EP12 - Inspiring Change with Kim Saunders

In this episode of CMA Connect, Alison Simpson, the CEO of the CMA, welcomes Kim Saunders, Vice President of ESG Strategy and Community Impact at Canadian Tire Corporation. Canadian Tire is dedicated to business growth and creating real change through philanthropy, ESG initiatives, fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion, championing gender equality in sports, and giving back to communities to shape a brighter future for Canada for generations to come.

00:00:00:07 - 00:00:22:12
Unknown
Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada’s marketing podcast, where industry experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that will change how brands and businesses are built for tomorrow, while also delivering on today’s business needs. With your host, CMA CEO Alison Simpson.

00:00:22:14 - 00:00:46:01
Alison
Welcome to a pivotal discussion on marketers and brands embracing ESG, environmental, social and governance. It’s a strategy that’s proving to be more than just an ethical choice, but absolutely a transformative business advantage and a really important way for marketers and businesses to get back to the communities that they’re part of. Amidst the cultural shift towards environmental consciousness, as well as social accountability,

00:00:46:03 - 00:01:10:18
Alison
ESG is often taking centre stage. And again, it’s not merely as a compliance checklist, but as a core pillar of visionary business leadership. Beyond being the right thing to do, it’s also smart business. Companies that are integrating ESG principles are witnessing very tangible benefits. They’re seeing improved investment returns, enhanced brand loyalty and business resilience in the face of global challenges.

00:01:10:19 - 00:01:45:14
Alison
In Canada, the positive ripples of ESG centred operations resonate with heightened consumer expectations that are driving companies to innovate for a better tomorrow. In today’s episode, we’re joined by an absolute leading light in corporate Canada’s journey towards sustainability and impactful community engagement. It’s a pleasure for me to have Kim Saunders with us today as the vice president of ESG Strategy, Community Impact and Sponsorships for Canadian Tire. Kim’s responsible for the strategic development and programmatic build out of the company’s ESG strategy and philanthropic spending.

00:01:45:16 - 00:02:06:14
Alison
She also leads the marketing and fundraising support for the company’s charity partner, Jumpstart, and has successfully developed some really exciting strategic community and sports partnerships. We’re really looking forward to chatting with her about those today. So Kim, I’m absolutely thrilled to have you on our podcast.  Kim  Amazing. Thank you for having me.    Alison
So, Kim, as you know, I had the pleasure of chatting with Canadian

00:02:06:15 - 00:02:30:21
Alison
Tire Chief Brand and Customer Officer Susan O’Brien on CMA Connect last year. It was very evident from that conversation and also from the one that you and I had earlier, that in addition to Canadian Tire being a renowned Canadian brand and delivering strong, consistently powerful business results and growth, you’re also very much focused on giving back to the country and communities that you’re part of.

00:02:30:23 - 00:02:50:18
Alison
I know philanthropy and ESG have been a longstanding part of the Canadian Tire business, and approach. I also understand that it evolved fairly dramatically throughout the pandemic. So can you share a little bit about how it evolved and how that impacted your brand values? I know our listeners will also really enjoy hearing how you’re now focusing your efforts from an ESG perspective.

00:02:50:23 - 00:03:08:04
Kim
Yeah, absolutely. I'm thrilled to be here and talk about this topic. It's very near and dear to my heart and to us as a brand. As you mentioned, we've been around for 100 years. You're hard pressed to find a Canadian who doesn't know who Canadian Tire is and one of the most critical things they'll tell you is how much we support our community.

00:03:07:00 - 00:03:28:12
Kim
And it is, it's been part of the DNA of the organization. If you go right back to the founders. They created a dealer model, which with the notion that we would share the business with others. The dealer model was about helping others take advantage and grow their own businesses. So right into the roots of the organization you get that notion of sharing and helping others.

00:03:28:17 - 00:03:49:06
Kim
And as you follow the company's journey throughout the hundred years, you'll see many times where they were there for any disaster, any community need. The creation of Jumpstart that you mentioned earlier, helping kids with financial need, get access to sport and play. We are there when Canadians need us, and our dealer community are so generous at a local level as well.

00:03:49:06 - 00:04:11:17
Kim
They are part of every philanthropic or community event that happens, and it's just it's part of who we are. But the pandemic was a really interesting moment for us because the country needed more than just what we sell and just our work that we do in sport. The country needed us to show up in a different way. None of us had been through something like this and we did what we always do.

00:04:11:17 - 00:04:34:15
Kim
We showed up with our Covid response fund, and we put money into the needed charities, but we put PPE into the hands of frontline health care workers, which is not something you would typically think of as an action Canadian Tire would do. But it's what people needed from us. And that really spawned that internal look at ourselves to say, Hey, our role here is so much bigger in this country than just what we sell.

