Demarketing: How marketers avoid becoming a sustainability problem
- 07 December, 2021 07:51
Amid the recent flurry of brands promoting carbon offsets, recycling programs and other sustainability initiatives, there is another, much more fundamental issue hiding in plain sight.
If the purpose of marketing is to influence people to consume a product or service, then isn’t marketing itself one of the key causes of the environmental degradation so many brands are now working against?
The issue is complex, but in its simplest form the argument suggests the easiest damage to repair is the damage that is never made – that is, you don’t need to offset carbon that isn’t generated. Therefore, if marketers are not encouraging people to buy products, they don’t need to encourage them to pay more to remediate their actions through offsets, recycling or other programs.
It is a question that has been occupying the thoughts of Vicki Little, a senior lecturer in marketing at RMIT’s campus in Vietnam.
“We are in a classroom espousing growth logic, yet we know damn well that same growth logic is going to kill us all,” Little tells CMO.
The rise of demarketing
Little’s thinking was inspired in part by the writing of Jem Bendell, a Professor of Sustainability Leadership at the Initiative for Leadership and Sustainability at the University of Cumbria in the UK, and his 2018 paper, Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy. In this, Prof Bendell suggested there would be a near term collapse in society and explored reasons why this was not being discussed in academic literature or broader conversations.
His writing galvanised Little to examine how people engaged with sustainability from a marketing perspective. One of the solutions she has examined is ‘demarketing’. This describes the use of advertising to decrease demand for a product in short supply.
However, she also acknowledges this runs contrary to the capitalist agendas of many of the organisations that marketers work for. Another challenge lies in the need to overcome consumer psychology in relation to loss and gain.
“Trying to understand why people think one way and behave in another is very hard,” Little says. “The theory behind it is also very complicated. You are looking at complex systems and wicked problems and well-intentioned people who do the wrong thing. It’s a real Gordian knot, and it is hard to know if the thing can be unwound, and if so, how.”
That marketers are aware of this core conundrum is clearly reflected by a massive rise in campaigns and announcements promoting brands’ environmental credentials. The desire of many to balance capitalist instincts against sustainable agendas is also shown by the growth in demand for B Corp Certification, which rose 23 per cent globally last year.
However, a recent report from marketing and research consultancy, The Navigators, suggests many agencies have some way to go to secure their own sustainability credentials. The report, Fuelling Fantasies: How the ad world is hindering climate action and protecting our biggest polluters, was published by Comms Declare and surveyed 200 agencies.
It found none of the agencies surveyed know the carbon exposure level of their high polluting clients. More than six in 10 (61 per cent) were unaware of their own carbon footprint, and only 43 per cent had formal emissions reduction policies. However, 73 per cent wanted to acheive net zero emissions in their operations.
The need for change is also reflected in a rise in interest in sustainability among consumers. The February 2021 study, The Power and the Passion from The Bravery, Republic of Everyone and Mobium Group found global warming the number one thing people called out as their biggest social or environmental concern, ahead of Covid-19. The report also showed 36 per cent of respondents were extremely concerned about our oceans, while 33 per cent were extremely concerned about climate change. It was the same result for plastic waste.
These consumer sentiments have led to greater interest in cooperation and comarketing campaigns with sustainability organisations such as Planet Ark. Co-CEO, Rebecca Gilling, is engaging in a growing volume of conversations to explore how brands can bring a more sustainable focus to production and consumption.
“The way we would look at responsible marketing at Planet Ark is to drive more responsible consumption, and that may in some cases be about not consuming at all,” Gilling says. “What we are trying to do really is influence consumer choices that are more favourable to the environment. On a finite planet, endless use of materials in the environment is not sustainable.”
Planet Ark follows a waste reduction hierarchy of avoid, reduce, reuse. It has engaged with multiple organisations to drive these changes into their processes, including Coca-Cola Australia, where the two organisations worked to reduce the amount of virgin plastic in its bottles.
While Gilling acknowledges a more environmentally sustainable option might be to eliminate single use plastic altogether, her organisation takes a pragmatic view based on consumer behaviour.
“We recognise people are going to make choices that we as individuals working for an environmental organisation would not choose for ourselves,” she says. “What we want to do is encourage and inspire people to make better choices.
“For people who are producing goods for consumption, if they want to keep producing those goods, you could argue there is a way to do it that involves reducing the amount of material throughput. That is really what we are trying to encourage people to think about: Whether they are at the production end or the consumption end.”
