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Brain Circuits

4 tips on marketing sustainable products

Published 13 January 2025 in Brain Circuits • 3 min read

Marketing campaigns for sustainable offerings often fail, leaving businesses with products that do not sell. This short guide will help you target customers more effectively.

1. Understand what motivates consumers

Many firms fail to realize that sustainability benefits are not the primary driving force behind purchases – even someone purchasing an electric car does not do so to prevent climate change, but to satisfy a need for mobility. And many consumers not only do not care about sustainable features but may be deterred by marketing messages promoting them.

2. Match consumer and product types

There are three broad types of consumer when it comes to sustainable products: those who place a premium on sustainability (‘greens’), those who value it moderately (‘blues’), and those who do not value it (‘grays’). Potential customers for such products require different marketing approaches depending on where they are on this continuum. In this typology, sustainability benefits can enhance a product’s appeal and perceived performance (resonance), have no impact on it (independence), or diminish it (dissonance).

3. Use different playbooks for sustainability success

Marketers need to follow different playbooks for these three levels of impact, tailoring their approaches to green, blue, and gray customers in each instance.

  • Products with resonant sustainability features have much more latitude to target a broad customer base (however, when targeting grays, they still need to tread with caution).
  • Independence strategies typically offer temporary differentiation advantages. Because customers may choose to get their sustainable benefits from a completely different kind of product, it’s difficult to charge a premium for them over the long term.
  • With gray customers, there is no upside in emphasizing sustainability attributes; particularly since grays may wonder if there is a hidden sustainability price premium or performance cost. Dissonant products require customers to accept reduced performance in exchange for sustainability, but firms can profitably sell such products to green consumers and, in some instances, even to blue ones. One strategy to broaden the customer base is to attract a subset of blue customers who can be persuaded to accept a performance sacrifice because of new benefits tied to a firm’s sustainability actions.

4. Focus on innovation

At the core of successful sustainable offerings lies innovation, and the real battleground for sustainable products will be R&D labs. This is how successful companies will develop groundbreaking solutions that not only deliver unparalleled performance but also champion environmental protection and societal wellbeing.

Key learning

Adopting a one-size-fits-all approach to sustainability marketing risks alienating certain customers. Brands need to segment their customers by attitudes toward sustainability and tailor their messages accordingly.

Authors

Goutam Challagalla

Professor of Marketing and Strategy and dentsu Group Chair in Sustainable Strategy and Marketing at IMD

Goutam Challagalla is Professor of Strategy and Marketing and dentsu Group Chair in Sustainable Strategy and Marketing at IMD. His teaching, consulting, and research focuses on strategy with a focus on digital transformation, business-to-business commercial management, value-based pricing, sales management, distribution channels, and customer and service excellence. At IMD, he is Director of the Advanced Management Program (AMP), Digital Marketing Strategies (DMS), and Strategy Governance for Boards, and co-Director of the Integrating Sustainability into Strategy.

Frédéric Dalsace

Frédéric Dalsace

Professor of Marketing and Strategy at IMD

Frédéric Dalsace focuses on B2B issues sustainability, inclusive business models, and alleviating poverty. Prior to IMD, he spent 16 years as a Professor at HEC Paris where he held the Social Business / Enterprise and Poverty Chair presided by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus. Prior to his academic life, Frédéric accumulated more than 10 years of experience in the business world, both with industrial companies (Michelin and CarnaudMetalbox) and as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company. At IMD, he is Director of the Integrating Sustainability into Strategy program.

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