Aligning The Sustainable Supply Chain To Green Marketing Needs In An Essay. (70 Characters)

Sustainability in Marketing and Management

Question:

Discuss about the the necessity and importance of the alignment between the marketing and supply chain process of a Company.

Every product or service needs substantial amount of marketing to be successful. Marketing management deals with the proper utilization of resources and knowledge in order to successfully market the product and make it popular among the mass (Kotler 2015). On the other hand, sustainability is the ability of anything to sustain itself and exist for a long period of time, while minimizing any negative impact caused to others in the process, and maximizing the benefits.

Sustainability is important in every field, and marketing and management is no exception. In today’s competitive world the economic institutions aimed at profit making are aggressively competing against each other to remain ahead in the race (Carroll and Buchholtz 2014). However, in doing so they are often ignoring sustainability in their practice which is leading towards fall of the once successful businesses. Unsustainable practices also have adverse effect on environment and other businesses in the similar field.

The article which is taken, “Aligning the sustainable supply chain to green marketing needs: A case study” covers a vast area of marketing management and implies how green marketing initiative can be implemented for a sustainable future and how the supply chain can be aligned to such needs (Brindley and Oxborrow 2014). It gives a clear understanding of sustainable marketing practice and hence the article is chosen.        

5 Key Points From The Article

1. The journal states that it is challenging for the organizations to align the green marketing requirements with the supply chain process and procurement, with precision.
2. There is a difference between the perspective of the organization about sustainability in marketing and sustainable procurement of products.
3. There must be a reverse information flow, which suggests that there should be feedback from the marketing team back to procurement team in order to align the sustainability goals of the organization as a whole.
4. In the present situation the alignment of the supply chain process with the management and decision making is not proper and the marketing management has a greater scope for synchronization with the supply chain process.
5. The recommendation of the study is to take actions to achieve stability in supply with a market position that is stable and sustainable.

Discussion And Critical Assessment Of Each Key Point

The supply chain is delegated with very important responsibilities which include the procurement of the goods, processing of the same and making the goods reach the point of selling in the stipulated time. The sustainable goals of the organization in terms of marketing can be implemented with ease because marketing management is to the larger extent a preplanned process. However, supply chain is a process which requires instant decision making and ever changing time schedule. In the article “. A hybrid framework for the modelling and optimisation of decision problems in sustainable supply chain management” the authors have pointed out that often there are multiple number of variables that give rise to constrains which are complex in nature (Sitek and Wikarek 2015).

Again in the article” Stakeholder pressure in sustainable supply chain management: a systematic review” the authors have stated that even if the organization is aiming to develop sustainability in marketing and supply chain, the stakeholders might be a hurdle if such measures even have slightest effect on the profits.

The Importance of Sustainable Supply Chain

However, the authors Iyer, Srivastava and Rawwas in their article “Aligning supply chain relational strategy with the market environment: Implications for operational performance” has pointed out the possibilities in improving the operational and marketing goals by innovative and sustainable supply chain changes, and has included three factors of supply chain “resource specificity, resource complementarity, and collaboration” which shape the operational outcome (Iyer, Srivastava and Rawwas 2014).

There is a difference in the perspective of the organization between sustainability in marketing, and sustainable procurement of products-

There are various departments which work with cooperation in order to result in successfully achieve the desired organizational outcome. However, the different departments perceive the meaning and process of sustainability differently. The supply chain managers who has to deal with fast but efficient movement of goods in various stages perceive sustainability less important than the schedules and deadlines he has to meet. The marketing or the strategic management on the other hand gives minute attention to sustainability as they have to deal with the external players, like governmental agencies and interest groups.

Hsu, Tan and Zailani (2016) have stated that the big companies are gradually shifting their manufacturing bases to the developing countries, this is resulting in economic benefits and sustainability for the emerging markets in these economies. However adverse environmental effects are also seen in many cases as these companies often flout environmental norms taking advantage of the loose law enforcement in the developing countries. Therefore, it is evident that the same organization which is helping in financial sustainability is destroying the environmental sustainability of the host nation. The same thing is pointed by the authors of the main article that is taken for study, “aligning the sustainable supply chain to green marketing needs: A case study.”

There must be a reverse information flow-

In an organization there is information flow usually from the supply chain side to the marketing side, which gives a clear picture to the marketing department about the present status of the inventory and stock according to which the marketing plan is altered. A sustainable approach of marketing includes a reverse flow of information about the market demand and feedback in the opposite direction towards the supply chain. The flow of information may include the top management, because they are the ultimate decision maker.

