Jointly hosted by Business in the Community and The Marketing Society, and attended by marketing directors and consultants to some of our best-known brands, including Ford, Asda and Marks & Spencer, the aim of the gathering was to get to grips with what responsible marketing means and what its main objectives should be.
While the event was off the record, to allow the participants to speak freely, it nonetheless raised an interesting dilemma that is being explored in board rooms globally: what exactly does it mean to be responsible and sustainable, if indeed those are the sort of terms we should be using? Is being ‘responsible' really enough to tackle the problems that await corporations in the near future?
We have operated in a ‘make more, sell more' environment for more than 50 years. Yet, to reverse long-term damage to our planet, we now have no choice but to adopt a ‘sell less stuff that lasts longer' mentality. How do we do this and stay profitable? Another hurdle is how to convince the consumer to accompany us on this journey.
We all hope we will see some concrete signs of recovery as we enter 2010. This should mean that sustainability, which has taken something of a back seat in some firms during the recession, will be firmly back on the corporate agenda. Brands will have to think seriously about ways to involve consumers. This does not mean simply encouraging them to recycle or use less water, but rather, explaining why some choices they have now will not be available in the future.
How these sobering marketing messages are explored and communicated in a dialogue between brand and consumer will have to be addressed. Any marketing director who does not think this is the case should step aside now.