Abstract
This article extends Rémy et al.’s proposal. It proposes to consider the evolution of marketing in the Anthropocene epoch in three stages. Firstly, it goes back to the macroeconomic observations and clarify certain assumptions that are wrongly attributed to Dekhili et al.’s vision of sustainable marketing. Secondly, the article develops the framework of what sustainable marketing practices should be for an organization. Finally, it offers pragmatic guidelines for marketing scholars wishing to conduct research projects in the Anthropocene context.
Keywords
In their recent article ‘Look up! Five research proposals for rethinking marketing in a post-growth society’, Rémy et al. (2024) presented a critical vision of marketing and more specifically of a ‘field of research’ in sustainable marketing judged to be both partly responsible for a form of denial, anchored in implicit postulates stemming from green growth, and unlikely to provide useful research within the framework of planetary boundaries.
The critics, who focus on different levels of analysis (market economy, capitalism, green growth, technosolutionism, sustainable marketing), struggle to recognise (a) that the marketing discipline has a role to play in supporting organisations and consumers towards practices that are more compatible with the challenges of ecological and social transition, and (b) that much research in ‘micromarketing’ 1 can provide knowledge that is both valid and relevant in this context. If organisations are part of the problem, their transition is indeed considered crucial (Dyllick and Muff, 2015), and further research is needed.
In this commentary, we wish to extend the reflections of Rémy et al. (2024) in three ways:
Review the initial macroeconomic findings that we share. This will clarify certain assumptions that are wrongly associated with the vision of sustainable marketing attributed to Dekhili et al. (2021).
Develop the framework of what marketing practices should be for an organisation, in the Anthropocene epoch – what we call ‘true’ sustainable marketing. 2
On this basis, propose pragmatic guidance for marketing researchers wishing to conduct research projects in this context.
Our vision is neither candid nor rooted in a narrative based on a marketing hero saving the world. Rather, it acknowledges the harms of marketing practices along, and in line with other authors (Giannelloni, 2023; Lloveras et al., 2022), the fact that efforts in the scope of marketing actions alone cannot solve the systemic crisis we are experiencing: Organisations’ marketing practices are embedded in an economic system and in a system of governance and management. However, as Aggeri (2023: 27) notes, ‘as long as the economic and managerial infrastructure is not modified, economic agents’ – including marketing practitioners – ‘will be subject to contradictory injunctions that are impossible to reconcile’. To imagine that all the ‘essential transformative actions’ mentioned by Rémy et al. (2024) fall within the scope of marketing actions undoubtedly implies granting the discipline too much power.
Considering, however, that marketing activities bear a significant share of responsibility for promoting unsustainable production and consumption, marketing must absolutely transform itself to be part of the solution (Chandy et al., 2021; Dekhili, 2021; Dekhili et al., 2021; Giannelloni, 2023; Volle and Schouten, 2022). This evolution of discipline and practices can allow marketing to play a truly transformative role within the ecological and social transition. At the interface between supply and demand, marketing is ideally positioned to promote changes in production and consumption patterns and significantly influence material and intangible cultures (Hult, 2011).
A shared macroeconomic observation: Responsibility for human activities and share of responsibility for marketing
‘Human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming’ (IPCC, 2023: 4) and quick action is necessary. This recognition of the responsibility of human activities (Gemenne and Rankovic, 2019; Meadows et al., 1972), and, within them, marketing activities is no longer open to debate (e.g. Stoeckl and Luedicke, 2015). The concept of the ‘Anthropocene’ was coined by Cutzen (2006) to designate our geological epoch, through which humans have acquired such a large influence on the biosphere that they have become its central actor. 3 The planetary boundary framework (Rockström et al., 2009; Steffen et al., 2015) also makes it possible to identify frontiers that must not be crossed to maintain the planetary ecosystem in a viable state in which human societies can prosper and develop. By cross-referencing these planetary boundaries with the Sustainable Development Goals, Doughnut Economics (Raworth, 2018) makes it possible to represent an organisational space that is both ecologically safe and socially fair (Hausdorf and Timm, 2022).
