Societal Marketing – The Shift: Indirect to a direct marketing approach.

Every generation is saddled with a cause; a social issue that requires a solution. Today one of the major challenges faced by the world is environmental damage and sustainability of natural resources. The model of capitalism has led enormous development, which has caused exploitation of resources beyond imagination. As at any time and any cause, there are people who are willing to stand up, speak out, and with passion look for a solution. At 9:45 p.m. on 20th April 2010, an explosion at Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed eleven workers and injured another seventeen. Macondo well, oil and gas prospect in the United States Exclusive Economic Zone of the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana, which was under the explosion, blew apart, unleashing a gusher of oil into the gulf. Some call it the worst environmental disaster in the history of mankind. Fishing areas that supplied sea food to one-third U.S requirement were at risk., so were the beautiful beaches from Texas to Florida that contributed billions of dollars, worth of tourism to local economies. The impact on the marine life caused by the disaster has gone largely undetermined. Findings that were published by Marine Ecology Progress Series in October 2014 estimated that the number of seabirds lost as a result of the spill may number well into the hundreds of thousands. [1] It is events like this, which reminds mankind every now and then about how it is the responsibility of each one of us to preserve the environment, and on a larger scale do societal good. Deep within each one of us understands that if we do not play our part in changing things, it would have drastic implications on the kind of world we are going to leave behind for generations to come. Societal Marketing is a big step in this direction. In this paper we look with an example of ten trees, a new generation company that has moved beyond the shores of corporate social responsibility, to a much more direct approach of societal welfare being a part of the company’s marketing and sales strategy. Societal marketing is a concept which reminds us that we do not inherit this world from our parents, rather we borrow it from our children.