Role of Marketers in Sustainable Development-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Role of Marketers in Sustainable Development of Target Markets. Answer: Role of Marketers in Sustainable Development of Target Markets Marketing is defined as the process of advertising or promoting a corporations product to its target audience; due to fierce competition between organisations, firms use marketing as a tool to increase their sales. According to Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick (2012), marketing procedure also includes market research which provides necessary information to corporations that can be utilised in the process of product or service development. Due to globalisation, the competition between corporations has increased which require them to conduct marketing research in order to learn about the requirements of customers that assist in creating new products and services. A corporation can achieve various benefits by using an effective marketing strategy such as increasing visibility, global brand recognition, strong relationship with customers, consumer loyalty and many others. A person who is responsible for performing the activities of recognising goods and facilities desired by a specific group of customers, and who advertise such good on behalf of a company is known as a marketer. This essay will focus on understanding the duties of marketers and analysing whether marketers play a critical role in the sustainable consumption of their target market. Further, the essay will provide recommendations that can be implemented by modern marketers which assist them direct their target market towards sustainable consumption. The number of corporations which use marketing strategy to increase their sales is continuously increasing; the popularity of social media sites and smartphones has provided a new marketing platform for companies. Multinational organisations have the ability to promote their products to a global audience through social media strategy; online marketing is a two-way approach in which customers have the ability to interact with a corporation and provide their feedback on its marketing campaign. Frank-Martin and Peattie (2009) provided that the companies have to ensure that they fulfill their ethical duties or else they can lose their brand reputation because customers have the ability to give their opinion through social media sites; this transformation has also increased the requirement of ethical marketing. For example, recently Pepsi posted an advertisement on social media sites which depicted that people can use Pepsi to solve serious social issues such as police violence. The socia l media users outraged after seeing the advertisement and started posting negative comments against the company. The incident quickly collected media attention, and Pepsi had to remove their advertisement. This incident proves that the role of marketers has increased in modern corporations; the marketers have to ensure that they fulfill their ethical duties while marketing their products or services. Plaisance (2013) mentioned that marketers have the duty to direct their target market towards sustainable consumption which contributes to the development of society and protect the environmental resources. The concept of sustainable consumption is closely related to sustainable development; it is based on global issues relating to environmental pollution, climate change and famines. Sustainable consumption focuses on effective utilisation of resources, use of renewable resources, fuller product life cycle and intergenerational equity. Many experts believe that markets have the duty to direct their target market through their marketing campaigns towards sustainable consumption. Modern marketers perform various activities relating to marketing such as defining and managing the brand, conducting campaigns, producing marketing and promotional material, creating content, producing internal communications, monitoring and managing social media, conduct market research, and many others. Mai nly, the duties of marketers are divided into four key areas which include investigator, innovator, integrator, and implementer. Marketers can effectively perform their duties by directing their target markets which assist them in achieving sustainable consumption. Effective marketing can have a significant impact on the sales of a product since marketers use various tools in their campaign to influence the purchasing decision of customers. Marketers use various factors to influence the behaviour of consumers such as cultural, social, gender, and religious. Experts believed that marketer can achieve sustainable consumption by directing their target markets towards it because they have the ability to influence customers behaviour, but, modern marketers are not doing enough to achieve the same. Marketing is a great tool which comprises ideas, values, principles, practices, and mindsets that has the ability to influence and direct the decision of customers. According to the study of Indumathi and Dawood (2016), marketing can be used as a tool to influence the buying decision of customers that can satisfy the demand of both customers and corporations. Modern marketers avoid using marketing strategies to influence the behaviour of their targeted audience in order to promote sustainable consumption. Many marketers of large corporations have started using their platform to direct their audience towards sustainable development. For example, IKEA started it first sustainability-focused campaign called Wonderful Everyday which focuses on advertising energy-saving LEDs that people can use by as an alternative to incandescent light bulbs. Another good example