Sustainable marketing promotes environmentally safe products and a company’s commitment to sustainability. It seeks to capitalize on the increased value consumers attach to eco-friendly products and businesses. Sustainable marketing has a triple bottom line, resulting in benefits for the customer, the environment, and the company. However, the true impact is still debatable. Environmentalists want to push the definition forward to reflect corporate responsibility towards the market in a way that is sustainable, profitable, and responsive to real-world needs.
Sustainable marketing is the process of promoting environmentally safe products at the retail level and promoting a company’s commitment to sustainable practices at the public relations level. Apply traditional marketing techniques but in a specific context. This category of marketing seeks to capitalize on the increased value consumers attach to eco-friendly products and businesses that have a perceived commitment to sustainability in its production and supply chain.
Marketing that promotes a company’s sustainable initiatives serves as a bridge between corporate responsibility and profitability. These initiatives often require a significant capital investment to change the way a company does business or to innovate its products and services so that they have a more positive impact on the environment. Investments in sustainability are only worthwhile for a company if they lead to higher profitability. While social goals are admirable, a corporation has a fiduciary duty to maximize profits for its shareholders. Sustainable marketing assumes that this investment is viable by crafting messages that grab the attention of this consumer with the expectation that it can be translated into purchasing decisions.
For example, a company that makes laundry detergent may design a product that has less volume, needs less packaging, and uses natural ingredients instead of chemicals. This product innovation costs the company a significant amount of money to make. It will only make this investment if it believes consumers will like the product and make a purchasing decision based on its new features. Product-level sustainable marketing is designed to bring these new green features to the attention of the consumer. At the public relations level, the company can tell its shareholders and customers that it is a responsible citizen who cares about sustainable product innovation for the sake of future generations.
In this way, business analysts believe that sustainable marketing has a triple bottom line, resulting in benefits for the customer, the environment and the company. The true impact of sustainable marketing is still debatable, as consumer concerns that are identified through surveys and research don’t always translate into actual purchasing decisions. Sustainable product purchases are often influenced by external forces, such as comparative utility, cost and availability, which can distort marketing impact. Sustainable marketing is as concerned with identifying when a consumer can afford to make a sustainable buying decision as they are with creating the awareness message.
Now that the concept of sustainability has taken root in the consumer mindset and become a value proposition for companies, environmentalists want to push the definition forward. They would like to see it changed to reflect corporate responsibility towards the market in a way that is sustainable, profitable but responsive to real world needs rather than rampant consumerism. Ideally, sustainable marketing would stop encouraging irresponsible consumption in developed countries simply to improve profits.
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