When people ask me to elaborate on what I mean by “sustainable marketing”, I split my definition in two parts: goals and process. Sustainable marketing is marketing that serves an organization’s triple bottom line. It’s marketing that aims to
- Empower communities by enriching their social capital (People)
- Protect and restore the environment (Planet)
- Generate prosperity for the organization and its stakeholders (Prosperity)
The definition has evolved since my first attempt to coin it – marketing mix aiming to sustain a socially responsible organization – but as a set of three goals, the gist has remained the same. Sustainable marketing is marketing for the triple bottom line.
Sustainable marketing returns to the roots of marketing by discovering and understanding people’s needs and then developing a marketing mix that satisfies these needs, while generating prosperity and restoring the environment.
Sustainable marketing doesn’t promote an organization’s sustainable practices the way green marketing promotes supposedly green products. Sustainable marketing stands at the core of a triple bottom line business, it’s its core business strategy. Its triple goals are its triple values.
This post is the first of many outlining my view of sustainable marketing. Next up: Sustainable marketing as a process.
Meanwhile, please take a minute to comment below.
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