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Over the last century, marketing has evolved from a simple sales support role to a complete strategic business department focused on satisfying the consumer to ensure better company results. With this end objective, marketers incessantly look for consumer data to better understand the consumer. Identifying the customer needs is vital to offer the right product, with the right price, at the right place and with the best promotion. However, consumer-centric companies have to deal with powerful clients in an environment more competitive than ever. In parallel, significant concern about sustainability has grown. The impact of humankind on the planet and how companies redefine their business models to satisfy consumers are trending topics, especially in countries where consumers are informed and concerned by the impact of humankind on the planet. Thus, customers request sustainable companies to offer sustainable products and services. However, transforming the business models, reviewing the supply chains or developing green products is not easy. Companies fail to respect consumer demand. Thus, professionals can ‘greenwash’ procedures generating, in the long run, a solid negative feeling of scepticism towards companies and, more specifically, towards marketers. Developing sustainable products, educating the market and supporting clients with accurate information should be the end goal of all marketers who truly believe in customer-centric organisations and want to build a sustainable customer relationship.

Beginning from the 1990s, the concept of sustainable development has been purposefully implemented by the most advanced economic actors including separate regions, countries, companies, and individuals. Consumer behaviour is also changing: the most advanced consumers who care about their own health and are aware of the environmental issues, change their behaviour to the conscious consumption patterns. However, most do so under the influence of companies promoting sustainable value propositions, or under the influence of government policy that encourages sustainable behaviour. Within the chapter ‘Dimensions of conscious consumption’, the authors consider consumption patterns evolution from traditional (patriarchal) consumption pattern through hedonic consumption to sustainable and conscious consumption patterns. The authors analyse transformation mechanisms of consumption patterns and how they affect changing consumer behaviour from traditional to conscious behaviour. As a result, a typology of sustainable value propositions for conscious consumers was formed, with the comparative analysis of four sustainable value proposition models: Driven by humanistic philosophy, Unique market position, Driven by government policy, and Leadership in sustainable innovations. Cases of Bouchee (Russian coffee shop and bakery chain) and Enjoy the Run (sport club for recreational running lovers) were analysed as the examples of companies implementing the considered models.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) research and practice have grown in preeminence over the past two decades. In corporations, global institutional frameworks (e.g. the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) have guided and spurred the adoption and operationalisation of CSR strategies across industries and sectors. In academia, the business case for CSR seems to have been one of the main research foci towards the transition to more ethical and more responsible management. However, recent ecological and social disturbances (i.e. COVID-19 pandemic, global warming, etc.) have challenged our understanding of the role that CSR can play in this transition. In this chapter, we explore how the use and instrumentalisation of CSR practices in both academia and business have led not only to eroding the concept from its conceptual essence, but also to giving increased power and legitimacy to the very ailments that CSR was created to heal.

Stakeholders require organisations to meet all ethical standards in every aspect of their operations including marketing. This has led to consumers becoming sensitive to the violation of expected ethical standards by organisations. Hence, consumers give precedence to brands that are environmentally friendly in the production and deployment of the brand. The increased customer sensitivity to environmental issues is the realisation of the negative effects of mismanaged environment. For example, the activities of eco-unfriendly businesses affected the human and economic survival of some communities (see Gomis & Sodji, 2021; Naz, Chowdhury, Mishra, & Gupta, 2016). In realisation of the importance of being eco-friendly in the entire value chain of a product, this chapter considers the importance of adhering to ethical standards required from the conceptualisation, consumption and disposal of materials in organisation's production system. The chapter began by laying out the consequences of eco-unfriendly behaviours and the human and business activities that create the problems. It documented the short-term and long-term consequences of unethical behaviour of businesses, and ways to mitigate or reduce such consequences. Corporate social responsibility was presented as a mindset that is aimed at maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem while deriving economic benefit from it. The chapter concluded with the case study of a disguised company that believes that ‘money can grow on trees’ and thus invested in the recovery of the damage caused by deforestation.

Today, creative, customer-centric and competitively dominant marketing strategies are vital to business success. Developing goods and services that serve the consumer is paramount. Organisations should adopt an effective marketing strategy that can profitably create and sustain customer value. Marketing should evaluate marketplace potential and risk from the perspective of their firm's unique ability to develop and deliver products and services of meaningful customer value. Marketing as the art and science of creating customer value and marketplace exchanges should leverage the principles that guide the process of interacting with colleagues, customers, competitors, collaborators and the environment to satisfy customers' needs.

The innovation process of a new product or service can be complex. It is a long journey. So, lots of decisions must be made from the generation and validation of a first idea until the good or service reaches the consumer. All that happens because so many people from both the same company and external agents intervene. However, the person in charge of the innovation project faces the difficulties of the creative process and, on many occasions, he or she has to deal with general obstacles of the company itself. That is because the organisation does not align with specific values. Even if they have included those purposes and values within their strategy, they are not entirely consistent. This chapter assumes that the company is sensitive to sustainability and supports a rational, creative process.

The potential consumer or recipient of that innovation has to be at the centre of every decision. He/she has to be the central axis of any creative process. Consumers are increasingly sensitive and interested in how the products they acquire are manufactured and what type of raw materials are being used (Brochado, Teiga, & Oliveira-Brochado, 2017). We observe a more conscious consumer who, at the same time, is not always willing to pay for it, unfortunately. In this case, it is critical to work very well on the value proposition we are proposing and permanently contrast it with the target audience.

How would you explain why you bought your car, enrolled in your university of choice or purchased that monthly coffee subscription? It is only through marketing that consumers become aware of a brand's existence, sourcing methods, production process, end-product materials and its effects on the environment. This study analyses the factors marketers consider while conducting their activities and the ethical duties they have with the aim to ascertain the claim that marketing aims to influence consumers in a certain direction. Proving the truth of this claim will help marketers adjust their practices and ethical conduct to help achieve sustainability as a Global Sustainable Development Goal, in addition to helping their target market make well-informed purchasing decisions.

Reducing food-related greenhouse gas emissions is one of the major tasks in the future, as food causes one-third of global emissions. Influencing customers' purchasing decisions towards low-carbon food is thus decisive. Nudging has been proven to be an adequate mechanism to influence people towards sustainable food choices. Another relatively new approach is boosting, which promotes people's education, inducing autonomous decision-making. In the context of sustainable food, research on nudging and boosting is still at the beginning. Therefore, this chapter conducts a systematic literature review to identify, classify and assess the potential of cognitively oriented nudges and boosts towards sustainable food choices. The sample consists of 217 English-speaking papers published between 2011 and 2021. After three filtering steps, 21 scientific journal publications remained in the data extraction form. All articles are field experiments, comprising descriptive labelling, evaluative labelling, and visibility enhancements. The analysis shows that menu restructurings (e.g. placing a vegetarian option on the top of the menu) in restaurants are the most effective intervention to reshape customers' demands. Evaluative labels (e.g. traffic-light labels on the menu or product packaging) are the second most effective measure. They help people understand eco-related information and thus make better decisions. The effect of descriptive labels seemed small, as they provide no meaningful frame assisting people in processing the data. In conclusion, the research recommends applying cognitively oriented nudges and boosts to promote sustainable food choices and deduces practical implications for appropriate implementation and marketing.