00:04:34:17 - 00:04:57:13
Kim
And it is bigger than just helping kids get into sport. So critical that that action, but we also can do and should do more and that really spawned us looking inward at our brand purpose and revising it is what I would say. It's not a new action, it's a modernization of it and bringing forward. So we live by the mantra that we are here to make life in Canada better.

00:04:57:16 - 00:05:16:18
Kim
That's our role. That's what we're here to do. And ESG, so our environmental actions, our social actions, and even how we govern ourselves is proof to that. It's the trust that you can put in us because we treat the planet and the people in our communities with the utmost respect. We do more for them and we give more than we take.

00:05:16:18 - 00:05:48:02
Kim
And that's really where this all started for us. 

Alison
That's such a great combination of, the core to the business for 100 years and as the world around you, as Canadians around you are changing and evolving, you're staying true to your core principles and values, but doing it in a way that will resonate with today's consumers and tomorrow's. So your evolved vision is to be applauded and your deep commitment to ESG is absolutely something that I am thrilled to have your company leading.

00:05:48:04 - 00:06:09:21
Kim
Amazing. Thank you. 

Alison
You certainly have a lot of well-deserved press around your decision to dedicate half of your sponsorship dollars towards women in sport. The act of actually doing it and making that commitment by a brand of your magnitude and profile within Canada is a first. And I have to say, as a woman who has personally benefited from sport in my life, I absolutely applaud the initiative.

00:06:09:23 - 00:06:28:04
Alison
I'd really love you to tell us what led to that decision and what made now the right time to make the commitment. 

Kim
Yeah, it's an amazing thing that we do. Sport, as you know, as we mentioned off the top, is so foundational to us at Canadian Tire. We just believe in its power to impact children, to impact families, to impact lives at any age.

00:06:28:06 - 00:06:55:05
Kim
And we first started having a conversation around sport back in 2018 when the women started coming back from the Olympics with lots and lots of gold medals. And we knew then that women in this country were poised for something really great. It wasn't something we really dove too deep into, partially because the infrastructure wasn't there. There wasn't really a place for women to go post-Olympics.

00:06:55:05 - 00:07:15:02
Kim
For many sports, that is sort of the pinnacle. Or you end up going outside of your own borders of your country to play the sport you love. And for various reasons, both the infrastructure not being there, our organization being focused on a few things, we kind of let it sit there and bubble as we knew it was something we wanted to dig into, and we knew that the time had to be right.

00:07:15:04 - 00:07:44:17
Kim
And then we sort of started to watch what was happening. And then some really impactful research came out of Canadian women in sport around the marketplace for women's professional sport, the business opportunity and really driving the case. And we kind of said to ourselves, now's the time. We can take a leadership position here. We can try and take all that great research and great experience that we're seeing out there and put our weight of our brand behind it and create that impactful change that we want to see.

00:07:44:19 - 00:08:09:00
Kim
And so that time came to us because the infrastructure was starting to be built with the women's PWHL league starting to take shape, with Diana Matheson's Project 8 and her desire to create a domestic soccer league here starting to take shape, the WNBA bringing their first exhibition game here to Canada and it blowing the roof off Scotiabank Arena with people wanting to see more.

00:08:09:02 - 00:08:20:16
Kim
So we knew there was momentum and we knew that we had a brand that could take a leadership role and help drive that further.

00:08:20:18 - 00:08:28:07
Alison
And what's the response been like from your employees, your store owners, and you consumers? 

Kim
I think it's been even more than we could have imagined. We knew this would be a big moment. We did not expect it to be this big.

00:08:28:09 - 00:08:55:04
Kim
Our employees could not be prouder of the actions we've taken. We hear it daily from them. We have had incredible response from female athletes, from other brands calling us, calling our other senior leaders to say, great, courageous job. We can't believe you took the leadership to do that. There's nothing greater than your C-suite getting a call from someone else's C-suite saying, great job.

00:08:55:06 - 00:09:21:20
Kim
The industry has taken note of it. And I think what's most important is I see the consumers and the fans showing up to those events. You just have to try and get a ticket to a PWHL game in Toronto to know that there's something real here. There's something magical, and I'm thrilled to be able to be on the sidelines of what's going to happen with Project 8, what potentially could happen in basketball and any other sports that might come to life through this.

00:09:21:21 - 00:09:46:05
Kim
So we are not the only brand in this game anymore. And that's the most exciting part, is that we were able to, yes, for us take a leadership position, but hopefully help spark some change that helps move others on to that side of the field. 

Alison
In Canada and globally, there's been a bit of a misperception that women's sporting events can't attract the same sort of audience and revenue and viewership as male sports.