Economic growth has been identified as one of the major causes of the environmental crisis (Pacheco et al., 2018); reflections demonstrating the issues associated with growth are not new (e.g. Meadows et al., 1972). Green growth is based on the premise that it is possible to decouple economic growth from environmental impacts. However, the state of knowledge shows a partial decoupling between growth (measured by gross domestic product (GDP)) and greenhouse gas emissions, and no decoupling from the material footprint (Haberl et al., 2020). In other words, greenhouse gas emissions are increasing globally, as is the pressure on raw materials. Gains in energy efficiency per unit of production do not compensate for the increase in production and consumption, and technosolutionist approaches (i.e. those that consider that technological developments alone will solve environmental problems) are being called into question. In 2021, the European Environment Agency, in its report ‘Growth without economic growth’, returned to the very unlikely absolute decoupling between economic growth and pressure on the environment, calling on societies to redefine what they mean by growth and progress.
Thus, in the current state of knowledge, it does not seem possible to reconcile economic growth and the environment on a global scale. Moreover, the societal transition will not be possible without profound transformations in production patterns, consumption and lifestyles (Wiedmann et al., 2020). Indicators other than GDP, such as well-being and quality of life, social relations, climate quality, natural resources, air quality, insecurity and personal activities, 4 are considered to capture the economy of the 21st century.
In this context, how can we make marketing practices ‘climate-proof’, to make an analogy with management reflections (Nyberg and Wright, 2022), or, more broadly, practices that can be integrated into the ecologically safe and socially fair space of the Doughnut? This is a complex issue when it comes to translating thinking and metrics to the global level at the scale of an organisation and, more specifically, to its marketing practices. Dyllick and Muff (2015) referred to the ‘great disconnect’ between the deterioration of the global situation and the progress of companies at the micro level. Nevertheless, in the following two parts, we seek to provide the first elements of an answer to the following question: What form would marketing practices take in organisations in the Anthropocene epoch?
What is ‘true’ sustainable marketing?
While it still seems necessary to use the adjective ‘sustainable’ to describe marketing that fully integrates environmental and social issues, we hope that this precision will soon be unnecessary. True sustainable marketing is anchored in an overall business strategy to create triple value, with the imperative of extended value as a priority.
Reflection of a sustainable corporate strategy and mission
The integration of sustainability at a strategic level leads the other functions of the organisation, including marketing, to be part of such an approach (Kemper and Ballantine, 2019; Mittelstaedt et al., 2015; Tollin and Christensen, 2019). It is, therefore, a prerequisite that requires a reorientation of the organisation’s business model to ensure its compatibility with the possible space of the Doughnut. Another pillar is the definition of a brand purpose, which integrates the key environmental and social issues of its sector, and makes it possible to formally explain its societal utility (Michel, 2023; Williams et al., 2022). As an ‘extended social object’, it aims to characterise a ‘desirable’ future in which the organisation projects itself in the long term, one that is built collectively through the commitments undertaken (Levillain, 2017). For example, the societal purpose is one of the foundations of Social and Solidarity Economy organisations. At the firm level, Biocoop adopted the mission of developing organic farming in a spirit of fairness and cooperation.
While the definition of purpose is a necessary condition for real transformation, it is not a sufficient condition and has limits. First, a purpose is necessarily focused on certain issues and stakeholders in particular and thus does not cover the entire scope of the impact. Second, without an associated concrete action plan, the purpose can be reduced to a simple communication instrument with no real impact. This is especially true because the holistic nature of the purpose can make it difficult to quantify environmental and social benefits and establish clear links between actions and outcomes (Gartenberg, 2022; Salem Khalifa, 2012).
This change in ‘worldview’ (Kemper et al., 2019) at the heart of organisations, often driven by committed leaders (Gopaldas, 2015), is necessary to set the guidelines that are then disseminated in the various functions. Marketing activities accompany and support this dimension (Polonsky and Rosenberger, 2001). At this level, the marketer, via ‘bottom-up’ initiatives, can play an impetus role by promoting the flow of information and collaboration between the different departments, thus giving rise to a shared vision that facilitates the consideration of sustainability issues in daily decisions (Schmitt et al., 2022).
