The Role of Marketing in Reducing Climate Change: An Approach to the Sustainable Marketing Orientation

“Don’t buy this Jacket” is the advertising campaign of the clothing brand Patagonia asking customers not to buy its products. In this marketing campaign, the company requested customers to wrest the full life out of every Patagonia product by buying used when possible and asking customers to reduce unnecessary consumption. “Baked before sunrise; donated after sunset” is the marketing campaign developed by the bakery company Panera. This company donates all the leftover bread after stores have shut down, and the unsold bread goes toward a great cause, reducing food waste, which is the cause of huge wastage of natural resources. Nowadays, numerous companies are conscious that the consequences of marketing actions clearly extend beyond the company to society as a whole. Consequently, companies following the sustainable marketing orientation consider the environmental aspects in the exchange relationship between the company and the market. This orientation is grounded on the recognition that the best marketing strategy is being coherent with the long-term survival of the company and the natural environment. In this context, the main purpose of this study is the examination of some interesting examples of companies that are developing real marketing actions to reduce the climate change.