Concept of Sustainability

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Master of Business Administration

Module Title Student ID No

: :

Strategic Marketing 1309254 How necessary is it for marketers

Assignment Title:

to adapt the concept of sustainability and in what ways could it be implemented as part of the overall marketing strategy? Submission date: Word Count : 22/10/2012 2989 words

Marketing Assignment: Sustainability

How necessary is it for marketers to adapt the concept of sustainability and in what ways could it be implemented as a part of the overall marketing strategy?
Abstract
Companies that are sustainability leaders tend to be better organized, more strategic and financially robust. These businesses are likely to have “increasingly powerful competitive positions in a world where environmental and social issues are assuming ever greater importance” (Matthew J. Kiernan, 2009).

The concept of sustainability is being incorporated in the business strategy of a growing number of corporations; therefore, the need for adoption of new marketing forms & new strategies that conform to sustainability requirements has occurred. Businesses have begun to focus their attention and efforts to new forms of marketing, evolution of which has brought about the creation of sustainability marketing.

The goal of this paper is to briefly introduce the concept of sustainability with various real-life applications, the evolution of sustainability marketing and how sustainable marketing practices can be incorporated in a business’ marketing strategy.

Concept of sustainability
The United Nations define sustainability as “To meet the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (United Nations, 1987)

There are 3 elements to sustainability; environmental, economic and social domains which are so called the triple-bottom-line (TBL) - aka “people-profit-planet”. Herremans and Ried (2002) argue that “sustainable development cannot exist

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