سیر تکاملی توسعه پایدار به عنوان استراتژی بازاریابی : شروع دوره جدید

Time has witnessed the different phases of marketing strategy. Out of which, sustainability is the key issue which has emerged in marketing strategy over the time. In earlier phase of 1970s, ecological issues have emerged as a new paradigm in marketing strategy. Then in next decade, social issues picked up the lime light and emerged along with ecology. Reassessment of the issues resulted in evolution of green or environmental issues in marketing strategy and now the sustainability in marketing strategy has become the focus of attention of the researchers. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are, first, to review and understand concepts of marketing strategy and sustainability, secondly, to discuss evolution of sustainability in marketing strategy and lastly, to discuss the future of sustainability marketing strategy.

The first marketing course, i.e., ‘The marketing of Products’, was established in ‘University of Pennsylvania’ in 1905 (Peattie and Belz, 2010). The concept undergone many changes with time after that and the field of marketing has experienced different changes. Talking specifically about marketing strategies, these have also undergone many changes and focus of marketing has also become consumer oriented as the customers’ requirements and expectations have also changed. Different issues are raised in marketing strategy with the passage of the time and companies always tried to adopt different marketing strategies to gain competitive advantage in the market. Today, sustainability is that area which is being explored by companies for growth and development. Sustainability works on ‘Triple Bottom Line’ approach i.e., people, planet and profit (Charter et al., 2006). Brundtland Report, 1987, named “Our Common Future”, coined the term sustainability. In this report, sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”, revived the discussion on the role of business in society (WCED, 1987; p.24). Sustainability, on the other hand is defined as: According to Veiderman, “Sustainability is a vision of the future that provides us with a road map and helps us to focus our attention on a set of values and ethical and moral principles by which to guide our actions” (cited in Munier, 2005). It is clear from both the definitions that some steps have to be taken today to save future of coming generations. It also revealed that sustainability is a long term vision that deals with development of strategy based on ethical and moral principles. But, most of the time, the meaning of sustainability is understood as environmental sustainability, but it is limited not only to environmental issues, but also include the social and economic issues (Obermiller et al., 2008). Sustainability says that business practices should be assessed in terms of sustainability through economic, environmental and social dimensions. Therefore purpose of this paper is, first, to review and understand concepts of marketing strategy and sustainability, secondly, to discuss evolution of sustainability in marketing strategy and lastly, to discuss the future of sustainability marketing strategy.

No doubt that concept of sustainability marketing strategy has evolved over the time. Starting its journey from ecological issues it has reached now on sustainability issues. This journey of sustainability issues in marketing strategy has been discussed through different views of several authors in this paper. The study revealed that the sustainability can be implemented in marketing strategy when the companies will adopt it in their business practices. The companies are slow in adopting this concept in marketing strategy. Despite of the emergence of sustainability concept in 1987, companies are still planning to make best use of it in their marketing strategy. The companies have to give importance to sustainability issues as its importance has already realized. It is a win-win approach both from the side of company and customers. Therefore, companies have to resolve related issues and challenges to adopt the sustainability criteria in marketing. Already companies are influenced by various stakeholders to adopt sustainability in marketing strategy (Camino, 2007). Moreover, it will become a moral obligation in future. Before that companies should pro-actively adopt sustainability in marketing strategy. Companies have to learn from modern marketing that production concept will not hold good in case of sustainability marketing and they have to make sure and treat this as a new concept (Whiting, 2008). Therefore, marketers have to break their traditional frame of reference to integrate sustainability in marketing strategy. They have to come forward not only to bring sustainability in products and services, but also in marketing mix. Moreover they have to reconsider their marketing strategies so that they can cover wider environment and reduce the social and environmental impact (Charter et al., 2006). It can only happen when companies and their respective stakeholders will realize the importance of integrating sustainability in business practices. Hence, the new era of marketing strategy has already begun with integration sustainability issues. It is time for companies to integrate sustainability in their marketing strategy so as to beat the intense competition in the market.