Marketing sustainable lifestyles

Marketing sustainable lifestyles requires a rapid reorientation away from perpetuating unsustainable behaviours and lifestyles with far-reaching implications for people and the planet. This chapter thus sets out to circumscribe how the enormous potential of the marketing discipline can be used as a positive force for sustainability. As a first step, this chapter defines sustainable lifestyles and differentiates them from specific sustainable behaviours before it delves into the principles of marketing sustainable lifestyles. It then outlines how marketing can evolve to accommodate and promote alternative ways of living within planetary boundaries by conceptualising a sustainable marketing mix tailored explicitly for sustainable lifestyles. Next, this chapter explores the motivations driving companies to market these lifestyles, the strategies that can be employed to promote sustainability, and the challenges or ‘lock-in’ factors businesses encounter in this endeavour. This chapter introduces the notion of a Lifestyle Change Support System as a vision and conceptual Northstar to provide businesses with a direction of travel. The concluding section summarises the key insights, underscoring the potential of marketing to foster sustainable behaviour and consumption.