TJ Vasquez
Sustainability is a popular topic in today’s world, from eco-friendly tactics in general to sustainable marketing and selling practices. Last year, a survey showed half of respondents viewed climate change as a critical social issue to overcome. The survey also noted that nearly half of those asked would rather buy from sustainable companies. This wasn’t only amongst Gen-Z participants either. The Baby Boomer participants accounted for half of the concerned responses, shortly followed by those in the Gen-X group.
Because of these concerns, many businesses are making efforts to adopt sustainable marketing and operating techniques. If you’re a small business owner, keep reading to learn more about sustainable marketing and how you can implement these practices into your advertising endeavors.
What is Sustainable Marketing?
Sustainable marketing refers to a company’s commitment to adopting and maintaining sustainable practices, and communicating those commitments to the brand’s customer base, staff, stakeholders, etc. Successfully implementing sustainable marketing practices also involves taking steps toward operating a more sustainable organization overall. The process may include developing products with lower carbon footprints than their original versions, supporting marginalized groups most affected by inefficient practices, and/or creating a healthy workplace balance that embraces eco-friendly procedures.
Sustainability, whether in marketing or as a whole, should be a company-wide endeavor, as spreading this goal throughout your offices and facilities stands to create stronger incentives, foster organizational accountability, and enable brand success.
Endeavors like these aim to promote environmental safety and wellness, humanitarianism, fair trade, social equity, and secure resource management. It’s a positive, impactful way to advertise that companies all over the world can take part in.
Sustainable Marketing Principles
Getting involved with sustainable marketing practices requires an understanding of the goals this type of movement encompasses. For the best possible outcomes, take a moment to understand the basic principles of sustainable marketing.
Long-Term Planning
Adopting sustainable marketing practices should not be viewed as a campaign or promotion. These strategies require in-depth, long-term planning in order to perfect the ideas the plan encompasses. Sustainable marketing is going to call for a longer timeline than most other business projects. Once the main goal is completed, marketing professionals and business leaders alike need to take all the necessary steps to maintain these eco-friendly practices.
Think about your projected outcomes and ask yourself the following questions to determine whether the plan satisfies long-term goals.
1- Will your company be able to maintain the plan indefinitely?
2- Will this plan be relevant in two to three decades from now?
3- Can your company accept short-term losses during the implementation process?
Consistency
Another important element of sustainable marketing is consistency. While one sustainable activity is great, it can hardly be considered a “practice” unless it’s consistent. Rather than operating one element of your business with sustainability in mind, ensure that your endeavors reach all of your processes. If, for example, you’re using sustainable packaging, take steps to ensure that the product itself, as well as the delivery method is also sustainable.
Full Integration
Along with keeping your goals and messages consistent, it’s also important to integrate your sustainable marketing practices throughout your entire company. Make sure that everyone on the team is fully onboard and aware of the goals you hope to achieve. Announce your plans to customers and stakeholders as well. Including everyone will help maintain accountability and the potential to expand your already eco-friendly practices.
Value Prioritization
Many brands make the mistake of expecting sustainable marketing ideas to immediately generate profits and that is not always the case. When trying to adopt a new strategy, it’s crucial to accept the fact that you might not get a very high ROI at the beginning. In fact, you might experience losses upon implementation of your plan. However, the key is to persist. Keep your focus on the value of the plan you’re following, rather than the profits you hope to make in the near future.
Consumer Orientation
Part of implementing sustainable marketing involves reducing or even eliminating waste. On the surface, this may sound obvious, but this waste elimination extends to marketing practices themselves. Instead of pushing a product or service and insisting that it’s the right option for everyone, sustainable marketing focuses more on understanding your customers. Consumer-oriented marketing aims to understand the needs of customers, then places the responsibility to adapt on the company. This strategy aims to point marketers toward evolving and changing their approach and offerings based on what customers truly need.
Real-World Examples of Sustainable Marketing
Sustainable marketing is more than just an idea being tossed around amongst business circles. It’s already being practiced by some of today’s most popular brands. Take a look at these real-world examples of sustainable marketing endeavors.
IKEA
IKEA’s “People and Planet Positive” marketing strategy embraces both renewable energy and sustainable sourcing, which includes solar energy usage, eco-friendly practices, and regenerative initiatives. The goal is for the company as a whole to reduce the environmental harm its presence puts on the surrounding ecosystem.
IKEA has also announced initiatives to use 100% renewable energy in all of their stores and lower their already impressive waste percentage to under 15% total. Additionally, the company plans to limit its use of plastics in food service and packaging.
Timberland
The Timberland shoe and apparel brand has started Timberloop, a take-back program that allows customers to return used clothing and shoes so that the pieces can either be restored or disassembled for recycling purposes. Once restored, the new or like-new products can be sold to consumers via a designated upcycling website. In addition, Timberland is also testing new materials so that the company can implement a fully green marketing strategy. This involves regulatory evaluations of product materials to ensure that only renewable and organic materials go into product creation.
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson has become well-known for its environmental efforts, business leaders have started training J&J staff members to incorporate environmentally-friendly practices into product production. In addition, this company has taken on renewable energy initiatives to reduce the wide-sweeping impact of climate change.
By 2030, the brand hopes to operate at full carbon neutrality, which is well beyond the Science-Based standards named in 2016 (which was 60% for Scope 1 and 2). J&J will also strive to reduce at least 20% of 2016’s Scope 3 emission records.
H&M
H&M has started making clothing using environmentally-friendly materials, namely the Conscious Collection, in which 50% of all the items therein come from eco-friendly sources. Like Timberland, H&M also has a recycling/upcycling program, but rather than sticking with brand-exclusive clothing, H&M accepts any brand of clothing, which can then be used to create new clothing.
On top of that, H&M has also adopted a policy that aims to avoid the destruction of ancient and at-risk forest lands, and to use renewable energy sources along the supply chain.
Hershey
When it comes to their business practices, the Hershey organization has prioritized environmental sustainability, so much so that they have set a goal of reducing 50% of greenhouse gas emissions from their own facilities by 2025.
As one of the top ten ecologically friendly firms in the United States, Hershey also goes above and beyond in their humanitarian efforts by recycling company assets for use in the cause.
They have also utilized their blog to convey information about new environmental advancements, such as a recent piece about product packaging that can be ingested by the consumer.
Sustainable Marketing Strategies
Being a small business doesn’t mean that you can’t make a positive impact on the world around you, and in turn, a positive impact on your customers. As a business with limited resources, it’s understandable that you’re likely not going to make the sweeping changes that large corporations are, at least, not at first. However, there are still steps you can take in order to adopt sustainable marketing practices.
Choose a Worthy Cause
Research your options and choose a cause that truly matters to you and your team. You could opt for recycled packaging, the reduction of single-use plastics in your production, or choosing your materials from sustainable sources. Any eco-friendly cause is worth pursuing, so even if you have to start small, start. You’ll make plenty of difference along the way.
Roll Out Company-Wide Processes
Ensure that you’re able to maintain your sustainable practices by choosing something that’s both scalable and within your budget. Once you’ve determined how you’re going to manage these efforts, plan how you’re going to spread these processes throughout your entire company. Get everyone on your team involved.
Collaborate and Inform
Collaborate with other businesses that are focused on sustainability and expanding their eco-friendly efforts. In addition, announce your plans so that your customers know what sort of goals you’ve set for your brand. Many consumers support environmentally-conscious companies, so this is a great way to get your company-wide changes rolling.
When planning to make your business more sustainable when it comes to the way you market your products and services, it’s okay to start slow. Don’t expect too much too quickly, especially if you’re operating a smaller business. Even the smallest endeavors matter.
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