Sustainable development and its implications on marketing strategies of corporations

Abstract

The major purpose of this work is to investigate whether there exists any connection between morality and effectiveness in current business practice of multinational corporations. The question therefore is if the concept of sustainable development has any influence over marketing strategies of MNCs. Do companies still strive only to get consumers to consume more and more, making them more profitable or do they go beyond short-termism and profit-maximization, taking into account social and environmental dimensions of doing business? The work is divided into theoretical and empirical parts, the first providing background for deliberations about the notions of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility from business and marketing perspective and the second referring to the observation of real-life examples of sustainability principles implementation among worldwide known MNCs. The first chapter is dedicated to making the reader familiar with the definitions of sustainable development as well as the concept’s history and relevance to business. The second chapter reveals connections between marketing and sustainable development, presenting the evolution of the marketing philosophy, discussing the contemporary issue of consumerism, researching people’s perceptions of sustainable development and finally making recommendations how marketing mix can be made more sustainable. The last, empirical chapter describes the research into presence of sustainability initiatives in strategies and operations of MNCs, namely BP, General Electric, Nestlé, Pfizer and Citigroup. The study aims at analyzing environmental policies as well as social elements such as vision and values, management, procedures and communication issues and last of all summarizing marketing activities of each of the companies.