Introduction
Over the years, marketing has played a vital role in enabling organizations to promote their products and services which ultimately leads to increased sales. However, this organizational activity has been subjected to various controversies, many of them questioning the intention of the promotional acts (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). Moreover, sustainability has been a significant aspect of business operations which consistently impacts their performance. As such, marketing should not only improve organizational performance, but also incorporate green practices that enhance economic, social, and corporate governance (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). This paper discusses the significant aspects of social and sustainability marketing, distinguishes the two components by highlighting their principles, and gives examples of the sustainability marketing campaign in real-life contexts.
Criticism of Conventional Marketing
The critique of conventional marketing focuses on two significant spheres. First, its “excesses” are associated with intentionally inconsiderate and unpleasant products, insufficient warranties, misleading advertising and packaging, untrustworthy selling practices, and emphasis on gaudy values (Islam, 2018). In contrast, “expertness” can be described as a number of unique strategies marketers approach the customers. In the contemporary world, marketing invades the privacy of consumers since there is the intrusiveness of numerous brands that intend to convey their messages to the masses (Grönroos, 2020). In most cases, the customers have minimal interest in these marketing initiatives. A survey finds that individuals are exposed to about 5,000 advertisements a day without realizing most of them (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). These companies are often gathering information about their clients who use social media platforms and the corporations reach a point of knowing so much about the consumer segment.
The Role of 4Ps in Relation to Sustainability Issues
The 4Ps of marketing may also contribute to various sustainability issues. For example, today, the production process of various goods and services is closely linked to different environmental problems. Manufacturing carbonated drinks such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products is associated with excessive water consumption (Maani Hessari et al., 2019). Therefore, while multinational companies like the ones mentioned above engage in the making of their products, they tend to consume a large volumes of water leading to an adverse effect on the environment. In addition, automobile products account for a large percentage of carbon emissions whereas organizations in the streaming industry are known for considerable electricity consumption which leaves an adverse effect on the environment.
Pricing strategies may also lead to sustainability issues in a number of ways. In particular, most green products are generally expensive. A sustainable price tends to account for the economic, ecological, and social costs of commodity production and marketing while offering clients value. Today, organizations’ pricing approaches have been modified to encourage materialism (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). In contrast, promotional strategies of a marketing mix are limited by the frequent exaggeration and dishonesty of the messages. Charles Revlon, a doyen of a cosmetics brand argued that production facilities focus on making a product but stores sell hope (Deepak and Jeyakumar, 2019). A region such as the United Kingdom has enacted various laws to limit dubious advertising campaigns that mislead customers.
Place or distribution approaches of a marketing mix can also lead to sustainability issues. In essence, carbon emissions from the transportation of products to the end-user account for approximately 28% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the United States (Kemper and Ballantine, 2019). Moreover, customers are increasingly disturbed by the depletion of the ozone layer resulting from GHG via shipping goods over long distances. In addition, brick and mortar stores are consuming more power as a result of reliance on non-renewable sources of energy.
Principles of Social and Sustainable Marketing
Social marketing refers to a promotional act whose aim is to raise awareness of a particular societal problem and disregards profitability. Alternatively, it can be described as the application of commercial technologies to the examination, planning, and executive of ideas intended to influence the voluntary actions of populations to enhance their personal wellbeing and the community at large (Singh and Dhir, 2019). The origin of this term dates back to 1971 when it was coined by Gerald Zaltman and Philip Kotler (Singh and Dhir, 2019). The latter clarified the variation in the objective of social marketing with other spheres of advertising by stating that social marketers tend to influence social actions not to gain but to help the audience and the society at large.
Social marketing is governed by various principles to ensure the dissemination of its messages. For example, segmentation is used to categorize the audience into various classes to maximize the influence. Instead of developing a broad campaign that targets a large group of consumers, marketers use this principle to tailor their marketing efforts specifically to the intended audience (Singh and Dhir, 2019). Another principle adopted by social marketing is to promote a particular behavioral change. In most cases, marketing approaches place precedence on advertising a purchasing behavior but in social marketing, the aim is to promote a particular communal custom. For example, a bar manager might place signs to encourage the customers to call the examination cab or a colleague for transportation instead of driving themselves home.
Sustainable marketing is defined as a promotional act that considers the well-being of the economy, environment, and society in the process of disseminating advertising messages. The purpose of promotional acts is to increase which is in contradiction with sustainability which aspires to lower the overall consumption and acts as a revolutionary change (Thomas, 2018). As such, sustainable marketing is an attitude that tries to bridge the gap between the aforementioned aspects.
Sustainability marketing is governed by three principles revolving around the economy, environment, and social aspects of the ecosystem. From an economic perspective, sustainable marketing ensures that products and services are made according to the standards required to promote the well-being of the economy (Taoketao et al., 2018). Similarly, from an environmental perspective, it is essential in ensuring green practices that do not bring harm to the environment by minimizing GHG. Lastly, from a social perspective, sustainability marketing is vital for instilling behaviors that ensure the general welfare of society (Taoketao et al., 2018). In essence, both social and sustainable marketing plays a vital role in ensuring the prosperity of the ecosystem.
