Since today is Earth Day, I wanted to start with a training course about environmental marketing.

I found this course, Sustainable Business – Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Products and Services – Revised from the Saylor Foundation on alison.com.

Right off the bat, I’m not sure what to make of this course. The title makes it sound like the course is to teach sustainable businesses about marketing. However, the description says that the class is about “sustainable marketing”, how it is different from “traditional marketing”, and it will guide me on how to put together a “sustainable marketing strategy”.

Class: Sustainable Business – Marketing Strategy for Sustainable Products and Services – Revised

Author: Saylor Foundation

Duration: 2-3 Hours

Certification: Yes

These are my thoughts while taking the course. Some of them are ideas that I learned from the course, some are my own thoughts about the course’s topic that may not have been mentioned in the course.

This course is about putting together a marketing plan to promote a product to an environmentally conscious audience. It’s a pretty straightforward course; pretty much text on slides without audio.

The idea of the course seems not to replace traditional marketing with “sustainable marketing” but to include sustainability messaging in your traditional marketing activities and to conduct your traditional marketing activities in a sustainable manner. For example, use digital materials instead of printed materials. If you do use printed materials, do so sustainably (smaller size, biodegradable dyes, recycled paper, etc.).

Some of the the ideas in the course go outside what Marketing traditionally controls, such as operations and supply chains. I agree that a truly sustainable marketing campaign is meaningless if the company as a whole does not integrate sustainability and environmental consciousness as one of their core values. Otherwise, any such marketing can easily backfire.

It feels like a catch-22. Environmentalism thrives under grassroots conditions. However, a front line marketer should be hesitant about implementing their own sustainability focused marketing campaign if the higher ups do do not adhere to environmental principles.

This course is speaking to the true believers. It assumes that you already see the benefit of targeting an environmentally conscious audience. If you’re just considering targeting this audience and looking for reasons to do so, you’ll find them here; you just have to look. It’s not going to go out of it way to convince you.

The course consists of 4 modules: an overview, a review of the marketing mix, an overview of the sustainable market focused on risks and barriers, and an assessment.

The second module provides a introduction of the marketing mix, a.k.a. the 4 Ps of Marketing. There is a focus of how these marketing fundamentals apply to a company with an environmentally conscious audience. I found myself skipping through the content.

The third module I found more interesting. It included some good examples of how various companies tried to “go green” and where they succeeded and where they failed. Most of the case studies were around developing and marketing a new product for the sustainable market, which is something that many front line marketers are unable to do. I would have liked to see some examples of how companies adapted their messaging and campaigns of their existing products for the environmentally conscious audience.

The assessment consists of many questions. Some fill in the blank, some multiple choice. I did run into some bugs that caused correct answers to be marketed wrong. 80% is required to pass. I passed on my second attempt.

This course didn’t really teach me how “sustainable marketing” is different from “traditional marketing”. It more was a course to teach Marketing using the backdrop of green products. I would recommend this for someone just starting out in Marketing. An experienced marketer looking for insights into the environmentally conscious audience would do better reading an industry report or market overview.

This is my first review of an online marketing course. Let me know what you think in the comments below. My goal is to review at least one course a week. If there is a course out there that you would like me to review, let me know that in the comments or reach out on Twitter @kachelriess.