Max Gladwell

A clever new brand challenges consumerism with a line of ethically sourced products and an ironic message: use less.

How many consumers does it take to wreck a planet? More importantly, how many people will it take to fix it?

It might seem like semantics, but there’s a fundamental difference between people and consumers. As marketers, we tend to think of them as one and the same. We refer to consumer packaged goods, consumer value propositions, and business-to-consumer models. It’s the catch-all term for all those who buy, use, and dispose of stuff. Of course, there’s no escaping the consumer designation. At the end of the day, each of us becomes one of them. Unless.

Unless we make the conscious decision to stop being consumers. This isn’t to suggest that we stop buying and using things but that we simply stop using the term and falling victim to the designation. This semantic shift could lead to a psychological shift, where we stop using this short-sighted and demeaning term to refer to ourselves and others in the collective. Are we consumers or people? If we decide on the latter, perhaps we’ll stop acting like a blind mob with zero accountability and start behaving like conscious individuals. Perhaps.

All of this is a long way of introducing a new consumer people brand known as USELESS.

When we first heard of USELESS, it immediately struck us as brilliant. USELESS is a brand that is well ahead of its time. It’s aspirational. It challenges and speaks up to you. You either get it or you don’t. And while USELESS defies comparison, we’re tempted to call it FCUK with a purpose. It’s that good. And so is its mission and underlying story.

We met with USELESS founder Mark Simmons on a few occasions to discuss the brand and his goals for it. He’s made several appearances at BlobLive LA, where he pitched it to a live audience of fellow entrepreneurs. That’s how we got the below interview. Today, USELESS is a line of branded products, but we see it as much more than that. The brand is a universal message. It’s a reminder that we should not think of ourselves or others as merely consumers. Because we’re people, and we can always strive to use less.

Max Gladwell (MG): What’s the story behind the USELESS brand?

Mark Simmons: Two years ago I was working with Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection trying to work out what to say about climate change that would get people from all walks of life involved to help solve the crisis. I saw that, while many people thought of climate change as a left wing conspiracy, they all felt, regardless of their political views, that we Americans use too much stuff. The thought of “use less” lodged in my mind and a year later when I was trying to develop a brand around reducing use of disposable water bottles and bags it struck me that “useless” would be a perfect name because on the face of it, while it is quite negative, if you scratch just below the surface you see it’s not negative at all, it’s a positive way to message about the desire to use less. And if on the one hand we in the developed world are using too much stuff and that’s contributing to climate change, on the other hand there are people in the developing world who are going without the very basics of life such as clean water and sanitation. In fact, 2.6 billion lack proper sanitation and resulting diseases is the biggest killer of children under five. So there is a natural counter-point to use less, which is to give more. The pieces then all fit into place for me. The brand would be called USELESS and its mission would be to help people USE LESS and GIVE MORE in a cool, thought-provoking way.

MG: What types of products are you selling? Why are they so great?

Simmons: So far we have a small line of products that help people use less and give more, including t-shirts, hoodies, hats, messenger bags, totes, notebooks, and reusable water bottles. They are so great because we’ve sourced amazing products that are highly functional, or utilitarian, are made to last, are made of organic, recycled or recyclable materials, and are all made in the USA. That last ingredient, being made in the USA, has made the whole journey 10 times as difficult. Finding products made from the right materials made in the USA is almost impossible, as manufacturing for this stuff all seems to be overseas. But we wanted all our products to be locally sourced, both to keep our footprint small and so we could support local jobs, and felt it was worth the effort to find the right manufacturing partners here in this country. The messenger and tote bags, for instance, are handmade for us from recycled billboards in a small workshop in Colorado. These products are just the beginning, though. We’re planning on adding new ones over the next few months that meet our strict criteria, including some digital applications for the iPhone and Facebook.

MG: How do you reconcile the contradiction of selling stuff and telling people to use less stuff?

Simmons: We are only selling things that are useful and that people need. But, having said that, we are not anti-consumerism, we just believe we can get people to think about what they consume and the power they have to make a positive difference in the world, whether it’s by reducing their use of natural resources, spreading the USELESS message or helping people who need it most. We also have a “non product” called USELESS Earth that costs $25.00, for which people get absolutely nothing – other than the knowledge that all the proceeds go to fund water and sanitation projects in the developing world. In addition we are starting to produce USELESS stencils cut from recycled steel so people can put our message on their old clothes without having to buy new ones. And then there’s the digital products I mentioned that will help raise revenue and awareness but that will use negligible natural resources.

MG: Is this a for-profit company? What is the revenue model?

Simmons: We are for-profit but are what I guess is called a “triple-bottom line” business in that, in addition to making profit, we aim to do environmental good and social good in equal measure. It used to be the time when there were corporations who were all about maximizing shareholder value and non-profits that were trying to make the world the better place but had no commercial reality. Now I firmly believe you cannot be a corporation (we’re an LLC, in fact) without doing good or a non-profit without understanding how business works. It’s the collaborations between the two that will change the world and I think our business model is one of a new breed that do so. We sell products, whether virtual or real, for a profit but give at least 10% to water and sanitation projects in the developing world and promote a message about responsible consumerism. The money we make will allow us to sustain ourselves and grow without relying on the kindness of strangers, but rather the margin on our products.

By the way, all our giving to water and sanitation is tied to very specific projects down to particular villages in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. People can see exactly where the money goes and what effect it will have. The one we’re currently funding is for a water tank and toilets in the village of Kundorwahun in Eastern Sierra Leone.

MG: Someone at BlobLive recommended USELESS-brand toilet paper. Would you consider everyday CPG products like that? Maybe white labeling Seventh Generation?

Simmons: I think doing post-consumer paper products and other consumer products that meet our standards – of helping people use less, are made in the USA and are well made, is a great idea – if we can find a business model to make it work. Currently, we’re selling products through our website, but plan to start wholesaling in certain stores such as college bookstores where there might be a demand for what we sell. We couldn’t really sell toilet paper online as the economics just don’t make sense, but could help someone like Seventh Generation develop a sub-brand by licensing out the USELESS brand to them, again only if the products meet strict criteria. In fact, the plan has always been to do a bit of a product (RED) by branding products made by other consumer brands.

MG: How do you plan to market USELESS? Who is the target audience?

Simmons: We’re starting to build our presence online through the usual suspects like Facebook, and we are still experimenting with how to do it best. We have a MySpace page but I don’t love MySpace and don’t think we’ll be doing much with it until we have our music strategy worked out. We have a blog of course that feeds directly to Twitter, and I’m trying to post meaningful content that gets across the USELESS philosophy, without being too heavy-handed. And then we’re starting to connect with other like-minded intelligent (did I mention, good-looking?) bloggers like you. Our targets are primarily college students and young adults who appreciate the irreverence of the brand. The brand is not for everyone by any means – older more conservative people seem to hate the name with a passion – but I actually like that, it’s designed to get a reaction.

MG: Where do you see USELESS in five years? What are your long-term goals and objectives for the brand?

Simmons: I think we can be a large niche player in five years time. I’m impressed with what American Apparel has done for instance, and how they manage to combine good products with a social conscience all delivered in a sexy way. I think we can do that but with a broader range of products and less of the sleaze! We’d also like to open USELESS stores to let people experience the brand in the way that Apple lets people live and breathe their products through their stores, and I already mentioned how I think we can partner with other consumer product brands. It’s important to stay true to our principles along the way, something I know is very difficult to do as you grow, but without maintaining that integrity there’s sort of no point.

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