Sustainable Marketing Strategies as an Essential Tool of Business

Abstract How can business respond to the challenge that Greta Thunberg has presented to world leaders? Sustainable marketing, as part of a larger strategy of meeting sustainable goals, is one way. It has become an important practice in the 21 st ‐century business world. Without a healthy society and environment, economies will fail, and businesses will die with them. Thus, companies increasingly realize that investing in social and environmental improvements not only adds to their credibility; it also increases their long‐term profitability. Consumers expect companies to develop sustainable marketing strategies. But it is difficult for companies to keep up with these rising expectations. As a result, there is often a gap between sustainable marketing efforts and consumer demands. Those demands can be unrealistic in terms of the cost of compliance and the time required to alter production processes. Sustainable marketing makes sense only as part of a strategy that will guide all of the actions of a business, not just product development, sales, and marketing. Since governments are slow to take up the challenge offered by Greta Thunberg, the future of the planet depends on the actions taken by companies to protect the environment and create a better society.