Tschantz et al. in their article “A methodology for information flow experiments” (2015) has given by technical explanations, the process in which information flow can be altered and managed in the organization in various direction. The author points out that information must be prioritized according to situation. This will lead to sustainability in the business model and reduce redundant information processing.

Challenges of Aligning Marketing and Supply Chain towards Sustainability

The multinational organizations are also giving emphasis on the importance of innovation in information flow, where information from the various acquisitions and subsidiaries are sending back information to the parent company to maximize benefits by a more integrated approach.

The alignment of the supply chain process with the management and decision making-

The authors of the main article reviewed in this paper has argued that in many cases though the supply chain process and other departments of the organization were striving to establish practices which are sustainable, there are very less customers or clients who actually know the efforts. So there is a miscommunication and difference in the marketing functions and supply chain functions. Many companies are taking initiatives to solve this gap by including the message of sustainability in their advertisements and promotional campaigns and highlighting how the organization is endeavoring to achieve sustainability.

Kozlenkova et al. stated in their article “The role of marketing channels in supply chain management” has given a clear indication of the role of marketing channels in the process of supply chain. Marketing is basically the distribution of the products in the market from where customers will by those (Kozlenkova et al. 2015). Sustainable marketing practice includes marketing in such a way that customer retention can be done along with posing minimum damage to the environment and other businesses (Armstrong et al. 2015). The products ultimately come from the production unit which is primarily a part of supply chain process. Hence, close synchronization of the marketing team and SCM has to be there to achieve sustainability.

Achieving stability in supply with a market position that is stable and sustainable-

There has to be stability in supply chain in order to achieve stability in market positioning and vice versa. Stable business is also a part of sustainable business practice. The authors of “Aligning the sustainable supply chain to green marketing needs: A case study” has by a case study of an UK University catering service shown how the balance between the two can be achievable (Brindley and Oxborrow 2014). Better food processing system has increased the customer base which has resulted in a stable and growing business structure.

Charter and Polonsky (2017) has pointed the need for more green practice, some points which are also discussed are the reduction of resources and energy in order to preserve the natural resources. Preservation is necessary to ensure the uninterrupted procurement of resources, otherwise after a period of time many industries will face scarcity of procurement due to exhaustion of natural resources.

Reverse Information Flow in Sustainability

Conclusion

The article “Aligning the sustainable supply chain to green marketing needs: A case study” has rightly highlighted a genuine issue through a relevant case study. Sustainable marketing needs to be aligned with sustainability in supply chain. The lack of cooperation among these departments may lead to a failure of the overall sustainable business growth of the organization.

The authors have given some much needed light on the different perspectives of the issue but there are not enough recommendations which can be implemented as a solution to the mentioned problem.

Though the journal article has righty hit the target in highlighting a gap of communication among two most important departments of an organization, there are limitations in the case study that has been taken. The case study includes catering service from a university in UK, where the environment and culture may not be similar with other situations

References:

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Brindley, C. and Oxborrow, L., 2014. Aligning the sustainable supply chain to green marketing needs: A case study. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(1), pp.45-55.

Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A., 2014. Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.

Charter, M. and Polonsky, M.J. eds., 2017. Greener marketing: a global perspective on greening marketing practice. Routledge.

Hsu, C.C., Tan, K.C. and Mohamad Zailani, S.H., 2016. Strategic orientations, sustainable supply chain initiatives, and reverse logistics: Empirical evidence from an emerging market. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 36(1), pp.86-110.

Iyer, K.N., Srivastava, P. and Rawwas, M.Y., 2014. Aligning supply chain relational strategy with the market environment: Implications for operational performance. Journal of Marketing Theory and practice, 22(1), pp.53-72.

Kotler, P., 2015. Framework for marketing management. Pearson Education India.

Kozlenkova, I.V., Hult, G.T.M., Lund, D.J., Mena, J.A. and Kekec, P., 2015. The role of marketing channels in supply chain management. Journal of Retailing, 91(4), pp.586-609.

Meixell, M.J. and Luoma, P., 2015. Stakeholder pressure in sustainable supply chain management: a systematic review. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 45(1/2), pp.69-89.

Nair, S.R., Demirbag, M. and Mellahi, K., 2016. Reverse knowledge transfer in emerging market multinationals: The Indian context. International Business Review, 25(1), pp.152-164.

Sitek, P. and Wikarek, J., 2015. A hybrid framework for the modelling and optimisation of decision problems in sustainable supply chain management. International Journal of Production Research, 53(21), pp.6611-6628.

Tschantz, M.C., Datta, A., Datta, A. and Wing, J.M., 2015, July. A methodology for information flow experiments. In Computer Security Foundations Symposium (CSF), 2015 IEEE 28th (pp. 554-568). IEEE