Changes in the Corporate Sector and Consumer Behavior
Question:
Write a report on Marketers are not doing enough in directing their target markets toward sustainable consumption.
There are many contributed factors that have led to the changes in the corporate sector and hence each and every element or variable associated with successful operational and business process management has changed as well. The impact of all changes in the corporate world has imported significant effect on the consumer behavior and market trends and hence the consumer behavior in general has witnessed a drastic translation and the past couple of decades due to the Global recession and financial crisis (Armstrong et al. 2015). It has to be mentioned in this context that the consumer and the transitions in it has a direct link with the marketing procedures opted by the service providers. In the current age, the decisions taken by the consumer market is heavily influenced over the marketing activities that are opted by the corporate companies. It also needs to be mentioned that with the onset of the different social media marketing innovations the consumer decision-making now more than ever before. Most of the authors have commented that the marketers have the potential to change the direction of the consumer decision making effectively and can possibly direct the customers to responsible consumer decision making (Evans 2015). This assignment will attempt to explore the impact of marketing activities on redirecting the consumer decision making towards the sustainable consumption and whether the marketers of the current age are doing enough to sustainable consumption.
Sustainable consumption can be defined as the process of utilization of the products and services that have a minimal impact on the ecological surroundings in an attempt to restore the resources so that the future generations cam also utilize it as well. It has to be understood in the context that the most of the resources that human life is intricately linked with is on the verge of extinction. And the most of the research scientists have indicated time and again on the grave danger that the future generations are in of not getting the opportunity to use the necessary resources that the present generation is using and a abusing at this point. Hence, many of the corporate authors have discussed the influence of the marketing activities that will propel the consumer decision- making procedures towards the implementation of sustainability phenomenon in the consumer decision- making activities (Gordon, Carrigan and Hastings 2011). According to the most of the marketing research authors, the most influential challenge and difficulty in this sector is the fact that the concept or understanding of the importance of the sustainable development, although there is a significant lack of this grave understanding being reflected on the different consumer actions that are taken or the consumer behavior in general. On a more elaborative note, there is a significant lack of sustainable behavior in the consumer choices in the present age and which is directly reflected on the lack of sustainable consumption in the customers (Lorek and Fuchs 2013).
Defining Sustainable Consumption
According to the recent research activities, the consumption patterns that the most of the developmental nations is not by any means sustainable as the most of the abundantly consumed products are from the non-replenishable resources. For instance, it can be mentioned that the most of the developed nations rely on the use of the fossil fuels, which is by far the non-renewable energy resource which play a profound role in improving the human life. However, with the drastically increasing consumer needs, the requirement for fuels is not decreasing by any means and hence the consumption rate is threatening the depletion of the fossil fuel resources as well. Similarly, the plastic products that are abundantly being utilized in the present world is also escalating the environmental issues (McDonald et al. 2012). In addition, despite all the grave warnings that the scientific researchers have been giving the world, the consumer demands are not being attracted towards the sustainable alternatives like paper-bags and jute products. Hence, the most of the consumers are continuing unwarranted use of these non- biodegradable products despite the man-made sustainability issues that are escalating in the present time threatening the ecological balance every day. Many authors have discussed this lack of connection between the consumer action and the idea or understanding of the sustainability in the consumers to the lack of effective marketing by the corporate companies (Lorek and Spangenberg 2014).
It has to be understood in this context that the major reason behind the lack of any initiative in the corporate marketing mix is due to the extreme emphasis of contradiction in the marketing activities that are being conducted for every service or product range manufactured by the most of the companies (Young et al. 2010). Most of the marketing giants do not decipher the concept of sustainable consumption to a realistic and possible marketing alternative, and one of the greatest reasons behind this can be the extensive consumer mistrust to the concept of sustainable consumption. The most of the complexity that is generated on the concept of the sustainable marketing or sustainability marketing is the fact that the user- generated content in the digital media marketing platforms has the power to disrupt the innovative sustainability marketing activities that are being initiated for changing the consumer behavior. As per the article of Phipps et al. (2013), the interest that can be generated in the consumers about the concept of sustainable marketing is very short living and the mainstream marketing facilitates the lack of enduring interest for the sustainable consumption directed marketing. As a result, the vast majority of the industrial sectors are opting for mainstream marketing rather than sustainable consumption oriented marketing. On a more elaborative note, it has to be mentioned that the level of understanding in the general public regarding the depletion of the sustainable resources is limited and the mainstream media’s generalization and skepticism on the depletion of the non-renewable resources is also fueling the general disregard in the general public about consuming less and consuming sustainable products (Prothero et al. 2011). Although, it must not be ignored in this discussion that a few retail giants and well known corporate industries have been attempting marketing sustainable products and a few of these ventures have also succeeded in the global market.
