Marketing Responsibly and the Environment

Marketers respond to the values of consumers. Through the screening and evaluation of consumer wants marketers are able to align their products with the demands of their consumers. The current consumer demand involves an interest in products that are environmentally conscious and sustainably manufactured. This is especially relevant among the target market segment of Generation Y and Millennials. These demographic market segments tend to be less focused on the individual and more focused on the community. These cohorts also have a greater concern for social issues and the human impacts on the environment. When targeting these demographics it is essential to focus on the interests of this demographic.

Companies that successfully market to this cohort recognize the concerns that these generations have for environmental issues. In response to the changing consumer value, marketers have reevaluated the marketing mix to meet the needs of environmentally conscious consumers.

A company that is especially adept when in comes to meeting the environmental interests of its consumers is Seventh Generation .

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Seventh Generation strives to provide its consumers with innovative cleaning and hygiene products that are toxin free, from the earth and good for the earth. The Forbes article, 11 Companies Considered Best For The Environment ranks Seventh Generation number one on a list of 84 companies considered "Best for the Environment".  Seventh Generation uses its marketing mix to promote plant based products. In order to provide a clean that comes from truly 'clean' products that are good for the health of individuals and good for the environment. 

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While many companies that are promoting their products as environmentally sustainable are perceived as Green Washing to expand their market interest. This is not the case for Seventh Generation, because it mission and values are to do good for the earth using a triple bottom line. The triple bottom line promotes a mission for the business that  values people, the planet and profits, rather than a mission that has a focal interest only in producing a profit. 

The customer's perspective of Seventh Generation is that they are true to their value of caring for the seven generations that will follow our own. The company is not only interested in caring for the earth for the people who now inhabit it, but also for the future generations to come. 

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The Seventh Generation Earth Month campaign strives to highlight the value that the company places on caring for the earth every day through both the goods that it produces and the values that it practices and instills. 

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Seventh Generation strives to enable it's consumers to change its purchasing of routine products, by providing a reason to change to current routine purchasing patterns of consumers. Through the creation of products that are good for the planet and good for consumer health Seventh generation is able to provide its consumers with a method for bettering the world and for taking action to promote a sustainable future for our environment and all who call this planet home. 

Works Cited

Kerin, Roger A., Steven W. Hartley, and William Rudelius. Marketing. 12th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education, 2015.

Marketing and Social Change

For companies with an established brand it can be beneficial for the company to coincide its mission with that of a social issue. This mutually beneficial mission is good for the company, because it can improve the brand equity of the company. Brand equity is the added value of brand for consumers and stakeholders beyond the functional value of the products produced under the brand name (Kerin, 284). This partnership is also beneficial for the social problem, because it increases the public's awareness of the social issue. Through the combination of efforts the hope is that there will be increased awareness for both the company and the social issue. 

NIKE, Inc.  has utilized the power of its brand to promote awareness of the capacity of girls to enable global change. The Nike Foundation along with other partners including NoVo Foundation and the United Nations Foundation created a collaboration known as The Girl Effect in 2005. 

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The mission of The Girl Effect is: "Change the world for girls and enable girls in their unique capacity to change  the world" (Girl Effect). 

In order to support the values outlined in their mission the Girl Effect has established the long term goal of providing 250 million girls living in poverty globally with access to the assets that they need to reach their full potential (Girl Effect).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxV_o65nZYA

The Girl Effect provides the empowerment of girls as a tool for overcoming global poverty. The Girl Effect in many ways functions in a way that is similar to the ripple effect. If you act now and educate and empower girls you are not only improving the quality of life that those girls are able to lead, but you are also empowering the children that those girls may someday have. The Girl Effect establishes that change starts with a girl. 

By connecting their brand to this social issue Nike is able to promote the empowerment of all women and girls. Empowering girls provides those girls with the tools to change the world. Through the empowerment of girls globally Nike is able to develop a brand personality that is associated with empowerment, strength and endurance not only in the athletic market segment, but also expanding into the female market segment. 

  

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Nike associates it's brand with the empowerment of women not only through its continued support of The Girl Effect, but also through advertisements meant to emphasize the power of girls and women. Nike is able to expand their target market to include women and girls and by doing so the company is able to expand its product mix to include a product line that is specifically intended for women and girls (Kerin, 250).  

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The collaboration of the marketing mix and social issues is not only good for the development of brand equity, but it is also good for the moral development of the world. Connecting a brand with a social issue is one approach that can be used to promote social change through marketing.  

Works Cited

                   "The Girl Effect." The Girl Effect. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2015. http://www.girleffect.org/ .

Kerin, Roger A., Steven W. Hartley, and William Rudelius. Marketing. 12th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education, 2015.