By: Ilaria Pasquinelli, Twitter: @ilaria78, international marketing consultant for the textile and fashion industry.
Can marketing be ethical? Far too many times I am asked this question or come across people who strongly believe that marketing simply cannot. Actually, still today, for many, marketing is evil. I think that this conviction is the result of two main factors.
First, the image of marketing is still based on what it was in 40s-50s: A business function using tactics to sell products. At that time, companies were production and not marketing-oriented, this means that huge amounts of non-differentiated products had to be sold in a way or another. And sales and communication campaigns were pretty aggressive considering that advertising was the only element that differentiated these products.
Second, still today, marketing is often mistaken with marketing communication or PR and therefore the role of marketing is limited to inventing persuasive promotional campaigns.
Marketing is much more than this and has certainly (and luckily) evolved over time in line with the change of the market conditions, consumers, culture, spirit of the time. Marketing identifies and meets human and social needs profitably (surely for companies but also for consumers and the other stakeholders) and, as someone has said, “it delivers a higher standard of living“. Not necessarily because consumers can buy more, yet, because they can buy better. Marketing is a strategic function in any successful and modern company (in fact, there is the Marketing Chief Officer just as top executives like Chief Executive Officers or Chief Financial Officers) which means that it contributes to its long-term existence.
Not only marketing decides how to communicate brands and products, yet, it helps define the company’s market (and consequently who it competitors are) and is responsible for improving and creating products and services that meet (sometimes anticipate) people’s needs and desires. And marketing has evolved: From finding a market for (sometimes bad) products to differentiating brands that deliver value to people, and much more.
With the rising awareness of sustainability issues, the business and cultural environment has changed again. As companies re-define their strategic goals and include the environment and communities among their most influential stakeholders, marketing is re-defining its role again. Next to strategic and financial goals, marketing is now contributing to achieve social and environmental objectives. How? Creating products with low-impact life cycles, generating markets for them and, ultimately, changing consumer behaviour. Marketing is key to make green products and lifestyle desirable (just as it did with, unfortunately, unsustainable consumption patterns, see fast fashion) because it has got a direct contact with customers and, with them, share common languages and meanings. Futerra, the London-based sustainability communication agency, tells you how to do it in their guide.
Take Patagonia and their “Don’t buy this shirt unless you need it” campaign: It is a provocative initiative to encourage their customers to buy less and exchange their existing garments (through a platform they have created with Ebay) if they are fed up with them, rather than buying new ones. This is the direct consequence of the brand’s business (and marketing) strategy that is then linked with its values:
“At Patagonia, we are dedicated to abundance. We don’t want to grow larger, but want to remain lean and quick. We want to make the best clothes and make them so they will last a long, long time. Our idea is to make the best product so you can consume less and consume better.”
Customers can only increase their trust in the brand and strengten their belief that Patagonia clothing is so good quality and durable that a) last for long b) can be exchanged as it’s got value even after years.
Marks & Spencer has created a very easy online tool that can help customers see the tangible value (£) of their everyday actions. As an example, treating garments more responsibly (wash at 30 degrees, high spin and air dry) can save nearly £60 year.
After all, well before sustainability marketing, Ebay created a global market for second-hand clothing and products saving them from landfill.
If you want to read more about the new face of marketing, I suggest three books:
- Green Marketing Manifesto by John Grant
- Sustainability Marketing by Frank-Martin Belz and Ken Peattie.
- The New rules of Green Marketing: Strategies, tools and inspiration for sustainable branding by Jacquelin Ottoman.
