Opinion

The Marketing Society Forum

Can sustainable marketing produce

a measurable commercial benefit?
Last week at London's City Hall, senior industry figures spoke about their experiences at the launch
of a Business in the Community report, entitled 'How can marketers build sustainable success?'

lYes Yes Yes Yes

Fiona McAnena Troy Warf leid Lucy Richardson Roisin Donnelly
Brand director, Vice-president Managing partner, Corporate marketing
BUPA family care Europe, Brand Legacy director, Procters
Kimberly-Clark Gamble

Companies are already proactively
embedding sustainability across their
businesses and finding benefits in
increasing profits, brand affinity and
advocacy, reputation and staff morale.
Marketers can lead the business thin-
king on this, ensuring that product dev-
elopment has sustainability built in.
Thus,sustainable marketing can have
an impact on the whole business.
Designed-insustainahiiitycreatesop-
erating efficiencies, such as using less
packaging, which reduces transport
costs and waste. In a service business,
good use of digital media is more effic-
ient than brochures and letters. It also
speeds up customer service.
Customers expect busines.ses to take
the lead and make it easy for them to do
the right thing,so even where sustainab-
ility appears to add cost, there can be
first-mover advantage in embracing
and delivering on a customer need in
your category. People also care about
the sort of company they work for, so
attractingandretainingtalent is easier
for ethical businesses. It will hurt
commercially not to be sustainable.
For business leaders, marketers and, in
many cases, parents, sustainability is
now a neccesity not an option.
Our priority has to be leaving the
planet in a .state that ensures our future
generations can enjoy their lives with-
out the threat of an exhaustion of the
world's natural resources or the ever-
growing effects of climate change.
Is it possible to prove a clear comm-
ercial case for sustainabie marketing?
The only answer is yes.
Organisations must address this
issue to ensure that their business is
commercially viable today, but also,
even more importantly, in the future.
They also need to balance principles
and profits, and value and values.
Sustainabihty is embedded in
Kimberly-Clark's business. Innovation
is now driven with sustainability at the
forefi-ont. Inmost cases, sustainable
marketing options are associated with a
reduction of the resources required and
hence provide a commercial saving.
The future starts today and the ques-
tion of should we do it must he replac-
ed by how we do ¡t.
Two years of recession have helped sus-
tainable marketing grow up, moving it
from shallow'greenwash' to more rob-
ust strategies that drive brand growth.
It is a source of long-term competit-
ive advantage. The Co-operative's'good
for everyone' proposition clearly differ-
entiates the brand and opens up oppor-
tunities across categories.
Behavingethically directly enhances
brand reputation and builds deeper rel-
ationships with consumers. For exam-
ple. Birds Eye's Unk with the Marine
Stewardship Council reinforces the
brand's healthy living proposition, as
well as securing a critical supply chain.
It drives innovation. Persil 'Small and
Mighty' has built an entire proposition
around reducing the use of resources to
the max. Technology starts to deliver
real solutions, such as electric cars
people actually want to drive.
Of course, there are profits to be
made by reducing costs (packaging,
transport and so on), while adding
consumer value. Too often, CSR
strategy remains separate from
marketing strategy.
If you have a product with a genuine
sustainable advantage, a benefit that
consumers want and that offers great
value, sustainable marketing can buiJd
the business.
For example, when it comes to
washing detergents we know that about
75% of the energy consumed during a
laundry cycle is associated with the
temperature consumers choose.
Therefore the development of a
washing detergent that works at low
temperatures is a really meaningful
sustainable product innovation.
We also know that about 70% of cons-
umers are interested in buying a more
sustainable product so long as they
don't have to make a trade-off in price
or performance.
This was the basis for our Ariel 'Turn
to 30' campaign. By providing a prod-
uct that performed well at low temper-
atures without affecting value, we had a
great commercial opportunity.
• For more discussion, visit
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