Marketing for Impact — Grow Botané Without Greenwashing

A four-round, advanced purpose-led-branding simulation set inside Botané SAS, a Lyon-based EUR 78M natural personal-care brand (9% EBIT, 240 staff) whose entire price premium rests on one fragile asset: 71% of customers buy it 'because of what it stands for'.

The board has just demanded +18% revenue (EUR 14M incremental) via a national campaign for a new 'Climate Positive' hair-care line and entry into the supermarkets — in the same week the EU Green Claims Directive and France's Loi Climat (Art. 12) tightened the rules and a rival was fined EUR 2M for an unsubstantiated 'carbon neutral' claim.

Playing the CMO's leadership team with a EUR 3.2M campaign budget, you (1) audit the seven proposed claims against an evidence standard and the 'seven sins of greenwashing', rating each Defensible / Conditional / Drop and identifying which fragile claim would do the most damage; (2) design the launch — split the EUR 3.2M across mass-reach and owned/earned channels under the authenticity-vs-reach trade-off, lock the claim set, and decide the supermarket listing (on the buyer's −12% terms, on Botané's terms, or decline); (3) decide three partnerships under pressure — a poor-fit 4.1M-follower influencer, an eco-label co-brand costing 30% control, and an NGO endorsement demanding full (92%-traceable) supply-chain disclosure; and (4) respond when a watchdog challenges the 'Climate Positive' claim 72 hours after go-live — substantiate, reframe, partially or fully withdraw — then institutionalise claim governance.

The math rewards genuine, substantiated, well-fit marketing and punishes the five classic errors: claim maximalism (greenwashing fines up to 80% of spend, ~EUR 2.56M), over-correction to a bland 'safe' campaign that forfeits the +18%, renting credibility through poor-fit partners, treating transparency as optional, and PR-ing a substance problem.

Final KPIs track Sales Lift % against the +18% mandate, Brand Credibility (the values segment, starting at 71), Greenwashing Risk, and budget used against the EUR 3.2M cap.

An advanced simulation for participants used to working with the main frameworks and trade-offs of the subject, designed for executive education and experienced professionals.