Sustainability and the UK’s Major Food Retailers: Consumer Concentric Cause Marketing Writ Large

Introduction

In identifying “caring consumption” (p. 1) as “one of the top ten consumer trends for 2010” (p. 1), Euromonitor International (2009) suggested that consumers are “keen on cause consumption” and they “want to buy from brands who care about society and who are striving to reduce the negative impacts of their products and services on the environment” (p. 1). Cause marketing has been defined in a number of ways but it typically “entails firms communicating through their advertising, packaging, promotions, and so on, their corporate social responsibility, namely their affiliation or work with non-profit organisations or support for causes. The point is to attract customers wanting to make a difference in society through their purchasing” (Bronn & Vrioni, 2001, pp. 207-208). Smith and Alcorn (1991) argued that “cause marketing may be the most creative and cost-effective product marketing strategy to evolve in years” (p. 20), and Sundar (2007) has predicted that cause marketing “will emerge as the single most effective long term strategy to establish emotional relationships with target consumers” (p. 213).

As increasing number of consumers are looking to reduce the impact their purchases have on the environment and society so sustainability has become an increasingly important “collective cause” and a seemingly ever more important element in many large retailers’ corporate identities and marketing strategies. It is collective in the sense that a number of major retailers are pursuing similar strategies and in that sustainability is, in theory if not always in practice, seen to be an important issue for all consumers. Marc Bolland the Chief Executive Officer of Marks and Spencer, one of the UK’s best-known retailers, for example has argued that “sustainability is central to how we do business” (Marks & Spencer, 2011, p. 1). While Mike Duke, the President and Chief Executive of Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s largest retailer, has claimed “we do not view our sustainability work as a philanthropic add on but as a core part of who we are” (Wal-Mart, 2011, p. 1). Corporate identity and marketing strategy are becoming increasingly intertwined with a growing awareness that customers’ buying behaviour can be influenced by their perceptions of the ways in which retailers manage environmental, social, and economic impacts throughout their supply chains. The UK has the most concentrated, and arguably the most sophisticated food retail sector in the world, and this chapter reviews how the UK’s top ten food retailers are incorporating sustainability into their corporate identities and marketing strategies. More specifically the aims of the chapter are three fold namely to examine the corporate commitments the UK’s top ten food retailers are making to sustainability; to explore how these commitments are being reflected at the point of sale within the retailers’ stores; and to offer some critical reflections on the ways in which these retailers are addressing and pursuing sustainability agendas.