1. Adding Value through Marketing
7BSP0419 (Semester B 2010-11)
❶Cova (1996) argues that the
postmodern individual in the
light of shifting markets and
advances in technology ‘is both
isolated and in virtual contact
with the whole world
electronically. Postmodern
daily life is characterised by
ego concentration encouraged
by the spread of computers’. With reference to examples discuss the
opportunities for organisations to develop new products for this
changing world.
❷‘Sustainability is a tendentious catch-all term with a
certain political flavour and its own contradictions’ –
Hutchinson and Young (2005). Evaluate the extent
to which a sustainable and green approach to
marketing can add positively to the bottom
line in an age of consumer confusion and
possible indifference.
❸References
Deniz Kurugollu
10283502
MSc Marketing
9th May 2011

2. ❶‘Postmodern individual in the light of shifting markets and advances in technology
is both isolated and in virtual contact with the whole world electronically’ (Cova,
1996). In this respect, postmodern consumer daily life has been shown to change
dramatically. This brings with new opportunities for new product and service
development so as to meet those postmodern consumers’ demands. This essay will
address to the postmodern consumer life and the respective product or service
developments. It follows the structure shown in Table 1.
Table 1: The post modern consumer
Post modern consumer life New product and service developments
Hyper-reality Planet Calypso
Individualism 3D printing, Mini Cooper, Nike
Customization RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
Right here, right now Virtual banking
Prosumer Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare → Google Analytic
One of the emerging concepts that postmodernism has brought to our glossary is
‘hyper-reality’. Hyper-reality is characterized by image, illusion, and simulation
where we know something to be false but feel it to be true (Cova, 1996). In this
context, Elliott and Percy (2007) point out that rationality is not strong enough to
stop us enjoying ourselves. As a result, postmodern consumers favour simulation to
reality, and prefer to experience their consumption activities in a virtual way (Cova,
1996). In this respect, hyper-reality receives significant support from the internet and
computer technologies as providing consumers with virtual experiences. This
consequently leads to new product developments. For example, ‘Planet Calypso’
owned by the company MindArk is an entertainment and business platform which
enables players and organizations to build, design and trade their own virtual planets
online. To a devoted ‘postmodern’ consumer it seems that hyper-reality is such
serious that he bought a virtual property for $6 million (Trendhunter, 2011a).

3. Post-modernity has brought about ‘individuals’ who make use of the market offerings
in a way that they create their own consumption patterns. They want to be involved in
the process as a producer of experiences, not as a target of final goods and services
(Cova, 1996). In this regard, many brands now offer customers to personalize their
consumption objects in line with their own tastes and preferences. For example, The
Mini Cooper allows consumers to customize their cars on website before it goes to
personalized production process (Mini, 2011). Likewise, Nike and many others allow
customers to design their own shoes (Nike, 2011). The most significant development
in this area can be seen in recently emerging technology ‘3D printing’. This
technology can be regarded as the latest manifestation of customization (BBC, 2011).
It does not only provide large variety of usage area such as health, fashion, and even
food but also, enables to produce them at lower cost (Trendhunter, 2011b). It seems
that 3D printer will become a casual item in the postmodern consumer’s house in the
near future.
Rapp and Collins (1990) defines marketing in the era of customization as ‘an
extremely personal form of marketing that recognize, acknowledges, appreciates, and
serves the interests and needs of consumers whose personal identities and marketing
profiles become known to the marketers’. In this sense, RSS (Really Simple
Syndication), a free internet service which sends to subscribers electronically what
they want to read, watch, and listen can be taken as a good example of new service
development for postmodern consumers. On the other hand, some businesses also
use this new service to organize their business operations at lower cost. For example,
Union Bank of California’s use targeted RSS feeds based on job description and
location to send memos instead of using broadcast emails, which in turn accelerates
the operations and saves time. Consequently the bank is expected to save $750.000
(Beizer, 2007).
Firat and Shultz (1997) indicate that the postmodern consumer has a ‘right here, right
now’ attitude. In other words, consumers of today are seeking immediate gratification
in return for their consumption. Hence, this requires instant, ubiquitous marketing in
order to meet the expectations of those postmodern consumers. In this respect,
‘virtual corporation’ and ‘virtual marketing’ has been shown to take place in
postmodern daily life (Aijo, 1996). For example, virtual banking has emerged as a