00:09:46:05 - 00:10:12:20
Alison
So I love the fact that you played a pivotal role in myth-busting and helping Canadians, and even globally, to build up appreciation that absolutely a great athlete is a great athlete and we are at least as compelling. So thank you. 

Kim
My pleasure. Listen, as a woman who loved sport and as a mother of a daughter in sport, I just I think this is so needed and honestly, it's great sport to watch whatever gender they're on, the ice or the field,

00:10:12:20 - 00:10:35:22
Kim
it's a great sport to watch. And it's really exciting for me that we've been able to make such a big movement on the gender front, and it encourages me with the other parts of our strategy around sport and equity, which is helping Bipoc communities, LGBTQ communities, communities, indigenous communities. How do we help make sure that sport in this country is equal and welcoming and inclusive?

00:10:36:00 - 00:11:03:07
Kim
That's the goal and I hope we're here for many years to come doing doing this work. 

Alison
Kim, with your really rich experience in driving these types of initiatives for it, what advice do you have for marketers who want to drive impactful ESG programs and don't have your personal experience and are probably earlier in the journey than you? 

Kim
Yeah, I think I think there's a few things I'd say to someone who was looking at this space and excited by it, which is - Dig in, learn.

00:11:03:09 - 00:11:36:09
Kim
There's a ton of great information out there, literature, research, examples of brands who've taken advantage of the moment. So get out there and see who's done this and learn from it. A great resource that I love to share with people and really a foundational key to how we've built our ESG strategy is the Porter and Kramer Shared Value principle. Porter and Kramer are a couple of Harvard professors who a few years ago created the Shared Value Initiative, which is really the notion that you can have societal benefit and profit together.

00:11:36:09 - 00:11:58:08
Kim
And as a corporation, it's not just an opportunity, it's actually your obligation. It's a bit of a challenge on capitalism and its traditional state. So we really are embedded that into our thinking. And I would challenge people to go out there, learn about it, think about it, how they can bring that to life. I'd like to talk about this work is, it's actions before adds You have to have meaningful action.

00:11:58:08 - 00:12:23:06
Kim
You need meaningful, positive change for the stakeholders you're engaging with. And from that comes the best, richest storytelling you'll ever get. When you start with - How do I get the ad or the TV campaign or the marketing award for it? I think you lose a little bit of that richness and potential depth when you start with - How can I make a meaningful impact on the planet, on the people who are on this planet?

00:12:23:08 - 00:12:50:14
Kim
If I think about the impact I can have, the stories will start to tell itself. And in fact, all of those stakeholders will help you tell that story of your journey. So I think that's a big thing, I'd say. The other part is just put your elbows up and get to the table. Ask your organization because you will find out that they are advocates for much of this work, whether it's protecting the environment or helping communities drive equality or being there for social change.

00:12:50:14 - 00:13:08:21
Kim
Your employee base, your leadership, they all have personal views to this and I think you can harness a lot of power in looking at your employee base. 

Alison
That's great advice. Kim. I love your mantra, actions before ads. I'd love to hear if you could you give us an example of one of the stories that emerged from some of the actions that you took?

00:13:09:02 - 00:13:32:06
Kim
Absolutely. Something that I might share with this group of listeners that I think could be very valuable would be how we have thought about diversity, equity and inclusion. In 2020, when George Floyd was murdered, all brands thought about how they could participate in a social conversation that was much needed. And we really chose the action of we need to think about this internally first.

00:13:32:09 - 00:13:52:21
Kim
We need to think about - look inside ourselves and figure out what we need to fix about ourselves and take care of our employees. And from there we will then have an opportunity to talk about it later as a brand. And frankly, we sort of said you probably won't see an ad from us talking about our our diversity and inclusion strategies any time soon.

00:13:53:00 - 00:14:17:12
Kim
What you're going to see us do is make conscious decisions about the products that are on our shelves or not on our shelves. Make conscious decisions about the spaces that we put into our regular advertising or into our marketing initiatives. You're going to see us talk to our employees in a different way. So we've taken the tone of - we could have put an ad campaign out there, but we've chosen to actually drive meaningful impact with our current stakeholders.

00:14:17:17 - 00:14:43:17
Kim
And that in and of itself is how we come to market. 

Alison
So the CMA is part of annual most influential brands each year and earlier in the year we unveiled the 2023 most influential brands. One of the key insights that came out of this year's study was the really important role that partnerships and sponsorships can have in a brand's ability to influence consumers and clients in particular.

00:14:43:19 - 00:15:16:09
Alison
I know that you got a lot of great relationships and partnerships and sponsorships, so I'd love to understand your approach to selecting the right partnerships and sponsors. 

