What is Sustainable Marketing?
Sustainable Marketing is communicating your commitment to sustainability to your customers, your suppliers, your employees and to those in your community.
Addressing your environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives are key in today’s business world and will add value to your business. Ensuring your marketing supports and communicates these values is vital.
Marketing is very much part of your entire business, it should never be seen as a standalone function because Marketing is the conduit between your customer and your business; it should champion your customer; have a hand in new product development, shape services, raise brand awareness, create goodwill, secure new customers, and ultimately drive profit, so spanning every area of your business.
Sustainable marketing works because it promotes the core ESG values that your business has decided to adopt, be those environmental issues; reducing waste and water; social values; advocating a healthy work/life balance and supporting your local community or governance plans.
Good communication of your company’s commitment will help your business stand out and will earn the loyalty of your customers, which creates a competitive advantage.
Studies show that consumers are more likely to purchase a locally sourced product and prefer to work with businesses that are environmentally conscious. So, there are many approaches your business could take to becoming more sustainable, such as sourcing environmentally conscious packaging, adopting more efficient recycling, assisting employees with options for green travel or donating to sustainable causes.
However, never underestimate the commitment needed to support your initiatives. Sustainable marketing simply won’t work if your marketing is based on buzz words or hot topics – the ethos must come from a deep foundation within to want to change the way in which you work and improve the prospects for future generations.
When you are considering adopting a sustainable marketing strategy consider creating an overall sustainable vision that can run through the heart of your business. Look for areas of improvement, think ahead and build long term value for your customers which reduce environmental impact; and plan consistent objectives to create communications that show your customers how working with you contributes to a broader goal.
Once you consider the wider impact of your actions, incorporate a sustainable ethic into your business and engage in sustainable marketing you could see a new, really great way forward for your company – and for the planet!