Marketing & sustainability in a digital world

Summary

The goal of this course is to understand the key role that marketing could be playing when firms seek to develop sustainable strategies : a positive force of change. This, however, will require a substantial re-orientation of current practices. Come with an open mind!

Content

Learning Outcomes

• Develop a critical perspective about "what got us where we are" and
• Analyze the growing importance of sustainability in today's marketing agenda
• Assess / Evaluate the pivotal responsibility of marketing to develop a sustainable future
• Discuss the narrow path to develop sustainable offerings
• Characterize the relative contribution of each marketing-mix variable
• Assess / Evaluate the repertoire of business models that could be used in the future : usage-based, sharing and inclusive

Transversal skills

• Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking
• Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.

Teaching methods

Highly interactive sessions with discussions (also in small groups). The slide deck used in class will be provided (only) at the end of each session.

Assessment methods

• Closed-book examination: The one-hour exam will take the form of ten "statements" that you could hear in your company from people who do not really understand the role that marketing can play toward a more sustainable future. You will have to choose to answer to eight of them, and to explain in a few sentences why each statement is wrong. (40% of the final grade)
• (Short) term paper: participants will be asked to focus on the launch of a sustainable offering, and to analyze the reasons of its success/ failure, based on the framework provided in session 3. (40% of the final grade)
• Class participation: The quality of contribution is more important than the quantity. In fact, it is entirely possible to "talk a lot" but make a poor contribution, as taking up a disproportionate amount of "air time" also reflects a lack of sensitivity to peers. Please be aware that I tend to call on people even if their hands are not up (20% of the final grade)
• Class attendance is mandatory. Given the highly interactive nature of the course, students are expected to be present at all sessions.  Failure to produce an adequate reason (e.g.: medical certificate) for missing a session will result in a heavy grade discount. The documents should be sent directly to my assistant (katarina.meyer@imd.org), not to me. I also expect the students to be perfectly on time.

Supervision

Resources

Bibliography

Now working toward finishing a terrific book on Sustainability with my co-author, Goutam Challagalla: "Clean Winners" Harvard Business School Publishing (forthcoming 2026)...

Ressources en bibliothèque

• Find the references at the Library

Moodle Link

• https://go.epfl.ch/MGT-532