Prioritisation of extended value and the challenge of reconciling stakeholder interests
In 2007, the American Marketing Association defined marketing as the ‘activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large’. The idea of multi-stakeholder value creation is found in the definition proposed in 2018 by the French Marketing Association, which adds the fair-trade dimension. More specifically, sustainable marketing rethinks the scope of the beneficiaries of the value created by simultaneously including three levels: value for the organisation, value for the consumer and extended value, that is environmental and social value (Bascoul and Moutot, 2009; Dekhili et al., 2021; Gopaldas, 2015).
While this third form of value constitutes an essential basis and necessary update of the notion of value in light of the Anthropocene epoch, marketing practices are not evolving sufficiently, given the need for large-scale and rapid actions. This delay is partly linked to the fact that the consideration of sustainability issues is still primarily guided by enterprise value, associated with the economic dimension, and consumer value, which relegates extended value to the background (Dyllick and Muff, 2015; Geissdoerfer et al., 2018). The dominant instrumental approach (Hahn et al., 2015) advocates ‘win–win’ solutions that lead companies to prioritise sustainability actions that contribute primarily to short-term performance indicators emanating from traditional marketing logics: reputation and brand image, willingness to pay more, consumer satisfaction and loyalty and so on.
From a ‘genuinely’ sustainable marketing perspective, extended value should become the priority. This approach transcends organisational boundaries and shifts away from the company’s internal operations and the focus on what is attractive and visible to consumers, towards the search for opportunities for sustainable value creation outside the company. Thus, reducing a few negative externalities or promoting certain positive impacts is no longer enough. Rather, it has become urgent to move towards ‘net positive effects’, referring to the concomitant minimisation of negative impacts and maximisation of positive impacts (Manninen et al., 2024).
Creating and prioritising extended value entails managing the tensions that can emerge during the value creation process (Van Riel et al., 2019). Indeed, internal and external stakeholders perceive the value created differently and may have conflicting objectives and interests (Brennan and Tennant, 2018; Dyllick and Muff, 2015). An important challenge is to prevent or minimise negative impacts for certain stakeholders while improving the overall outcome for the value chain – especially for the environment and society. This is an equation that is far from easy to solve. Marketing must, therefore, seek to diagnose these sometimes conflicting interests to enhance extended value.
Approaches are proposed to reconcile stakeholders’ interests and avoid obstacles to limiting impacts. By applying an integrative approach, a company can identify a balance between actions and try to create multiple forms of value holistically. Considering the environment and society as stakeholders in their own right (Manninen et al., 2024) can lead one, in a logic of extended value, to prioritise their interests over those of other stakeholders.
What is the operational version of sustainable marketing?
Operationally, the question is how sustainable marketing can create and support triple value, with extended value as an entry point. With the company’s mission as a compass, sustainable marketing must play on two key and complementary levers: developing the offer and supporting consumers towards the adoption of sustainable practices (Dekhili et al., 2021; Volle and Schouten, 2022).
Thus, sustainable marketing does not shift the responsibility to consumers. The possible changes at the level of the individual consumer are not enough to deal with the ongoing ecological crisis. In the context of the fight against climate change, it has been shown that the implementation of behaviours described as ‘heroic’ by French consumers (vegetarian diet, systematisation of carpooling, total refusal to fly, etc.) would allow a necessary reduction in CO2 levels, albeit totally insufficient to remain below 2°C of warming by 2100 (Carbone 4, 2019).
Changing offers: Abandonment and eco-innovation
Sustainable marketing is impossible without a radical change in the offer (Dekhili et al., 2021). There are ways to innovate differently on two levels: the abandonment and the evolution of offers.
Questions about the compatibility of innovation projects with planetary boundaries and the ‘social floor’, represented by the Doughnut (Raworth, 2018), are imperatives. Thus, ‘it will be necessary (. . .) to abandon certain innovation projects because they are undesirable and incompatible with an ecologically and socially sustainable society’ (Aggeri, 2023: 222). The company Mustela announced the discontinuation of baby wipes in 2027, which represent 20% of its turnover; the AGEC law (loi Anti-Gaspillage pour une Economie Circulaire) provides for their prohibition in 2040. It also favours multi-purpose items to avoid the accumulation of products. This reflection on abandonment is part of the macroeconomic observations mentioned and broader reflections on ‘degrowth in business’ (Hankammer and Kleer, 2017; Khmara and Kronenberg, 2018).
