Sustainability

1. Introduction

Nowadays, the proportion of sustainable marketing in mainstream marketing is growing as interest and concern have been increasing by stakeholders such as customers and organisations (Bandura, 2007; Fitzsimmons, 2008). Organisations in both public as well as private markets have made efforts to take care of the issue and incorporate it into its products and services. Especially, there are political efforts to deduce agreement with governments and take action against unsustainable consumption by imposing a duty and giving financial or non-financial supports. Sustainable development, which reflects sustainable issue into businesss, is considered effective way to attract customers and raise brand awareness as a sustainable approach could help marketing activities in various ways to ecologically improve the quality of products and services and highlight the importance of the issue to customers. Its activities are linked with competitive advantage which helps the business to differentiate compared to competitors and reduce the impact on the environment. This paper will emphasize on understanding and implementing the concept of a sustainable approach to marketing, focusing on marketing mix. Also, the competitive advantages or disadvantages will be explored through assessing the relationship between sustainability and marketing.

2. Sustainable marketing

As sustainability is a broader range approach including ethical and environmental issues, the solutions depend on which concept is adopted. By establishing a proper definition of sustainability and having its application to marketing activities, the relationship between sustainability and marketing will examined.  

2.1 The definition of sustainable marketing

The concept of marketing is to create value and build good relationships among customers, reflecting their present and future interests. Regarding this, there is growing demand for sustainability in business. Although the issue of sustainability is important in politics, there is no universal consensus. However, the most quoted definition (International Institute for Sustainable Development) is that of “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Bruntland Commission Report 1987). OECD (2002) defines it as “the consumption of goods and services that meet basic needs and quality of life without jeopardizing the needs of future generations”. Significant criticism that marketers encourage unsustainable consumption has been rising as the natural environment has been damaged by mass manufacturing, complicit marketing, unceasing consumption and dumping and pollution (Saha and Darnton, 2005). The issue of sustainability has become more prominent not by choice but by necessity. Against this background, there is a developing sustainable approach in marketing, which economically, environmentally and socially satisfies the future needs of the consumers and business as shown in figure 1.