It’s so easy to get enveloped in your own way of thinking that you forget the world beyond your mind’s boundaries. In spite of its rosy title, “Marketers’ Views Remain Bright on the Topic of Sustainability, Despite Gloomy Economy”, the April 2009 research study by the American Marketing Association and Fleishman-Hillard shows that
- marketers are only cautiously optimistic about the sustainability prospects in their organizations; and
- sustainability has a very long journey to travel before taking a real hold in the corporate and marketing mainstream.
While 58% of surveyed marketers stated their organization will be putting more emphasis on sustainability in the next 2-3 years, only 43% (a plurality nonetheless) stated their organizations have specific 12-month plans to increase the level of emphasis on sustainability in their marketing. Put another way, a third will keep or decrease their current emphasis, and 41% stated no change or decrease is planned. And, only 22% stated their organizations have put “considerable effort and resources” behind sustainability. There’s a long way between intent and action.
Just over half – 53% – of marketers opine that sustainability means “balancing financial, human, and natural resources for long-term benefit”. The good news: marketers are aware of the triple-bottom line aspect of sustainability; the not-so-good news: it seems the perceived benefit of balance relates to only their organizations.
“Corporate reputation” will drive sustainability in business in the next few years, according to 3 out of 4 marketers; sustainability appears to be about the looks, not the values, though “corporate culture” came a close second with two-thirds favoring it. Interestingly, data was largely missing in the study to support this contrasting statement from the summary: “Forty-three percent of those surveyed say that they will increase their focus on sustainability because it is the right thing to do, customers are asking for it, a sustainable approach supports their organizational culture and, equally important, sustainability offers a clear, distinct business advantage.”
The report doesn’t compare these results with any past data, so the study serves well as a baseline for future surveys. Marketers at mainstream companies have themselves a good start in catching up with those at sustainable businesses, though the commitment to do so is not entirely clear.
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“Marketers at mainstream companies have themselves a good start in catching up with those at sustainable businesses”
We see companies changing towards sustainable society but on the other hand new establishing companies are getting involved too, such as this bank http://www.e3bank.com they are raising funds and establishing a bank just from this approach.