The second level is that of the evolution of offers towards ‘more sustainability’. Here it is possible to identify several innovation logics, which integrate extended value in different ways (Dekhili et al., 2021). Some innovations seek to address an environmental or social problem, placing extended value at the heart of the process. For example, the company Too Good To Go fights food waste. Other firms propose to reduce the environmental and social impacts of existing offers but without fundamentally reconsidering the societal utility of the offer. This is consistent with Dyllick and Hockerts’ (2002) distinction between eco/socio-effectiveness (solving some of the problems) and eco/socio-efficiency (reducing unitary negative effects). In terms of eco-efficiency, offers can evolve towards a reduction, elimination or substitution of the use of certain resources (Varadarajan, 2017), in line with reflections on frugal innovation (e.g. Hossain, 2020). Also, the lifespan could be increased through the reduction of different forms of perceived obsolescence (Kreziak et al., 2016) and ‘planned obsolescence’ and so on. The Fairphone brand exemplifies this trend by having developed modular phones that can be easily dismantled and repaired.
These eco-innovations are ways to reduce the environmental impact of offers. However, critics indicate that they are insufficient to solve the challenges of the Anthropocene for three main reasons. First, reflections on eco-innovation often focus on eco-efficiency, which cannot suffice if a volume and growth model remains in place. Second, some initiatives and business models, such as those resulting from the circular economy (e.g. Hofmann, 2019), do not have the expected effects in terms of impact reduction (Aggeri et al., 2023) for technical reasons and owing to factors related to direct and indirect rebound effects. Third, the issue of eco-socio-innovation, which simultaneously integrates environmental and social impacts, remains a challenge in relation to the ‘net positive effects’ mentioned above.
Supporting consumers towards more sustainable practices
Sustainable practices are the everyday actions of sustainability (Daniel and Sirieix, 2012) at three stages of the consumer experience. In the pre-consumption phase, they are linked, on the one hand, to the evaluation of alternatives and the orientation towards more sustainable choices and, on the other hand, to a deeper questioning related to sobriety and the reduction of one’s level of consumption. In the consumption phase, issues related to the use come into play. Finally, during the post-consumer phase, the focus may be on the end of individual life (Dekhili et al., 2021). One of a marketer’s missions should be to support consumers in their sustainable practices throughout the experience and, more broadly, to promote the necessary changes in lifestyles.
Valuing sustainable alternatives
Marketing must play an essential role in the evaluation phase of alternatives by making more sustainable options desirable: use versus ownership, secondhand versus new, and so on. For example, Leroy Merlin’s communication campaign displaying a stepladder with the following statement: ‘Why buy a stepladder if we can lend it to you?’ emphasises the choice to use the product without having to buy it. 5 This dimension is all the more necessary as the literature on the ‘green gap’ (Auger and Devinney, 2007; ElHaffar et al., 2020; Gleim and Lawson, 2014) has long demonstrated the gap between high environmental consciousness and greatly incompatible consumption behaviours. Thus, the idea of a totally responsible consumer is a ‘myth’ (Bray et al., 2011; Gallais, 2010), and many cultural, social and individual barriers to sustainable practices have been identified (e.g. Brough et al., 2016; de Lanauze and Lallement, 2018; Desjeux and Moati, 2022; Luchs et al., 2010; White et al., 2019). To reduce the green gap, sustainable marketing must maximise consumer value and thus remove the obstacles by acting on the different dimensions of the mix. Communicating in terms of co-benefits, both egocentric and collective, is considered relevant (e.g. Edinger-Schons et al., 2018; Goldsmith et al., 2022). For example, Back Market focuses all of its communications on consumer-oriented arguments (price, quality, guarantee) and arguments related to sustainability in line with its purpose ‘to give all humans the power to make machines last through circularity and repair’. Within a store, the selection of the product assortment or the removal of non-sustainable products via choice editing techniques (Gunn and Mont, 2014) can make it possible to impose more sustainable alternatives (Bălan, 2021). For example, according to their purpose to ‘create, produce, select, distribute and recommend more natural products and solutions’, Botanic has eliminatedall pesticides and chemical fertilizers from its shelves since 2008.
