Most businesses have realized that sustainability can save them money on energy bills and supplies. Still, they may not be familiar with all the reasons why sustainability should be part of your marketing plan, too. Continue reading to learn more.
What Is Sustainability Marketing?
Increasingly, consumers are factoring sustainability into their buying decisions. This preference creates a vertical supply chain of sustainability from the retail shelves to wholesalers to suppliers to manufacturers.
Sustainability marketing expresses a company’s commitment to environmentally and socially responsible practices and products throughout its operations. Consumers concerned about sustainability will seek out, and often pay a premium for, sustainable products.
All types of businesses and industries can employ and publicize the sustainable practices they implement, from using and selling recyclable textiles and office supplies to organic farming with no-till and biodynamic or regenerative farming methods.
How Do You Implement Sustainability Marketing?
Going digital is the most obvious way to get started in sustainability marketing. If you want to demonstrate your commitment to sustainability, go paperless.
Think about your packaging, too. Anything that bears your business’ brand should itself be recognizably sustainable. For example, consider companies that sell laundry detergent sheets in biodegradable packaging or those that base their business on reselling secondhand items. With its “Move to Zero” commitment, Nike has also made sustainability a central tenet of its operations.
Above all, center your marketing on how you help the consumer achieve their sustainable-living goals. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about them.
What Benefit Can Businesses Expect From Sustainability Marketing?
Using stories focused on consumers who are making the world a better place can increase brand recognition and customer loyalty, especially among Gen Z consumers.
One of the chief reasons why sustainability should be part of your marketing plan is that these young consumers, soon to be the largest consumer segment, demand transparency and are highly distrustful of corporate claims of sustainable practices and how they treat their employees. Learn to apologize unconditionally and fix the problem. Clapping back at consumer activists is usually a losing strategy.
Successful sustainable marketing will improve the bottom line by saving on energy and supply costs. Sustainable practices also reduce waste, which itself is a marketable benefit.
Sustainable practices intend to benefit people and the planet. Companies that adopt sustainable marketing based on a clear mission to benefit their communities and the planet are rewarded with loyalty from customers and employees.
Sustainability forces innovation—such as energy efficiency in metal fabrication which enables users of structural steel and auto parts to produce materials using sustainable practices. When your business focuses on the question, “how can we do this more sustainably?” rather than, “how can we do this faster, cheaper, and bigger?” then you’ll have a mission statement that will demand of every team member in your business a new way of thinking that results in the creation of new products and processes that benefit everyone: business partners, consumers, the planet, and society as a whole.
