Introduction
Making use of the unused spaces, for instance, the rooftops, which are abundant in many colleges and universities, is a creative solution which can contribute to developing an eco-friendly environment among other beneficial aspects. Rooftop greening can help in solving some of the common environmental problems, hence this is an effective way to ensure reduction of negative consequences which may result in a climate change. This report aims at giving limelight to the rooftop garden project that is carried out in the university.
Objectives
The project’s major objective is to make use of the dead space on the rooftop, reduce carbon emission and encourage behaviour change among the students. It also aims at cultivating environmental awareness and promoting exchange of values between the sustainability industry and students. Finally, the project will support the government as well as the locals in ensuring arrangement of green spaces in the city.
Research questions
The research questions that will help in achieving the above objectives include the following ones:
- How does integrating the key elements of the promotion mix help in achieving the environmental sustainability objectives?
- How can the Internet be effective in managing relationships with the students?
- What is Geo-demographic segmentation, and what value does it have?
- How would you approach developing organizational or business profiles to achieve environmental sustainability objectives?
Methodology
This study will address the above questions by focusing on scholarly materials, such as books, journals and other online databases.
How does integrating the key elements of the promotion mix help in achieving the environmental sustainability objectives?
Shannon (1996, pp. 56-68) asserts that promotion mix is generally a combination of all the promotional methods that are used in the promotion of a certain product. The four major elements of promotion mix are public relations, advertising, sales promotion and personal selling. These elements, if implemented, can help a lot in ensuring that the objectives of the project are fully achieved.
These elements will help in environmental sustainability as they will play a major role in informing, reminding as well as persuading the target audience, which in this case, are students, on the importance of coming up with a rooftop garden and ensuring that the free space is fully utilized, and the environment is eco-friendly.
The green vegetation will ensure that there is reduction of carbon emissions. Advertisement and personal selling will ensure that the students are enlightened on how the university communities benefit from the rooftop garden, thus encouraging positive behavior and cultivation of environmental awareness as part of their lifestyle.
Also, through advertisements and public relations, there will be exchange of values between the students through education. The four promotional mix elements, if fully utilized, will help in supporting the government in their efforts to come up with a greener city and conserve water.
Moreover, the promotional mix will attract attention, increase interest, desire and action among the students. Due to attention paid, the students will acquire knowledge and awareness on the importance of building green rooftops in the university, hence developing an interest that will result in liking and preference of the entire project. Desire will create conviction among the students that the project is vital and hence should be supported with a prompt action (Mangold 2009, pp. 357-365 ; Pride et al, 2006).
At this point, it will be also important to note some of the factors that might affect promotion mix, for example, available funds, the push and pull strategies, among others (Gilbert, 1999). Being aware of such factors will help overcome any challenges that might lead to the project futile.
Public relations, as an element of promotional mix, will help in environmental sustainability as it will help in educating the consumers, who are the students in this case, on the importance of rooftop garden in the university. Additionally, it will lead to student satisfaction with the project as due to this, beneficial views will be exchanged that will help promote the entire project.
Another factor is personal selling which is quite crucial in this project. It will help in offering detailed information on the entire project. Also, it will facilitate in controlling the message, focusing only on the targeted audience and managing the costs that might be incurred in the whole process (Waterschoot and Bulte 1992, pp. 83-93). This in relation to environmental sustainability will help in ensuring that information is received by the right people, and they are given detailed and crucial information for the benefit of such a project.
Importance of the Internet in managing relationships with the students
In today’s marketing environment, the Internet is an effective tool for marketing communications. The Internet is applicable to students as part of the current marketing concept as it helps in supporting numerous functions and processes which deliver crucial information to the consumers (students) and other interested stakeholders.
Moreover, the Internet is a powerful communication tool that acts as corporate glue in integrating the diverse functions of the organization (Walsh and Godfrey 2000, pp. 85-92). In this case, the Internet will aid in ensuring smooth communication with the students focusing on building a rooftop garden and why they should invest into such an idea.
It is understood that for the project to flourish, there ought to be an effectual relationship with the consumers, as well as other school stakeholders. In that case, the interactive multimedia interface of the Internet offers an ideal environment to enhance such relationships, and the databases create a major foundation for storing of information concerning such kind of interaction as well as providing information to strengthen customer-manager connection, thus yielding positive effects.
The use of the Internet helps enhance relationships, and in this case, it is understood that the online marketing will contribute to more effective targeting, reducing costs and enhancing the level, quality and nature of the relationship. Bauer et al (2002, pp. 155-163) and Sharma (2002, pp. 77-84) agree that communication is a very unique activity which helps in the creation of relationships, and the Internet facilitates in achieving this major need.
Consumer profiling
Consumer profiling is coming up with a database of consumer motivations, lifestyles, as well as shopping habits. It also facilitates in understanding the untapped potentials in the market, choosing better ideas and enhancing target marketing. At this point of the report, it is important to know that consumer profiling is quite important in ensuring that the above objectives are met. We should hence discuss Geo-demographic segmentation and how developing organizational profiles can achieve environmental sustainability objectives.
Geo-demographic segmentation and its value
In marketing, the term Geo-demographic segmentation refers to a multivariate classification technique which helps in discovering whether the individuals of a certain population fall into diverse groups. This is done through making effective quantitative comparisons of numerous characteristics (Coss 1995, pp. 171-198).
Mitchell and McGoldrick (1994, pp. 54-72) state that Geo-demographic segmentation is important as it helps classify buyers according to their interests, preferences and needs. In this case, it allows to analyze the students’ feedback on the subject matter and know how best to convince them that the project is, indeed, worthwhile.
