How much responsibility do consumers expect from companies? Why do we trust a brand like "Frosch" more than "Tchibo"? What is behind the sustainability paradox? And what must brands achieve if they want to win our trust?
The answers to all these questions are revealed in this episode by graduate psychologist, market researcher, and bestselling author Stephan Grünewald. Grünewald is not just anyone; he is well-acquainted with our psyche. Together with his fellow researchers at the Rheingold Institute, Grünewald probes the souls and desires of Germans every year in thousands of in-depth interviews. He shares his insights with us in bestsellers like "Deutschland auf der Couch" ("Germany on the Couch") or "Die erschöpfte Gesellschaft" ("The Exhausted Society"); companies like Unilever, Beiersdorf, and Deutsche Bahn heed his professional advice. His message: sustainability communication is a high art, and supposedly simple messages are often counterproductive.
"We Germans are simply ambivalent," he says. "We want to have our cake and eat it too; we want to drive an SUV and save the planet at the same time." We learn from the "German whisperer" Stephan Grünewald what our inner conflict means for brand managers, what sometimes drives him to despair about us Germans, and how organic carrots can be converted from Protestant to Catholic. It is, we can anticipate, a literally profound conversation!