4. new service development practised by several banks such as ING, HSBC, Citibank,
and so on (CR, 2009). By using web ready devices such as smart phones, customers
of these banks can carry out all financial transactions anytime, anywhere.
Finally, the internet and web-integrated devices such as smart phones provide
consumers with opportunities to be virtually in touch with the whole world (Cova and
Pace, 2006). This significant development in web technologies has morphed
consumers into ‘prosumers’ (Gerhardt, 2008). Prosumer stands for the combination
of ‘producer and consumer’. Prosumers are keen adopters of web technologies to stay
connected to outside world whenever and wherever they want. The term ‘self-
exposure’ can be used to explain this group. They are inclined to share everything
from their current location and time (e.g. Foursquare), likes and dislikes (e.g. Twitter,
Facebook) to even their private lives (e.g. blogs). In this context, there is an enormous
opportunity for marketers to understand their customers’ insights since prosumers
expose considerable amount of information about themselves. As a matter of fact,
new product and service developments such as Google Analytics appear in the market
to capture prosumer insight and allow marketers to customize their offerings to suit
individual needs and wants in real time (Derrick, 2006; Google, 2011).

5. ❷Sustainability has been shown to become an important topic in the companies’
board room recently. It has also started to take place on the management hierarchy as
a separate discipline, now companies have a ‘Chief Sustainability Officer’. There
seems to be a lack of understanding about the terminology. In general, sustainability
is referred to environmental issues only or it is used to mention about philanthropic
efforts. However, Werbach (2009) propose four equal dimensions for true
sustainability; Social, Economic, Environmental, and Cultural (see Figure 1). It can
therefore be suggested that sustainability is a holistic approach for organizations to
consider in a wider context.
Figure 1: True sustainability
Adapted from: Werbach, 2009
It is evident that playing ‘the sustainable’ creates positive buzz and PR for the sake of
companies by empowering the brand image in the mind of consumers. Sustainable
efforts also help businesses to save their operating costs, to attract new customers,
and even to build new brands. Consequently, it adds to the bottom line. Pinault (in
Bourne, 2011) states that ‘sustainability is as much to do with the bottom line as it
does with the environment’. For example, P&G declared its 2012 goals to generate
$20 billion in sales from green brands (Sherwin, 2008). On the other hand, talking
about sustainability without really making some good practices and tangible efforts
are deemed to blame for ‘greenwashing’ (Davis, 2009). According to the research
(Havas Media, 2010), confusion, lack of clarity and perceived higher prices prevent
responsible purchasing.

6. In the light of foregoing, this essay will address to the given benefits of sustainable
efforts and the unlikely events of being classified under ‘greenwashing’ by using the
examples from real organizations. It follows the structure illustrated in figure 2.
Benefits Challenges
portfolio
cost saving
contradictions
reputation & the nature of
credibility business
branding
disparity
opportunities
Figure 2: Benefits & Challenges
Cost saving
It can be suggested that sustainable efforts ought to be considered as investment to
cut operational costs in the longer term rather than expenditure. For example, Macy’s
announced to install energy saving LED light bulbs in its stores in America. Although
this new energy savvy attempt will require initial outlay for the company, it is
planned to cut energy consumption (i.e. cost) by 73 per cent in the longer term
(Bourne, 2011). Similarly, Levi’s has introduced Water-Less jeans, which require an
average of 28% and as much as 96% less water to produce. The company is expected
to cut cost equivalent to 16 million litres of water in only three month period (Bourne,
2011).