Encouraging material sobriety and voluntary simplification
Beyond the orientation towards more sustainable alternatives, marketing must also promote more significant changes in lifestyles and evolve mentalities around consumption and materialism. Indeed, in France, a tendency to give excessive importance to material consumption persists (Ademe/ObSoCo, 2024). In this context, sobriety and voluntary simplification are encouraged.
Sobriety consists of striking a balance between abstinence and excess and consuming ‘less and better’ (Guillard, 2021). Thus, satisfaction tends to move away from the display of what one possesses in favor of other non-materialistic and spiritual sources (Rumpala, 2018). Examples include opting for a more restrictive diet for the sake of animal welfare, deciding not to buy a car in favour of shared means of mobility, and even engaging in boycott behaviour (Friedman, 1996). In this sense, brands can encourage boycott actions, such as the ‘Green Friday’ initiative promoted by Altermundi, which brought together different companies and associations to fight against ‘Black Friday’ and the overconsumption it causes.
Material sobriety (Ademe et al., 2019) is based on a more thoughtful acquisition to encourage individuals to own only objects that are useful to them (Ballantine and Creery, 2010), which will be cared for to ensure that they last as long as possible. Marketers can play a key role in making it easier to access and understand information around offers and their impacts. In particular, the seller as an advisor and support (Reniou et al., 2021), as part of a co-creation process (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2000), can guide consumers in their sustainable decision-making process, as illustrated by Ademe’s communication campaign around ‘desellers’. 6
Supporting the proper use and reducing rebound effects
Extending the lifespan of offers partly depends on how consumers use the products. For example, half of all product breakdowns are linked to a lack of maintenance (Libaert, 2018). In addition, use can be a stage of the life cycle with a high impact from an environmental point of view. As a result, marketers must extend their responsibility to support the proper use of products and services and their maintenance (Ackermann et al., 2018), to delay their individual end of life as much as possible and limit the deleterious effects associated with their use. This support requires an increase in consumer skills (Hertwig and Grüne-Yanoff, 2017; Innocent et al., 2023; Kaiser and Fuhrer, 2003). For example, Orange, which ‘gives everyone the keys to a responsible digital world’, has developed a ‘Bien vivre le digital’ (living digital well) platform to support a more mindful use of digital technology. Marketing and communication thus regain their real pedagogical role in the service of extended value.
In addition, the identification and limitation of rebound effects likely to accompany the launch of more sustainable alternative solutions is required. A direct rebound effect corresponds to the fact that the gain in environmental impact linked to innovation can be reduced, or even cancelled, by an increase in the intensity of its use. For example, the word ‘recyclable’ on a product can lead consumers to use more of it (Sun and Trudel, 2017). An indirect rebound effect occurs in another area of consumption: reducing energy consumption leads to financial savings that potentially facilitate additional air travel. Through their focus on the consumer, marketers must analyse these rebound effects in detail to limit them.
Finally, the role of the marketer would involve supporting the second life of products and materials. This issue is key to increasing the environmental effectiveness of circular initiatives (Selvefors et al., 2019) such as deposit-refund systems.
Developing new compatible imaginaries
If the marketing of the ‘30 Glorieuses’ (glorious three decades of marketing in France) has contributed to forging an attractive imaginary around mass consumption and materialism, marketing must participate in the creation and dissemination of desirable imaginaries consistent with planetary boundaries and social issues (Ademe, 2022). These shared imaginaries, valuing sober lifestyles and more sustainable practices, could constitute new social norms and thus participate in significantly modifying real lifestyles (Giannelloni, 2023). Brands, particularly through storytelling techniques (Chautard and Collin-Lachaud, 2019), are helping to promote narratives about desirable and aspirational lifestyles. Through a process of ‘narrative transport’ (de Pechpeyrou et al., 2019), consumers can thus access new cultural referents, leading them to change their behaviours towards more sustainable practices. The development of desirable narratives requires marketers to reflect on their staging, narrative patterns and the nature of the emotions conveyed (Brosch, 2021; Odou et al., 2021; Yoon and Tinkham, 2013), image type (Chapman et al., 2016; Nicholson-Cole, 2005) and the personification of narrative (Gustafson et al., 2020). The Brittany region’s ‘Brittany, a change of scenery near you’ campaign, complemented by that of Atout France #CetEtéJeVisiteLaFrance, is inspiring for organisations in the tourism sector. They combine realistic images in a positive and humorous tone and mobilise different levers (social networks, influencers, etc.) to make alternatives to distant travel credible and attractive.