Kim
Yeah, and I've had a long time in partnerships and sponsorship, and so I am a big believer in what that medium can do. To your point, from influencing change and driving opportunity for your business and your brand, but also in creating the stories that are so rich for an integrated marketing team to be able to play with. What goes into our strategy is, is a combination of things.

00:15:16:10 - 00:15:40:22
Kim
It's about who the partner is and what they do. That's where we generally start. What's the impact they are having, what is the impact that they can have on the community with your support? And that community can be anything from a sort of more philanthropic social issue, straight up to, you know, professional sports and having an impact on inspiring kids and adults alike.

00:15:41:00 - 00:16:00:07
Kim
So it's not necessarily about a social or a traditional ESG partnership. It could be any kind of partnership. But what are the values of that organization? What do they offer? What can you build together? And then how do you make sure that you are creating something that gives more than you take back? That's some of the things that we look at.

00:16:00:09 - 00:16:26:02
Alison
That's very helpful. Thank you. So marketing budgets, certainly by extension sponsorships, and ESG initiatives, can often be the first to face cuts during tough economic times. I'm curious about how you maintain your commitment to those areas when you're faced with financial constraints, in particular, how do you continue to drive and advance your company's purpose during periods of budget pressures, which could include everything up to staff layoffs?

00:16:26:02 - 00:16:53:23
Kim
Yeah, it's a great question because obviously when economies are in a tough state and businesses are looking at cost cutting with with regards to the current situation, it's an easy place to think about sponsorship and partnerships to go. What I would say is your values don't change because the economy's in a tough spot. So if you've entered into that partnership based on mutual values and mutual opportunity to impact the country, that's not going to change.

00:16:54:05 - 00:17:19:12
Kim
How you bring it to life may change, how you operationalize it for that year may slightly adjust, but the value of being together as a partner won't. And so I think it's about choosing wisely when you go into that relationship. Good economy, bad economy. It's about thinking about why are we in this together and what are we achieving so that you know that when tough times hit, you still want to be in that relationship together.

00:17:19:14 - 00:17:38:19
Alison
That's super helpful, Kim, and I love your call out that when times are tough, they're not just tough for our businesses and our brands. They're tough for the people that your sponsorships and your initiatives are helping serve, too. So it's in many ways the worst time to be walking away from a support when it can be also the time that's most needed.

00:17:38:21 - 00:17:59:00
Kim
Yeah, absolutely. I think it is a time to double down and it's hard to do, absolutely, when you're faced with those pressures of the business reality, especially if you're a publicly traded company. There's just a business reality to it. But that's really the time to almost double down, particularly if they are things that impacts your employee base or whether they impact communities that are marginalized communities.

00:17:59:00 - 00:18:20:16
Kim
That's where they need us the most. So, maybe you rethink that relationship, but I don't know that you always walk from that. 

Alison
So Kim, you have shared so many incredibly valuable insights with us today. Before I let you go off to your busy day though, I would love to take the opportunity to have you share one piece of advice for marketers. 

00:18:20:16 - 00:18:47:01
Kim
One piece of advice. If you are going to enter into the ESG realm, I would say roll your sleeves up, lean in to the table, get your elbows up. It's not always an easy fight. You are definitely asking for things that are sometimes ten and 15 years down the line when they return on that investment. You're asking for things that seem sometimes to be counterintuitive to the day to day running of the business.

00:18:47:03 - 00:19:07:05
Kim
But if you believe in it and you know it's got that impact, roll your sleeves up, get your elbows up, get to the table and ask and know that it's a long time journey, but it's based on the right thing. 

Alison
I love that advice and I'm going to actually squeeze in one more question coming off of your advice. What attracted you to this particular part of building brands in marketing?

00:19:07:05 - 00:19:27:14
Kim
What attracted me to this type of work was the opportunity to have an impact. Real meaningful impact, and being able to tie products and a strong business to a strong community and a strong country. To me, that is the ultimate opportunity here, is we can grow our business and we can do some good in the world.

00:19:27:14 - 00:19:53:13
Kim
And I think that that for me is that is what's the most attractive about it. I don't have to pick, you know, whether we can make some money or I can have a good job with doing something for others in need. I get to be able to do both. And I think as brands, what an amazing opportunity for us to change the shape of this country, to change the way our planet is, is situated right now, to be able to do that and still grow a healthy business.

00:19:53:15 - 00:20:28:12
Alison
I am so glad I snuck in. One last question. Thank you for indulging me. I love the way you answered that and how you're demonstrating the critical role the marketing profession plays in both building business and building our country. So Kim, it has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much and continued success. 

Kim
Thank you. I appreciate you having me here and championing this work and this way of thinking where I think it's an amazing opportunity for all marketers to get behind it.

00:20:28:14 - 00:20:41:03
Unknown
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