Status Updates From Sustainability Marketing

The shift from conventional marketing communications to a sustainable approach to marketing communications requires a change in thinking, mindset and practices among marketing communicators. The emphasis on openness, dialogue, credibility and authenticity, and then need to consider the (often unintended) social and environmental consequences of marketing communications activity, will dominate the sustainability ma...

Since sustainability marketing and online buzz marketing have risen to prominence at roughly the same time, it is not surprising that they have often been combined by sustainability-oriented companies for whom conventional advertising is either unaffordable or a poor fit with the brand.

Kanatschnig suggests that the internal audience is the most important one for corporate sustainability communications, and the one that communications process should start with.

Sustainability marketing communications require a holistic perspective that integrates the deliberate promotional communication techniques of conventional marketing management, the interactive two-way communications approaches of relationship marketing and the open approach to disclosure about social and environmental performance that is associated with corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The key to understanding marketing communication is that it is not what the marketer intends to communicate that counts: it is what the consumer interprets as the meaning of a message that is important.

Anything can communicate.
- product
- packaging
- cost
- information accessibility
- convenience
- etc.

McDonagh's 4 fundamental and interrelated principles (ecological dimensions, which could equally apply to societal aspects): ecological trust, ecological access, ecological disclosure, and ecological dialogue.

* Credibility, like the meaning of communication, is something that is decided by the audience, not by the communicator. Unfortunately, there is growing evidence that overuse of environmental advertising that involves weak or vague sustainability claims or associations is eroding that trust and increasing consumer skepticism about the sustainability efforts of business.

* Ottman et al. propose that the secret to successful communications with sustainability products is to connect their attributes and the brand message effectively with the values that consumers desire.

There is little hope of motivating consumers through appeals that use guilt, fear or 'worthiness' of sustainability.

Instead, sustainability marketers should (1) make the issue personally relevant and personalized; (2) avoid negative messages and focus on benefits; (3) associate behaviors with positive self-images for the consumer and with the here and now; and (4) be interactive, playful and entertaining.

There are 3 types of generic appeal: (1) Rational appeals: target audience's self-interest; (2) Emotional appeals: set to make an emotional connection with consumers; (3) Moral appeals: engage with people's sense of right and wrong.

The key issue in sustainability strategies is to ensure that sales staff understand the issues related to the sustainability performance of the product and are able to answer customers' questions.

Advertising is strongly associated with the conventional marketing paradigm that emphasizes the generation of demand and a presentational emphasis on the superficial style of products rather than their substance. Therefore, it may feel 'wrong' to marketers (and to consumers) to use such a medium to communicate the sustainability credentials of a product.

Common marketing communication objectives: generating awareness, informing, reminding, persuading, reassuring, motivating, rewarding and connecting.