Sustainable marketing management

The aim of this elaboration is to work out the paradoxes between the theoretical approach of marketing, namely the foundations of marketing, and the concepts and values of a sustainable society. It will be conducted, what problems might appear when these two approaches are brought together. Therefore, first of all the theoretical foundations of marketing are named and described. Secondly, the concepts and values of a sustainable society are shown and discussed. After this, the problems which are occuring, when these two approaches are brought together, are presented.

According to literature, there has been a certain development of the foundations of marketing since the 1950s. In that time, the marketing concept was proclaimed as the savior of companies. Instead of one of the classic management myths of recent history which connects marketing with nothing more than advertising, today the marketing concept is understood as a single prescription for running a business successfully. The consumers should be recognized and accepted as the focal point for all business activities. Furtherone, the knowledge of customer needs and wants should be the starting point for all major business decisions (Morgan, 1996).

More practical means this definition, that customers with their needs have to be seen as the heart of the company’s business. The satisfaction of these needs as well as the persuasion of the customers to consume have to be seen as the overall goals of the company. As a consequence, marketing has to be related to consumption. The overall goal, to make the products meet the consumers’ needs, as well as to bring these goods to the customers and to make them buy the products follow from the company’s willingness of achieving and increasing sales and results in exactly this. Consequently the consumption constantly grows and as seen within the first question the in- and output of production are as well growing. But this results also in negative external effects and negative external costs, since due to the higher consumption problems like the greenhouse-effect, deforestation of the tropical rainforest, or the violation of basic human rights in developing countries occur or become worse. Often not the customers themselves who are responsible for the higher consumption are affected directly by these problems, but other people in other regions. But not only these people are impaired. The situation is even worse and reached a new dimension. The industrialised countries with their external effects are not only effecting other human beings today, but the whole ecology as well as the mankind as a whole. This would effect as well our desdescendants in the future who will be affected by today’s external effects. Consequently, the external effects do not lead only to an enironmental, but also to an ethic discussion (Hansen et al., 1997).