What exactly is marketing? Is it just convincing people to buy products through various media? Billboards, TV commercials, junk mail and magazines filled with advertisements? From the consumer’s perspective, that is how it seems (Kotler et al. 2010, p. 5). But from a business’s standpoint, marketing is viewed very differently. Marketing is viewed as being based on an exchange relationship between a business and its customers, where a business offers something of value, and customers purchase this product, which provides the business with the means to continue producing this item of value (Moscardo et al. 2010, p. 277). Where does sustainability fit into marketing?In the past, the discipline of marketing has been accused of stimulating unsustainable levels of consumption amongst consumers (Rettie, Burchell & Riley 2012 p. 420). Now with the impact of our overconsumption starting to take its toll on our earth, marketers must reassess its strategies and practices to accommodate the reality of limited resources and the environmental impact our consumption is having on the planet.
