Since the origins of the snake oil salesman, the influences Sigmund Freud and his grandson Edward ‘the father of PR’ Bernays, and the impact of Ogilvy & Mather (the agency behind the carbon footprint sham) To sell any product, regardless of its efficacy. To manipulate the masses, for the benefit of a few. To grow at all costs, with no thought towards the planet.
By exasperating economic inequalities, promoting extractive and manipulative tactics, and ignoring the Earth’s natural limitations, marketing has become one of the core accelerators of social and environmental imbalance.
A world where mass overconsumption, drastic inequalities, and man-made climate crisis have been normalised.
What are the issues surrounding the old capitalism?
However, like most concepts, theories, frameworks or ideas in this world, we see marketing (and branding, growth, and communications) as a tool that can be used to transition into an economy focused on life. Around healing and thriving.
It’s the intentions and foundations that set them up on their path to either undoing, or to healing. To extraction, or to regeneration. To divide, or to unite.
Marketing (and branding, and growth, and communications) can become the catalyst for a well-being and life-centred economy–just as it has been for the extractive economy we know today. An economy that is designed to serve people and the planet, not the other way around. One that puts our human and planetary needs at the centre of its activities, by default, ensuring that these needs are all equally met all the time.
But to do this, we need help. Help from people like you to co-create the new principles of regenerative marketing.
What is regenerative marketing?
We don’t know yet! But we are more then ready to (un)learn business as usual marketing, imagine radical alternative futures and transform marketing into a catalyst for regeneration.
With a global and diverse group of marketing pioneers and regeneration enthusiasts we are challenging how we see, shape and use marketing for good, we are continuously developing a set of principles, pillars, and guidelines that will enable Marketeers across the world to become catalysts for Regeneration.
We seek to take inspiration from how nature communicates, grows, heals and regenerates, and are applying it to the foundations of how a brand and its products should be built, grown, and communicated.
The three main inputs that have helped us to reframe marketing so far are: regenerative capitalism, permaculture design & regenerative agriculture, and doughnut economics. What are yours?
We are creating an inclusive and transparent process that is evolving through the guidance of open, respectful, and non-violent communication and feedback loops to refine, develop, and spread these new principles.
Your help will enable us to shape something innovative, side by side with other members who share the unified goal of placing life and healing at the centre of marketing. We ask you to share your thoughts on our ideas, then we'll dive in together to mould those principles through some serious creative and critical thinking.
As we come together, we'll make rich connections and have meaningful discussions. We’ll exchange ideas, best practices, and cutting-edge approaches that drive transformational change.
In the end, we’re hoping to co-develop the first regenerative marketing ed-tech (educational technology) platform that will spark systemic economic evolution–focused on life. By joining us, you will be some of the first invited to co-create it.
We are envisioning how marketing might look in a post-growth economy.
We are imagining the start of a regenerative marketing evolution.
We are inviting you and your peers to help us shape it.
Changing a system as big as marketing isn’t going to be easy–but with compassion, respect, curiosity, (un)learnability, patience, and active collaboration, together we can reinvent the way Marketeers show up for the world.
I completely agree that we are due for a change. For me the pillars of regenerative marketing focus around supporting game-changing innovation, empathetic listening and strategic thinking. Using the resources we have now to help people find meaningful solutions and to communicate successes as we embark upon this journey. Can't wait to follow along as the RMM embarks on this journey.