CONSUMERISM AND SUSTAINABILITY: A POINT OF VIEW BEYOND SOCIAL MARKETING

Afonso Carlos Braga

1, Arnoldo Jose de Hoyos Guevara

1

1 School of Management, Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

( E-mail: afonsobraga@terra.com.br, arnoldodehoyos@yahoo.com.br )

Abstract

This paper deals with a perceived conflicting paradox between consumerism and sustainability based on

a comprehensive bibliographic research that enabled an assessment if the planet limitations to provide

resources can influence business strategies that aim the continuous company growth in a finite planet.

Moreover, brings a point of view of the role of the Marketing Department in providing inputs in the

strategic long term planning of those companies to shape the future of its organization as well as the

trend setter group of professionals that bring and shape the sustainability drivers to the business. Part of

the analysis revealed that while the Marketing Department has limited power or voice to influence

business decisions, the ‘greener’ initiatives like Social Marketing, Sustainable Marketing and

Sustainable Consumption has potential to either evolve to or incorporate a new concept, the ‘Conscious

Marketing’. The paper will illustrate that this innovative marketing concept has a greater opportunity to

be kicked off at the academic level in Universities and Business School that will reinforce the relevance

of the theme and help to build in the students, a new generation of professionals, the knowledge that this

is a finite planet with limited resources and that the humanity need to revisit its consumption standards

to ensure living conditions to the future generations.

Keywords: Social Marketing, Sustainable Marketing, Conscious Marketing, Consumerism,

Sustainability

Introduction

Throughout the twentieth century the discipline of marketing has emerged, gained importance and

visibility, and is today one of the strategic areas in most leading enterprises around the world. The use of

a number of marketing tools such as Segmentation and Positioning (LAS CASAS, 2006), or the study

and understanding of the Company and Marketing Strategy (KOTLER and ARMSTRONG, 2007), and

even research and models from psychology like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943), form a complex

framework that is multi-faceted and with a wide range of approaches which lead to a marketing

discipline that can be applied from a more intuitive approach to a scientific and structured manner. Such

breadth of applications and theories, allied to the interpretations of these tools made by companies,

provided an evolution of the marketing theories and, eventually, the evolution of the modern society

pushed by consumerism (instead of consumption), thus conflicting with some of the principles and

precepts of sustainability (BAUMAN, 2007 2001; GUEVARA, 2008). Moreover, marketing can

sometimes get confused with sales/selling, as defined by Drucker (1973): “The aim of marketing is to

know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits them and sells itself.”

The central question of this paper is: the development of research and theories about Social Marketing

are also provoking discussions about a possible paradox between consumerism and sustainability?

The task of gathering information, theories and literature, associated with the discussion of the concepts

of topics such as marketing, sales, consumer, corporate responsibility, etc. brings up attention for a still

not very clear reality for now entitled as ‘conscious marketing’. Why is that? Because there are already

recognized concepts like conscious consumption (BALLANTINE & CREERY, 2009; AKATU

RESEARCH, 2012), sustainable consumption (PHIPPS et al, 2012; JACKSON, 2005), social marketing

(DANN, 2009; PEATTIE & PEATTIE, 2008), sustainable marketing (GORDON, R; CARRIGAN, M.;.

HASTINGS, G., 2011), etc., but nothing that directly addresses the possible paradox of educating future

generations to consume solely the necessary to maintain a good quality of life with a view to preserving

the planet.

For example, a Google search selecting the words ‘conscious consumption’, aggregated in that order,

generated the following result: "about 738,000 results (0.32 seconds)". When doing this same search

with the words ‘conscious marketing’ the result was: "about 2,870 results (0.31 seconds)", i.e., 0.4%

related subjects compared to conscious consumption. Focusing on the academy, the same search on

Google Scholar brought the following results: 4,100 cases for ‘conscious consumption’ and 53 for

‘conscious marketing’, i.e. 1.3%. The conclusion is that both in academia and in the general society

there is a big gap in terms of studies and/or professional practice on the central theme of this paper,

eventually a new marketing concept to be explored. So this may be a first step for future theses and

studies for a potential new concept in marketing.

