Marketing
The world in which tomorrow ' s marketer will practice is being shaped by climate risk, resource constraints, new regulations, changing consumer expectations, technological disruption and a much broader understanding of corporate responsibility. The marketer of tomorrow must therefore be able to see and understand these dynamics.
Marketing
Do The 4 Ps Need A Green Upgrade?
Alice Ngatia
Everywhere I look, I see conversations accelerating around the integration of green skills and climate-smart training into skills development systems. Experts in learning institutions are calling for stronger partnerships between industry and learning institutions so that the skills being developed reflect the realities of a changing economy.
Much of this conversation understandably gravitates towards technical occupations such as the renewable energy technicians, electric mobility specialists, sustainable construction, climate-smart agriculture, energy management and the emerging jobs that will support a greener economy.
But I have been wondering about another group of learners: What happens to the marketing student?
If almost every industry is being asked to rethink how it produces, consumes, sources, transports and creates value, surely the professionals responsible for taking those products and services to market must change too. how organisations create and take value to market.
So, I don ' t believe we need to discard them, but perhaps we need to change the questions we teach students to ask when applying them.
Product: What exactly are we putting into the world?
Traditionally, the product conversation asks questions about customer needs, features, quality, differentiation, packaging and product-market fit.
Now, the future marketer may also need to ask: Where did the materials come from? How resource-intensive is the product to manufacture? How much energy does it consume during its lifetime? Can it be repaired, reused or recycled? What happens to it when the customer is finished with it?
Suddenly, product strategy begins to intersect with circularity, lifecycle thinking and sustainable design.
Here, the marketer does not need to become an environmental engineer. But if sustainability increasingly influences product design, customer expectations, regulation and competitive positioning, marketers need enough understanding to participate meaningfully in those conversations.
Price: What does something really cost?
When I was in school many years ago, this pillar was about production costs, margins, competitor pricing, perceived value and willingness to pay.
But the sustainability transition introduces another layer. What happens when carbon has a cost? What happens when energy prices become more volatile? What happens when a company chooses responsibly sourced materials that cost more upfront? What happens when regulation changes the economics of packaging, waste or transportation?
And perhaps the most uncomfortable question: What costs have traditionally not
Which raises an interesting question: Is marketing education already future-ready, or do even some of its most established fundamentals need a green upgrade?
Start with the 4 Ps
Almost every marketing student encounters the 4 Ps early in their education: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. These Ps have survived decades of changes in technology, media and consumer behaviour because they remain a useful way of thinking about
The world in which tomorrow ' s marketer will practice is being shaped by climate risk, resource constraints, new regulations, changing consumer expectations, technological disruption and a much broader understanding of corporate responsibility. The marketer of tomorrow must therefore be able to see and understand these dynamics.
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