According to IWO/IBU research study, there are five main factors that influence marketing sustainability. Four of them – customers, public, legislator and competitors are considered and external drivers and only one as internal determinant – management. Consumers and retailers make great demand on the companies for sustainable products and services which makes them the most important and powerful factor. By considering clients as the main factor for their socio-ecological commitment, companies can offer sustainable products different from the competitors’ ones (Belz & Karstens, n.d, p.17). As consumers’ awareness increases some companies are forced to change their recyclable policies. Coffee chains, for example, are one of the companies loading more landfill from to go cups and napkins. In order to satisfied their customers, Starbucks starts offering free refill to people who reuse their cups. Nero Coffee become aggressive and start recycling all clean materials left on the tables. The public opinion has great impact over the companies and how they implement their marketing strategies. As public puts more and more emphasis on the market segmentation, marketers faced more crucial problems. “The public push influences the implementation as well as the …show more content…
The fast growing world and the mass use of internet, business entities have much more ability to go green than they have in the past. Online marketing and advertising platforms are excellent tool for decreasing printable materials and still taking out the message. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter can send message to more people for less investment. Moreover, the social network inspire creativity and in some cases increase profitability. There are companies that decrease printing promotional catalogues and flies but create their own pages with social campaigns and post different advertising
Shearman, S., 2013. Consumers getting more environmentally conscious. PRWeek, [online] Available at: [Accessed 14 May 2014]
One of the largest and biggest market for Unilever dominated by their brand PG Tips comprised a market worth of £850 million. Unilver’s research outcome suggested that the average profile of a consumer in this market is well aware of the issues surrounding sustainability and has moderate knowledge of what it means to be sustainable while doing your business, but are unwilling to pay a bigger price for sustainable products. Since the main aim for their sustainable products was to deliver a product that is sustainable but will not have a change in price on the shelves helped the marketing strategy developers in Unilever to focus on telling the story of the Rainforest Alliance certified products and what it means to be a part of it as a consumer.
Sustainable marketing is the method of promoting goods that are environmentally secure at the retail stage and touting a company's pledge to sustainable practices at the public relations stage. It applies conventional marketing techniques but in an explicit context. This type of marketing tries to capitalize on the better value consumers place on eco-friendly goods and companies that have an apparent commitment to sustainability in their production and supply chains. The evolution of sustainability Marketing Obviously, the concept of sustainability marketing strategy has advanced over the time. Starting its route from ecological issues, it has arrived at now on sustainability issues.
This paper will discuss the five environmental factors that influence global and domestic marketing decisions that organizations must make. These five environmental factors are technology, demographics, government, culture and economics. Companies are affected differently by these factors depending on the industry they are in and the size of the organization. I will be using the Washington Plaza Hotel to illustrate how these environmental factors affect the hotel industry's marketing decisions. The Washington Plaza Hotel is a hospitality business located in Washington, DC. They offer services such as lodging, restaurant, bar, catering and meeting space rental. The Washington Plaza Hotel's major customer base is government, tourist, non-profit organizations, local businesses and some corporate clientele. Let's now take a look at how these environmental factors affect the marketing of the hotel.
Proper marketing management is one of the major determinants of business success. Amongst the methods of marketing management, segmentation, target marketing, and positioning are of utmost importance. Market segmentation deals with the identification of the market constituents into different groups or segments based on specific profiles (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Target marketing deals with the selection of segments and development of the measures to attract the selected consumer groups (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Ultimately, business positioning deals with the ways in which the business remembers and distinguishes the brand of the company with the competing products by means of unique attributes and benefits (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Although there are some associated drawbacks related to target marketing, segmentation, and positioning such as ethical issues, inhibited popularity due to cynicism to discrimination practices in these strategies, as well as waste of resources. Most firms still utilize these mechanisms due to the benefits offered such as improved operation efficiencies, better product positioning accuracy, and increased possibilities for opportunity identification (Kotler and Keller, 2012).
It has been observed since the inception of Marketing that marketers target to only specific market and how they identify such market. There are certain criteria or base they use to identify the consumers who they would be serving to. Customers do have unique requirements satisfaction levels and aspirations. Some customers however are similar with respect to their requirements of goods and services. In such case if their needs are identified and they can be grouped in quantities of a specific size then it can be segmented. Now each customer group have specific expectations and businesses must cater to the needs of the segmented that has been targeted.