Which research is needed in the Anthropocene epoch?
Given the macroeconomic observations and marketing practices of organisations in the Anthropocene epoch, what possible evolutions of marketing research that could emphasise extended value?
Related studies are already underway, but they are still scant relative to the entire field (Chandy et al., 2021; Parguel et al., 2018). The proposed pathways aim to offer marketing researchers avenues of reflection to conduct relevant projects in the Anthropocene epoch.
Questioning one’s research in the Anthropocene: Prioritising, putting into perspective and abandoning
The responsibility of marketing scholars begins with the choice of the research object and the research problem. Thus, each research project should be questioned as early as possible (Dekhili et al., 2023): to what extent is the subject compatible with environmental and social issues? Is the choice sufficiently motivated by societal issues, beyond the traditional theoretical and managerial motivations? What are its purposes in terms of extended value? This reflexive stance (Parguel et al., 2018) should continue at all stages of the project, to ensure its societal impact. It can lead to prioritizing, putting into perspective, and abandoning.
Prioritise
Questions about the level of impact of the topic may arise. Is this a priority topic in the context of planetary boundaries? The entry point to the analysis could be the sector of activity or the object of study.
Sector-specific research should first address the main associated negative environmental and/or social externalities. To what extent can marketing research advance thinking about how to reduce major impacts? Considering orders of magnitude makes it possible to prioritise research axes and limit work that has only modest extended value. For example, in the food sector, non-meat diets, agroecological production methods and waste are associated with major environmental issues that lie far ahead of the issue of packaging (IPCC, 2022). From this perspective, studies on meat deconsumption (e.g. Godfray et al., 2018) or the limitation of food waste at the most upstream phases of the food’s life cycle (Block et al., 2016) seem promising. In the fashion sector, the main issues are the overproduction and overconsumption of clothes, as well as the working conditions during manufacturing (Dekhili et al., 2024). Marketing work should contribute to reflections on the implementation of more sustainable business models (Bocken et al., 2014), and to the understanding of the sources of clothing waste and sobriety behaviours. In this sense, avenues around emotional bonds (Mugge et al., 2005), which promote the desire to keep one’s clothes longer and maintain them, as well as those around the profiles of ‘ethical simplifiers’ (Shaw and Newholm, 2002) and the tensions they may feel, seem particularly interesting.
Studies can initially focus on priority objects. With the aim of supporting consumers towards more sustainable practices and lifestyles, research agendas can focus on the stages of the consumption experience mentioned above and must contribute to proposing frameworks and tools conducive to new relationships with objects and a transformation of consumption practices. The macroeconomic context requires a reduction in the volume of consumption. Thus, issues centred on voluntary simplification, the reduction of materialism and the transition from ownership to use should be developed. If we consider the fight against rebound effects as necessarily falling within the scope of marketers in the Anthropocene epoch, then they deserve to be further explored. Research on the licencing effect can be useful in this regard (e.g. Karmarkar and Bollinger, 2015; Khan and Dhar, 2006). Finally, all the works that enrich knowledge of the green gap and how to overcome it should be considered.
