There seem to be ample online resources willing to answer the question “What is Sustainability Marketing?” Yet, very few provide the real answer, which is:

“Sustainability Marketing is Simply Marketing.”

Marketing in Sustainability

Sustainability is increasingly becoming a critical part of business strategy. Companies see the value of sustainability in both the social benefits and the impact on the bottom line.  Additionally, current customer research indicates that consumers care about sustainability.  In their 2018 survey, “The Evolution of the Sustainability Mindset,” Nielsen reports that 81% of global consumers believe companies should implement programs that protect the environment.  The same report further states that 73% of the respondents would change their consumption habits. The fact that customers are voting with their purchases drives companies to become more transparent and embrace social responsibility.  With sustainability becoming more prevalent in the marketplace, those embracing it realize that they need to differentiate themselves.  As a result, companies are turning to their marketing teams for a solution.  Moreover, their efforts have created a new discipline called "Sustainability Marketing."

A mutual theme among the companies seeking advice on marketing sustainability and supported by the numerous references on the internet is that advertising and publicity is marketing’s role and the key to success. That is not the case.

In Seth Godin's book "This is Marketing," he discusses a marketing paradox that many companies have. Using the metaphor of "how tall is your sunflower,” Godin states that marketers often focus on the impact of marketing with metrics like market share or online followers.

This results in companies focusing on promotion as their priority. Yet, it must have an intense and complex root system for the sunflower to reach incredible heights. That is what a well-executed marketing mix provides – a solid strategic foundation.

Businesses focused on embracing sustainability need to stop fixating on how they will promote their actions and instead create sustainability marketing strategies that focus on all aspects of marketing their eco-friendly products or services.

In other words, marketing’s role in sustainability requires far more than placing the best advertisements, creating informative blogs, and posting awesome content on social media.

They have to develop a Green Marketing Mix and embed it within their marketing strategy.

Does your company have a sustainability strategy? Is it included in the marketing plan? If your company embraces sustainability, then your marketing plan must include it – providing specific direction for the marketing mix. Like many outdoor brands, Columbia Sportswear publishes its corporate responsibility strategy on its website.  Their sustainability purpose is apparent, and it drives their marketing, which begins with product development. 

If a company's sustainability strategy does not exist, marketing should take the lead in developing one.  Regardless, before embarking on creating sustainable products, there needs to be clear direction on what is required and how to achieve it.  Marketing a brand’s sustainability efforts will be meaningless without it. 

There are tools and systems available to help with this. For example, several organizations support the textile and apparel industries’ sustainability efforts. In particular, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Higg Index offers a Brand Sustainability tool designed to help companies with their strategy.  The Textile Exchange provides certified supply chain guidelines with steps on managing raw material sourcing such as cotton or wool.  There are also numerous groups, associations, and societies that companies can join to gain additional resources. These platforms should be familiar to the marketing organization and the engineering, product, supply chain, and operations teams.

Your industry trade or industry association may also offer resources to develop your brand’s green business strategy. The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) are two examples of successful industry sustainability initiatives. Both organizations actively engage their membership on green business strategy - inviting them to participate in the process. This engagement results in OIA & RILA providing tools, resources, and training for companies seeking to start a sustainable business model.

For instance, OIA’s Sustainability Advisory Council includes representatives from outdoor brands serving to guide the industry’s strategic direction for sustainability and business. Additionally, for more than ten years, the OIA Sustainability Working Group (made up of sustainability professionals) worked together to enhance the sector's supply chain sustainability efforts. Their collaborative efforts were the genesis for the creation of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition Higg Index (see video)

In 2019, they changed their focus from sustainability to climate. The new OIA Climate Change Action Corps now engages its members to focus on addressing the challenges of a changing climate, emphasizing reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Likewise, RILA has member-oriented committees on sustainability and the environment. These groups of retail executives and professionals collaborate on issues such as corporate social responsibility, responsible sourcing, energy and environmental management, and zero waste. Like OIA, their mission is to support their association and provide guidance and resources where needed.

INTEGRATE Sustainability into the Marketing Mix

Many references discuss the sustainability 4Ps - People, Planet, Purpose, and Profit. Yet, this is not helpful for marketing and perhaps is counterproductive in creating a green marketing strategy. Brands seeking to be successful with sustainability must also perform the necessary due diligence that marketing requires.

Sustainability-focused companies must address the marketing 4Ps to be successful with their efforts. They need to develop a Sustainability or Green Marketing Mix.

A framework that includes:

1. Products designed with sustainability in mind

2. Price for the value being offered not cost

3. Place encompassing the entire value chain

4. Promotion focusing on all consumer engagements

Green Marketing Mix
Product

The American Marketing Associate definition of marketing mentions “creating” first. Still, as the description further states, the creation requires purpose — it needs to “have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”  The first step of marketing is to create and provide value — the process is called product development. Because marketing understands the customer’s needs, they need to ensure the final product provides value and solves its problem. 

The same is true when sustainability requirements are part of the value proposition. Therefore, marketers must learn what specific attributes consumers consider sustainable.  By knowing consumer behavior towards sustainability, marketing can drive the product development process and inform the choices necessary to deliver the value proposition. 

Companies can also demonstrate sustainability leadership through their products by considering the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in their corporate and product marketing strategy. SDG Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) provides aspirational sustainability targets and can be instructive in guiding product development efforts.

Still, there seems to be a disconnect with many marketers relying on product developers, engineers, and sustainability experts to make their company’s sustainability decisions. Marketing should be leading product development or at least co-leading it. By surrendering their product development role, marketing may find their promotional activities exasperating consumers seeking more sustainable choices. As a result, consumers may view a company’s marketing effort as ineffective to adequately communicate their transparency customers desire. Even worse, consumers may see this insufficiency as greenwashing.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing companies that are integrating sustainability into their business strategy is pricing. Generally speaking, prices for sustainable products are higher than the less sustainable alternatives. Two factors influence that fact. The first is the cost associated with sustainability affecting the bottom line, such as taking proactive environmental protection steps, procuring responsibly sourced materials, and implementing sustainable practices. The other factor is the value consumers place on being socially responsible.

