What is sustainability marketing?
A decade ago, few companies knew of the “triple bottom line”, ESG, or the International Panel on Climate Change. The Paris Climate Agreement had yet to be signed, the concept of a global pandemic was a hypothetical “what if”, and erratic weather events were still rare enough that they could be passed off as flukes.
Today, that’s all changed. Consumers are significantly more aware of their environmental impacts—and expecting more of the brands they support. Businesses are trying to attract sustainability-conscious investors—and looking for partners that can help them meet their ESG objectives. And employees want to work for companies with a social conscience—that offer a sense of purpose.
To thrive in this brave new world, businesses need to evolve with the times—and one way to do this is by building a sustainable brand reputation. According to Brand Finance Sustainability Perceptions Index 2023, customers are more inclined to support brands that they perceive to care about environmental and social issues—and that support translates into significant financial value.
“Our research shows that even for individual businesses, there could be billions of dollars of financial value to be gained from enhanced action and associated communication. Equally, there can be billions at risk from insufficient action that leads to accusations of greenwashing, or even misallocated or excessive investments in sustainability communication that does not cut through,” writes Robert Haigh Strategy and Sustainability Director at Brand Finance.
Recognizing this, a growing number of companies are investing time and resources into curating sustainable brand reputations in a responsible manner. One way they’re doing this is by adapting their business strategies to include sustainability—that is, they’re prioritizing environmental and social impact along with financial results. Others are taking it a step further by clarifying their intentions through a purpose-beyond-profit—and establishing a solid, measurable plan to tie their social, environmental and business objectives together.
With this solid foundation in place—comprised of clear sustainability strategy, metrics, and action—marketing teams have the ingredients they need to convincingly weave environmental and social messaging into their branding. When they talk about sustainable products, practices and brand values in an authentic way—consistently, over time—these companies are able to extract more value from their sustainability efforts, and create reputations as businesses that genuinely care about the greater good.
So what exactly is sustainability marketing?
Sustainability marketing can take countless forms—from the promotion of “green” products to issues-based thought leadership articles.
Patagonia, for instance, uses sustainability marketing to tout the environmental benefits of its products—but it also creates longer-form marketing materials to provide more in-depth (and nuanced) explanations about the materials and processes it uses. Additionally, the company tells broader issues-based stories through its podcasts, newsletters and catalogues to further develop its “green” reputation and forge a deeper connection with customers.
While this is a great example, it’s important to note you don’t have to be an outdoor apparel company—or have a direct link to environmental or social issues—to build a sustainable brand reputation. Tech company, ARM, has created a purpose to “drive positive change for people and planet”—and, as part of this purpose, the company is working to close the global and social divide by bringing internet to all corners of the world, as well as decarbonize computing. Spotify, meanwhile, works to “shape a world we want to live in”—through initiatives that strive to bring more diverse voices to the podcasting arena, and encourage people to “unplug” for their mental health.
These types of broader issues-based marketing initiatives demonstrate how purpose and sustainability can work together—and allow brands, and their customers and employees, to unite behind a common cause.
Why is responsible sustainability marketing important?
A growing number of companies are investing time and resources into uncovering their purpose—or implementing feasible sustainability strategies—but finding it difficult to share this work with an external audience. There are a few reasons for this.
For one, progress in these areas often isn’t linear. Targets are frequently missed, strategies need to be rejigged, and even wins can be difficult to promote—because sometimes moving forward involves choosing the least imperfect option out of a large list of imperfect options.
Second, sustainability stories are often incredibly nuanced. If you fail to share the full story—or are perceived to be hiding the less-desirable facts—you could be labelled a greenwasher. And that could bring severe reputational damage.
Lastly, greenwashing regulations are heating up across the globe—meaning on top of reputational damage, greenwashing can also cost you hefty fines.
The thing is, while it may be tempting to stay mum on sustainability, an integrated sustainability marketing strategy is still important, because it helps businesses:
Grow market share. Eco-conscious customers are looking for brands that share their values. Integrating purpose-led and sustainability-focused stories into your marketing helps these customers conduct their research, develop a relationship with your brand and identify your company as one that shares their values, preferences and concerns.
Combat greenwashing. Greenwashing occurs when a company misrepresents its environmental and social initiatives—and in many cases, it’s because one hand isn’t talking to the other. When a company bakes an environmental or social purpose into its business strategy—and every department is clear on its role in achieving that purpose—marketing is empowered to not only communicate all sustainability initiatives in a truthful manner, but it can also correct misconceptions that may be floating around a particular industry.
Build credibility and trust. Sustainability marketing is an opportunity to peel back the curtain and show your customers and other stakeholders who you really are. It’s a chance to showcase your beliefs, passions—and highlight the human side of your operation. When this is done authentically, and when your message as a “company with heart” is reiterated, over and over again, you will increase your loyal customer base, attract like-minded employees and bolster that positive brand perception.
Maximize your impact. Businesses that are genuinely pursuing sustainability for the greater good are astutely aware that to make a real impact, you need collective action. Sustainability marketing offers a chance to get your message out, and ultimately find like-minded employees, vendors, industry partners and even non-profits that can help you make significant headway on your chosen purpose.
How to get started on sustainability marketing
Sustainability marketing should be a reflection of your organizational culture and actions—marketing departments should not be leading the charge on this. So if your company isn’t quite there yet, your first step is to make the case to the C-suite and potentially the board to become a purpose-led organization. This purpose offers a great central theme from which to conduct business, and focus sustainability initiatives (and marketing/communications).
Once you have a greater purpose in place—and have rolled that purpose out internally, so all employees are on board and taking steps to live that purpose—you want to begin engaging an external audience. To start, you’ll likely want to conduct some form of market research to really get to the root of your customers’ underlying values around sustainability. (For instance, are they choosing sustainable products because they want to create a better world for their kids, for their health, or to reduce their carbon footprint?)
You’ll also want to scrap the traditional marketing approach and adopt a more educational approach—at least when talking about these topics. This means, rather than “spinning” or “promoting” your sustainability products and policies, these marketing materials should aim to create an educated customer base. If you’re really doing what you’re saying you’re doing, you’ll want your customers to appreciate the extra effort—and be able to make informed decisions when evaluating your competitors.
So, in practice, this might involve skipping the vague, broad or overexaggerated claims and offering more context. For example, instead of slapping a certification logo on your product packaging—like “fair trade” on a coffee bag, for instance—use a little bit of space to explain succinctly what that certification means. From there, you may want to direct interested customers to longer-form content on your website—either via QR code or web address—to explain what it takes to become a certified organization, and the benefits of purchasing from one.
This coffee bag from Planet Bean offers additional context to explain what the term organic coffee means and how the company is taking steps to combat climate change.
This layered approach creates room to feed people the amount of information they need, based on their level of interest. Not every customer is going to care about the social or environmental benefits of your products/services or organization—a brief product description on your website might be enough for many. But for those that are, you can gain a lot of trust by creating content that helps them cut through the greenwashing, and easily find the answers they need to make an informed purchasing decision.
How do sustainability content consultants help?
This is new terrain for most marketing departments. As a content consultancy that specializes in sustainability-related topics, h2h content can help you find ways to fit social and environmental stories into your content calendar, catch greenwashing red flags, and craft meaningful, high-quality content that will help you forge a genuine connection with your audience.
If you’re interested in learning more about how h2h content can support your business, contact us.