Markets consist of consumers, and it is rational to assert that those customers differ in various aspects. For example, they might prefer different products, the place they want to buy the goods as well as have their own motivations to use this service or produce. In consumer markets, psychographic variables are quite popular. In psychographic setting, the consumers are usually structured according to social class or even their character.
The marketers usually research on ways to approach such consumers basing on such elements. As far as social class is concerned, most people define the class on the basis of personal wealth, income, education, background, among others. Particular products are immensely influenced by background and social class, hence it is clear that social class is a great factor to differentiate consumer and market behavior in various product categories.
Additionally, people’s interest in diverse products is usually determined by their lifestyles, hence consumers express their lifestyles on the basis of the goods that they consume. For instance, in building rooftop gardens, it is important to focus on the lifestyle, the social class, interests as well as the motivations of the students. This will give an opportunity to know how to communicate the subject matter to them in a way that will interest them.
How to approach developing business or organizational profiles to achieve environmental sustainability objectives
Sustainable developments as well as effective management of all the environmental impacts have become the main goals for policy action at local and global levels. It is hence recognized that understanding of sustainability and integrating its methods as well as principles into daily practice are significant for the social, economic and environmental welfare.
An organizational profile is quite vital as it will offer an insight into the major factors that shape an operating environment. Organizational profiles impact the way the business is run as well as the decisions made. Also, it helps one understand the business operations, process, managing performance and what it will take for the business to succeed.
Moreover, it allows the entrepreneur to have a good look at their projects before running into risk. So as to achieve environmental sustainability objectives, it is crucial to come up with a business profile which, for instance, will explain briefly who we are, our objectives, why students should support us and the major importance of the whole project to the student community.
This will help in informing people on the project concerned and how it can help in conserving the environment as well as positively impacting the students. In consumer profiling, the Internet can play a major role as when people develop relationships, they tend to become aware of other people’s lifestyle, motivators, background, and attitudes, among other social and psychological segments. This will empower to group the consumers according to such clusters, when advertising the project, and easily respond to their feedback.
The role of marketing in climate change
Marketing has continued to play a major role in climate change. There have been vast solutions to climate change that have been proposed in the newspapers. Some of the common market based solutions that have been stated are, for instance, carbon-trading schemes and heightened efficiency of businesses.
Through marketing, people get to learn the results of the economic benefits that come along with green marketing opportunities, hence such solutions emphasize on the potential for the existing market structures, in order to solve the problem of climate change.
Marketing is a key business strategy that has been used to adapt to climate extremes, natural seasonality and climate change. Through marketing, organizations are able to warn people and even predict the future trend in the market themselves. In combination with the marketing messages, people get to know about climate change and how they can come up with effective strategies to enhance sustainability.
Due to marketing for climate change, threatened destinations have been rarely heightened by marketing among the tourism operators in those regions where climate change impacts have been observed. For example, climate change has become one of the main interpretive themes in a region, such as Kenal National Park in Alaska (Fhi and McGregor, 2009).
Marketing has a key element, such as advertising that has integrated climate change in the business strategies, thus due to marketing and advertisements, we are able to learn about global warming. It is through marketing we are able to get crucial news, such as the alleged Himalayan glaciers going dry. If this is the case, the consumers will be able fully to prepare to the change since in such a case, Himalayan Glaciers are the main source of the seven vastest rivers in Asia, hence the effects on agriculture will be enormous.
Today, the advertisers and marketers are selling a fear factor to the consumers, who are facing a period of climate change, though most of them have made an effort to give recommendations to solve the current climate change problem that is facing the nation (Carrol1 1991, pp. 15-20). Marketing has a major role in ensuring reliability, delivering of valuable information, being honest with the consumers and fully responsible to the customers.
Little progress has been made in developing the best way to influence climate change based on the behavior of a particular population, mostly given the likelihood of the numerous negative consequences, which might arise, such as environmental, economic and health impacts.
Research on individual climate change, mitigation attitudes and behaviors has focused on four broad categories, namely, transportation behavior, household energy use, buying of green products and recycling surface (Matbach et al 2008, pp. 488-497). Marketing helps in influencing individual level drivers of a certain population behavior and gives recommendations on green energy programs.
It also plays a major role in influencing social network and community level drivers as far as population behavior that causes climate change is concerned. Also, the marketing campaigns help in reaching and influencing the audiences effectively hence these campaigns ought to be based on audiences’ lifestyle, interests, and values, among others. Segmentation using various psychosocial variables offers a promising approach in the area of climate change awareness.
Though the major aim of marketing, as far as climate change is concerned, is to inform the consumers on the climate changes, Johnaton (2000, pp. 563-569) argues that marketing has not been very effective as it ought to be. Some of the major impacts of climate change are usually felt by developing nations due to the fact that they are usually located in the tropics as well as the various demographic, socioeconomic and policy trends that limit their capacity to adapt to the changes.
However, as noted, the impacts are usually difficult to predict due to the lack of knowledge on the causes of climate change and how the problem can be curbed. It is the role of marketing to educate people on issues related to climate change, so as to reduce or better curb the related risks.
Marketing recognizes the major impacts of climate change as well as the building adaptation and mitigation into the business strategies which help the companies to maximize their benefits when the economy recovers. It is hence clear that marketing plays a major role in climate change and its responsibilities ought not to be underestimated as they have been.
Conclusion
The study deeply focuses on rooftop gardening and how the promotion mix elements can help in sustaining the projects’ main objectives. To give more light to the project, the paper discusses the role of the Internet in managing relationships, consumer profiling and finally marketing as far as climate change is concerned. It is unambiguous that the Internet plays a major role in enhancing relationships and ensuring environmental sustainability just like the promotional mix elements.
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