Brand Strategies in The Era of Sustainability: Aleksandar Grubor and Olja Milovanov
Brand Strategies in The Era of Sustainability: Aleksandar Grubor and Olja Milovanov
Brand Strategies in The Era of Sustainability: Aleksandar Grubor and Olja Milovanov
BRAND STRATEGIES IN
THE ERA OF SUSTAINABILITY
ABSTRACT
Today, brands are powerful instruments of change. They are tightly connected with consumers all
over the world and profoundly incorporated into their everyday life and choices they made.
Consumers indicate with brands they love and strongly advocate the ideas that are embedded in their
philosophy and image. Consequently, companies that own successful brands, which are followed by
large group of loyal consumers, have the power to generate modification and even complete shift in
consumers’ lifestyle, value system, attitudes and behavior. Accordingly, environmentally friendly
brands are inevitable element of sustainable marketing strategy and sustainability concept, given that
its implementation requires changes that will trigger mass rather than individuals. However,
regardless of positive opinion about socially responsible practice on the market, attitude – behavior
gap is widely present among consumers, making segment of green consumers just a market niche.
Thus, the most challenging task for marketing and brand managers is to find interest for consumers in
a sustainable way of life and to make it easy accessible and attractive for them. This article aims to
highlight the leading role of sustainability in branding theory and practice and to point out strategies
for successful implementation of green values into the brand management, with an accent on brand
equity construct, relying on the results of research and analysis in the given field.
KEY WORDS
brand management, green branding, sustainability, sustainable development, sustainable marketing
CLASSIFICATION
JEL: M31
INTRODUCTION
Even though sustainability topics have been preoccupying attention of policy makers for few
decades, in 21st century it has become mainstream issue 1. Side effects of the climate
change are visible more than ever, and therefore the completely new dimension of the
practical implementation of sustainable development into regular business practice is
requested. In the near future, traditional sourcing and selling will be marginalized, and thus,
being on sustainable pathway will be the main qualification for staying in business 2.
Sustainable strategy demands holistic transformation of business model and synergetic
approach; in other words, engagement of multiple stakeholders around a common goal, with
the accent on consumer, as the one who makes the final decision whether specific business
model will or will not be accepted. Given that marketing discipline has consumers in the
center of its philosophy and marketplace as the main playground; and that it has often been
accused for creation of uncontrolled consumption of planet resources 3, marketing
managers’ responsibility in this sense is the greatest. Accordingly, with the evolution of
marketing, especially the green marketing, each aspect of marketing mix has been improved.
Green marketing encompasses all marketing activities with the aim to stimulate and sustain
environmentally-friendly attitudes and behavior of consumers 4.
Branding area, through which companies achieve the highest level of interaction with consumers
and as a central element of a supplier’s proposition 5, has arisen as the most influential part of
sustainable marketing strategy. Loyal consumers are the driving force of brands as an asset, so
they can also be a trigger for enlarging a group of environmentally conscious consumers, who are
willing to adopt and advocate philosophy of the favorite brands. In words of Gordon 6, “once a
majority embraces an idea it becomes an unstoppable force”, which is the ultimate goal pursued
by green movement. In the essence of this idea is what Schultz and Block 7 call
“sustainable brand growth” or the rise in brand value “created by existing loyal customers
who encourage other customers to become users and eventually loyal to the brand”.
Evidently, adoption of sustainable attitudes and behaviors through sustainable brands usage
have the power to initiate deeper changes in peoples’ lives, and ensure the balance between
multiple interests of three usually opposed sides - consumers, companies and society.
In academic literature, investigation in field of green branding and sustainable strategy effects
on brand equity is modest. Accordingly, the goal of this article is to provide an insight into
sustainable branding, highlight its importance and role in strengthening brand equity, and
analyze strategies for implementation of sustainable principles into the brand concept. The
article is structured in accordance with the stated objectives. The main method used for
addressing the goal is detailed examination of the results of research and analysis conducted
by various researches in the given field in last few years.
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3.) Losers – brands that conduct limited green practice, with public recognition of the
limitations,
4.) Winners – brands that conduct strong green practice that is recognized in public.
The growing role and significance of green branding is reflected in a numerous benefits that
are embedded in this concept 23. However, successful implementation of green branding
and environmental concepts with positive results entails their presence in all aspects of green
marketing strategy 24.
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Figure 2. Linking sustainability with Brand perception and marketing performance 10; p.129.
Moreover, marketing strategy must be allied with overall business strategy. Environmental
culture should permeate all organization sectors, which understand, collaborate and recognize
importance of brand green orientation 49. This points out the significance of observing
internal structures and all employees as the starting point in terms of education, support and
proper implementation of sustainability concept 50. The best way for making brand ambassadors
is creation of strong ties between a brand and both employees and consumers 51. However,
the most challenging area in green branding is dealing with the gap between company’s
performance and consumer perception 41. Thus, company’s performance should be
demonstrated through clear explanation how organization source, produce, and distribute
products and services in sustainable-responsible manner, while consumer perception should
be built among key consumers through credible and permanent communication of crucial
benefits of sustainable practices.
