Catherine Leung

VElove

Social Entrepreneurship - Adopted design thinking to social innovation

The seed of my entrepreneurial was planted in 2005 after I adopted my doggie, I began to aware of animal cruelty and became a dog volunteer. One day when I back home, my doggie didn't welcome me, instead she looked happily to welcome the bag that I just borrowed from my friend. After I was aware that this bag was made from animal hair, I felt guilty because I imagined if my doggie was looking for an animal friend to play then she will be disappointed. After that day, I started to look for leather alternative products, However, I only can buy durable and eco-friendly leather alternative products over the world for personal use because our city doesn't offer these products. In 2016, I conducted different research methods aimed at understanding the key reasons for developing these products.

The research findings showed that fashion is the world's 2nd most polluting industry, especially in the leather industry and fast fashion. Workers, animals and our environment are suffering and paying the true cost in their lives. Additionally, the findings showed that vegetarians are rising and become the trend but the demand for animal by-products (leather) is growing and the leather chemical is increasing. It seems unbalancing.

The needs of social innovation and the challenges

One of the crucial reasons to causes of climate change is animal agriculture. Some organizations are testing and developing innovative leather alternative materials in Europe, these materials are more eco-friendly and some materials are even plant-based, made from waste and fair-trade to support the workers. However, they need support to spread the materials and the story over the world to raise public awareness and sustain their development.

Since people who live in the city are far from nature, the commercialization formed an awareness & knowledge gap. It caused people may not be aware of the root problems of climate change and lack of information on this kind of materials/products.

Therefore, VElove was formed to engage and communicate with the innovative materials developers to spread the materials to Hong Kong and initiate innovative sustainable lifestyles through the leather alternative products to raise public awareness about the social issues behind these products. After applying for different social funding, I finally received a 2-year funding from the government for further development.

Potential target audience

To effectively initiate green-related services or products. VElove firstly targets the not well-educated (largest group) customers and then well-educated customers. Although the gap formed between people and nature, the research result showed that people can be motivated by environmental & animal concerns. The insight responded why do I run VElove. It helped to target a group of potential customers who have pets because empathy led them to understand and take action.

The Brand Story

Based on the potential target audience, VElove developed as a brand - Certified PETA-Approved Vegan and rated as VVV+ from Animal Free Fashion by LAV, which means no animal products and by-products be used. The brand sourced eco-friendly and innovative materials from worldwide to raise public awareness, including plant-based leather alternatives and fabric from recycled plastic bottles to create products to initiate a sustainable lifestyle - the interconnect between the environment, people and animals. For every purchase, portion of sales will be donated to animal organisations to spread the message of love.

Research was conducted to further understand the suffering of animals and selected a set of adorable animals as brand ambassadors for overall business and product development. One of the collections called VElove Animals, means We Love Animals. These animals are common birds, cats, dogs, moon bears, polar bears and rabbits, they do not have a specific variety to deliver the message of love without boundaries and they use personification to tell their stories to raise public awareness.

The brand language tend to use touching stories and positive messages/illustrations/photos to encourage people to love and actively explore the social issues behind the stories - Climate change. Communication is the key towards sustainable change, here are some communication approaches about communicating sustainability that VElove are following:

Approachable and design mindfulness to grow with people.
Avoid uses disgusting illustrations/photos to make people feel helpless and escape from reality.
Interrelation people's daily action and environment.
Visualise the sustainability and raise people's curiosity.
Tell a seamless and memorable story to evoke empathy.

Business Model

Based on the sustainable development goal, VElove provides the following services to sustain the business:

Create products with sourced sustainable materials, and sell the products through online stores and consignment stores.
Customise sustainable lifestyle workshops and seminars for different public sectors, organisations and corporations.
Provide sustainable design services to society.

Products made with love

One of the collections made from Pinatex - An innovative & plant-based material is a focused project. VElove is the pioneer in engaging Pinatex developer and imports to Hong Kong to create consumer products with a local sheltered workshop - Christian Family Service Centre (CFSC) to raise public awareness. Pinatex is a natural leather alternative made from Philippines pineapple leaves. The Pinatex fabric was developed by Ananas Anam, the development process is fairtrade, it supports their local farm and reduces waste.

Apart from that, all the products in VElove are providing repair services to extend the product life. And customisation collections was provided to resolve the customer needs and expectations.

Online platform - Telling the stories before take action

A online platform was created for local and other countries as well. Apart from selling the products, the main contents go to telling the stories behind the animals and the information about the product materials to evoke visitors' empathy and exploration.

The online platform and social media supported businesses to collect the data from different testing methods. These data helped to validate the findings with other research methods to provide insights for further enhancement of the products and services.

Physical consignment store to experience the materials

After collecting customer feedback in the research, we engaged and collaborated with HKTDC Design Gallery, citistore, Hong Kong Federation of Youth Group, Ginger store and The Hanli etc. physical stores to spread the information about these products in the communities to let the customers experience the materials.

Charity event to raise brand awareness

To get into our target audience group, apart from engaging Animal Asia and PETA business friends as a long-term partner to organize the charity event and project development. We also engaged and communicated with other charities and NGOs for event collaboration, sponsors and donations to raise brand awareness, including Hong Kong Dog Rescue, Hong Kong Rabbit Society, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and UNESCO Hong Kong Association etc.

Communities event to raise public awareness

VElove collaborated with different public sectors, organisations and corporations to raise public awareness, including CreateSmart Initiative (CSI) Exhibition, CUHK Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change, Fashion Revolution in Taiwan, Global Sources, Hong Kong Design Institute, ICIF in Shenzhen, King George V School, Millennium City, My fair lady, Prudential, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Thei and Veggie World etc. for customised workshops, seminars, exhibitions and booths to initiate sustainable lifestyle in the communities.

Online Promotions and media coverages support VElove to grow

Social media (Facebook, Instagram) and Google Ads are the key channels for VElove to spread the messages about the stories and social issues to the communities. According to the research, there are 78% active social media users in Hong Kong. Moreover, the foundations of social media and sustainability are transparency, community, innovation and creativity. Therefore, another research was conducted to understand more about how other sustainable brands use social media to raise awareness. The result showed that their content is often related to sustainability and uses short videos to connect with people. Based on these findings, VElove further evaluates the effectiveness with current conditions by journey mapping and validation in our social media page. All of these findings helped VElove to enhance the social media approaches with limited budgets and growth.

Facebook page helped VElove to connect with communities and media groups, almost all of the media groups contacted VElove through Facebook messages. They offered their support to the brand belief through media coverages, including newspapers, TV show, Radio broadcast and magazines etc.

Start-up needs support to initiate sustainability in Hong Kong

I am grateful that I received a 2-year funding to develop VElove and plant the seed of love in the public. This is a very meaningful experience for me. Running a start-up with sustainability concerns is not easy. All the support - Funding, network and knowledge are very important to sustain the business.