Putting things into perspective
Prioritising research topics based on the magnitude of transition issues does not necessarily mean that we should stop exploring topics of lesser impact if they have a proven extended value. The theme of recycling is illustrative in this respect. Although it is considered to be a necessary but largely insufficient condition for dealing with the finiteness of resources, studies to better understand sorting practices, biases, obstacles and levers for action remain relevant (e.g. Monnot et al., 2014; Sun and Trudel, 2017). However, marketing scholars should be able to put their research into perspective and moderate the results in light of the environmental and social issues specific to the subject being studied. The traditional sections of the articles dedicated to limitations could include inadequacies in terms of extended value. This would prevent research from being associated with a ‘misleading idea that these efforts are enough to solve environmental crises’ (Rémy et al., 2024: 8).
Abandoning
Some research does not appear to have any extended value or is incompatible with the transition. Just as the practice of marketing has to abandon certain innovation projects, the discipline must now abandon this type of research project. For example, the study of the conditions for the effectiveness of sensory marketing, which would aim to get consumers to spend more time in stores and increase the number of purchases, seems far from the concerns in the current context and may contribute to promoting overconsumption.
Accelerating this evolution requires an adaptation of the positioning and guidelines of the main academic conferences and journals. At the very least, new requirements could be introduced regarding the position of research in this context and the integration of complementary or substitutable sections for managerial implications dedicated to societal impacts. The abandonment of the integration into the review processes of projects incompatible with the ecological and social transition also seems to be a relevant solution.
Evolving marketing concepts, theories and metrics
On a theoretical level, the role of marketing researchers is to question the meaning and validity of existing concepts and to make them evolve to support the transition of production and consumption patterns. To put extended value back in the centre, perspectives to evolve the measurement indicators should be considered.
Concepts and theories
Value and brand equity are two examples of recent attempts to better integrate sustainability. The literature on extended value is still embryonic and unstructured (Manninen et al., 2024) and deserves to be expanded. Researchers (Innocent and François-Lecompte, 2020; Sudbury-Riley and Kohlbacher, 2016; Zeithaml et al., 2020) proposed to broaden the notion of the consumer experience that is no longer limited to consumers and their bilateral relationship with the object, and call for consideration of the dynamic nature of value (Cronin, 2016; Lemon and Verhoef, 2016) linked in particular to the fact that the product is part of a multi-stage life cycle, both at the individual and collective level (collaborative consumption, second lives, etc.). A promising research agenda around the modelling and definition of a socio-environmental approach to value should be pursued (Leroi-Werelds, 2019). In addition, there is a scarcity of work on conflicts and tensions related to sustainable value creation. More specifically, potential situations of value destruction need to be analysed from a new angle, namely how to convert them into opportunities for value creation. Future studies could draw on the field of management research on paradoxes (e.g. Schad et al., 2016), in particular ‘paradoxical thinking’ (e.g. Hahn et al., 2015), to better understand the management of sustainable value creation.
Work is also needed to evolve the concept of brand equity in light of the Anthropocene epoch, and thus integrate the brand’s societal purpose. Researchers (Dekhili et al., 2021; Ishaq and Di Maria, 2020; Kumar and Christodoulopoulou, 2014) introduced the concept of sustainable brand equity, referring to additional enterprise value linked to the firm’s environmental and/or social commitments, but many avenues remain to be pursued. This includes the exploration of the facets of the concept and the study of the contribution of stakeholders, as sources of competence, to the construction of brand equity. More broadly, marketing scholars may question the usefulness of relying on sustainability actions to build corporate value: Should companies continue to seek to stage their societal commitments?
Measurement indicators
In line with the evolution of research questions, measurement indicators in the discipline could evolve beyond an instrumental logic. Necessary work deals with the effects of sustainable marketing actions on traditional performance indicators: brand image (e.g. Diallo and Lambey-Checchin, 2017), willingness to pay (e.g. Saldivar and Zolfagharian, 2022), loyalty (e.g. Pérez and Rodríguez del Bosque, 2015) and so on. Marketing research would benefit from integrating other measurement indicators more frequently, which put the question of extended value back at the center, with a dual aim. The first would be to refine the understanding of the positive and negative effects, in terms of extended value, of practices portrayed as more sustainable a priori (e.g. for secondhand: Juge et al., 2022; Parguel et al., 2017). In this sense, there is a need to develop work to measure the effect of brand commitments on the causes defended (Michel, 2023). The second would be to scientifically question the deleterious effects of certain actions in terms of extended value. Research on promotional actions could thus focus on their potential effects in terms of intra- and inter-category overconsumption. Thus, marketing research could help provide evidence of the impacts of certain practices in terms of extended value, whether positive or negative, and work on relevant levers to maximise such value.