Theoretical Rationale

The interpretation in selected marketing concepts

The second part of this article covered a critical reading whether some of the most popular theories of

marketing and administration has a tendency to encourage consumerism or if those theories are biased

and interpreted accordingly to corroborate with the basic guideline of ‘ad infinitum corporate growth’.

Starting with the market segmentation, an important marketing tool to orient investment focus,

according to Schiffman and Kanuk (2000) it can be defined as: “the process of dividing a market into

distinct subsets of consumers with common needs or characteristics and selecting one or more segments,

to which companies can deliver a distinctive marketing mix (product or service)”. That means, when

targeting a group the marketer can focus on a specific target audience for which his/her service and/or

product are differentiated, relevant and meets the clients’ needs.

In order to fulfil the consumers’ needs an executive area has to understand their behavior by conducting

analysis of a number of influencing factors such as: product/service usage, what kind of need is being

met, external factors (brand, status), internal factors (motivation, attitude), etc. Las Casas (2006) defines

the analysis of the customers’ behavior as follows: "an interdisciplinary marketing subject that deals

with various areas of knowledge such as economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology and

communication". So here begins the inevitable complexity and the interpretation, which is part of day to

day activities of marketing, a discipline that is not hard science but rather an applied science (among

those who accept this definition). In short, the interpretation is an intrinsic part of the function and

which marketeer has not heard at least once in his/her career the following statement: "go ahead with

this new campaign. My wife and my mother saw the rough material prepared by the creative team and

felt great about it!" So subjectivity is part of the interpretation in marketing, however subjectivity is not

addressed in this article and it is not a point of discussion, it only strengthens the argument that there is

interpretation in marketing.

Positioning a product or service turns out to be one of the most important tasks of the marketing

department of any company after all it is either the brand message, the brand personality or product

differential that the organization want to communicate. Each customer has a unique perception of the

world around him/her and the role of the positioning is to “fix in the customer's head the brand message

the company wants”. (LAS CASAS, 2006)

Furrier and Serralvo (2004) define positioning as "the process of studying, defining and implementing

differentiated value propositions that provide competitive brand advantage, relative to the competition in

a category, considering the audience’s point of view and perception of the advantage".

The best known tool to position a brand is the communication, more specifically advertising, which has

the role of transmitting the concepts and images of the manufacturer’s product/service. A reinforcement

on the argument that the marketing department has the ability as well as the function of interpreting

(eventually manipulate?) the entire communication arsenal to position and build a brand image.

Moving on the interpretation rationale, in the chapter in which Kotler and Armstrong (2007) present the

subject ‘Company and Marketing Strategy’, despite the use of models, theories and practical studies, yet

there is room for discussion. Kotler presents one of the most popular models used by the departments of

numerous companies in various sectors, the Boston Consulting Group matrix (BCG), as illustrated in

Figure 1. To allocate brands and products in the respective quadrants it is usual to make use of surveys,

client data, secondary market data, etc. However, in the end, it is the interpretation of a marketeer, his

team and superiors that define the analysis and mainly the actions that will be made based on the matrix.

Figure 1: BCG Matrix

Source: www.quickmba.com/strategy/matrix/bcg/, access in 24 June 2014

Another important concept is the well known hierarchy of needs of Maslow (1943) that this is one of the

most referenced papers in the academy and wide used in marketing theories and books as it allows to

better understanding what type of consumer need can be met by a particular product or service. One can

evaluate if a product or service meets a number of needs, ranging from physiological to psychological,

that are survival, safety/security, social needs, esteem or self-actualization, as illustrated in Figure 2.

This article hypothesizes that some marketing driven companies, possibly more evident on those that

deal in the luxury market, while 'interpreting' how to meet the consumers’ needs may conclude that to

improve their self-esteem, self-trust, etc. part of the target audience should get product X, because this is

the most used by 'Hollywood stars'1 passing along to this individual that the ownership of that

commodity will deliver to the buyer the same feeling or visibility, perhaps fame, of that celebrity.

