Positioning as a Sustainable Brand: Added-Value or Waste of Time?

Is this just a new marketing checkbox to tick or do consumers actually care if a brand positions itself as sustainable?

Image by Stuti M

“Eco-friendly. Climate-conscious. Committed to the planet”. These, and a gazillion other sustainability-related buzzwords, have become the bane of everyone’s existence. From corporate giants to small startups struggling with cash flow, everyone and their grandma has jumped on the sustainability bandwagon as one of their ‘core values’.

With all this noise in a crowded market, and of this topic, of course, the question is for brands to evaluate if this kind of branding is even fruitful for them. Does it actually align with their business objectives? And most importantly, would their consumers or potential target market ‘invest’ more in them if they brand themselves this way?

Meme created by Stuti M

For instance, it makes zero sense for a digital agency that focuses on paid ads or [local seo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_search_engine_optimisation#:~:text=Local%20search%20engine%20optimization%20(local,%2C%20or%20%22earned%22%20results.) to call themselves a ‘sustainable brand’ because what exactly is sustainable about a group of wannabe paid media specialists whose job is to play around bidding on an existing platform? Pretty sure customers would turn to them only if they deliver good ROAs, not some sustainability chest-thumping (unless they market only for eco-friendly brands!)

Meanwhile, my alternance company, a glass glazing firm, has both reasons to invest resources in sustainable positioning — for its business as well as for its consumers. We actually ran a small awareness campaign on LinkedIn to gauge how aware people are of our sustainability efforts (and if they even cared about it). While I cannot divulge the complete results, the important answers specific to this topic are:

1. German consumers were aware of my company’s push towards sustainability, but the rest weren’t.
2. They absolutely cared about sustainability, especially circularity.

While this is more anecdotal evidence, the overall gist still aligns with data published by consulting giants. According to PwC’s 2024 global voice of customer survey, 46% of respondents said that they are buying more sustainable products. Even with inflation and rising costs looming, many are willing to spend 9.7% more for sustainably sourced products.

Meme created by Stuti M

With these findings, I think it’s safe to conclude that positioning as a sustainable brand does matter, now more than ever. But what matters more is balance. Brands should align with this type of branding only if it makes sense for their business (for example, circularity for an R&D business) and their main target market actually cares about it.

At the end of the day, sustainable positioning is quite an expensive affair with fervent customers breathing down your neck to make sure you deliver on your promises or else suffer the wrath of negative publicity. In hindsight, it may not always yield the intangible (brand reputation, increased social buzz) and subsequent tangible (Customer Lifetime Value, Average Order Value) results. The best option is always to evaluate the need (through market research) and the [ROI](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp#:~:text=Basically%2C%20return%20on%20investment%20(ROI,after%20accounting%20for%20its%20cost.) of such an effort, then make a decision.

About this article

This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminating the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.