Core theme: Sustainability and Marketing Strategy

Core theme: Sustainability and Marketing Strategy

Introduction

This research paper is a conceptual analysis of the marketing application of sustainability initiatives. It reviews the current challenges marketing managers confront in defining and executing effective sustainability practices, citing example cases. The paper identifies the breadth of sustainability considerations and notes that the array of stakeholders and ambiguity of both benefits and implementation add complexity to traditional marketing strategy (Burke, 1998). The paper proposes a classification scheme to help managers to select appropriate sustainability initiatives. This classification scheme is supported by referencing marketing strategy theories that have proven effective in achieving competitive advantages through traditional marketing initiatives. The classification scheme is illustrated with a detailed application to a firm that has succeeded with a sustainability positioning strategy. The paper concludes that sustainable initiatives offer sources of competitive advantage but, like most superior marketing strategies, such initiatives must be systematically integrated within all of the firm's value generating activities (Austin & Grossman, 2002).

Discussion

State of Marketing Sustainability

“Sustainability” has become a hot topic in boardrooms and business schools. A recent survey of European corporations identified climate change as the challenge most likely to dominate their agendas within the next five years (ClimateBiz, 2007). The top 50 MBA programs have increased their required course offerings in Sustainable Business since 2005 and all of the top ten business schools have chapters of Net Impact, the global organization of graduate business students and professionals interested in “using the power of business to make a positive net social, environmental, and economic impact” (Christiansen, 2006). Increasingly, firms are referencing sustainability in their communications, their strategic plans, and their annual reports (for example, ADM's advertizing its effort to “Feeding and Fueling the World: Healthier Alternatives for Planet Earth” through its PBS news hour sponsorship). Unclear, however, is whether corporate responses are truly significant, or mere “window dressing”. In the latter case, a crucial question is the role of sustainable business practices in establishing competitive advantage (Brown, 2008).

The competitive value of sustainable practice is by no means obvious. Some firms have clearly suffered, at times, because they were perceived not to be sustainable in their behavior (e.g., Exxon, Enron, McDonalds, Nike). And, other firms have had at least modest success because the perception was that they were sustainable (e.g., Body Shop, Patagonia, Green Mountain Coffee). Certainly, no one believes that all successful firms operate sustainably Innovative Marketing, Volume 4, Issue 3, 2008 21 - new reports of egregious unsustainability occur with regularity (e.g., BP's disclosure of corroded pipe lines in Alaska) Further, it is not difficult to find examples of firms that lose money essentially because of their sustainability efforts (Mazda, for example, has invested 15 years developing a hydrogen rotary car engine that has yet to achieve commercial success). Even casual observation indicates that doing a good thing for society may be the wrong thing for a given firm (Burke, 1998).

Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy can be complex, involving a wide variety of environmental concerns and dozens ...