Figure 2: Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

1 Fictitious example of the author, not based on statistics, just to illustrate the example.

Source: http://communicationtheory.org/maslow%E2%80%99s-hierarchy-of-needs/, access on 23 June 2014

The two selected marketing tools or techniques highlighted in the models are mainly used by mass

products, regardless if these are fast moving consumer goods or durables goods, which are the most

visible industrial products and services to the average citizen. In general companies like Neslté,

Unilever, Coca Cola, Apple and even GM, Honda, Hyundai, etc. are the ones that enjoy considerable

global marketing budgets to build their respective brand images and attract the consumers’ purchasing

interest. The Marketing Departments of these mega companies invest around the world a lot in planning,

in market intelligence and in investment for the continuous growth of their businesses, preferably more

than its direct competitors. At the end it will all lead to consumption, eventually consumerism, and the

immediate economic and environmental consequences of the act of the endless purchase of goods.

Sustainability and Marketing

Moving on now to sustainability concepts that are associated to consumption in general, Ballantine and

Creery (2009) depart from Maslow's hierarchy of needs to investigate what they have defined the

‘voluntary simplifiers’. Through in-depth interviews with twelve consumers identified as belonging to

that group, the authors concluded that these consumers are more likely to adopt 'conscious consumption'

because they already have the physiological needs level met. Reinforcing this point Akatu’s Research

(2012) presented on the topline results that to reach the conscious consumption level "it would be

desirable to seek the 'sweet spot' of the relationship between the welfare generated and the human

resources and materials allocated to get to it. Creating conditions for this to happen collectively, on a

large scale, is what is expected from enterprises and governments that are truly committed to sustainable

happiness of their societies." It turns out however that there is much inequality, not only in the

perception of this concept, but also in the proportion of the population that has reached this level of

commitment, due to the unequal distribution of wealth across the planet, as shown by the data from the

Global Inequality Index2 (GINI, 2012) that show a little evolution since the turn of the century, going

from 40.37 in 2000 to 35.75 in 2011.

A closer point of view for the conscious consumption described would be 'sustainable consumption'

2 GINI index measures the extent to which the distribution of income (or, in some cases, consumption expenditure)

among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Lorenz curve

plots the cumulative percentages of total income received against the cumulative number of recipients, starting with

the poorest individual or household. The GINI index measures the area between the Lorenz curve and a hypothetical

line of absolute equality, expressed as a percentage of the maximum area under the line. Thus a GINI index of 0

represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality.

which is defined by Phipps et al (2012) as being: “a consumption that simultaneously optimizes the

environmental, social and economic consequences of acquisition, use and disposition in order to meet

the needs of both current and future generations”. This definition is the one most commonly associated

and already adopted by numerous companies and corporations, the ‘triple bottom line’ as it addresses

that are sustainable solutions that seek positive outcomes in social, economic and environmental areas.

In the search of practical and political solutions, Jackson (2005) has developed an extensive research to

study the way to establish policies that may lead to conscious consumption. The proposal defines this

type of consumption as: [...] examples of such behaviors include: the recycling of household wastes,

purchase of ‘sustainable’ products, using energy efficient appliances, choosing green

electricity tariffs, composting garden and kitchen waste, investing in ‘ethical’ funds,

conserving water or energy, buying organic food, returning electrical goods for re-

use or recycling, switching transport mode, changing travel behavior, buying

remanufactured or reused goods, reducing material consumption, pursuing

‘voluntary simplicity’ and so on. (JACKSON, 2005)

Part of the marketeers’ job is to understand the customers and their consumption patterns to design

marketing plans and marketing strategies for theirs corporations. Therefore, it is expected that the

concepts of ‘conscious consumption’ and ‘sustainable consumption’ would generate studies,

commercial tools and definitions about ‘social marketing’ and ‘sustainable marketing’. In fact, a number

of authors developed papers, book chapters, etc. about those topics, like Ken and Sue Peattie from

Cardiff, UK, that have been conducting for almost a decade specific research about social marketing.

According to Peattie and Peattie (2008), social marketing initiatives should bring to the business arena

an alternative approach to marketing for sustainability, on their own terms, “social marketing seeks to

utilize tools, techniques and concepts derived from commercial marketing in pursuit of social goals”,

notwithstanding reinforcing Andreasen (2006) that earlier stated a similar definition and affirmed:

“social marketing is about making a better world for all of us”. Moreover, Dann (2009) produced a

paper with a comprehensive research of the most used contemporary commercial definitions of social

marketing with the aim to redefine its definition. The conclusion of his work was: “the adaptation or

adoption of commercial marketing activities, institutions and processes as means to induce behavioral

change in a targeted audience on a temporary or permanent basis to achieve a social goal”.

