Requirements:
Pick an organisation of your choice (you will need to avoid companies listed in the module handbook list) operating in any industry, profit or not-for-profit. You are working for a marketing consultancy firm. Your consultancy firm has been brought in to analyse and make recommendations to the Board of Directors on how the organisation can improve their social and environmental sustainability. Through your own secondary research, critically analyse their current approaches to sustainability marketing. Using theories and frameworks from the module to analyse and audit their marketing mix approaches and practices (e.g product, place, physical evidence, people and promotion). Produce a 3,000 word REPORT evaluating how the organisation incorporates sustainability (triple bottom line) factors into their marketing approach and suggesting improvements. From your analysis, you need to make suggestions on how the organisation can improve their sustainability marketing efforts by making recommendations to the sustainability marketing mix for the organisation.
There are no specific guidelines for word weightings, but as a guide:
- Introduction to organisation by exploring/evaluating its ethos, values and mission (10%)
- How the organisation currently incorporates social and environmental objectives into their marketing strategy (an evaluation of current practices) (45%). You need to explore the marketing mix here.
Choose 3 areas out of four suggested:
- Product or Service evaluation (15%)
- Consumer targeting and decision making (eg. vulnerable consumers, green consumers, gender issues, inclusivity etc) (15%)
- Place/Distribution and supply chain (15%) (part of the Circular economy model (eg. https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview)
- Promotion (eg communication via social media and other platforms) (15%)
- Product or Service evaluation (15%)
- Consumer targeting and decision making (eg. vulnerable consumers, green consumers, gender issues, inclusivity etc) (15%)
- Place/Distribution and supply chain (15%) (part of the Circular economy model (eg. https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview)
- Promotion (eg communication via social media and other platforms) (15%)
3. Recommendations for improvements in the Sustainability Marketing mix (45%)
Recommendations should be offered to three areas (out of 4)
Important issues to note:
- Please consult the module leader (Dr Panayiota Julie Alevizou) of your company before proceeding too far in your assignment to determine the suitability of that organisation.
- You will be expected to use a range of different sources to research your organisation, not just information from your chosen company’s website (please see module handbook for a list of sources).
- Be sure that your answer uses theories and concepts from both the module and your own wider reading about sustainability marketing and ethical theory (sustainability marketing framework, triple bottom line, frameworks explored in class, consumption behaviour, sustainability values, objectives and strategy).
- Make sure you analyse the evidence of your company using the aforementioned concepts and theories.
You must provide evidence, as well as the wider literature to support your recommendations for a new sustainability marketing mix
COMPANIES TO AVOID FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
COMPANIES TO AVOID FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
Companies to avoid in your individual assignment but you may wish to use them for the seminars as examples.
IKEA, Nike, Inc. X/Twitter, Inc. Exxon Mobil Corporation, The Walt Disney Company CVS Health Corporation, Tesla, Inc. Facebook (Meta Platforms, Inc.) LinkedIn Corporation (owned by Microsoft) Pinterest, Inc. Alibaba Group Holding Limited Google (Alphabet Inc.) Starbucks Corporation Netflix, Inc. The Coca-Cola Company Amazon.com Inc. Pfizer Inc. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Spotify Technology S.A. McDonald's Corporation Airbnb, Inc. Procter & Gamble Co. Mondelez International, Inc. GlaxoSmithKline plc Toyota Motor Corporation Microsoft Corporation IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) Target Corporation The Home Depot, Inc. Ford Motor Company Uber Technologies, Inc. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Royal Dutch Shell plc General Electric Company (GE) Merck & Co., Inc. PepsiCo, Inc. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc Pinterest, Inc. Johnson & Johnson Snapchat (Snap Inc.) Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Novartis AG Bayer AG Chevron Corporation Costco Wholesale Corporation Tencent Holdings Limited The Kraft Heinz Company Wells Fargo & Company BP plc, Unilever, Marks & Spencer Croda International Barclays Kingfisher plc British Airways J Sainsbury plc RSA Insurance Group Melrose Industries SSE plc Glencore Persimmon plc Rentokil Initial GlaxoSmithKline Imperial Brands Aviva Morrisons Smith & Nephew Vodafone Reckitt Benckiser Group EasyJet Standard Chartered Anglo American plc Tate & Lyle Paddy Power Betfair BP (British Petroleum) WPP plc Next plc BT Group Centrica Whitbread Diageo Severn Trent InterContinental Hotels Group AstraZeneca Glencore plc British Land Company ITV plc Lloyds Banking Group Sainsbury's TUI Group Burberry Group Morrisons Rolls-Royce Holdings Tesco M&G plc British American Tobacco HSBC Holdings, ADIDAS