Amruta Sonawane, writes from Bath in UK about how the approach of Brand Marketers toward Sustainable Marketing has changed and how the media can drive us towards a sustainable future. She outlines the need for persuasive sustainable marketing and highlights how opinion makers and influencers can accelerate this process.
Sustainable Marketing is not only good for the world but also for the brands. According to WCED, ‘The concept of sustainable marketing holds that an organisation should meet the needs of its present consumers without compromising the ability of future generations to fulfil their own needs.’
It involves building and maintaining sustainable relationships with customers, the social environment, and the natural environment (Belz, 2006). Today, sustainable marketing is extremely important for society and it always has been.
The fact that it can literally help save the planet should be enough to motivate the consumers to buy or consume sustainable resources but it is also beneficial for organisations as:
60% of people surveyed are willing to change their shopping habits in order to help the environment.
Almost 70% would pay extra up to 35% for the brands that sell sustainable and environment-friendly goods. (Karl et. al, n.d.)
However, contrary to popular belief even though millennials want to support greenwashing practices, the products they buy or media or services they pay for are less than the baby boomers.
The reason behind this is they won’t just engage with a particular service or a product solely because it is sustainable, they also care for the efficacy of the product. The only key to getting their attention is to make something that does not require them to compromise (Lupenberger, 2017). Marketing is a tool that can bring a positive change as it has time again proven itself to be.
Thought leaders can have positive effect on sustainability by confirming norms
Sustainable practices in marketing also involve using thought leaders to promote a cause along with selling your product or service. Does the media shape you or do you shape the media? It’s quite an interesting paradox that can be explored for marketing as well. Are we as marketers affecting consumer behaviour or is it the other way around?
Regardless, what remains true is that there is a significant influence shared between the two. The media that we consume on a daily basis seems to affect us in significant amounts however the argument whether it is good, bad or both will never cease to exist. What interests me is the part that it plays on the behaviour of the society by confirming norms?
An individual feels less motivated or hesitates to do something if that person has not seen anyone else do that particular thing before. But, he/she or they feel confident or motivated to do it after having seen a popular person or other people in their social circles do it. This is referred to as Naive Psychology.
For example: if Mike is told that his classmates are supporting a change in his decision-making process then he is more likely to support the change than if he is told that his peers do not support the cause.
However, when asked why he supports the change in policy, Mike will most likely cite personal thoughts and reasoning as the most influential cause for his support (P. Wesley Schultz, 2021 et al, 2202). This is because people in our environment have a great deal of influence on us.
Social Networks as the influencers
A man is indeed known by the company he keeps because social networks play an important role in dispensing information (Rogers, 1995), its spread depends on the strength of social ties. (Granovetter, 1973).
In today’s digital world, a man can also be known by the shows he watches and people he follows on Instagram. The things that can help change our behaviour by influencing us to bring out newer norms for a sustainable future can be segmented into 6 different categories namely Public Commitments, Block leaders, Modelling, Group Feedback, Social Comparison, and Block Leaders. Out of the six, the social influence approaches such as Block Leaders and Public Commitments were found to be most effective ( Abrahamse & Steg, 2013).
Media plays an important role in providing channels to almost all the six categories mentioned above. It is the facilitator for all of them but can sometimes turn out to be harmful. With regards to sustainability, Media has had a huge impact on society via influencers, celebrities, movies, songs, etc.
Media Priming refers to the short-term impact of exposure to the media on subsequent behaviour and judgments. (Rosko-Ewoldsen et al.,2009). Research related to priming, found that exposure to rock music that contains stereotypical images of men and women resulted in men and women reacting stereotypically in the second videotape (Hansen and Hansen, 1988).
Just like rock music, movies, video games as well as songs, and even public speeches made by individuals that we have a certain similarity with or liking for can affect our behaviour.
Media for sustainability
Due to its immense impact on society, the media can drive us towards a sustainable future and it has been doing so for some time now. A few examples of it are individuals such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Degeneres, Greta Thunberg, Mr .Beast (Youtuber) who can be referred to as block leaders who have managed to create awareness to save our environment via different means.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s speech when he won the academy award in 2016 led to:
Google searches for the words, ‘Climate Change’ and ‘Global Warming’ rose by 231% and 210% respectively as compared to the day before.
Tweets mentioning climate change or Global warming were 636% higher as compared to the day before the Oscars which was more than those on Earth day in 2006 as well as the COP climate change conference in that year.
This proves the magnitude of impact individuals like Leo can bring out for sustainability and it makes one question others with the same amount of influence on the masses who are not seen engaging in talks related to sustainability.
Ellen DeGeneres, Emma Watson, and many more are doing their bit by starting conversations on the issues such as Sustainable Fashion, Climate Change, Inclusivity, etc. The fact that the majority of the population can be influenced by looking at celebrities makes us hopeful of a change that has a greater impact but at the same time, it makes one question others who have also had a significant amount of following and are still not seen using that platform.
YouTubers like Mr. Beast, Pewdiepie are the unsung heroes that are looking for ways to give back to the planet such as Mr. Beast’s Team tree initiative which has helped plant more than 23 billion trees in the last two years.
1.7 billion households have TV while the global gaming market size is 2.86 billion. (Statista, 2021). If just a couple of media channels have the reach that can affect billions of people then it is our responsibility that these channels are used for disseminating messages that can educate society and create awareness.
Movies are an important tool since it has been proven that movies can emotionally help people cope up with difficult crises (Tan, 2018). They are powerful because they can help depict the consequences of our actions and everything starts feeling real. Arunima Krishna, an assistant communications professor at Boston University in an interview with CNBC Make It said, “It’s not only what you say, but how you say it that’s important.”
I personally remember the chills that I had when I watched ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ as a young girl and got scared about the cliche “world-ending.” That particular movie motivated me to participate in a Geography project competition where I did a small model depicting the four major types of pollution. If one single movie could successfully influence me to do that, imagine the impact of this on society if it is encouraged even more.
There are many block leaders, a wide variety of movies, in fact, media in all forms at our service which can inform and conform our actions to lead a holistic sustainable life. It is also our job to make sure we particularly select the movies that we watch, celebrities we follow as well as the messages that we share on our social media.
If a 16-year old’s solitary protest can turn out to be the world’s biggest climate change protest then it makes me believe that even this blog has the potential to influence at least one another person.
A lot of us are willing to make active efforts for our planet and are still waiting for that extra push that sustainable marketing can give us every now and then. Based on classical conditioning theory, the more we see it, the more we will think about it and soon enough we will behave like it.
Therefore, in my perspective, there should be persuasive sustainable marketing used in businesses and media. It is the responsibility of society to realise the importance sustainable marketing and media holds in impacting our future because just like our mobile phones, our planet is in our hands too.
What baffled me is that even when there are constant discussions, campaigns, and conferences happening in developed countries with respect to sustainable lifestyle while it is India that has 10 of its cities in the 15 most polluted cities in the world, (Statista, 2021).
We need to act now in order to save our planet and us marketers can drive change by encouraging brands that undertake sustainable practices especially when reports show that almost 80% of young Indian buyers develop an emotional connection with a brand that is sustainable.
This, for me, is crucial for us to deliver our promise that was made in COP26. Young India wants a sustainable future and we as the ambassadors of the media must deliver.
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