One of the goals of this paper was to understand if social marketing is sufficient to address the

sustainability challenges the planet is facing, but at the end, social is too broad and can range from

obesity to ethical behavior. Considering that a new concept could be considered, the ‘sustainable

marketing’, that by literally making the use of the word ‘sustainable’ could than nail down towards a

more concrete emphasis in sustainability. The best reference is the paper from Gordon, Carrigan and

Hastings (2011) that in the abstract addresses the fundaments of their work: [...] how sustainable marketing could be achieved through the contribution of three

existing marketing sub-disciplines; green marketing, social marketing and critical

marketing. Green marketing facilitates the development and marketing of more

sustainable products and services while introducing sustainability efforts into the

core of the marketing process and business practice. Social marketing involves using

the power of marketing to encourage sustainable behavior among individuals,

businesses and decision makers while also assessing the impact of current

commercial marketing on sustainability. This links into the critical marketing

paradigm which entails analyses of marketing theory, principles and techniques

using a critical theory based approach. This analysis can help to guide regulation and

control, development of marketing theory and practice, and to challenge the

dominant institutions associated with marketing and the capitalist system,

encouraging a marketing system in which sustainability is a key goal [...]

(GORDON, R; CARRIGAN, M.; HASTINGS, G., 2011)

The authors conceptual paper was to “examine how three dimensions of marketing – green marketing,

social marketing and critical marketing – contribute to a framework for sustainable marketing”,

illustrated on figure 3.

Figure 3: A framework of sustainable marketing

Source: Gordon, Carrigan and Hastings, 2011

In short, the framework proposed by Gordon, Carrigan and Hastings (2011) proposes that to achieve the

‘sustainable marketing’ it is necessary to combine the three elements/concepts of the figure 3. In other

words, bring to the discussion companies and businesses that by developing, launching and supporting

‘greener’ products and services will become more profitable and become desired brands for the long

run. Those corporations will then be more desired brands for the consumers and the 3rd

sector that are

more sympathetic to sustainable products and initiatives that benefit more ecological solutions and

lifestyles. That is also a group with “a good fit given the focus on voluntary behavior change” pointed

out as a key element to move the society to a new consumption pattern. Lastly, Critical Marketing is the

third component required to pull together the other two blocks. The basis come from the Critical Theory

which “task is to simultaneously offer a critique of contemporary society while envisioning solutions to

the problems”. By doing so marketing could bring together markets, institutions and legislators to

promote changes in behavior in the market system to influence production and consumption towards the

sustainability cause.

On its end, the OECD (2002) defined sustainability “as the consumption of goods and services that meet

basic needs and quality of life without jeopardizing the needs of future generations” however none of

the marketing concepts selected up to his point clearly proposed tools or frameworks that could be

immediately identified like the ‘golden marketing rules’ such as segmenting the marketing, brand

positioning, the 4 Ps, etc. That is the reason why this paper suggests being one of the few new voices to

raise the concept of ‘conscious marketing’.

Quantifying the marketing concepts that connects to sustainability

An extensive literature search focused primarily on scientific articles published in Brazil and Globally

was conducted to check how the topics related to sustainability, for example, are being connected

somehow to marketing, if there is a focused or broad point view of about the subject, if it is possible

recognize distinct brand/business positioning considering the most popular jargons, etc. The data

collection confirmed the initial diagnosis of few ‘voices’ about the main theme of this article, as

revealed by the query made on Google Scholar. The search was performed as follows:

Selection of terms (or 'jargon') frequently used by authors based on what they have published

including books, papers, theses, academic research, etc. The following terms were selected:

Social Marketing, Green Marketing, Sustainable Marketing and Conscious Marketing;

Research on two databases: SciELO.org to survey the papers published in Brazil and

ScienceDirect.com for studies published worldwide;

The following filters were applied:

o SciELO limited to Brazil;

o ScienceDirect selected filters were: "TITLE-desi-KEY (Marketing) and TITLE-desi-

KEY (Social) AND LIMIT-TO (topics, ‘social marketing, social medium, social

responsibility, climate change, advertising, marketing’).”