Segmentation is a marketing strategy that involves separating a wide target market into small groups of customers who share the common need of using or purchasing the product that needs to be marketed. Market segmentation strategies are utilized to identify these groups of consumers and strategies are designed and implemented to make the product or service appeal to them. Support and also the product will be strategically placed in order to successfully achieve the ultimate marketing goal. Businesses and organizations may come up with different type of strategies involving different products and catchy phrases depending on the product or the target segment.
Market segmentation allows marketers to easily categorise customers in order to identify target markets and products for certain types of customers. Elaborating on this, Pine, Peppers and Rogers (1995) mention that market segmentation is a set of broad characteristics that focus on a group of customers. Furthermore, Kotler (1988) states that segmentation is the act of separating a specific set of customers, that open up markets, with apparent needs, behaviours and characteristics that require specific products. With this being said, marketers use this foundation in order to build and gain more information to target certain markets.
Sustainable operation management is a management approach that involves planning, implementation and control of business operations that translate available resources into the required product or service. It is the management of business practices, traditions and operations to promote the highest level of efficiency, smooth workflow, and increased productivity in an organization. This management strategy ensures that the available labour force and materials are changed into products or services in a cost effective way to increase the company’s returns (Corbett, 2009). It also involves production waste management, food waste reduction, creating new opportunities, environment protection, and improving customer health. Sustainable operation management in the retail industry around the world has gained momentum in the recent years, in the face of customer pressure and media interest. It is particularly linked to the concepts of corporate social responsibility and global warming (Morrison, 2013).
Sustainable operation management is a management approach that involves planning, implementation and control of business processes that translate available resources into required product or service. It is the management of business practices, traditions and operations to promote highest level of efficiency, workflow, and increase productivity in an organization. This management strategy mainly ensures that available labor force and materials are changed into products or services in a cost effective way to increase the company’s returns (Corbett, 2009). It also involves production waste management, reducing food waste, creating new opportunities, environment protection, and improving customer health. Sustainable operation management in retail business industry around the world has gained momentum especially in the recent years. They are particularly linked to the concepts of corporate social responsibility and global warming (Tesco and Society, 2013).
From research I have learned that consumers attitudes towards environmental protection is increasing. I have discovered that having a green image does matter to consumers. They are aggressively trying to change the way they have impacted our world (Green Marketing, 1 of 7). Some of the reasons that consumers are changing their attitudes are because of their gain in knowledge.
Important companies like Shell, DuPont, BP have been reorganised to generate profits from this green market of goods and services. In this sense, it may sound altruistic, "the sustainability", the logic of profitability and competition is what will determine the ability of companies of the future to meet the changing needs of consumers. This premise of "sustainability" as a necessary quality to be competitive, falls short, according to Bryan Walsh of Time magazine. In a 2007 article, the expert shows how "sustainable" is helping to drive out competition, given the approach taken by companies to become more efficient, flexible and cutting waste, which helps them provide better products and reduce costs. Companies that refuse to accept that they will face a strict and demanding environment.
...s is achieved through social groups. Marketers focus upon group influence and social needs in their marketing activity to develop a stronger brand image which carers to the needs of the consumers.
The Coca Cola Company has been among the world’s top companies that have been able to perform well in all the areas of the world. The company follows the latest strategic research and evaluation methods to formulate such strategic policies that helps in not only meeting the customer expectations and desires but also achieving various organizational goals and objectives.
The sustainability of ecosystems on which the global economy depends must be guaranteed. And the economic partners must be satisfied that the basis of exchange is equitable” (World). This quote demonstrates the complexities of sustainability. Another thing corporations should focus on when trying to be sustainable is their environmental impact. Annie Leonard in her book The Story of Stuff says that companies can significantly reduce their toll on the environment by changing their design. The design determines “the amount of energy used in making and using the product,” “the length of the product’s life span” and “its ability to be recycled” (Leonard). All these things determine the amount of resources a company must use, so simply changing a product’s design is one way a company can have a large impact on the sustainability of the environment in which it operates. One example of this is that “Wal-Mart attributed more that $100 million of its 2009 revenue to a decision to switch to a recyclable variety of cardboard in shipments” which it sells to a recycler instead of paying to send it to a landfill