Anybody who works in marketing knows that one of the first victims of austerity or ‘profit protection’ is marketing… followed by anything else that does not show directly on th bottom line. If marketers have to fight hard for their case, and even their very existence, how much more difficult will it be to argue the case for sustainable marketing?
However, as a practice, sustainability can be very low-cost – it is rather like a fly-wheel: once it has been started spinning by putting in place strategies and policies and the actions necessary to carry them out, it will continue to spin with just the odd kick to kep the momentum going. The false economy is to stop the fly-wheel or let it run down, because it will take a lot of energy to get it started again.
I am still fearful that some companies will see it as an extra simply because ‘marketing’ is a cost to be cut, therefore ‘sustainable marketing’ must be an even bigger cost to be cut. It’s time for some serious education that sustainable marketing by its very nature can be a real economy.
