What role will marketing play in Tomorrow's Green Economy? We started the year looking at 'green marketing' and I was brought full circle by John Grant's latest blog, A Big Year When Not Much Happened?, which is well worth a read:-
John reinforces his argument for the increasing importance in authenticity in what is produced and how it is sold and goes onto argues that the creativity and 'knack for catching human desire' of marketing must play a vital role 'to help people reimagine the the world ... and clients to re-imagine their markets'.
For me the interplay between what is and can be, and is seen as being both profitable and sustainable to produce, is one of the central dynamics that needs to take shape as we enter the 'age of sustainability'.
One thing that I think has happened this year, with which we are only starting to come to terms, is that sustainable forms of creating value may well now be fast becoming the new mainstream - given that long-standing forms of value creation have quite literally lost so much of their financial value in recent weeks: what is lacking is the narrative, the stories and the language, which catches up with this new reality, and helps us all to come to terms with this profound role reversal and what this means for the future.
Creating the (force for good) 'learning zones' within which we can firstly think about the future shape and patterns of production and consumption in Tomorrow's Green Economy, and secondly, create the compelling stories which mean we can all take in and learn from what is going on, are going to essential - a major part of the Tomorrow's Company agenda for 2009.
To highlight some key arguments made by John with apologies to him for my editing ...
2008 will I suspect go down as a turning point year in sustainability. On the surface it seems like much less happened – there was less ‘news’ and less hype. But look beyond that and you can start to see this as the year when things started to turn in a new direction.
Even after the financial markets meltdown, in October a global survey found that nearly half (43%) of people around the world wanted governments to make climate change a higher priority than the economy.
In consumer markets we are finally seeing a new restraint as Andy Bond the CEO of Walmart subsidiary ASDA put it: “We are moving into an area of the frivolous being unacceptable and the frugal being cool. A whole new consumer generation will come out of this.”
So far we have seen green marketing as something relevant to perhaps the most sustainable 5-10% of what people buy; the green brands, but also the hero products (Prius) and major corporate reforms (M&S Plan A). Now we need to focus on the other 90%.
My own thoughts are increasingly focused on what role marketing can play in the building of a better world overall. Both a positive role in accepting its opportunities but also a self-disciplined role in accepting its responsibilities (My emphasis)
Why marketing? We need the creativity, the knack for catching human desire, the humanity and imagination to help people re-imagine the world, to help clients to re-imagine their markets.
It is ... about ‘how’ – finding whole strategic platforms to transform markets at the same time as being seen to lead. By transforming people's buying criteria - for instance from ticket price to lifetime cost, sustainable new markets can be built.
In these future markets:
- people will value the factors which are truly sustainable, not the ones which are ‘cute’ or ‘charity like’ but those which really do promote low energy, low carbon emissions, low waste, workers welfare, health and so on
- people will continue to reclaim brand meanings; brands will be more authentic and green villains will increasingly have their right to advertise and promote their brands curbed.
- faced with this companies will have to decide whether to go with their product lines or their brands. Range Rover might make an excellent brand of walking shoe, mountain bike, outdoor clothing, walking tour, slow travel holiday and so on…. And it could still make great (low energy) farm and wilderness worker vehicles. It just isn’t tenable for it to remain a gas guzzling fantasy car at the same time.
The question for every marketing client is very simple. Do I want to be part of the new world, which will in large part be a sustainable world? I’m not pretending it is an easy question. It will require a difficult transition.