Marketing Strategy Toward Sustainability

Abstract

Sustainability is increasingly considered an important driver of firm success and well-being society in the new economy. However, developing sustainability faces difficulties and complexities due to the need of integration of economic, environmental and social aspects at multi-level contexts throughout the organization system. Achieving such challenging premise requires a clear prioritized focus on sustainability incorporated in all business activities and decisions to help formulate viable strategies and courses of action for balanced serving legitimate demands of stakeholders. In addition, it requires ongoing management attention and continually identify, analyze and create new strategies to promote sustainability in the long-run. Managers therefore have to rethink whether their current business model, portfolio and strategy are suited to sustainability principle. Nevertheless, little research explores how to make businesses become sustainable and most previous studies examine less in strategic marketing, particularly value-based perspective. Enhancement of global warming and rapid change in environments calls for the new roles of marketing to take responsibility towards human society and ecological sustainability since its professionalism claims to serve and save the planet for a better quality of life primarily through value creation. This paper, thus, purposes to employ holistic value-based approach for building sound marketing strategies necessary to sustainable achievement. Two critical issues are addresses: 1) which marketing strategies are relevant to sustainability, and 2) how to apply them appropriately. The study will use multiple research methods emphasizing qualitative technique to obtain widen and deepen information from experiencing informants in marketing areas. Then a conceptual framework is proposed aligning with the extant literature and practical examples. Finally, managerial implications and future research are recommended.