Packing in the Packaging

Probably the biggest hurdle that we have faced in getting Maple Rush up and running is finding suitable packaging. We wanted nice packaging that will enhance the customers experience, have a long-term use (non-disposable) and be made from eco-friendly materials. However, after endless problems of costs, minimum order quantities, unreliable suppliers etc, and having experimented with unusual ideas such as mini wooden cheese boxes, we have decided to completely change our packaging strategy. We have decided to simply wrap products for posting in tissue paper and brown parcel paper to protect them, possibly with some nice graphics and a card/tag were necessary (e.g. earrings). There are a number of advantages to this simplified approach:

• It reduces costs
• It reduces environmental impact (production, transport, waste)
• All packages will fit through the customers letterbox
• Environmentally aware customers should appreciate the minimalist approach

As Green as Can Be

We’ve been giving it a lot of thought and have decided that although we plan to be an eco-friendly and ethical business, we should take a more modest approach to our communications. This is because our initial brand strategy was based on our initial business plan, which involved pushing the boundaries of sustainable business. Although this intention hasn't changed, we are now far enough into the project to know that as hard as we try, we are not able to tackle all of the environmental issues immediately. Therefore, referring to our product is as earth-friendly or eco-friendly jewellery would be somewhat misleading. We will therefore be explaining to our customers, what we are, and what we are not doing in environmental terms, but not over selling it because we know we have a long way to go. This has inevitably meant that we need to change our slogan, which we’re thinking of changing to ” yummy, handmade jewellery”. By replacing ‘earth friendly’ with ‘handmade’, we are using a more straightforward, factual term that implies quality, has a reference to good food, and which is less likely to alienate mainstream consumers.

Creating the Maple Rush Brand

Now we were in a position where we thought the project had sure potential needed to take it beyond a fun little experiment into a marketable brand that our customers could fall in love with.

We knew the core principles of the Maple Rush brand would be its integrity and strive for perfection, not just in style and quality, but in social and environmental responsibility. However, unlike many ethical and eco-friendly brands, we were also clear that the business’s ethics were the icing on the cake and that beautiful jewellery and a fun, pleasurable customer experience would be at the brand’s core.

Now we needed to create an identity to help the products make a connection with our customers and communicate the essence of our brand. Lucky for us, as our main jobs we run the ethical brand consultancy Scamper, and so we had all the necessary knowledge and resources that we needed for this part of the business development. As a consultancy, it was a nice change for us to be able to apply our skills to a project of our own and experience the client's and consultant's point of view simultaneously.

The first aspect of the identity that we needed was a brand name. We were clear that names such as ‘eco-jewellery’ and ‘green jewellery’ were uninspiring and lacked distinction, and that such a name would condemn the brand to a niche market of hard-core environmentalists. We want our brand to appeal to a much wider market, not just because it makes more commercial sense, but because we believe that genuine environmental progress requires ethical brands to compete head on with mainstream brands on the market. After much brainstorming, analysis and checking availability of domains and trademarks, we chose Maple Rush as our brand name, as it was distinctive, easy to spell, pronounce and remember, and was suggestive of the great pleasure that can be derived from nature is beautiful and delicious offerings.

Then we designed the logo, which would also provide the basis of the overall visual identity. We steered away from cliché logos with green tree icons and created a logo design that is feminine, fun and simple. What we did do was add the finishing touch to the logo with an abstract representation of a maple leaf, which not only completed the logo aesthetically, but also provides a distinctive icon that we can use independently in our visual communication. We originally chose a deep orangey red like maple leaves in the autumn as the colour of the logo, and then added a hint of pink to give the identity a more feminine feel.

Scamper's brand identity creation process told us that in this case the brand needed a slogan to quickly communicate what it stands for to the target market, as it is a new brand and its nature is not inherently obvious from the brand name or logo. We experimented with various different options and settled on “yummy, earth-friendly jewellery”. It very clearly and concisely states what the brand is about, has a relaxed, informal tone and also reinforces the idea that the jewellery is to be not just pretty, but delicious!

Our first prototypes

Yeay! After all the frustration of finding materials and suppliers, we finally received our first batch of beads in court and could get stuck into the fun of prototyping at first designs. Although we planned to vary the designs regularly, we needed to establish a coherent aesthetic and get some feedback from potential customers. Initial feedback was very positive and show that we are on the right track, although we did identify areas of improvement that we can now use to enhance our designs and quality before we are ready to launch.

We are well aware that we will need to maintain a very high standard of designs, and so we thought it would be good to take some time initially to experiment with lots of different designs to discover what does and does not work.

Is eco-friendly jewellery really possible?

The first thing we had to do was to see whether it was really viable to design jewellery in a style that I wanted and achieve a low environmental impact. There are a huge number of issues to consider such as materials, transportation, recyclability and of course aesthetics, quality and price. We found a number of potential options, but decided to design our first range of jewellery from recycled glass because it seems to provides the optimum balance between the various criteria. It is produced from waste material, is durable and highly attractive, and is also fully recyclable at end of life. The only downside is that as yet we haven't found anywhere in Europe that can produce high quality glass beads from recycled material. We found this very frustrating, but it taught us a valuable lesson, that although we are striving for perfection, we will have to make a few compromises along way. If we are ever to get our project off the ground we will have to do the best we can to start off, and then work to improve on our areas of weakness as the business develops.

In the short term we have found an excellent business in Indonesia that makes recycled glass beads from household waste and also produces some really nice wooden beads from scrap wood, which apart from the long transportation distances is exactly what we are looking for.

We wanted to use organic hemp as the cord for our necklaces and bracelets and found what seemed to be the perfect supplier in Romania but after weeks of communication we found that their service was not dependable enough to base our business around and when we finally received some samples the quality was terrible. We knew that there was no way that we could use it to make jewellery and had to look for alternatives. So far the only material we have found with the required appearance and quality is waxed cotton cord, which is at least natural and biodegradable. We need to do a bit more research if we are going to use cotton cord, if only to find out what the wax is made of, because this will affect whether or not the products are suitable for vegans. However, we do really want to find an organic cord or some sort of eco-friendly alternative.

There at least seem to be some options with the beads and cord, but eco-friendly findings seem to be virtually nonexistent. What we actually ended up doing is solving the problem a different way by completely designing the findings out of the necklaces and bracelets. That way, the only findings that we need are earring hooks, which will probably be made from stainless steel.

We'll be trying to constantly reduce the environmental impact of our jewellery, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, or know of any good materials or suppliers that we should investigate then we are really keen to hear from you.

Starting my eco-friendly jewellery business

Last Christmas I was finding it very difficult to find ethical and eco-friendly jewellery. It seemed that there was ethical jewellery out there but the designs tended to be either very fancy costume jewellery, or very poor quality. What I wanted was something in between - really fun, beautiful jewellery suitable for wearing everyday. It also seemed that of what was available in the market, most ethical jewellery was fairtrade but had little environmental benefit, often using environmentally unfriendly and ethically dubious materials such as gemstones, seashells and bone.

I could find jewellery with nice designs or I could find jewellery made from eco-friendly materials, but I was looking for something that fulfilled both criteria. Unable to find what I was looking for in the market, I decided that maybe I should be the person to put it there and so set about creating my own eco-friendly jewellery business.

This is the story of Maple Rush.