Sustainability report says to ‘radically reimagine’ marketing in APAC

With Asian economies growing exponentially and shaping global consumption trends, APAC marketers must play an active role in achieving corporate sustainability ambitions, concludes “Marketing a Better Future”, a report produced by dentsu and Kantar*. 

Why it matters

Meaningful progress in sustainability requires ecosystem-level effort: businesses, consumers, policymakers and capital providers need to work in harmony, while marketers must revamp the way the function is designed, which is predicated on selling more.

Takeaways

• Asian consumers and companies have a new and unique responsibility as the region is expected to bear the brunt of climate-related catastrophes.
• Climate issues are a key concern, with nearly 60% of consumers globally saying they experience eco-anxiety, which is driving increased consciousness and desire for action.
• Marketers have a unique opportunity and responsibility to be agents of change influencing consumer behaviour and driving customer-informed innovation.  
•  Only one in three (34%) marketing/insights teams are “executing against their sustainability plans and measuring progress”.
• The newly identified organisational intention-action gap is as big a challenge as the consumer intention-action gap to achieve the UN's sustainable development goals by 2030. 
• Radically reimagining the role of marketing to make sustainable transformation its organising principle could help achieve 40-70% reductions in greenhouse gases. 

Key quote

“We already know that the consumer intention-action gap is a problem for marketers, with 56% identifying it as a major challenge. Only 17% of Asian consumers actively change their behaviour to be more sustainable, despite 98% of Asians saying they will. Our study reveals, however, that the organisational intention-action gap is an equally important challenge to be addressed” – Trezelene Chan, head, sustainability practice, Kantar APAC.  

*The report studied corporate responsibility in Asia Pacific, surveying over 70 brand marketers in 12 APAC markets and conducting one-on-one interviews with C-suite executives of leading brands.