7. Reputation & Credibility
Silverstein (2010) states that corporate sustainability does not directly affect brand
purchase decision, but the ‘meaningfulness’ of the brand in the mind of consumers.
Davis (2009) claims that consumers concern what companies are doing to contribute
global issues and expect them to show their environmental and social commitments
to those problems. Research (Jobber, 2010) reveals that consumers are ready to pay
price premium and also more forgiving of businesses if they believe that the company
is socially and environmentally responsible. In this respect, it can be suggested that
commitment to sustainability can be used as a signal for reputation management and
brand credibility, which in turn is followed by positive word-of-mouth and attracting
new customers; consequently, it positively effects to the bottom-line.
Branding
Sustainability programmes have recently been shown to become sub-brands of the
main company or a brand on its own. For example, Plan A by M&S, Virgin Unite by
Virgin, and Ecomagination by GE can be classified under the sustainability
programme as brands (Sherwin, 2008). This implies that there is an opportunity for
companies to differentiate their brands in terms of sustainability. However, it should
be noted that integrity is the key for those sustainable activities to be meaningful in
the eye of consumers (Havas Media, 2010).
Portfolio contradiction
The key challenge for marketing managers is to integrate sustainability with overall
business strategy and consumer insights (Davis, 2009). In this respect, portfolio
inconsistency may put sustainable efforts under criticism. An example of this can be
taken from Virgin Group. Despite of investing great amounts in sustainable issues
such as biofuels and carbon reducing technologies, the company also has Virgin
Galactic (taking consumers on trips to space) in its portfolio (Sherwin, 2008). The
latter seems paradoxical to the former efforts on the basis of wasting resources.

8. The nature of business
Sometimes the business itself may become a challenge in acting sustainably, in
particular socially responsible. For example, tobacco companies can be classified
under this circumstance. Considering the social dimension of Werbach (see figure 1),
public health can be regarded as a conflicting issue for those companies. For instance,
although Philip Morris (2011), under its charitable giving program, focuses on areas
such as hunger, poverty, rural living conditions, education, and so on; the dominant
health-related facts of cigarette may prevent consumers from matching the company
with socially responsible activities.
Disparity between ‘said’ and ‘done’
There is a delicate balance between being sustainable and greenwashing. Even a
trivial disparity between what companies claim and what they actually implement
may attach a negative label to the brand name. As previously mentioned, sustainable
efforts have significant power to create buzz and PR. However, this may work
negatively as well. For example, clothing brands like Primark and Nike still carry the
negative image resulted from their operations in supply chain (Harrison and Scorse,
2010). Again, it should be noted that integrity is vital in terms of sustainable efforts to
add true value at the end of the day.

9. ❸References
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environmental factors behind the changing marketing paradigm’. European Journal of
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11834044 [Accessed 9th May 2011]
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May 2011]
Bourne, L. (2011) ‘Fashion companies go green, cut costs’. Available at:
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May 2011]
Cova, B. (1996) ‘The postmodern explained to managers: implication for marketing’.
Business Horizons, pp. 15-23.
Cova, B. and Pace, S. (2006) ‘Brand community of convenience products: new forms of
customer empowerment – the case ‘My Nutella the Community’. European Journal of
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Harrison, A. and Scorse, J. (2010) ‘Multinationals and anti-sweatshop activism’. The
American Economic Review. 100 (1) pp. 247-273.

10. Havas Media (2010) ‘Brand Sustainable Futures’. Available at:
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[Accessed 9th May 2011]
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[Accessed 9th May 2011]
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Philip Morris (2011) ‘Our charitable giving programme’. Available at:
http://www.pmi.com/eng/about_us/charitable_giving/pages/charitable_giving.aspx
[Accessed 9th May 2011]
Pinault, H., in Bourne, L. (2011) ‘Fashion companies go green, cut costs’. Available at:
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May 2011]
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Individual and How To Profit From It. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall
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2011]
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