Dissemination of the Linked-benefit Strategy in Sustainable Marketing

Abstract

Multinationals wanting to sell eco-friendly products are advised by the green-marketing literature to apply a socalled linked-benefit strategy [1, 2, p.121], which describes attributes of a product (or service) that are positive for the environment and links those to benefits for the consumer (e.g. convenience, cost-savings). This paper reviews current-day practice in green marketing, and assesses the dissemination of the linkedbenefit strategy. First, a review is made of advertisements in the wider media. Subsequently, two specific industries are reviewed, namely the automotive industry and the detergent industry. Several companies within these industries are studied, by reviewing corporate websites, all their national websites as well as their television commercials. Most interesting results are the differences in the application of the linked-benefit strategy in different geographical regions. The strategy is mostly used in targeting the European market. Furthermore, there are also differences in the frequency of use of the strategy among the different companies in the industries. Overall they use linked-benefit in a maximum of 50% of their advertising. The higher percentages are found in the laundry detergent industry.