Supporting the evolution of organisations’ marketing practices
Marketing must reconnect with organisations to support stakeholders and facilitate transformations. To offer solutions that meet the challenges, the ‘field’ has become, more than ever, important to observe, describe and analyse. Some authors (Van Heerde et al., 2021) call for researchers to be ‘immersed’ in the fields they plan to explore. This approach also has the advantage of reconnecting ‘marketing practices’ with ‘marketing discipline’ and helping to limit activities that contribute to the negative image of marketing. 7
Studying how marketers are trying to integrate extended value into their businesses, including paradoxes and transformation trajectories (Regany and Longo, 2023) is a promising prospect. Thus, the framework around marketing-as-practice proposed by Skålén et al. (2023) can be developed to better analyse practices. Several companies may encounter situations where societal engagement proves to be unprofitable, thus preventing the implementation of sustainable marketing practices; this is what Chandy et al. (2021) call ‘lose–win’ situations (lose for the company and win for the world). Scholars could adopt an organisational perspective to study these situations, even if the field is more difficult to access. In addition, they could investigate the necessary conditions to make engagement the least costly for the company and facilitate it (Chandy et al., 2021). Another research avenue to be carried out with actors in the field concerns the creation of marketers’ performance indicators in line with current societal issues. Sustainability metrics are very poorly taken into account in companies and are usually limited to an overall measure considered first at the group level, ignoring individual performance (Schmitt et al., 2022). However, it is a key element in predicting managerial decisions (Clementino and Perkins, 2021).
Moreover, marketing practices may be partly responsible for some of the paradoxes observed among consumers, between what they do and what they should do to accelerate the societal transition. For example, 77% of French people consider that they are doing their part in terms of sobriety, thus underestimating the ecological impact of their consumption patterns, and/or exaggerating the benefits of their ‘small gestures’ (Ademe/ObSoCo, 2024). Communication strategies that convey positive narratives around ‘small gestures’ may contribute to this gap. Understanding the effects of these strategies on consumer paradoxes is thus an avenue to be explored.
The role of marketing researchers is also to take a critical perspective on practices that are not compatible with the societal transition. Thus, work to uncover the paradoxes of certain practices should be encouraged (Béji-Bécheur, 2023). The production of knowledge is, therefore, aimed at guiding policy decisions and offers scholars the opportunity to take part in societal debates. At the communication level, work on executional greenwashing (e.g. Schmuck et al., 2018) can, for example, support calls for greater regulation of the advertising sector.
Conclusion
In the Anthropocene epoch, several economic activities and marketing practices that are not compatible with the environmental and social transition may well drastically decrease or disappear. This necessarily generates a focus of activity on certain structures, as well as a reduction in the proportion of market consumption (Giannelloni, 2023; Lloveras et al., 2022). Marketing must consider the orders of magnitude to respond to the main issues and to serve brands and companies whose purpose is consistent with planetary boundaries.
The provocative invited article by Rémy et al. (2024) sparked the debate around what sustainable marketing is, its responsibility in the Anthropocene epoch and its legitimacy to be part of solutions. In this response, we wanted to (a) reinforce some shared observations and revisit the assumptions wrongly attributed to our vision of sustainable marketing, (b) propose a reflection on how marketing should be applied by organisations in a transformative aim and (c) develop avenues for the evolution of research in the discipline in the Anthropocene epoch.
In the current ecological and social context, humility is required: the work to be done to think about the evolution of marketing practices and the discipline is immense, with many grey areas. This article is only a small part of the thinking on how marketing research can ‘contribute to a better world’ (Chandy et al., 2021: 6). It focuses on corporate marketing, which does not directly include many research currents that are part of this path, such as Transformative Consumer Research or the current of social marketing applied to non-commercial organisations, public institutions, policy makers and so on.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank Laurent Bertrandias, Editor-in-Chief of the journal, for the opportunity to publish this commentary.