Marketing & Sustainability

Foreword 5

Preface 7

1 Marketing and sustainability 11

Introduction 11

Social, environmental, and economic aspects of sustainability 19

Outline of the book 26

2 What is a “sustainable consumer” anyway? 27

Introduction 27

Definition of sustainable consumption and the “sustainable consumer” 29

Sustainable consumption in Sweden 40

3 Influencing more sustainable consumption 51

Introduction  51

General factors influencing consumption 52

Stages of the consumption process 57

The attitude-behavior green gap  62

How to influence consumers to behave more sustainably? 66

4 How firms (have to) operate for sustainability 89

Introduction  90

Combining socio-environmentally and economically sustainable competitiveness 94

From green products to green services 96

Green service research 96

Defensive, reactive, and proactive approaches to sustainability 100

Megatrends are imposing a circular production and the re-usage of resources 104

Why do companies not align their operations with sustainability? 109

How may companies improve their sustainability endeavors? 112

Getting companies to walk the talk 118

5 The new marketing communications landscape 123

Introduction  123

Marketing communication regarding sustainability 124

The new marketing communications landscape 135

Sustainable employer brands 146

6 Branded society and implications 153

Introduction  154

The branded society 154

Deceptive practices in marketing communications 163

Why brands play an important role in sustainability efforts 176

7 Sustainable business models  183

Introduction 183

The role of business models in sustainable development 185

Product-service systems (PSS) 193

Sharing economy business models 196

8 Sustainable marketing channels 223

Introduction 223

Marketing channels: Customer orientation vs. sustainability 226

Challenges in making marketing channels practices sustainable 232

9 Conclusion  249

References 253

Image sources 271