Challenges in Implementing Sustainable Marketing
For instance, the concept of organic food is the first initiative taken by the corporate industries at sustainable products and marketing those products to generate a general awareness in the mass regarding sustainable consumption. According to the most of the research the concept of organic food can be recognized as the biggest contribution to the concept of sustainable consumption by the collective initiative by the most of the influential organizations like the United Nations or Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It has to be mentioned that among the most success that the sustainable consumption oriented marketing has achieved is in the organic food sector in Australia (Spaargaren and Oosterveer 2010). The rapid success of these marketing activities when compared to the rest of the sustainable products can be the sense of urgency that has been developing in the general public regarding the quality and health of the food and the benefits of sustainably sourced food items on the health and wellbeing. Although the rest of sectors, there is a significant lack of awareness regarding the sustainability consumption. Considering the ecological footprint of Australia, the approximate 7ha per person is alarmingly high when compared to the 2ha per person global rates, and hence only sustainable marketing for organic food and lifestyle products is not going to be sufficient (Thøgersen 2010). According to a recent statistics, Australia is the global leader of consumption of resources like energy, water, and accommodation; and hence the need for interventional marketing activities directed at sustainable consumption of all the basic resources has become extremely necessary. Now, it should not be ignored that brands and companies have been taking their CSR responsibilities seriously since the last decade and the sustainable alternatives have been introduced in the market, although they are not being able to move the consumer decision making to the magnitude that is required at this point. The major contributing factors that have been discovered behind the lack of positive impact of the sustainable products is the confusing marketing attempted by the service providers. The confusing terminologies like green, eco-friendly, environment friendly, cage free or natural has been noticed to confuse the consumers more than attracting them towards the sustainable products (Viswanathan and Rosa 2010).
Conclusion:
In the present age, the marketing activities have been discovered to influence the most of the consumer decision-making, and hence the graveness of the predicament regarding the unwarranted consumption of the resources. And hence, the importance of the marketing activities on directing the path of the consumer decision making towards the sustainably produced goods and services. Although, it can be stated that there are a few significant challenges that are associated with the process of convincing the consumer market of the benefits and need for sustainable consumption and the only successful sector in this genre had been the growing market for organic food and lifestyle products. Although the needs of sustainable consumption is not limited to these few products only, but the confusing marketing activities for sustainable consumption is the main contributing factor behind the lack of enduring interest in the consumer market. It can be concluded that with the owner of social media marketing, the continued connection provided with the customers provides the biggest opportunity for the marketers to switch the understanding of the consumers towards the use of sustainably sourced products and services. Hence, it can be concluded that there is a conspicuous gap in the marketing activities for sustainable marketing. And, the need for more strategic progress towards marketing that is specific and directed towards motivating the consumers for sustainable consumption rather than confusing them increasing rapidly as well.
References:
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
Evans, D., 2011. Consuming conventions: sustainable consumption, ecological citizenship and the worlds of worth. Journal of Rural Studies, 27(2), pp.109-115.
Gordon, R., Carrigan, M. and Hastings, G., 2011. A framework for sustainable marketing. Marketing Theory, 11(2), pp.143-163.
Lorek, S. and Fuchs, D., 2013. Strong sustainable consumption governance–precondition for a degrowth path?. Journal of cleaner production, 38, pp.36-43.
Lorek, S. and Spangenberg, J.H., 2014. Sustainable consumption within a sustainable economy–beyond green growth and green economies. Journal of cleaner production, 63, pp.33-44.
McDonald, S., Oates, C.J., Alevizou, P.J., Young, C.W. and Hwang, K., 2012. Individual strategies for sustainable consumption. Journal of Marketing Management, 28(3-4), pp.445-468.
Phipps, M., Ozanne, L.K., Luchs, M.G., Subrahmanyan, S., Kapitan, S., Catlin, J.R., Gau, R., Naylor, R.W., Rose, R.L., Simpson, B. and Weaver, T., 2013. Understanding the inherent complexity of sustainable consumption: A social cognitive framework. Journal of Business Research, 66(8), pp.1227-1234.
Prothero, A., Dobscha, S., Freund, J., Kilbourne, W.E., Luchs, M.G., Ozanne, L.K. and Thøgersen, J., 2011. Sustainable consumption: Opportunities for consumer research and public policy. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 30(1), pp.31-38.
Spaargaren, G. and Oosterveer, P., 2010. Citizen-consumers as agents of change in globalizing modernity: the case of sustainable consumption. Sustainability, 2(7), pp.1887-1908.
Thøgersen, J., 2010. Country differences in sustainable consumption: The case of organic food. Journal of Macromarketing, 30(2), pp.171-185.
Viswanathan, M. and Rosa, J.A., 2010. Understanding subsistence marketplaces: Toward sustainable consumption and commerce for a better world. Journal of Business Research, 63(6), pp.535-537.
Young, W., Hwang, K., McDonald, S. and Oates, C.J., 2010. Sustainable consumption: green consumer behaviour when purchasing products. Sustainable development, 18(1), pp.20-31.
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