Sustainability – the how and why of the most powerful marketing tool of our time!
The modern consumer has an abundance of choices. Be it products, services or even vendors – traditional or online. In addition, attitudes toward marketing practices have changed as well. In a 2021 survey by New York Times, 79% of respondents expressed a negative attitude towards marketing practices. Partially untrue, or even false claims, high sales pressure combined with a product oversaturation create a market, where originality is paramount and simply being visible all the time and everywhere does not lead to a corresponding increase in sales (just ask Samsung).
All of this presents an opportunity for those with less money to spend on their marketing campaigns. The opportunity is called sustainability marketing! Customers are actively searching for companies that are sustainable. Furthermore, it is not only the younger generation that care about sustainability – 51% of Generation X (35-55) and 57% of those over 55 consider environmental sustainability as an
important concern in their life. Almost half (46%) of the respondents said they are willing to pay more for products made by companies that are actively trying to diminish their impact on the environment. Even if the brand’s main goal isn’t to solve the climate crisis or become fully committed to sustainability, you will still see the benefits in spending a part of your time and resources into making the company more environmentally friendly and sustainable. How to make this change happen and attract more loyal customers and sales? More importantly, how to convey this attitude through marketing efforts?
Step 1 to Sustainable. Find your Company’s Purpose
Being sustainable and prioritizing sustainability means no longer evaluate business primarily by numbers and profit. It’s critical to identify the goals you want to achieve. Figure out what changes you want to bring about through business. Creating less waste, planting more trees, or maybe a bit of everything – identify what fits your brand’s definition of sustainability and how to achieve these goals. Take a look at the sustainable marketing produced by https://nadaduele.com/ – their definition of sustainability is to create products that are used for generations, not months. Find sustainability purpose, slogan and brand awareness and following will see an amazing increase!
Step 2 to Sustainable. Think Long Term, But Accomplish Everything Step by Step
Ambition is great, and it’s exciting to get on the path to becoming more environmentally friendly, maybe even carbon neutral, or even… positive! However, promising too much and delivering too little is a dangerous trap. It has now been 7 years since the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement. Companies took the opportunity to promise to become carbon neutral by 2040, 2030 or even 2025. However, by and large, it has proven more difficult to achieve.
Start simple and build momentum. Offsetting the carbon generated by Internet traffic. Tools, such as greeningweb.com allow you to simply green the energy required to load and show a website. Steps like this immediately show your sustainable commitments to every single user of the webpage. Continue building – see how much energy can be saved by installing intelligent energy monitor systems, incentivize carpooling, etc… Achieving small steps and sharing them with your communities builds momentum for bigger future steps. It also increases credibility for clients. This increases brand awareness and loyalty. The snowball effect simply works.
Finally. Show your Sustainable Steps in your Marketing!
As you’re doing all these steps to become more sustainable – convey it in sustainable marketing. Build hype within the team to become a brand synonymous with climate friendly actions. Document the steps in policies, media posts, webinars and even products is your journey of becoming masters of sustainability. Be proud of your achievements and, statistics say, your attractiveness towards potential customers will increase!
