Marketing strategies for sustainable development

Purpose: To develop a conceptualization of marketing strategies for sustainable development. Methodology/approach: When Corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies that specifically deal with issues that fall in the People and Planet domains of sustainable development, are translated in a functional marketing strategy, we speak of a marketing strategy for sustainable development (in turn the marketing strategy is an important influencing factor in the overall corporate CSR strategy). This chapter draws on literature research and insights from several subprojects within the KB3 project on value creation. The subsequent sections of this chapter set out to answer 5 questions: (1) what are marketing strategies for sustainable development? (2) Which marketing strategies for sustainable development can be distinguished? (3) Which resources such as knowledge and capabilities are associated with these strategies? (4) What is the effectiveness of these strategies? And (5) how do the strategies contribute to sustainable development? In the final section, we draw conclusions and implications for policy-makers. Findings: A basic basic distinction is made between responsibility strategies (in which a market offering is positioned vis-à-vis competitors on the basis of its value for society) and integrated quality strategies (in which sustainability attributes are among many other attributes that should increase the customer’s overall quality perception of the offering). Firms that pursue responsibility strategies basically do the same thing as their competitors, only in a more sustainable manner, and they thus need similar resources as their competitors. Companies that pursue integrated quality strategies, are likely to favor more from a market orientation. The chapter identifies several factors that motivate companies to include sustainability attributes in their integrated quality strategies. Practical implications: Understanding marketing strategies for sustainable development is of key importance for policy-makers that aim to build on companies’ investments and innovations to favor public (sustainable development) goals. In particular, policy-makers should align their policies with the external influences on companies, such as stakeholder pressure, opportunities for dialogue and standards, and responsible competition. Achieving sustainable development on the basis of market processes will happen by definition at the pace of market development, which may be slower than the pace that is desired by policy-makers or politicians.