What is Sustainable Marketing?

We get asked this a lot - so here goes…

Sustainable Marketing isn’t about totally reinventing marketing, but rather about rethinking all guises of marketing through a responsible lens. Sustainable Marketing typically has two fundamental operations. We refer to this as the inside outside.

So, what do we mean by that?

The inside

Sustainable Marketing sits within the heart of the business, communicating and aligning organizational purpose, values and brand across the entire value chain of a business. It involves collaborating and communicating with many different people within the organization and cascading key narratives throughout to ensure that the messages and brand narrative running through the organization or exiting the organization to reach the outside world, through any method or channel – campaigns, conversation, products, services, etc – are all on brand, clear, consistent and aligned.

The outside

Sustainable Marketing has a keen curiosity about the dynamic landscape within which the business / brand operates. It seeks to understand the changing needs, desires, actions and opinions of customers, competitors, partners – keeping pace with innovation, insights, sentiment, data and opinion, then bringing those findings back into the business to support and inform strategic direction.

Some may say . . . ah, but that’s nothing new, this has always been marketing’s role. And we would agree: purpose, values and brand – strategy – communication. Hence our learning models, frameworks and ideology when bringing Sustainable Marketing to life all take us back to what marketing should be all about – but so often isn’t.

What the world needs now is educated and aware Marketers, who are committed to reshaping our thoughts and consumption habits, sparking and driving innovation and who have the courage to tap into the enormous commercial opportunity that operating through a more responsible lens can bring. To reiterate . . . Marketers using their skills, creativity and influence as a force for good.

 In a few words

What is Sustainable Marketing? It’s marketing – but through a responsible lens, designed to meet the needs of the changing landscape and public opinion to better serve people and planet as well as profit. It’s championing Marketers to drive necessary behaviour change, feel great, proud and meaningful about the work they do.

There’s no denying that marketing in its many guises has played a significant role in some of the biggest challenges we now need to rethink, particularly when it comes to responsible production and consumption, behaviour change, transparency, systems change and authentic and trusted communication. And while marketing has been and continues to be a significant part of the problem, there’s an exciting and incredible opportunity for marketing to become a significant part of the solution.

[This blog is adapted from the introduction to our latest book, Can Marketing Save the Planet - to be published by Bloomsbury January 2024.]