The search was limited to documents from 2000 to 2013 to bring the latest in the subject, to

assess the incidence over this period (increasing, decreasing or stable) and to see if any of the

concepts outlined the others.

Table 1 summarizes all relevant scientific work located since the turn of the century until 2013.

Table 1: Bibliographic Search – Terms that connect Marketing and Sustainability MARKET

JARGON

YEARPapers

(unit)%

Papers

(unit)%

Papers

(unit)%

Papers

(unit)%

Papers

(unit)%

Papers

(unit)%

Papers

(unit)%

Papers

(unit)%

2013 3 10,3% 14 22,2% 0 0,0% 16 20,8% 1 14,3% 11 17,2% 0 1 14,3%

2012 3 10,3% 8 12,7% 3 17,0% 12 15,6% 1 14,3% 8 12,5% 0 2 28,6%

2011 2 6,9% 11 17,5% 0 0,0% 10 13,0% 0 0,0% 6 9,4% 0 0 0,0%

2010 2 6,9% 10 15,9% 0 0,0% 6 7,8% 2 28,6% 10 15,6% 0 1 14,3%

2009 3 10,3% 6 9,5% 2 18,2% 3 3,9% 0 0,0% 4 6,3% 0 0 0,0%

2008 5 17,2% 1 1,6% 0 0,0% 4 5,2% 1 14,3% 4 6,3% 0 2 28,6%

2007 3 10,3% 3 4,8% 0 0,0% 1 1,3% 0 0,0% 2 3,1% 0 1 14,3%

2006 0 0,0% 3 4,8% 0 0,0% 3 3,9% 0 0,0% 3 4,7% 0 0 0,0%

2000 a 2005 8 27,6% 7 11,1% 6 54,5% 22 28,6% 2 28,6% 16 25,0% 0 0 0,0%

TOTAL 29 100% 63 100% 11 90% 77 100% 7 100% 64 100% 0 0% 7 100%

Global Brazil GlobalBrazil Global Brazil Global Brazil

SOCIAL MARKETING GREEN MARKETING SUSTAINABLE MARKETING CONSCIOUS MARKETING

Source: autor’s compilation

The analysis of the figures in Table 1 reinforced that there are few voices discussing the subjects that

motivated the development of this paper. Moreover, it validated the simplistic Google search that

originally reflected the low incidence of the terms 'marketing', 'sustainable', 'conscious', etc.

In terms of international publications there is a balance in the amount of published articles that discuss

'social marketing', with 63 jobs, 'green marketing', 77 articles and 'sustainable marketing', 64 texts. In

comparison with the Brazilian production, 'social marketing' has a reasonable number of studies with 29

items, however there is a big drop when it relates to ‘green marketing' with 11 jobs and with 'sustainable

marketing' with only 7 articles. In fact, the search confirmed that there is little production relating

sustainability directly to marketing activity in general.

The idea of 'conscious marketing' generated the lowest number of texts and papers addressing this topic.

Among the international search only 7 works were located and from 2007 onwards. In the case of Brazil

no articles were published.

Lastly, a quick scanning in most of the titles and abstracts of the articles checked on this search showed

that there is a wide range of use and application of the selected jargons. For example, the term 'social

marketing' can either come dissociated, and yet touch in the critical points highlighted in this paper, or

embark on the marketing the area role of exploring the communication tools advertise the organization’s

initiatives in social actions to reinforce a brand/company image and promote employees engagement.

Consumption and Consumerism, the impact on sustainability

Part of sustainability challenges comes from understanding the difference between ‘consumption’ and

‘consumerism’. The consumption itself must be seen as something trivial, daily business, an activity that

has been accompanying humanity since mankind started to live socially in tribes. Consumption happens

in casual meeting with friends to celebrate something or when people acquire items needed for their

survival, safety, etc. Throughout mankind history consumption activities produced related activities such

as production, transportation, storage, sale and removal of what was consumed and is no longer useful

or desired. However, there was a turning point where there was excess of production and the meaning

for acquiring utensils, food, possessions and essential goods to ensure the welfare of the family was

supplanted by a sense of possession, of owning stuff to show off wealth and/or social status. The

transformation witnessed by society was to perceive that happiness would be achieved by the good

feeling of owning promoting the action of consumption to moments of pleasure, satisfaction and even

self-realization with the purchase of goods. At this precise moment one enters into consumerism.

