Marketing for Sustainability

A rising wave of global interest from consumers and corporations in solutions to sustainable issues is creating opportunities for sustainable brands and products in all business sectors. Marketing has a vital and unique role to play in this by forming a more sustainable society as most of consumers’ material needs and many of their psychological needs are met through marketing systems. Sustainable marketing is the process of creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers in such a way that both environment and human capital are preserved or enhanced throughout.

The ability to adapt marketing strategies to sustainable products and services is becoming an important skill set for entrepreneurs, marketers and future business leaders. This course will focus on the marketing skills needed to meet sustainable market needs and opportunities. The course is focused on the concepts, challenges and approaches for global marketing of sustainable products, services and brands. The course includes principles of sustainability, sustainable business strategy, green consumption, green branding, greenwashing, etc.

This course aims to provide a broad range of tools and frameworks for understanding how business can interact with issues related to sustainability, taking a strategic business and marketing perspective. In particular, we examine how traditional marketing strategies can be incorporated into and/or modified in domains in which sustainability is critical. By necessity, it is essential to not only account for the role of firms and customers, but of government, non-profit organizations, employees, and other stakeholders.

• Understand the concept of sustainability and how that affects an overall business strategy.
• Recognize global challenges for sustainable products and corporate action.
• To identify the role that sustainability marketing plays for organizations.
• Create and launch a sustainability-marketing plan.
• Be able to differentiate and position a sustainability-focused brand.
• Be able to identify the key impact areas and sustainability of a product in order to create a valid marketing strategy.