This afternoon, I stumbled across an article in The Guardian entitled, “The problem with sustainability marketing? Not enough me, me, me”. The article writes, “why is selling sustainability still so hard? It shouldn’t be”. In surveys, the number of people that have self-identified as being concerned about the environment has only been increasing since 2012. Also, countless surveys exist that show that a significant part of survey respondents would be willing to purchase more green products if given an accessible alternative. Yet, there still exists a significant gap in these consumer values and actions, or the value-action gap, that only seems to be getting worse.
The reason for this? A complete lack of a human-centered approach that current sustainability marketers adopt. The current tactics adopted by these marketers seem to be ones based on guilt for externalities to the environment, as well as guilt about what a particular purchase means for future generations – two things outside the actual consumer themselves. The article claims that while a consumer’s morals shape major life decisions, these don’t necessarily come into play when purchasing a hygiene item like toothpaste.
I couldn’t agree more with this. I’ve written about this in a previous blog post – I genuinely believe that as consumers, we purchase products/services that are in line with our values, which then go to shape our identities. As consumers, if we were to purchase a more sustainable alternative to a product, we would intuitively gravitate towards what that actually meant about us. These claims appear to be more in line with social statements that the consumer is making, rather than necessarily what this may mean to the actual cause at hand. The article references Prius drivers that might want to identify as “early-adopters who care about the environment”, rather than purchasing it solely due to what it means for the environment. The key to focus on here is the slightly updated lens in which the consumer is making a decision – these Prius drivers are making decisions about themselves in relation to the environment.
Thinking about this some more, there seems to be a clear connection to the concept of “Product vs. Customer Solutions” that we learned in the course. This notion that businesses that develop sustainable products should then simply sell them as sustainable alternatives is just outdated. The key here is to develop, and market, a product that links to the identity of the customer themselves. I will certainly carry this new learning into future conversations in the course about the effectiveness of current strategies in the field of sustainability marketing.
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/behavioural-insights/2015/mar/09/problem-sustainability-marketing-not-enough-me
