What is regenerative marketing?
What is regenerative marketing?
A guide to implementing regenerative (growth) marketing
A guide to implementing regenerative (growth) marketing
Last edited on:
Aug 30, 2024
Author:
Jordy Oost
Looking beyond growth: regenerative marketing
If we define growth as "increasing profit margins", "adding more employees to a company" or "larger shareholder value", there is a risk of focusing too much on short term goals.
In order to build long-lasting companies that are worth building, we have to look at objectives that create long term value - for the complete ecosystem including its customers, employees and environment.
What is a regenerative business approach?
Building companies and brands worth building starts with realising that without regeneration we are limiting growth of our ecosystem. Without it we are limiting sustainable growth of organisations within that ecosystem in the long term.
Regeneration can be defined as an approach that fosters a balanced environment in which impact and financial viability strengthen each other.
The starting point
On a strategic level you can embed regenerative value’s in your organisation:
Innovate and educate - Take the responsibility of education during innovation
Strengthen the ecosytem - We know when to spread in order to grow as a whole
Take a systems-based approach - Replace short term linear thinking with a long term systems-based approach
Taking a pro-active approach: regenerative marketing
Approaches in retrospective mostly audit and inspire. Taking ESG reporting as an example: this shines a light on a company's activities that contribute to environment and sustainability. It usually doesn't reach the company's clients, neither does it work brand enhancing.
Taking a pro-active approach towards regeneration, embedded in a company’s strategy, is the method that generates most value for organizations. Combine this with communication towards users and clients in a smart way and you get regenerative marketing.
Looking beyond growth: regenerative marketing
If we define growth as "increasing profit margins", "adding more employees to a company" or "larger shareholder value", there is a risk of focusing too much on short term goals.
In order to build long-lasting companies that are worth building, we have to look at objectives that create long term value - for the complete ecosystem including its customers, employees and environment.
What is a regenerative business approach?
Building companies and brands worth building starts with realising that without regeneration we are limiting growth of our ecosystem. Without it we are limiting sustainable growth of organisations within that ecosystem in the long term.
Regeneration can be defined as an approach that fosters a balanced environment in which impact and financial viability strengthen each other.
The starting point
On a strategic level you can embed regenerative value’s in your organisation:
Innovate and educate - Take the responsibility of education during innovation
Strengthen the ecosytem - We know when to spread in order to grow as a whole
Take a systems-based approach - Replace short term linear thinking with a long term systems-based approach
Taking a pro-active approach: regenerative marketing
Approaches in retrospective mostly audit and inspire. Taking ESG reporting as an example: this shines a light on a company's activities that contribute to environment and sustainability. It usually doesn't reach the company's clients, neither does it work brand enhancing.
Taking a pro-active approach towards regeneration, embedded in a company’s strategy, is the method that generates most value for organizations. Combine this with communication towards users and clients in a smart way and you get regenerative marketing.
What is regenerative marketing?
We defined regeneration as an approach that fosters a balanced environment in which impact and financial viability strengthen each other.
Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as:
"the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large".
If we simplify this definition we can say “Marketing is bridging the market’s gap between offer and demand”.
When we combine marketing with regeneration we can state the following:
Regenerative marketing = Bridging the market’s gap between offer and demand in a way where positive impact and financial viability strengthen each other.
What is regenerative marketing?
We defined regeneration as an approach that fosters a balanced environment in which impact and financial viability strengthen each other.
Marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as:
"the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large".
If we simplify this definition we can say “Marketing is bridging the market’s gap between offer and demand”.
When we combine marketing with regeneration we can state the following:
Regenerative marketing = Bridging the market’s gap between offer and demand in a way where positive impact and financial viability strengthen each other.
How does this look in practice?
To make sure your marketing department is creating or maintaining a balanced environment in which positive impact and financial viability strengthen each other, here are two approaches.