is Levi Strauss Co.; the company eliminated waste from its supply change by reducing consumption of water and interweaving recycled plastic and glass into the denim fabric. The corporation also collaborates with Tide detergent to educate their customers about environmental benefits and cost saving by using cold water to wash. Similarly, Marks Spencer started using new packaging technology that keeps quickly perishable food products like berries fresh for long periods. The company collaborated with charity WRAP to educate their customers about reducing waste by making new recipes from food leftovers. The firm also reduces the cost of its food products near their expiry date to attract customers which reduces waste. These corporations direct their customers through marketing to educate them about environmental protection and reduction of waste which assist in sustainable consumption. Cherian and Jacob (2012) provided that the perspective of customers, especially in developed countries, has changed; the customers appreciate products or services which are environment-friendly and did not cause pollution while manufacturing. The customers prefer to pay a high price for goods and services which are ethically product by a company rather than purchasing cheap products which pollute the environment. For example, Starbucks gives it drinks in recyclable mugs, it support and provide facilities to coffee farmers, and they buy their coffee from ethical sources. The company market their products as ethical and environmentally friendly, therefore, customers pay a high price for the products. The demand for organic food and environment-friendly products are continuously increasing; people pay attention to environmental and social credentials of products, especially the millennial generation. Many firms are using their marketing platform to direct its customers towards sustainab le consumption, but marketers are not doing enough because they believe that it will reduce their sales. The research conducted by National Geographic provided that more than 61 percent of the global customers have provided that they are very concerned about the environment, but the rate of sustainable purchasing decisions has decreased in primary markets such as China, US, Germany, and Japan. The study provided that people want environmentally friendly products, but the statistics show that most people rather buy cheap products which pollute the environment. Therefore, marketers are avoiding directing their customers towards sustainable consumption because it might reduce their sales (Prothero et al., 2011). Also, brand leadership will be affected by sustainable consumption because parent corporations have spent decades encouraging customers to purchase their products in excess. But, modern markets should not avoid sustainable consumption in the era of social media and macro targeted marketing, the corporations have the ability to target their products to a specific target through whic h they can increase their profits. Instead of avoiding the policies of sustainable consumption, marketers should incorporate them into their marketing campaign to direct and encourage their target customers towards sustainable consumption. The marketers can implement various policies into their marketing strategy to change their customers behaviour and direct them towards sustainable consumption. For example, the marketers should establish eco-smart behaviour patterns into their marketing strategy which promote customers towards sustainable consumption and healthy lifestyle. The strategy includes various methods of nudging customers to provide them easier and better alternatives from an environmental perspective. Modern marketers can use social media campaign to gain the attention of people towards sustainable consumption; they can create a viral challenge or advertisement that gained the attention of online users and people will implement it into their lifestyle. Showing celebrities and ideal people in advertisements using environment-friendly products can also assist in changing consumers buying patterns. Conclusively, in recent years, the role of environment-friendly products and services has increased, and corporations which offer these services such as Apple and Starbucks have gained a competitive advantage over its competitors. It is marketers responsibilities that they encourage people to use environment-friendly products and reduce waste in order to preserve the environmental resources. The marketers should perform their duties by directing the public towards sustainable consumption which also assists the corporations in sustaining their future development References Cherian, J. and Jacob, J., 2012. Green marketing: A study of consumers attitude towards environment friendly products.[PDF] Asan social science,8(12), p.117. Available at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5756/81a7fd4301313aa5686c0ab645425558e980.pdf [Accessed on 16/12/2017] Frank-Martin, B. and Peattie, K.J., 2009.Sustainability marketing: A global perspective. Wiley. Indumathi, N. and Dawood, D., 2016. Impact of Marketing mix on consumer buying behavior in Organic Product.International Journal of Research in Finance and Marketing,6(10), pp.43-54. Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2012.Principles and practice of marketing(No. 7th). McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Plaisance, P.L., 2013.Media ethics: Key principles for responsible practice. Sage Publications. Prothero, A., Dobscha, S., Freund, J., Kilbourne, W.E., Luchs, M.G., Ozanne, L.K. and Thgersen, J., 2011. Sustainable consumption: Opportunities for consumer research and public policy.Journal of Public Policy Marketing,30(1), pp.31-38.