(BAUMAN, 2007)

A characteristic well noted by Bauman, in addition to the definition above, was that consumerism

gained strength when there was a transition from the society of producers, who sought to produce

security to society through durable goods, property, etc., to the society the accumulation (and

ostentation) of wealth. If at that time the durability of goods was important, in the new order

obsolescence strengthens and happiness may be associated with the moments of consumption, of

purchase. According to Bertman (apud Bauman, 2007), living the moment ends up being a hallmark

nowadays where everything is instantaneous, focused on individualism, a ‘right now culture’ and a

‘hurried culture’. Everything is for now, everything has to come easy and fast, everything is

instantaneous and happiness is obtained by multiplying the number of moments, what Maffesoli (apud

Bauman, 2007) called pointillist. The problem is that this is a cloud of points that are not necessarily

interconnected, turning it difficult to study interrelationships. This cloud of points reinforces the

"immediatism", the rush and how quickly one discards everything. Even if the cloud has a direction it

could change directions at any moment, becoming the fuel for the consumerism culture, according to

Bauman (2007) “the consumerism society is perhaps only one in human history to promise happiness in

this life, here and now, and every ‘subsequent now’.”

Reinforcing this potentially worrying prospect, Figure 4 illustrates, based on the report The National

Footprint Accounts (2012): "Today humanity uses the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the resources

we consume and to absorb what we discard [...] the Earth needs a year and six months to regenerate

what we use in a year."

Figure 4: number of planet Earths needed to replace the existing resources

Source: www.footprintnetwork.org/, access 03 feb 2014

In short, the planet limitations are facing a major challenge considering the conflict between

sustainability and consumerism that is present in many market segments, in many countries and most

diverse cultures. Figure 4 also illustrates a simulation done by the Global Footprint Network for the next

forty years. If humanity maintains the current consumption patterns by 2050 it will be needed 3 planets

earth to accommodate consumption and the environment regeneration. Only if there is a ‘rapid

reduction’, at the current technological standards, by 2050 mankind may return to the 70’s sustainable

level of 1.0 earth. Therefore many things must be done, there are various potential areas to attack to

reverse the current trend and increasing the number of studies of this new marketing concept being

proposed in this paper, the ‘conscious marketing’, the better the academic & business areas will

contribute in the quest for planetary solutions.

Strengthening the sustainability discussion in the marketing arena

A key marketing task in corporations is to segment the market, select the best target audience for the

company’s product/service and position it correctly in the consumers’ mind, as explained in the

Introduction of this paper. Hence, assuming that the ‘conscious marketing’ concepts still does not exist,

it is important to pick models or concepts from the environmental experts that could bring more

visibility and relevance to the sustainability discussion within marketing. Considering that this paper

suggests the ‘sustainable development doughnut framework’ presented at the Rio+20 meeting.

In preparation for the conference, Raworth (2012) published a study (the ‘Oxfam Discussion Paper’

series) with an interesting approach to the topic of sustainability that fits perfectly with this paper focus.

Entitled: “A safe and just space for humanity” the text casts an intrigue curious question: “Can we live

inside a doughnut?” The creative solution combines the concept of the planetary boundaries with the

complementary concept of social boundaries, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: ilustração do espaço seguro e justo no formato do donut

Source: Oxfam, the planetary frontiers based on Rockström et al, 2009

Raworth (2012) explains that to achieve the sustainable development it is required that human rights are

met (food, water, health and energy service) so that the use of natural resources do not press key

processes of the system (the Earth) causing, for example, climate change or biodiversity loss that would

force the planet out of a stable state.