Staying away from unsustainable practices
Regenerative marketing starts with a conscious decision to avoid unsustainable practices that harm the society, economic health of your community or the environment. We understand that complete sustainability is not feasible. However, every step -no matter the size- contributes to a larger positive impact.
Proactively integrating regenerative practices
A second approach is integrating regenerative marketing into your existing marketing practices. This involves embedding ethical- and sustainable tactics into your marketing tactics. A starting point can be an internal workshop, creation of educational content, new products or services, or a collaboration with NGOs and other sustainable businesses.
Introducing regenerative growth marketing
We recognize that achieving a fully sustainable business approach is challenging by itself.
Having a one-off campaign is a great start but comes with the issue that it is…
One-off.
This is the reason you rather implement a regenerative marketing experiment on a periodical basis instead of launching one big project every once in a while. This is where Regenerative Growth Marketing comes in.
With regenerative growth marketing you periodically employ marketing tactics that not only satisfy consumer demand but also promote a regenerative impact on the environment and society.
Regenerative Growth Marketing = Periodically employing marketing tactics that not only satisfy consumer demand but also promote a regenerative impact on the environment and society.
Introducing regenerative growth marketing
We recognize that achieving a fully sustainable business approach is challenging by itself.
Having a one-off campaign is a great start but comes with the issue that it is…
One-off.
This is the reason you rather implement a regenerative marketing experiment on a periodical basis instead of launching one big project every once in a while. This is where Regenerative Growth Marketing comes in.
With regenerative growth marketing you periodically employ marketing tactics that not only satisfy consumer demand but also promote a regenerative impact on the environment and society.
Regenerative Growth Marketing = Periodically employing marketing tactics that not only satisfy consumer demand but also promote a regenerative impact on the environment and society.
A regenerative growth marketing framework
If you want to periodically implement growth marketing you want to put a process in place that enables your organisation to do this in an effective and efficient way. A regenerative growth marketing framework does exactly this job.
Stay tuned for our next post in which we will highlight the growth marketing framework we use internally at Beyond Growth Marketing.
The framework we use internally is one coined by Zebra Growth, the ethical growth funnel (AARRR+I). This framework is the pirate funnel (coined by Dave McClure) extended with an impact segment.
The regenerative pirate funnel
The pirate funnel is a framework used by growth marketers for understanding the complete funnel of a company and to find growth opportunities. By adding an impact layer to this funnel -and using it periodically- you can embed regenerative growth marketing into your organisation.
A healthy frequency to start doing regenerative growth marketing is once per quarter.
This is done by adding an impact segment to your growth team’s brainstorm sessions. We suggest spending enough time at the impact segment to make sure there is a selection of impact experiments to choose from.
Feeling inspired? In need of some assistance to kickstart regenerative growth marketing in your organisation? Feel free to reach out. We are happy to help out whenever possible.
A regenerative growth marketing framework
If you want to periodically implement growth marketing you want to put a process in place that enables your organisation to do this in an effective and efficient way. A regenerative growth marketing framework does exactly this job.
Stay tuned for our next post in which we will highlight the growth marketing framework we use internally at Beyond Growth Marketing.
The framework we use internally is one coined by Zebra Growth, the ethical growth funnel (AARRR+I). This framework is the pirate funnel (coined by Dave McClure) extended with an impact segment.
The regenerative pirate funnel
The pirate funnel is a framework used by growth marketers for understanding the complete funnel of a company and to find growth opportunities. By adding an impact layer to this funnel -and using it periodically- you can embed regenerative growth marketing into your organisation.
A healthy frequency to start doing regenerative growth marketing is once per quarter.
This is done by adding an impact segment to your growth team’s brainstorm sessions. We suggest spending enough time at the impact segment to make sure there is a selection of impact experiments to choose from.
Feeling inspired? In need of some assistance to kickstart regenerative growth marketing in your organisation? Feel free to reach out. We are happy to help out whenever possible.
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