Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Keywords: environment, sustainability, externality costs, financial meltdown, consumer lifestyles, demarketing,
social marketing
O
n this occasion to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the same or a larger basket of resources than we have now
Journal of Marketing, it is important to recognize its (see World Commission on Environment and Development
many contributions to the theory and practice of 1987). It would be easy for this generation to use up more
marketing. Journal of Marketing has carried articles of our resource endowments and leave future generations
advancing new marketing concepts, theories, practices, and with less, and this would be unconscionable.
empirical findings, and it has had to overcome old views of According to Professor Walter Georgio Scott (2005), we
marketing. As late as 1997, Random House Webster’s Dic- face not one but several environmental challenges:
tionary of American English defined marketing as “act or •A change (probably irreversible) in the composition of the
practice of advertising and selling a product.” Fortunately, atmosphere and consequently of the climate;
we have broadened our view of marketing, as captured in •A depletion of the ozone layer, the shield protecting the Earth
the latest American Marketing Association (2008) definition: from ultraviolet radiation;
“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes •Soil degradation and increased desertification;
for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging •Increased air and water pollution;
offerings that have value for consumers, clients, partners, •A reduction in the availability of fresh water; and
and society at large” (see http://www.marketingpower.com). •Increasing depletion of physical and natural resources, from
Furthermore, over the years, marketing has broadened its oil to copper, to timber, and so forth.
compass beyond products to include other offerings, such
as services, experiences, places, persons, ideas, and causes. Companies need to make drastic changes in their research-
Looking ahead, we see the emergence of a whole new and-development, production, financial, and marketing
marketing environment that will affect the science and prac- practices if sustainability is to be achieved.
tice of marketing in the coming years. Marketers have had With regard to marketing, companies and their marketers
to recognize such forces as globalization, cultural differ- have operated on the assumption of an endless supply of
ences, the Internet, social media, brand proliferation, retail resources and, furthermore, that production, distribution,
concentration, recession, and environmental issues. and consumption do not add to pollution, water shortage,
and other costs, or at least that companies do not have to
bear these costs. Once we begin to acknowledge resource
The Environmental Imperative and limitations and externality costs, marketing will have to
What Companies Are Doing Today reinvent its practices to be environmentally responsible.
Of these forces, I would like to comment on the profound We need to recognize a major difference in the mind-
influence that the environmental agenda is likely to have on sets of firms and consumers in the presustainability versus
marketing theory and practice. Companies must address the the sustainability world. Consider the largely unexamined
issue of sustainability. Sustainability raises the question assumptions of marketers in the past:
whether this generation can leave future generations with •Wants are natural and infinite, and encouraging unlimited
consumption is good.
•The planet’s resources are infinite.
Philip Kotler is the S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of Inter- •The earth’s carrying capacity for waste and pollution is infinite.
national Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern Univer-
sity (e-mail: p-kotler@kellogg.northwestern.edu). •Quality of life and personal happiness increase with
increased consumption and want satisfaction.
REfERENCES
Diamond, Jared (2004), Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail ——— and Gerald Zaltman (1971), “Social Marketing: An
or Succeed. New York: Penguin Audio. Approach to Planned Social Change,” Journal of Marketing,
Drucker, Peter (1958), “Marketing and Economic Development,” 35 (July), 3–12.
Journal of Marketing, 22 (January), 252–59. Lee, Nancy (2012), “Protecting Water Quality” in Social Market-
Environmental Leader (2009), “LOHAS Forum Attracts Fortune ing to Protect the Environment: What Works, Doug McKen-
500 Companies,” (June 22), (accessed April 11, 2011), [avail- zie-Mohr, Nancy R. Lee, P. Wesley Schultz, and Philip Kotler,
able at http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/06/22/green- eds. Sage Publications, forthcoming.
forum-attracts-fortune-500-companies/]. Scott, Walter Georgio (2005), “An Introduction to Sustainable
Gerzema, John (2010), Spend Shift: How the Post Crisis Values Marketing,” in Etica Pubblica, Finanza, Globalizzazione.
Revolution Is Changing the Way We Live, Shop and Buy. San Milan: Medusa.
Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Stern, Stefan (2010), “The Outsider in a Hurry to Shake Up His
Kotler, Philip and Nancy R. Lee (2008), Social Marketing: Influ- Company,” Financial Times, (April 5), (accessed April 21,
encing Behaviors for Good, 3d ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage 2011), [available at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/942c64a6-
Publications. 404a-11df-8d23-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1KAaGiZ3u].
——— and Sidney J. Levy (1971), “Demarketing, Yes, Demarket- World Commission on Environment and Development (1987),
ing,” Harvard Business Review, 49 (6), 74–80. Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.