To Work For for the 15th consecutive year, placing at number 28 this year. Two-thirds of the list’s tally is based on an anonymous employee survey called the Employee Trust Index.



The campaign asks, “What if everyone associated with a business could thrive?” and highlights one of the core tenets of the conscious capitalism movement — the stakeholder model — which decrees that a business and everyone associated with it is successful when an organization makes decisions that positively impact all its stakeholders.



Five of the Container Store’s stakeholders are featured in full-page ads in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today and in videos on the retailer’s blog — whatwestandfor.com — and its YouTube channel, which also debuted today. The ads also feature employee Kevin Postell; customer Amy Harman; vendor Hardeep Melamed, in.bag purse and jewelry organizers; community partner Dr. Sandra Chapman, founder and chief director of Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas; and shareholder Jon Sokoloff, managing partner of private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners.



The creative will be integrated in the Container Store’s direct mail, email, in-store materials and through its social media channels including its blog throughout 2014.



“We feel strongly that business doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game — someone doesn’t have to lose for someone else to win. When organizations lead with and make decisions based on love, ensure all of its stakeholders are fulfilled and successful, well, research has shown that those are some of the most financially successful businesses,” said Kip Tindell, chairman and CEO of the Container Store. “This approach isn’t altruism. It’s capitalism — done in a conscious way. The result is a culture for the Container Store that drives the value of our business — the culture drives the value.”