Examples of Successful Sustainable Marketing Campaigns
Coca-Cola PlantBottle Campaign
The Coca-Cola PlantBottle was a marketing campaign particularly aimed at promoting environmental conservation through water management while also empowering female entrepreneurs. The world’s renowned consortium famous for its flagship lines of Coca-Cola products developed this marketing approach which launched the first fully biodegradable bottle partly produced from plants in 2009 (Maani Hessari et al., 2019). The beverage company successfully managed to substitute up to 30% of the petroleum applied to make polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles with sugar cane ingredients and other plants (Maani Hessari et al., 2019). This campaign can only be compared to eliminating about 1 million fossil-fuel-powered vehicles from the road to complete the same carbon emission reductions similar to the PlantBottle campaign. Moreover, Coca-Cola has ensured the technologies used in this marketing project were made available for its rivals with the objective of enabling the world to find a solution to the globe’s packaging problem.
Objectives of the Campaign
The objective of the PlantBottle campaign was to primarily enable Coca-Cola to develop a solution to address the adverse effects of plastic bottles on the environment. Due to the seamless global challenges of packaging waste and climate change, the American company invested its resources in developing a marketing campaign that introduced technology to solve these problems (Maani Hessari et al., 2019). Lastly, the aim of the PlantBottle was to facilitate water conservation exercises in the world.
Positive Impacts on Society
The PlantBottle campaign had a significant impact on society and the business world at large. For example, the American syndicate invested its resources in enhancing its environmental records and lowering its contribution to landfills by introducing recycled bottles across its product assortment (Taoketao et al., 2018). This technique has had a considerable impact on the industry by encouraging other firms to improve their sustainability practices in a bid to reduce landfills and carbon emissions. In reinforcement of the bottle launch, the Coca-Cola company has hired “eco-designer” Wayne Hemingway to establish a limited-edition made exclusively from five plastic bottles (Taoketao et al., 2018). In essence, this marketing campaign played a vital role in incentivizing the non-alcoholic beverage segment to incorporate sustainable measures for the well-being of the environment.
Coca-Cola has also highlighted some of the benefits PlantBottle technology has had on its industry. For example, allowing the intellectual property of the technique to rival corporations, enables the beverage sector to minimize the carbon footprint of packaging and assists to drive a circular economy not reliant on fossil fuels (Maani Hessari et al., 2019). The company also admitted that it shared the technology with the world, including non-competitive forms to use the technique on their products which has been seen in the fabric components of Ford Fusion vehicles and packaging for Heinz Tomato Ketchup (Maani Hessari et al., 2019). As such, the American beverage syndicate hopes that more firms will use the technology to minimize the detrimental environmental impacts.
IKEA “Steps” Campaign
IKEA is a multinational organization specializing in designing and selling furniture, home accessories, and kitchen appliances. This company has its headquarters located in Sweden and its sustainability practices have seen the commitment to making products with principles that utilize renewable and regenerated materials. IKEA introduced its “Steps” marketing initiative to increase awareness of its innovative and environmentally green store in Greenwich, London (Ngai and Falkheimer, 2017). This campaign was made possible by placing a chain of striking outdoor advertisements around the city. The outlet was constructed using replenishable building materials and sustainable technologies, and the initiatives encourage residents to visit the new brick-and-mortar store on foot.
Objectives of the Campaign
Sustainable marketing is often important for promoting the corporate social responsibilities of a business. Therefore, in IKEA’s case, the company’s introduction of the “Steps” campaign primarily focused on informing the customers to take a chance to visit its new store which was constructed in London (Ngai and Falkheimer, 2017). Therefore, the sustainable aspect of this commercial was to create awareness of practices that are eco-friendly to the ecosystem along with its components. Approximately 90% of this company’s facilities have solar panels while it also uses wind farms to generate power. It has also planted millions of trees while sending nearly 15% of waste to landfills (Ngai and Falkheimer, 2017). IKEA has done an exceptional job in utilizing numerous strategies to manage waste and renew energy.
Positive Impacts on Society
IKEA’s sustainable strategy alternatively referred to as “People and Planet Positive” has been reflected in its “Step” marketing campaign. In particular, the commercial encouraged the customers to be environmentally conscious by showing that taking long walks is essential for their physical and psychological well-being as well as combating GHG. Since the advertisement was primarily focused on promoting IKEA’s store in London, the company incorporate green practices by asking its shoppers to travel to its most sustainable outlet in the most ecological way: on foot (Ngai and Falkheimer, 2017). In particular, this commercial did an exceptional in promoting green practices in business. The main item of advertising in the campaign was IKEA’s Greenwich store, which incorporates various sustainable features such as a roof garden, solar panels, and rainwater collection systems. As such, the Swedish organization was able to influence other organizations to do the same by improving their sustainability approaches to marketing.
Conclusion
This paper has discussed the aspects of social and sustainability marketing, and their principles, and used various successful examples of real-life advertising campaigns to make a distinction between the two. In particular, social promotional acts primarily aim at influencing the society to change certain behaviors for the entire good of the masses whereas sustainability approaches of marketing engage various economic, environmental, and societal aspects to promote products and services. Moreover, exceptional examples of eco-themed messages in advertising are Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle which focused on addressing the problem of packaging while also minimizing carbon emissions, and IKEA’s “Steps” campaign. In essence, both social and sustainability marketing plays a vital role in society.
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