You – of all people, of all disciplines - don’t need me to tell you about the power of stories. It goes without saying that great stories have created extraordinary meaning for humanity through the centuries and organised people into action on a large scale.

Marketers themselves have played a significant role in influencing society’s habits over the past century with their ability to create engaging stories that touch the soul and get people to act in ways they may not have otherwise considered.

However, longstanding stories can unravel in the face of information that contradicts their positive meaning. Indeed, the meaning associated with marketing-generated stories has been unravelling for decades as we are increasingly confronted by disturbing data on the seismic and interconnected environmental degradation that we face.

Taken for granted

If you’ve never considered how our consumerist culture affects the planet and our lives, it can be challenging to absorb the scale on which we face environmental depletion and pollution. Just absorb those final three words again: depletion and pollution. Because that is the ultimate downside of a culture that requires the constant drawing down on natural resources to develop products and services as well as the constant mass disposal of products after minimal use.

Perhaps, it is best if I share a snapshot of the consequences of pushing more and more “wants” on society:

• Earth Overshoot Day denotes the date in the year when the demand that humanity has for the planet’s natural resources exceeds what Earth can replenish in that year. In a perfect society, this should be around December 31. However, we continue to overshoot our “budget” to the point where Overshoot Day was on August 01 in 2023.
• As the name implies, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an area in the North Pacific Ocean where much of our waste that ends up in the ocean finally resides. The Patch spans waters from North America’s West Coast through to Japan and most of this waste isn’t biodegradable or easy to retrieve.
• Microplastics, plastic debris less than 5 mm in length, are being found in more seemingly pristine environments. They are not being broken down in the environment, nor in our organs that are absorbing them. The ramifications are deeply worrying.

Such impacts don’t stop at the front door of your headquarters or your home. These interconnected problems have related adverse impacts on our health and the economy. The impacts are glaringly obvious and yet, consumerism endures.

In 1989, Steven Star in his HBR article, “Marketing and its Discontent”, observed disapprovingly that marketing, philosophically, seeks “to get people to want what they don’t need, of exploiting people’s vulnerabilities to get them to value, want, and expect the unattainable and undesirable.”

The overarching story enabled by marketers has resulted in accumulated impacts that leave us glaringly exposed to the degradation. And it is getting worse.

Renewal: For marketing and the planet

At a time when people are becoming increasingly worried about lives, livelihoods and the planet, it is time for a new, engaging story from marketers. One where our products and services require less of the degenerative and more of the regenerative, seeking to improve the quality of the environment.

The opportunities for organisations that accept that the marketing mindsets that have served them well for decades are now an obstacle are formidable. Through innovation, there is access to new markets, new products, new services. Look at Patagonia, Swedish company Houdini Sportswear, Interface Carpet, and Amalgamated Bank.

If marketers are to support their organisations to thrive rather than dive, they need to develop three critical, interconnected skills:

1. Collaboration not insulation

Standing out in the market – in an age of uncertainty and distrust in marketing – requires something more innovative than BAU. Collaborate with stakeholders, particularly outside your company, that have similar goals but come from very different perspectives. Truly involving them, however, requires sharing control and emotional intelligence.

2. See the bigger picture

Your strategies have wider implications than you may have appreciated. Marketers have been criticised for leading the ongoing greenwashing at the expense of the planet and ourselves. Expand your holistic viewpoint. Analyse the PESTLE of success – the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors that will influence the benefit of future strategies, products, or services.

3. Confront the future

One of the most critical skills that marketers need for the 21^st century is futures thinking. This won’t allow marketers to predict the future, but rather anticipate what options may lie ahead for how the future may look – and subsequently, be better prepared.

What story will you be able to tell your children and grandchildren of the role you played in healing the planet?