Read more: How these 4 CMOs are helping drive the sustainability agenda
Why sustainability and marketing are a match made in heaven
Up next: How brands play a part in the circular economy, plus what else marketers can do to help sustainability
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The circular economy
One concept Planet Ark is seeking to bring greater awareness to is that of the circular economy, which aims to reuse materials for as long as possible.
“It is driven more and more by consumer demand for more environmentally responsible products,” Gilling says. “Also, whereas reuse and second-hand used to be a second choice, now there is a whole movement around choosing preloved items.”
One example is Keep Cup, an Australian company that manufactures reusable coffee cups, and which Gilling says has worked consistently to extend the life of its products while also striving to entrench behaviours with customers.
“It comes down to the consumer being aware enough to remember to take their Keep Cup, not to buy another Keep Cup because they left theirs at home,” she says.
Gilling also praises the efforts of global recycling pioneers, TerraCycle, which has signed an agreement to introduce its Loop circular economy service into Australia in partnership with Woolworths in 2022. Loop uses a packaging system that enables consumers to purchase popular brands in reusable containers, which are returned to Woolworths for cleaning and refilling.
Jean Bailliard has been running the operations for TerraCycle in Australia & New Zealand for the past six years. Over this period, he has witnessed a continual rise in interest from brands, governments, and consumers in his company’s sustainability initiatives.
“When I started TerraCycle here we were the outcasts, and companies were thinking we were weird,” Bailliard says. “We are technically a waste management company on a mission to eliminate waste. We think everything can do circular.”
TerraCycle has deployed more than 50,000 collection bins around Australia and partnered with more than 3000 schools. Bailliard estimates the company is now reaching one million consumers.
“What sets us apart versus other waste management companies is that we go after products that are typically not accepted in your normal recycling bin,” he says. “One of our first partners was Nespresso, which invested a lot of resources in it. The other big industry for us has been cosmetics, and now we have 10 programs there.”
However, he also believes recycling is not solving the root cause of the waste problem. Hence he says he is most excited about the launch of Loop.
“It is a platform where you can buy your day-to-day products, but instead of buying them in single use format, they come in a reusable format,” Bailliard says. “You pay a small deposit on your packaging, enjoy your product as usual, and once you are done you return them to stores or get your packaging picked up and get your deposit back.
“The intention of Loop is moving to being completely circular. Because when you do recycling, you are using energy, and when it comes to plastic, the quality gets lower over time. There is a finite number of resources, and recycling is not addressing that.”
Bailliard says the changes in consumer attitudes can be seen in responses to a recent survey of 1877 households conducted by TerraCycle. This found 55 per cent of respondents said they would avoid products made by companies that are not eco-friendly, and 90 per cent would pay more for products that could be recycled.
Bailliard also believes Loop will overcome one of the key challenges standing in the way of greater update of recycling – how easy it is.
“What we have learned working on the Loop platform is consumers are only willing to change it is convenient for them,” Bailliard says.
Shifting attitudes
While Loop does not fully achieve the demarketing ideal of reducing consumption, it does reduce the consumption of packaging. Bailliard is hopeful it will further shift consumer attitudes, and in turn, the sustainability and circular economy initiatives of marketers.
It is services such as TerraCycle’s Loop Gilling says give her hope that as a society we might avoid some of the more calamitous outcomes of climate change.
“You need to have hope,” she says. “Hope implies action, and if you work in the environmental field, you have to get up every morning and say, ‘I am going to act in the interests of environmental presentation’, because otherwise you might as well throw in the towel.”
Gilling says circular economy initiatives will be a key focus for Planet Ark in 2022, with the organisation placing Australia’s transition to a carbon neutral and circular economy at the centre of its strategy. She is also looking to run a conference on the circular economy later in 2022 in conjunction with Planet Ark’s Australian Circular Economy Hub.
“What the circular economy is about is keeping materials circulating at their highest value possible for as long as possible,” Gilling says. “So for us, responsible marketing would be working with those companies that are trying to do that.”
Whether Prof Bendell’s predictions of societal or economic collapse in the short term hold true will only be known in time. However, in his writing, he recognises his own lose-lose situation of having limited career prospects whether he should be proven either right or wrong.
As for Little, she says marketers need to reflect on the role they play in contributing to sustainability issues. But they should also remember their skillsets are well aligned to solving these same issues.
“We know how to persuade people to do things - it is as simple as that,” Little says. “We have all the tools. We know an awful lot about the way people’s brains work. What we haven’t done is connect the dots around how bad it is for humanity collectively.
“Marketing is all about demand management, and we need to use those tools for good.”
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