Nielsen's 2018 survey reports that 49% of global consumers would be willing to pay higher-than-average prices for products that they associate with robust sustainability practices. Indeed, most consumers will pay extra for products that they value more when compared to other items. Consider how you may compare the differences between a brand name product and a generic one at the grocery store. Nevertheless, how companies choose to address pricing requires its leadership to focus on the value offered. At the same time, sustainable brands should not use cost to set pricing. Managing this delicate strategy – especially for sustainable products – is the role of marketing.

Although 49% of customers are willing to pay more, there is still a significant number of potential consumers who are not ready – even though they may want to purchase more sustainable products.  This fact presents an untapped market that many companies may be ignoring.  A logical question then is, “how do I get them to want to pay more?”  A fair question indeed, with “Demonstrate the value” as the answer.  Unfortunately, that may mean offering a price aligned with the value they currently perceive.  But that doesn’t mean they will not pay more in the future.  When marketing focuses on providing a unique value proposition for sustainability, companies may find their customers will pay more for sustainable products. Understanding the importance of pricing strategy and communicating the value proposition is an essential step in persuading consumers to pay more for sustainable products.

Green Marketing Mix
Price

Green Marketing Mix
Place

SUSTAINABILITY AND sales channels

First, sustainability in distribution will continue to significantly impact brands and companies as they make strategic decisions about their sales channels. Moreover, retailers are also seeking sustainability from their vendors and, in some cases requiring it. Many brick-and-mortar stores recognize a growing demand for more sustainable products, and many have integrated that into their buying decisions.  For example, large outdoor retailers such as REI Co-Op and its Canadian counterpart MEC have both instituted detailed product sustainability requirements on their vendors. In a sense, traditional retail creates a pull function that companies can no longer ignore if they desire shelf space in traditional retail stores.

With these new sales channel demands, marketers must re-evaluate how their companies can comply without affecting revenues and profitability. One option is to consider selling directly to consumers. For new brands, selling direct is perhaps the easiest way to reach consumers without competing for ever-decreasing retail space. With the rise of e-commerce, companies that sell direct-to-consumer have increased substantially since the beginning of the 21st century.  This trend increased significantly in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, selling direct to consumers provides advantages like minimizing costs associated with employing a sales team, packaging, and store merchandising. On the other hand, brands miss an opportunity to reach new customers that still desire to shop at their favorite purveyor. One way to achieve this is to encourage your brand’s customers to shop locally. This approach to consumer engagement benefits your company by supporting local economies while also meeting their needs for more sustainable goods.

Traditional retail is not going away any time soon. Retailers requiring more eco-friendly products create a new competitive landscape. As a result of this shift, brands wishing for shelf space need to incorporate these requirements into their product offerings.  Companies that have embraced sustainability will be successful in reaching consumers at these stores. In contrast, others will either need to change or risk losing an essential retail channel.

SUSTAINABILITY AND Supply Chain Management

At the same time, Marketers can no longer focus on the distribution of their company’s goods and services. They are finding that they also need to consider the supply chain when developing their marketing mix. More and more, consumers want to understand where the items they purchase are being made and more importantly what materials are being used and how they impact both people and the planet. As a result, companies will identify “new ways to capitalize on brand value.”  With more companies seeking to improve their sustainability marketing efforts, recognizing the significance of transparency in the supply chain and the broader scope of place in the marketing mix is essential. 

After the marketing team establishes the foundation of product, price, and place in the marketing mix, they can begin focusing on promotion. As the AMA’s marketing definition states, marketing requires communicating. However, what is important is how to communicate and be clear and consistent with the message. As stated above, many websites and articles on marketing sustainability focus on promotion - with an emphasis on telling what you did, how you did it, and why it is so important.

One of the advantages of integrating sustainability into the marketing mix is that marketers are provided countless opportunities to enhance their promotional efforts during each step along the way. Using strategic content marketing, brands transform this amazing content to create compelling stories published on multiple media channels, including their websites, social media, and YouTube.

There are many examples of brands promoting their sustainability through storytelling marketing. Besides, this content marketing provides consumers what they need to know about the products they are considering or guides them to make better product choices. In some cases, a company may even demonstrate humility to acknowledge they still have more to do.

These are all straightforward ways to promote your eco-friendly bona fides. Yet, there are more subtle ways to communicate your commitment to sustainability, such as through packaging. Using sustainable packaging for promotion may be the easiest way to engage and communicate with your eco-conscious customers.

According to the McKinsey & Company' report - Beyond COVID-19: The next normal for packaging design - a critical role that packaging performs is “supporting the consumer decision journey.” With “the consumer’s perceptions of both the actual product and brand value depend highly on the packaging,” marketing teams at eco-focused brands need to make the best packaging design choices to ensure the decisions reflect their green ethos. Packaging companies know this. One of the key megatrends reshaping packaging post-pandemic is a renewal in the emphasis on sustainability. As the Mckinsey article notes: “leading fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies and retailers remain committed to achieving high recyclability across their packaging portfolio over the long term.” Accordingly, packaging companies are designing new packaging “with a strong sustainability narrative.”

Most products require some packaging or labeling. Brands use it to create awareness and inform their customers, while the sustainability-focused ones also seek to minimize their environmental impacts. By making green packaging design choices, companies are adhering to their sustainability strategy and communicating it to consumers.

Green Marketing Mix
Promotion