Case: Coop, Denmark, Sweden, Norway

DOWNSTREAM: Communication Through Environmental Labels

Who: COOP

Country: Denmark, Sweden, Norway

Objective: ‘Änglamark’ should express responsibility towards the environment and sustainability through its brand. It aims to simplify the process for customers to choose products that consider the environment. The products are either allergy friendly, environmentally friendly or organically produced.

Description of initiative: In 1992, Coop Sweden created their own national brand name ‘Änglamark’ with an environmental profile that offers a wide range of organic products. Coop Sweden realized at an early stage the importance of developing a strategy for organic production that considers its environmental impact. Coop assessed their environmental impact and aimed to affect other actors on the market to become more environmentally aware and launched the brand name Änglamark.

In March 2006, ‘Änglamark’ became the sustainability brand for all of Coop Norden, replacing the Danish and Norwegian brands. ‘Änglamark’ contains Coop’s selection of organic, fair trade or environmentally or allergy adapted products. The goal of ‘Änglamark’ is to work for sustainable consumption where health of the individual, the environment and the ethical perspective should be the foundation of the work.

“Änglamark’ products are characterized by

• The ‘Ä’-logo
• A homogenous, simple design
• Simple, inspiring photos/illustrations
• Standard typography
• 3 languages (Swedish, Danish and Norwegian)

In Coop Denmark a wide variety of products counting approximately 300 are labelled with ‘Änglamark’.

Effect of initiative: Results of a campaign in 2009 demonstrated an increased turnover of 16%. The brand knowledge of ‘Änglamark’ was the highest measured percentage and had a level of 65% within the target group just after the campaign in week 17-19. The level of brand knowledge decreased after the campaign stopped and the
conclusion was that Coop should not keep too long campaign breaks if they wanted to keep the high level of brand knowledge.

Since the introduction of the ‘Änglamark’ brand it has reached a good level of brand knowledge and the products are being connected to old known brands as ‘Svanemærket’, Neutral and ‘Ø-mærket’ (The Danish logo for organic products). Personal care is the area with the lowest level of brand knowledge. The measured image of ‘Änglamark’ is very good within the key parameters measured and COOP has managed to communicate ‘Omtanke’ (care), which is the base of our ‘Änglamark’ Platform.

In Sweden ‘Änglamark’ increased its sales with 27% in 2009.

In 2009 ‘Änglamark’ was among Sweden's greenest brands. The branding company “Differ’ conducted a survey on Sweden's greenest brand. When the Swedes were asked spontaneously what they considered to be Sweden's greenest brand, ‘Änglamark’ came second.

A Danish survey in 2010 demonstrated that ‘Änglamark’ is a well-known brand in Denmark. 90 % of the Danes know ‘Änglamark’

Time period: 2006 to present

Future work: New products will be introduced under the brand in all three countries.

More information

(in Danish) Responsibility Report 2009 Danish
(in Swedish) KF Annual Report 2009 Swedish