Sustainability is important in marketing because bad news can spread quickly and good news of your company work can also spread quickly. Marketing managers should know that sustainability could build your brand value and build increased trust with consumers. By incorporating sustainability both inside and outside your company you can have a consistent messages. This creates long term impact by educating consumers on how to use product and dispose of products to reduce life-cycle effects.
5.1. Identify who your customer is – people
The majority of consumers are ready to purchase green but isolating green consumer can be challenge: Consumers are not always familiar with green/sustainability. The potential market for sustainable products can be overlooked by only focusing on existing products. This results in ignoring demand for new products that do not yet exist.
Relating customer’s environmental concerns with purchase is in fact the wrong place to look altogether because the consumer can have much more impact on the environment through proper use of the product maintenance and disposal. Business can make more impact through Design for the Environment. (DFE). This is done through designing products that can be reused and recycled and evaluating the human health and environmental impacts. (United States EPA 2015).
Overall its better to focus on what consumers really want and need and let them do their part to be more sustainable through proper use and disposal. Most consumers buy a product because of factors like performance, price, personal benefit, convenience and proper information.
5.2. Identify what your customer wants—products
A sustainable product should provide environmental, social and economic benefits over its full life cycle. Reducing impact of a product across its life-cycle is the ultimate goal. The company uses fewer resources like water and energy to quickly regain materials though proper end of
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greener=eco-design. Companies can also try and identify wants and needs to produce entirely new products.
Consumers want products like 7th Generation. 7th Generation markets itself as safer and healthier cleaning product. (Seventh Generation 2015) Products that can save money like solar panels, which also generate home use power and sell excess power to utility company.
Consumers are looking for products that make them look good such driving a hybrid car like Toyota Prius or a new Tesla and that allow them to make a statement that they want to reduce carbon footprint. Products that make them feel good about purchase like Fair Trade because they feel like they are making world better place. Products that are high quality like Victornox Swiss Army knife with lifetime warranty. Products that do not harm society or the environment.
5.3. Determine price
Pricing product is not easy whether the product is eco-friendly or not. Having a correct price point is important because if priced to high your product can miss mainstream markets. Priced to low and consumers may see it as a lesser quality product. While pricing a product from company side often relates to actual cost, from consumer perspective a sustainable product should have perceived value to both consumer and the environment. This perceived value can be generated financially through costs of operation of product: For example CFC light bulbs are more expensive upfront but cost less overtime for long durability and reduction in electricity use compared to normal light bulbs.
5.4. Place: Retailer and Sustainability
Place in marketing mix refers to where and when consumers will acquire a particular product or service. To be more sustainable companies need to convey how product is made and transported in eco-friendly manner. Focus on Retail location is important in how reduce environmental impact. . IKEA Swedish Retail Company is a great example of investing in renewable energy and efficiency at all store locations. IKEA Produced renewable energy equivalent to 37% of total energy consumption in 2013 and 34% in FY 2012. In 2013 11%
waste was sent to landfills and IKEA recycled 87% waste from operations. (IKEA
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Another example is Office Depot’s green program which provides green product Placement of products in store: Don’t confine Green products to one area in store but instead place products next to less green alternatives this method has been incorporated by retailers such as Office Depot Green program which allow customers to compare which products and brands have reduced energy, waste and chemical use.
Reverse Logistics: Retailer can also provide a spot for consumers to bring back products for reuse or recycling. Many electronic stores already have facilities for collecting used batteries and supermarkets will collect used plastic bags. (Weybrecht 2010)
5.5. The Packaging
Companies can make packaging more sustainable by addressing if the packaging is safe &
healthy throughout its life cycle. Meets market requirements for performance and cost, is sourced, manufactured, transported and recycled using renewable energy. Makes strong use of recycled source materials, manufactured using clean production technologies. Is made from healthy materials is physically designed to optimize materials and energy. Is effectively recovered in industry closed loop cycles.
Message on the package is also important companies can use packaging to educate the consumer on sustainability information of the product and goals of the company. The materials used or not used, how to use the product and how to dispose of the product such as details on repair and or return at end of useful life. Provide details on how to dispose and recycle the product.
5.6. Communicate sustainable commitments ---Eco labels
As market for socially and environmentally friendly products continues to grow so is the need for consumers to understand the increasing use of Eco- labels. Eco-labels tell consumers about certain environmental or social standards product complies with. These symbols should
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focused on energy and resource efficiency, organic and food labels and social labels like fair trade. Labels can be from third party or from a company itself with a green claim to its product.
5.7. LEED, Taiwan’s Green Mark, and FSC
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design. LEED is a green building certification program. For a building to be LEED certified it must pass certain prerequisites.
Buildings are usually certified because the materials used for building design and construction is built with eco friendly reusable materials. That the building also operates with efficiency related to operations and maintenance. Buildings use less electricity, water, and heating over its life cycle. (US Green Building Council)
Another example of Eco Label is Taiwan’s Green Mark. The program started in Taipei in 1992 by the Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA). The program issues eco-labels for nearly 6,000 products including cleaning products, office supplies, and energy/water saving products, technology products and construction materials. 26.
Forest Stewardship Council FSC is an international NPO established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC uses standard setting, certification and labeling of products to achieve its mission. The FSC logo is symbol that the product comes from responsible sources meaning that it’s from sustainable business practices. The label is used in a wide range of products such as paper, furniture, medicine and jewelry. (FSC International 2015)