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Why Sustainability in Marketing Matters

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team member

Simon Francis

After careful research, Flock were delighted to recently release our Marketing Sustainability Whitepaper, “The Sustainable Marketer”. The paper includes three important frameworks to help marketing organisations build a Marketing Sustainability Strategy and provides examples, useful resources and case studies from our partners at WARC.

It’s a must-read for any modern marketer! Download “The Sustainable Marketer” below:

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As part of the report, we answer a key question: why exactly does sustainability matter so much in marketing today?

Below is a snippet of our findings, highlighting the increasing demands by consumers, employees and universal investors for companies to prioritize sustainability.

Consumer Demand

As a starting point, global consumers are playing an increasingly important role in driving sustainable and ethical business practices. To highlight a few studies on the topic:

  • 2020 Strength of Purpose study by Zeno Group – 94% said it is important that the companies they engage with have a strong purpose.
  • Survey by Futerra – 88% of respondents wanted brands to help them be more environmentally friendly and ethical.
  • Rise in B-Corps – companies that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, transparency and legal accountability, including Ben & Jerry’s and Patagonia. In 2018, B-Corps grew 28 times faster than the national economic growth in the UK according to the Office for National Statistics.
  • The impact of Covid – A recent study by IBM of over 14,000 consumers in nine countries found that 90 percent said their views about sustainability were affected by the pandemic, more than natural disasters.

Employee Demand

In addition to consumer demand, employees are continuing to push companies to focus on purpose.

  • Sustainability Millennials, in particular, care deeply about purpose in their work yet Gallup research found that only 41% of employees strongly agree that they know what their company stands for and how they are different to competitors.
  • Companies who have established a purpose with clear values, which are actively promoted by their leadership team and embedded across the organization, consistently attract and retain quality talent.
  • To further this, many companies are integrating sustainability KPIs into employee performance reviews, e.g. Unilever, with the launch of their Sustainable Living Brands, introduced a sustainability focus into every employee’s role.

Investor Demand

If consumer and employee demand isn’t enough to convince:

  • The largest asset management companies in the world, such as Black Rock, Vanguard and State Street Global, are also applying increased pressure for businesses to implement sustainable business practices.
  • In the annual letters to CEOs and shareholders by Larry Fink, CEO of Black Rock, sustainability is positioned as their new standard for investing.

To learn more about what Flock are doing to become more sustainable click here.

To take the Flock Marketing Sustainability Benchmark Survey click here.

Or, to chat to us about your own thoughts on Marketing Sustainability, please feel free to contact us using the form below. We’d love to hear from you!

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