Sustainability Advertising - Advantages

Advantages

Range of coverage. Speed and scale with which the message is spread refers to one of the most significant advantages of the sustainability advertising. Advertising is capable of reaching a large or dispersed market repeatedly with persuasive and informative messages and is considered to be one of the most powerful sources of symbolic meaning in modern society. Sustainability advertising campaigns motivate pro-environmental attitudes. Being one of the tools of sustainability communication strategy, advertising campaigns focus on the intrinsic motivations of the consumers, their attitudes and beliefs as one of the determinants of the sustainability friendly consumption behavior.

Sustainability advertising represents the primary communication tool to which major part of con-sumer group is exposed on the market. It serves as a source of initial information for the consumers, concerning the social and environmental status of product and company. On the basis of the primary impression the consumer than takes the decision whether the product and the company behind deserve further evaluation as a potential purchase choice. Therefore sustainability advertising “helps to inform consumers and facilitates consumer choice”.

As marketing communication tool sustainability advertising can be used as an instrument to modify the impact of human activities on the planet. There are three factors, which contribute to the total human impact: population, affluence and technology. Sustainability advertising addresses affluence by promoting reduction of the environmental and social footprint of the society on the planet. Originally advertising was one of the factors that created consumption culture, thus playing an important role in shaping consumer preferences and the social and environmental impact they produce. Sustainability advertising however, is responsible for the lifestyle changes in the society, from materialistic towards more sustainable.

A variety of marketing communication tools offer producers a wide range of opportunities to build relationships with a consumer. Due to the format restrictions sustainability advertising often is not able provide comprehensive information about the product. Nevertheless it serves as a link to more substantial sources of information (e.g. a company’s web page) where consumer can find more data on environmental and social aspects of the product. This link enables further development of the communication process between the company and the consumer. So, under favorable conditions and linked to a competent communication strategy it can be transformed into long lasting mutually beneficial relationships between the two.