Did you know that 78% of consumers find sustainability is an important aspect of their lifestyle? Unfortunately, many companies aren’t using effective sustainable marketing strategies to tell their story. This is understandable, as it’s easy to get lost in the twists and turns of the sustainability maze.
However, using these five sustainable marketing principles can help your company stay on track and reach its sustainability goals. Like stars in the sky, they serve as navigators to point you in the general direction of your destination while giving you space to customize them to fit your brand so that you can authentically communicate your company’s sustainability story to potential customers and clients.
The 5 Cs of Sustainable Marketing
- Consumer-centered
- Creative and cutting edge
- Community and connection
- Cause-oriented
- Clarity
Heightened uncertainty has a way of engendering knee-jerk reactions, and uncertainty is always bad for business. These sustainable marketing principles will help keep your organization grounded, regardless of the state of the world.
Sustainable Marketing Principle #1: Consumer-Centered
Whether your marketing strategies and efforts are B2C or B2B, the end-user is your ultimate target since consumer demand drives the free market. Looking at your product and your processes from the consumer perspective is vital.
Let’s say you manufacture plastics for various applications in the automotive industry and your client’s eco-savvy customers are demanding lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles with more durable parts. Your client, the automotive manufacturer, will also want these things because their customers demand them.
What are consumers insisting upon regarding sustainability initiatives in your industry? This can change over time, especially with increasing awareness regarding social justice issues, climate change, global economic crises and other challenges we must overcome to create a more sustainable future.
In your rush to keep up in the sustainability race, keep in mind that your products must still add value to the consumer.
Sustainable Marketing Principle #2: Creative & Cutting Edge
Adding value to the consumer means being forward-thinking. Your company should make continuous improvements toward sustainable practices, such as incorporating more renewable materials or improving processes for energy efficiency.
While you want to give customers and consumers what they want, to be innovative, you need to anticipate what they’ll want in the near future, sometimes even before they do. As Henry Ford said:
Prospective clients and customers want to understand how your company’s sustainability efforts compare to the competition. Your marketing content should address this, even if you don’t mention your competitors by name.
Get Inspired
Regularly reading about sustainability trends and innovations in your industry and attending local, national and global conferences are great ways to stay current and learn from top innovators in sustainability. As a result, your content will show you’re current on, as well as concerned and committed to positive environmental impact.
Find opportunities to get involved with environmental/sustainability initiatives, campaigns and movements to make valuable connections with like-minded people and spark your creativity as you prepare your brand’s sustainable marketing campaigns.
Showcase Your Innovations and Goals
When you know what your customers want and understand the ins and outs of your company’s innovations, you’ll have a better idea of what to focus on when telling your sustainability story:
- Have you found a clever way to reduce CO2 emissions through more efficient manufacturing processes?
- Do you have a unique partnership with sustainability-minded or environmental organizations?
- Are your products made from recycled materials that are also recyclable?
- What is your net-zero goal?
Be sure to share your innovations and goals through inspiring email campaigns and SEO-rich content, such as guest content, blog posts, social media and web copy.
Sustainable Marketing Principle #3: Community & Connection
Companies, activists and disgruntled customers are pushing out digital content focused on sustainability in high volumes to the community-at-large through social media platforms, YouTube and more. If you haven’t joined the conversation, the time is now. Here’s why:
Here are some Insta Stats:
- #sustainable: 11.2M posts
- #sustainablefashion: 12.2M posts
- #sustainablebrand: 334K posts
- #sustainablefood: 361K posts
- #sustainablehome: 195K posts
If you’re a B2C company, there’s major potential to reach thousands of people who may have never heard of your brand. From sustainable footwear to eco-friendly laundry detergent to ethically sourced food, shoppers on Instagram are looking for sustainable products in high volumes.
Additionally, you should know where your customers hang out on social media. For B2B, LinkedIn can be a great way to feature what you’re doing for sustainable practices and position yourself as a thought leader. With LinkedIn’s recent platform developments in articles, newsletters and video, being able to feature your sustainable marketing focuses beyond posts and photos and get traction is more feasible than ever.
Regardless of the platform, post regularly, respond promptly when someone comments on your post, and engage with others’ posts in meaningful ways rather than just pushing your own content and moving on.
Sustainable Marketing Principle #4: Cause-Oriented
Your sustainable marketing content should both reflect your brand and show passion for your cause. Even if your company is more conventional and buttoned-up, this is a time to let your hair down, even if just a bit!
What does your company care about? How do you see your role and responsibilities in creating a more sustainable future? If you focus your sustainability efforts on what you genuinely care about, your content will be authentic and inspiring.
Your company doesn’t even have to produce a physical product to join the sustainability movement. While a manufacturing business might clean up its production and create a line of sustainable products, a service-oriented company may donate a portion of its profits to a nonprofit organization that focuses on sustainability.
Create content with the broader societal context in mind rather than just focusing on your products or production processes. Highlighting social responsibility is sustainable marketing, too!
Sustainable Marketing Principle #5: Clarity
Communicate your message often and listen to feedback. Respond to your customers’ criticism and concerns. If you can’t meet their expectations, offer clear explanations about your challenges in doing so and what you’re doing to overcome those challenges.
If you’ve done a poor job of being eco-friendly and now consumer pressure is forcing you to make your company greener, admit it. This means no greenwashing or tricking the consumer into buying products that appear eco-friendly but really aren’t.
If you’re a clothing company and you developed a line of sustainable footwear that’s only 40% sustainable and your customers want to know why it’s not 100% sustainable, let them know why. Are you in the process of developing such a line? If so, when can they expect to see it? Would doing so triple the cost and become prohibitive? Then say so.
Never just say that you can’t do something. Every “no” should be followed by some kind of “yes.” People want to work with winners who find solutions to problems.
Say No to Greenwashing
Remember Volkswagen’s “diesel dupe” several years ago? Although the company admitted to installing software that cheated carbon emissions tests, they lost their customers’ trust, some of whom never returned.
Honesty and transparency throughout your marketing strategy will engender brand loyalty and help your business grow, even if your waters aren’t yet pristine. Misleading your customer for short-term gain will kill your long-term profit. Avoid that at all costs.
The Bottom Line of Sustainable Marketing Principles
Sustainability is about helping the planet and its inhabitants. It’s about the long game, not short-term profit. You know that what you do today affects future generations: your great-great-grandchildren.
To have a sustainability-minded business, your business also needs to be sustainable and turn a profit.
The good news is that consumer demand for sustainable products has risen so much that according to research published in Spring 2024 by PwC, consumers are willing to pay nearly 10% more for them, even under current inflationary pressures. And if your products or services target Gen Z, you really need to be on your game: they are the greenest generation.
According to an article in Forbes, “[S]ustainable investing strategies tend to perform as well as or better than conventional strategies,” so investing in sustainability and sustainable marketing is the economically sensible thing to do.
While another company’s journey to sustainability may look very different from yours, the destination is the same: Environmental stewardship that contributes toward the planet and its inhabitants surviving and thriving long after we’re gone.
At Kuno Creative, we’ve worked with local, national and global brands to create content that showcases their sustainability efforts and good corporate citizenship. We can do the same for your business. Schedule a consultation to see how we can incorporate sustainable marketing strategy into your overall digital marketing efforts.
