Marketing in a Conserver (Sustainable) Society

“What is and what ought to be the role of marketing in a world of increased ecological concern and resource shortages?” This question is the focus of what promises to be a thought-provoking presentation, and was the opening sentence in an article by the presenter, Stanley J Shapiro, first published in 1978 and republished in 2012 because of its relevance 34 years later. In 1978 this question was prompted by the publication of a report by a group of researchers drawn from Mc Gill and Montreal universities (GAMMA) about the proposals of a Science Council of Canada study into the desirability and the feasibility of Canada becoming a conserver society rather than one emphasizing economic growth and ever increasing consumption.

From a marketing perspective, Shapiro addresses seven questions, namely:

1.  • How would a conserver society differ from what we presently have?
2. • Is the central problem in such a society limiting economic growth?
3. • How did the GAMME report view consumer needs and need satisfiers?
4. • What differences exist among GAMMA’s three conserver society prototypes?
5. • How would a conserver society affect corporate marketing?
6. • Are consumers willing to accept a “conserver ethos”?
7. • Does a conserver society mean still more government intervention?

Those attending are invited to read the article on which the presentation is based, available at http://sb.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/westburn/sb/2012/00000002/00000001/art00002

Professor-Emeritus Stan Shapiro, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada: A former marketing professor first at the Wharton School, then at McGill University and Simon Fraser University, Stanley J Shapiro also served as Dean of Business at Mc Gill (1973-1978) and SFU (1987-1997). Between 1998 and 2003, he was a member of the Academic Council of the Open University of British Columbia. Dr Shapiro then served for six years on the Province of British Columbia’s Degree Quality Assessment Board. Stan Shapiro has authored sixty academic papers, edited 13 books or monographs and, over 25 years, has Canadianised nine successive editions of Mc Carthy & Perreault’s Basic Marketing. He is a former editor of the Journal of Macromarketing, a past Governor and Distinguished Fellow of the Academy of Marketing Science and currently is an Associate Editor both of Social Business and the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing. He has been a manuscript review for a dozen academic journals, including, for some thirty years, the Journal of Marketing, Marketing’s leading four star journal.

All Welcome!