A recent report from the Toy Association (you have to buy the report, but a short summary can be found here) suggests that millennial parents take values into account when buying toys for their children. For example a quote from the report indicates “Parents want to know that the products they buy will not harm the environment. Offering a toy that is biodegradable or an initiative that encourages toy sharing will appeal to today’s environmentally-conscious consumers.”

While there has always been a niche for sustainable toys (see for example a local-to-me company BeginAgain), the market is growing and now the world’s largest toy company is jumping in. Read more about LEGO’s new kit with pieces made from plant-based materials and how LEGO plans to have its products be entirely sustainable ty 2030 in “As millennial parents demand sustainable toys, Lego is perfecting plant-based bricks,” NBCNews.com, August 2, 2019).

An instructor might add this nugget of knowledge to students when discussing segmentation and targeting (Chapter 4). We open that chapter with a LEGO case, but this is so new, we don’t include the millennial parent segment in our discussion. It might also fit when you discuss Product (Chapter 8) and want a marketing for a better world spin on the topic.

Our focus on Marketing for a Better World (#M4BW) continues with a look at a recent announcement by Amazon. Amazon promises to “meet the terms of the Paris climate agreement 10 years ahead of schedule.” Its recent announcement comes after some pressure from employees (Amazon Employees for Climate Justice).

This article provides an opportunity to discuss how creating shared value might actually create value. You could ask your students why Amazon is doing this? Is it good for shareholders? Why or why not? The answer is not clear, but students may not recognize that actions like this might make it easier for Amazon to recruit top talent. Many young people are concerned about the environment and want to work someplace that is doing something about it. This might also enhance Amazon’s brand and reputation among consumers. Finally, it may lower operating costs — as the initial cost of an electric van may be offset by lower operating costs (electric vehicles typically cost less to operate as compared to gas-power vehicles).

This issue might be discussed — with different emphasis — in Chapter 3 (Amazon is featured in our chapter-opening case), Chapter 11 (logistics), Chapter 12 (retailing) or in Bonus Chapter 2 (Marketing’s Link with Other Functional Areas — including human resource management).

Marketing gets a lot of criticism. Those of us who teach marketing know that good marketing can contribute to a better world. Meeting customers’ needs and wants can help people. That “bright side” of marketing motivates a forthcoming special issue of the Journal of Marketing, which, in its call for papers, notes: “Marketing has the power to improve lives, sustain livelihoods, strengthen societies, and benefit the world at large. At the same time, marketing can have a dark side—it has the power to hurt consumers, employees, communities, markets, institutions, and the environment that surrounds us.” Often our students come into our marketing classes thinking about the “dark side.”

Inspired by the Journal of Marketing call for papers, a wide range of reading, and my own optimism about what marketing (and more generally business) can do, I am today starting the first of a series of posts that will be tagged #M4BW (Marketing for a Better World). These posts will highlight brands and businesses that have used marketing to create profits–and made the world a better place. To give you a background, I direct you to a TED Talk by Michael Porter (below). I have shared this with my students to stimulate a discussion about how marketing might contribute to a better world. It provides a nice supplement to our Chapter 1 coverage of value, triple bottom line, ethics, and social responsibility.