Figure 6 illustrates in a single structure the social base (inner boundary) and environmental background

(outer boundary). Between the two limits is the area - in the form of a doughnut, which the author states

that “represents an environmentally safe and socially just space for humanity to develop. It is also the

space in which the inclusive and sustainable economic development occurs.” (RAWORTH, 2012)

The mnemonic model proposed by the author reveals its practicality when filling in the spaces with

official data adopted by the United Nations (UN), the Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO) and

figures from other entities to establish the limits humanity should reach in the use of these resources.

Figure 6: dimensions below the social base

(the pizza graph illustrates the dimensions and the privation distances)

Source: Oxfam, based on Rockström et al, 2009

Taking food as an example, the dark slice represents that 87% percent of the world population have

enough food, and the distance between this slice and the end of social base represents 13% of the world

population (about 900 million people) that are still undernourished, in other words, the planet do not

offer to all mankind the minimum decent living conditions. (RAWORTH, 2012)

The outer boundary reflects the planetary perspective (Figure 7) and evaluates “how close each system

is close to the maximum environmental limits”. It is visible that at least three borders - change climate,

biodiversity loss and nitrogen use - have been crossed. (RAWORTH, 2012)

Figure 7: Breaking the planetary frontiers

Source: Oxfam, based on Rockström et al, 2009

In short, it is clear through this model that mankind has been using more resources than the planet can

supply however was not able to provide minimum social conditions for a good part of the population.

That is why Oxfam produces the free texts, to increasing number of people around the World that are

aware of these challenges.

Conclusion Marketing, as an applied science, is nurtured and structured around concepts, theories and models. The

majority of the ideas tend to be applied commercially but to be absorbed by the marketeers, they need to

be recognized as practical, effective and easy to use.

The theme of sustainability more focused the planet’s preservation angle to allow humanity to continue

existing, at least in the way seen at the present, is gaining more visibility and relevance in studies,

articles, books, lectures and a lot of initiatives that aim to broaden the discussion with multi varied

points of view.

Interpretation is an integer part of the marketing activity as it is not hard science, based on numbers and

concrete experiments. Marketing deals with human beings, their needs, their emotions, their engagement

to products, brands, causes, etc., therefore that is a discipline that has potential to influence behavior in

the long run. Consumption is accepted, is trivial, and needed for daily activities, but consumerism must

be refrained.

There are already books, theses, papers articulating important concepts like Green Marketing, Social

Marketing and Sustainable Marketing. It was proved the benefits of Green Marketing and that

companies that truly developed and launched green products are enjoying the advantages of the triple

bottom line. The Social Marketing tends to focus more on causes, on the human relationship side of the

organizations and how those companies are influencing the environment, but in a broader sense (no

specific focus on sustainability or conscious consumption). Lastly, Sustainable Marketing is the closest

existing concept that has a good synergy with the main theme of this paper, however has not addressed

to date, at least based on the bibliographic search performed, a key point that is how to enlarge the

conscious consumption ideas into a ‘conscious marketing’ new framework.

An alarming fact, wisely assembled by Raworth for the Rio+20 Meeting via the Sustainable

Development Doughnut is that humanity has exceeded the boundaries in at least three planetary

resources, without providing to human kind, at least a good part of the Word’s population, good

conditions to develop as peoples. The most important achievement from this model, as well as Oxfam’s

initiatives is to raise up voices about the environmental challenges and concerns nations, organizations

and the society in general will need to face, probably sooner than later.

The approach proposed in this paper may be a small angle, but of considerable importance to the cause

that was noted as having little discussions: the role of marketing to understand, produce valuable

knowledge and develop analysis and frameworks aiming a greater goal, for the individual consumer and

the common good, that is the long-term preservation of a planet with limited resources.

Hopefully this paper will provoke further research and studies in the area of ‘conscious marketing’.

Qualitative and quantitative surveys are good opportunities to raise hypothesis and proof the relevance

of the theme currently suggested. The Google Scholar search revealed that in the academia the ‘interest’

in the subject is three times bigger than in the Google generic search (1.3% vs 0.4%), therefore bringing

this topic into the Universities’ environment may bring more educators on board to discuss the point

among professors and students to form a new generation of conscious consumers.

References

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2006.

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http://www.akatu.org.br/pesquisa/2012/SUMARIO_PESQUISAAKATU.pdf, access on 29 set 2013.

(Portuguese)

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