What is Sustainable Marketing?

Sustainable marketing is about what you market – creating brands and businesses fit for the future – and the way in which you market – providing clear, relevant information and campaigns to create both profit and positive societal change. It involves product/service innovation, effective communications and influencing consumer behaviour to be more sustainable.

Product/Service Innovation

Innovating new products and services sustainably may involve:

Assessing impacts – Using a structured approach to assess product or service impacts, such as life cycle analysis or Unilever’s Brand Imprint tool;
Reducing product/service impact – Developing products/services with reduced impacts, such as low-carbon construction materials, or responsibly sourced or healthier foods;
Creating new products/services – Using innovation to develop new solutions, from low-energy appliances to low-cost products/services for consumers in low-income countries;
New business models – Using sustainability as a driver to move towards new business models, for example based on renting instead of selling products.

Effective Communications

A number of channels are available for companies to communicate with consumers about sustainability issues, and what they are doing to address them:

On-pack information – Fairtrade, organic and a range of other certification standards are now commonplace, as is information about health impacts and carbon emissions;
Company communications – In-store signage and interactive websites, possibly including blogs by the CEO or named ‘frontline’ workers;
External media – Writing comment pieces for newspapers, or collaborating with TV documentaries, to draw attention to specific issues;
Community events – Sponsoring music events, supporting activity days and holding farm ‘open days’, to help bring the issues to life.

The key principle throughout is that companies must be honest and authentic in their communications. Making bold claims without taking action within the business can seriously backfire for brands, as consumers grow increasingly wise to attempts to mislead them with 'greenwash'.

Influencing Consumer Behaviour

Companies can positively influence consumer behaviour by:

1. Providing/promoting more sustainably made products and services. This may involve the creation of new, sustainable brands, or using marketing to communicate messages to customers about the integration of sustainability into existing brands.
2. Encouraging customers to use products more responsibly. This may involve guidance, campaigns or incentives so that products are used more frequently, more efficiently or just differently, in order to promote health, safety and sustainability.
3. Encouraging more sustainable attitudes and lifestyles. This extends beyond the direct use of a specific product and involves using complementary products and services, as well as marketing, to effect changes in customers’ wider lifestyles and behaviours.