The Dos and Don’ts of Sustainable Marketing

Over the years, the keys to staying competitive have changed. Back in the day, businesses would focus solely on price, and this is because consumers were looking for the cheapest products and services. Then, we moved towards customer service — consumers were happy to pay more money if it meant getting a great service.

Today, we’re riding a new wave: sustainability. As individuals, we now understand that our lifestyle choices directly affect the future of our planet. What sort of world do we want our children and grandchildren to inherit? This is up to us. More and more consumers are searching for:

• Sustainable solutions
• Green packaging
• Locally-sourced products
• No cheap labor
• Organic foods

In the younger generations especially, environmental responsibility is a huge trend. For millennials, one report from Nielsen showed that nearly three in every four are happy to pay more money for sustainability. In the years ahead, this is only going to grow, and it will also become more important to other generations too.

The Do’s and Don’ts

Ultimately, sustainable marketing can be defined as the development of products/services that meet the needs of consumers now without damaging the prospects of future generations. If you’re investing in this practice, we praise your efforts. However, we also send a warning because if you’re not doing it the right way you could be making mistakes that lead to more harm than good for your brand.

Here are some do’s and don’ts for following sustainable consumer trends:

DO: Integrate Sustainability into Your Culture and Identity

It’s one thing to add something about sustainability to your mission statement or your “About Us” page, but it’s another thing to incorporate sustainability into the whole business. For your whole brand, there needs to be a purpose-driven mission towards which all of your employees and customers are pushing.

Despite being a company mainly prominent in the UK, Tesco is one of the most recognizable brands in the world and they have over 6,500 stores internationally. Even though they didn’t quite break the US market in their attempt nearly a decade ago, they have still received praise because of their sustainability efforts.

Long before this change in consumer mindset took off, Tesco made a commitment to sustainability and they encouraged all customers to tackle the food waste problem. Their “purpose-driven” mission started way back in 2009, and they’re starting to reap the rewards now.

Rather than making a comment or two about sustainability on your website, bring sustainability to the forefront. Mark the changes in consumer preferences with a real effort to join the battle.

DON’T: Practice Greenwashing

If you practice greenwashing, you won’t get away with it these days. Greenwashing is effectively boasting about sustainability when you’re actually just meeting minimum standards. In some cases, companies have been caught polluting in other areas of the business just to be “green” in those that are monitored more closely.

In 2018, Starbucks were praised when they decided to introduce a strawless cup and lid. From the outside, this looked fantastic and customers appreciated the effort. When the cup and lid were tested soon after, it contained more plastic when compared to their previous cups.

At all times, we recommend being honest with your efforts. If the research and studies are to be believed, what we’re seeing is wide-scale changes in consumer preferences as opposed to a short-term trend. Depending on the nature of your business, you might focus on zero waste, reducing wastewater, using biodegradable packaging, using only organically-sourced ingredients or parts, or even contributing towards reforestation. Either way, be honest and set attainable goals.

Greenwashing does not work, and it will only harm your reputation in the long-term. If you’re some way away from meeting sustainable consumer trends, it’s best to say nothing at all.

DO: Educate

It’s great that you’re making an effort to make the world a more enjoyable place for future generations, but there’s only so much self-promotion that consumers can take. Sooner or later, you need to educate and teach lessons from what you’re doing.

Of course, there will always be some self-promotion because you want consumers to know that you’re a viable option when it comes to sustainability. After this initial stage, you need to switch the attention to why you’re making these changes and what impact it will have on the environment and society as a whole.

In recent years, many have found success with storytelling, so we recommend trying this. Explain what you’re doing, what it means, how it helps, and how your customers can join your mission. If you can educate in a way that resonates and has meaning to them, the results will always be stronger.

DON’T: Shy Away from Your Work

On the opposite end of the scale to greenwashing, we have companies that are afraid of “bragging”, so they don’t share the full extent of their environmental policies. In the previous section, we spoke about the troubles that arise with too much self-promotion, but this doesn’t mean you can’t tell the world what you’re doing.

Have you kept certain sustainability achievements away from employees? Do you fear what would happen should you add a “sustainability” section to your website? Do you assume that the audience isn’t really bothered? These are signs of so-called “green blushing”, and it’s something that needs to end.

If you looked online and couldn’t find anything about sustainability on a manufacturer’s website, what would you assume? That’s right, that they aren’t engaged in the whole process. Rather than allowing your customers to think the same, inform them of your achievements and allow it to become a marketing opportunity.

DO: Follow Your Own Path

Though you can use the international giants as inspiration, we recommend choosing your own path for sustainable marketing. Since there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, you need to think about your own business and identify the opportunities to make a difference. For example, it makes sense for a restaurant to focus on the sourcing of their ingredients. Meanwhile, a manufacturing plant might want to think about the machinery they use and how they package and ship products.

Once you’ve identified the opportunities, we return to our first tip because it needs to be introduced company-wide. Starting with the CEO and directors, the change should filter down and all stakeholders need to buy in to the change.

From here, set some goals and assess your performance at regular intervals. If you aren’t on course to achieve the targets, what can be done to speed up progress? Can you make further adjustments? As long as you recognize the most important metrics, it shouldn’t be too hard to measure results from one month to the next.

Once you’re off the ground, it’s then time to communicate with customers. As well as educating them, you can hold conversations to learn what they desire and their opinions of your efforts.

For those advanced in their plans, you can start to work with policymakers, industry peers, and NGOs to really become a force for change with sustainability.

DON’T: Alienate the Consumer

Remember, these changes in consumer preferences are led by the consumer. With this in mind, get them involved. Just as we saw with Tesco and its mission to eliminate food waste, work with your customers and embrace the journey together. Can you set up a station in your store so that customers can drop off used products? Can you offer advice to get them recycling more? Can you set up events in which customers participate?

Customers WANT to help in your mission, so don’t assume otherwise.

DO: Partner with Green Suppliers

Going green yourself is a fantastic first step but establishing an environmentally responsible supply chain is the ultimate goal. In recent years, many companies have landed in hot water for using manufacturers or suppliers that don’t contribute to sustainability. What’s more, many manufacturers have stopped supplying to brands that aren’t environmentally responsible.

Remember Apple and the trouble they found a few years ago? Essentially, one of their biggest suppliers was breaching not only environmental regulations but labor and safety regulations too.

Once you’ve cleaned up the supply chain, you can be completely transparent with your practices and the brand will benefit. Once again, it becomes a marketing opportunity.

DON’T: Put Yourself into Debt

Finally, we’re big believers of simply doing what you can do. There’s no need to put yourself into debt. Instead, start with small steps and a strategy appropriate to YOUR business. Whatever you can do, customers will appreciate the effort. Over time, you can introduce more and more changes to help our planet and your own business.