Skip to main content

Selling Sustainability


 "Not tested on animals only on rascals," if you have come across these lines, trust me you have a beard or you desperately wanted to grow one. Ustraa is an Indian brand, offering a wide range of grooming products for men. They use these lines to reflect the brand is free from animal testing. Kudos to the brand for taking such an initiative but don’t you feel that, this has an appealing factor to the customers?

A study by First Insight titled, “The State of Consumer Spending: Gen Z Shoppers Demand Sustainable Retail,” indicates that 62 percent of Generation Z, prefer to buy from sustainable brands.

Now, how do we define sustainability? I would define that with an Image.

This a Japanese toilet that lets you save water with the simple logic of using wastewater in flush tanks. I wonder how many liters of water can be saved worldwide in a single day with this Idea. 

In simple words, I would describe sustainability as using resources in a way that does not lead to their depletion and finding the best methods to least affect the ecosystem.

The primary motive of a business is to generate profit, so when we associate anything with it, we have to look at the profitability aspect. As a matter of fact, a plastic use and throw cup will cost you less than the paper one or a paper bag will cost you more than its plastic counterpart. It indicates that using a sustainable process or product will increase the overall cost of the product.

If you are a business owner, will you spend those extra bucks on your product? Or will you sell your product at a higher rate? No business will actually try to increase the cost of their product or decrease their profit margin for the sake of the environment. But I would suggest you do that because research from the New York University Center for Sustainable Business indicates that 50 percent of sales growth among consumer-packaged goods between 2013 and 2018 came from sustainability-marketed products. 

Selling a sustainable product will not only help in improving your brand image among the customers but will also help in attracting customers. That is the main reason behind the brands trying to project their products as sustainable or environmentally friendly. This gives us a term called “green marketing.” Green marketing can be defined as a way of marketing your product or service based on environmental sustainability.   

Apple launched its new MacBook Air and MacBook Mini in 2019, announcing that these products were created by using 100% recycled aluminum. “Truly Innovative products leave their mark on the world but not on the planet,” was this year’s slogan. What hits your mind when you come across such marketing campaigns? Isn’t it more appealing and creates more credibility for the brand? When a brand reflects its commitment towards the environment, it creates a sense of goodwill and credibility for the brand. Nielsen survey for retail purchase statistics indicates, brands that promoted acting sustainability through their marketing saw a sales increase of 5%.

Sustainability is the future of business and brands that fail to recognize this trend, will eventually be thrown out of the market by the consumers. What can be more satisfying for a business to increase its market share while contributing towards a better tomorrow? 

“We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last to be able to do anything about it.” These lines of Barack Obama are really striking and make us think really hard about our role in saving the Earth. Maybe we are not superheroes from a marvel comic but still, we can do our bit. Next time when you walk into a store, look for sustainable products. Even if you pay a bit more, trust me, that’s far less than the price we will have to pay in the future for our environment. 

Popular posts from this blog

India’s Cashless Journey

  A few summers ago, I remember consuming extra calories from sugar candies or purchasing random things just because the store went out of enough change. Today, the street hawker at your doorstep will tell you “Paytm Karo” or show you his UPI barcode. Imagine those days when people would physically carry a large amount of cash while traveling or going shopping. There was a time when people used to have secret pockets to keep all those extra cash. Cash was replaced by cards and now, you need nothing but your mobile phone.    “It is necessity and not pleasure that compels us.” ― Dante Alighieri,  Inferno . Who can understand this better than an Indian who had spent hours in long queues outside ATM to finally realize that he still can’t buy two packets of milk and bread with a 2000 rupee note? Consumers randomly purchased items to get their 2000-rupee notes exchanged. Paytm was the simplest answer to all the problems of demonetization and became an overnight star. I...
Read more

IBM’s AI bait into the Atlantic

  In 1620, an English ship named ‘Mayflower’ transported a group of English families known today as the Pilgrims to the New World. After a voyage of 10 weeks, 120 passengers and 30 crew members anchored near the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The pilgrims had left the English land to separate themselves from the Church of England, as due to its Roman Catholic past the church resisted reformation. They believed it was beyond redemption, which forced them to pray in private. Plymouth Colony was not the first successful English colony in the New World nor was it the first ship to set sail across the Atlantic to North America. Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony became central to the popular origin narrative of the United States through the signing of the Mayflower Compact, a document that agreed on a form of representational government, and the celebration of the first Thanksgiving.  To mark the 400th anniversary of the historic journey of the vessel, IBM and marine research organ...
Read more

Tourism: Covid Positive or Negative?

  Nestle India rolled out a marketing drive in January 2013 to mark the 25th anniversary of its instant noodles brand, Maggi. ‘Me & Meri Maggi’, the campaign was supposed to celebrate the consumers’ bond with the brand Maggi. Years down the lane, If I recall My best Maggi memory or to be honest and precise the best food I ever had. It was eating Maggi at a high altitude of 13,050 ft, and at a temperature that I don’t remember but it was cold enough to freeze My hand whenever I tried to take off the gloves for a selfie. Though we rented a snowsuit from a shop that falls on the way between Manali and Rohtang Pass, we didn’t get any gloves with it neither we thought they were required. But with the increase in altitude and decrease in temperature, we soon realized our mistake. Thankfully we were not the only people to make this mistake as I assumed when I started seeing women selling gloves some few miles away from the pass. The price depends on your bargaining skills but to warn ...
Read more