Likewise, it is important to understand full context of consumer socially responsible
behavior. Consumer decision regarding sustainable brands is based on three connections 52:
1.) consumer and environmental sustainability,
2.) brand and environmental sustainability,
3.) consumer and brand.
Consumer acceptance of and positive attitudes toward sustainable brands depends on available
green information and their procession by individual, as well as “sustainability fit within brand
schema, consumer motivation and strength of relationship with the brand” 52; p.31. Given that
the idea of “green” is often abstract and that sustainable issues are too broad, consumer
motivation is driven mainly by their concern for those issues and belief that their contribution
makes sense 6. In this sense, even though consumers hardly change their long-established
habits, rational arguments can be useful 6.
Green branding is more than eco-labeling 22. Convincing and sound communication is
essential for the process – familiarity with company’s vision and tangible action plan for
making a change is the basis for motivation of consumers and reaching their minds and
hearts 53. Emotional connection created through green positioning provide three different
types of values for consumers 54; p.18: 1) “a feeling of well-being” – finding personal
satisfaction in contribution to the “common good”; 2) “auto-expression benefits” – finding
personal satisfaction in socially visible consumption and acquisition of environmentally
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conscious image; and 3) “nature-related benefits” – love toward nature as the main trigger for
satisfaction.
Observation of different segments on the market and their affinities toward sustainable
behavior was also conducted by Lippincott 15. They identified six profiles of eco-conscious
consumers 15; p.9: 1) campaigners (accept the issue and want to contribute, but are
pessimistic about the change), 2) optimists (accept the issue, want to contribute and believe in
change), 3) followers (ready to change, but not fully accept the issue), 4) confused (neutral
and confused, but open-minded), 5) unwilling (accept the issue, but not ready to change),
and 6) rejecters (informed, but don’t want to change). Wining “heads, wallets and hearts” of
consumers demands “insight into consumer practice” as a framework for “developing
sustainable brand propositions and delivering and communicating green values” 20.
There are various criteria for establishing successful sustainable brand strategy, like
uniqueness, innovativeness, co-creation of sustainable value, and “accurate and clever
communication 22; p.53. However, common thread that links all successful brands,
regardless of whether they are green or conventional, is understanding “what matters to
people in their lives, how and in what direction culture is changing, how to lead rather than
follow and how to ‘walk the talk’ of brand integrity” 6; p.16, and those are mainstream
rules for each successful brand strategy. In the era of environmental concern and
sustainability on the top of business and society agendas, it is both an obligation and an
opportunity for companies to enhance their brands’ performance and enlarge brand equity.
CONCLUSION
This article examines how branding theory and practice evolve in modern business
environment where sustainability has been set as a major global issue. In this sense, strong
brands have been seen as a powerful driver of changes towards sustainable behaviour patterns
of both companies and consumers. However, fitting internal cultures and brand image is the
main challenge organisations face in identifying the most effective strategies 55. Thus,
maximizing brands’ impact requires comprehensive green branding strategy that calls for
multiple modifications in marketing policy and organisational culture.
Previous studies in the field of sustainable branding were the bases for the examination
conducted in this article. Dealing with the attitude – behaviour gap, marketing communication
and education with the aim of fitting greenness into consumer lifestyle, finding value in
consumption and building trust between brand/company and consumers are some of the
leading topics that should be addressed in order to create public awareness and green
behaviour patterns.
As shown, introducing sustainable brand management into the business practice has the
potential to bring together multiple requests between consumers, companies and society,
gaining win-win situation. This article presents both advantages of sustainable branding
strategy and crucial elements in its implementation. Firstly, showing responsibility for the
natural environment and “doing the right thing” directly and indirectly helping a company to
achieve its strategic and economic objectives – companies should understand that they and
society are inherently interdependent. Secondly, consumers are “drawn to brands they trust,
brands that are different from the rest, innovative, that appeal to the emotions, that signify
something intelligent or interesting about the user, and brands whose parent company
behaves well” 6; p.12. They follow their favorite brands and are willing to identify with the
brand values, messages and lifestyle that brand recommends. Loyal consumers are satisfied
consumers and that is only that matters. And thirdly, sustainable brands, that reflect firm
companies’ values and culture, can be a significant instrument for driving the change into
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society with respect to environmental crisis. Achieving all this benefits demands linking
sustainability with brand perception and marketing performance.
However, scientific investigation of the sustainable branding practice is at very beginning.
There is still not enough companies that actually implemented the sustainability concept into
their business models and this is both the main limitation of the study and great opportunity
for the future research. Understanding consumers, making business processes and brands
green and inspiring broad audience to adopt sustainable behavior will be one of the main
requests in the future and major antecedent of prosperous business.
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